Mugiwara

According to Marine Traffic, Indy left Nassau at 9:45 pm local time and is expected to arrive in Port Canaveral at around 10:00 am.

12 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

Godddd d#%nnnnit 😞 thank you for letting me know anyway. Guess not much I can do but I will ask to see if they would take my sample Wednesday afternoon. No reason they couldn’t take it early and still run it in the same batch if my flight is within the 72 hours

They are doing this as a courtesy, and I'm just happy that they aren't suddenly deciding to charge for them like Celebrity. 

Given that the brain trust in Ottawa is unlikely to decide to either allow Antigen tests, or dispense with the return testing requirement for vaxxed travelers, I'm grateful that I don't have to try shoehorning a Rapid PCR test in while juggling Air Canada flight availabilities.  Getting up in time for a test - getting up by 8:00 for one day isn't unreasonable, even if you're on vacation - or having to book an extra day hotel, find a place that accepts Canadians to get tested (not as easy as you think), and get there after getting off a relaxing cruise? For me, the former is certainly the least stressful option.

That's great news! Thanks!

Question for anyone who has cruised in December: When do ships decorate for Christmas?

This is my first time cruising in December (Dec 5), so I was wondering if I'll get to see the trees, lights and decorations that I've only seen in photos. 

That would be awesome 

44 minutes ago, travispete said:

I just booked the Oasis cruise for Presidents Week (Feb 20-27, '22) for my husband, 13 year old daughter, and I.

 

1. Is the teen lounge open? My daughter is very social and LOVES meeting friends whenever we travel. She's never met a kids club she didn't like.

2. Are we able to book excursions NOT through RCCL, or does it have to be through them? *I thought because of COVID, things may be different.

3. If I drink a three to four cocktails per day, is the drink package worth it?

4. In the MDR, are they seating people together like pre COVID, or can you only dine with those in your party?

5. What's the pool situation on the Oasis? Do you need to make a reservation? First come, first served? Again, inquiring because I don't know how COVID has changed things.

6. Any must dos, don't dos, pre planning musts that you can share?

 

Thank you so much! We are so excited!

Oasis is a beautiful ship with a lot to see and do.  We're booked on it in December and looking forward to being back on board her again.  To answer your questions as best as possible:

1. End of February is 4 months from now, so a lot can happen.  I'd expect it should be open by then.

2. Depends on the situation at the various ports you'll be sailing to - local governments dictate this, not RCL.

3. Depends - if you get it on a good sale, it might be.  The premium drink package also covers the smoothies at the Vitality Cafe as well as the Lattes and Cappuccinos etc at Cafe Promenade, so there's that to consider.

4. Hard to say - see point 1.

5. Again, it's a bit far out to speculate; what applies now may no longer be relevant (good Lord willing and the creek don't rise).

6. Do: Go to the Solarium Bistro or Park Cafe on boarding day - less crowded than the Windjammer.

           Book your shows as soon as possible.

           The Solarium is pretty quiet on boarding day, so it's a good place to unwind while waiting for                 your cabin to be ready.

          Pre Planning: Take advantage of all of the good videos on the internet about the ship - Danny Harr has a really good one about post-amplified Oasis that has a lot of good tips.

          Find a Cruise Compass for the itinerary you're taking to get an idea of ship life day to day. Royal Caribbean Blog can be a good place to look for these.

Hope this helps.

My Oasis cruise this December is stopping at St. Maarten and St. Thomas.  Both have upgraded their ports ages ago to accommodate Oasis class ships.  Curacao and Aruba also have berths which can handle both Oasis and Freedom Class ships. 

15 hours ago, jerseyjjs said:

 

 

 

Just got off the Oasis last week.  They had 4 ESPN channels, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC network.   They still showed soccer and cricket, as well well as the Laver Cup and Ryder Cup.   I can honestly tell you that if they show minimal college football, there's no chance of getting the CFL.

Thanks for the info.  The CFL has a broadcast deal with ESPN, but while most of the games were being carried on ESPN2, these particular games aren't. Maybe they'll re-run them later in the day on one of the other channels. Sigh... It's a shame more Americans haven't been exposed to the Canadian game - the ones who have genuinely appreciate the wider, longer field and more open playing style.  With 3 downs, a shorter time clock and bigger field, it really opens up play.

We're cruising on Oasis out of Miami on Dec 5th, which is the same day as the CFL finals.  They're being broadcast on ESPNews in the US, so does anyone know if they had this channel on the ship?  It would be great to catch the games at Playmakers on sail day!  

Thanks.

They still show the September repositioning cruise from Vancouver to Yokohama that I"m currently booked on.  Since Vancouver is closed in September, and there's no guarantees that Japan is going to allow cruise ships at that point, why is it still there?

Nothing says that they can't get creative.

Add a subsection to their App that includes a daily Windjammer menu, which allows you to set up an order from the available items, along with the number of the table where you're seated.  Based on the order, your tray is prepared and it's brought out to you.  

Silver lining, they could conceivably add more tables and space them better, since they wouldn't have the dispersed stations and circulating wandering generalities that staff need to navigate around.

We did it previously, and are doing it on our next cruise, but only after making an assessment if it would be a good value for us.

We looked at where our currency was going as related to the USD, got the most current drink price list from Royal Carribean Blog, translated it to CAD and ran it through a spreadsheet where we estimated what we expected to be drinking vs what we'd be looking at if we were buying a la carte.  

We purchased our package when it was offered at 30% off.  Full price would not have been worth our while but that offer got us past the break even point, so it made sense.  The thing about the package is that it includes fancy coffees and bottled water.  This is really handy for shore excursion days - people generally don't drink enough water at the best of times and having a few bottles with me going out in the sun has been a real life saver.  Going through 5-6 bottles in a day is pretty normal for me, so that's almost $20.00 a day by itself.  Add a couple of lattes, a glass or two of wine at dinner and the happy hour cocktail and I'm pretty much there.

Thanks everyone for your responses.  I appreciate the info.  It will be interesting to see what kind of enrichment activities they'll have planned.

I'm doing a TP next year that will be 15 days.  I have a few basic questions that I'm hoping you can answer.

1. What is the repetition on the Main Dining room menus - which ones did they repeat and how many times?

2. How many formal nights on a repositioning cruise? 

3. Did they offer any deals on food or drink packages closer to your sail date?

4. Do you have any copies of your Cruise compass?  It would be nice to get a feel for how things run on an extended cruise with a large number of sea days.

Thanks.

It's been so long since I've been on Navigator, and ever since I was traumatized by the gym space on Oasis - deck 5, no windows, over top of the area where the anchor chains are stored - I had feared the worst.

Thanks for the update :)

I am very happy to be wrong.

Probably because those pictures are out of date.

With the new cabins that were put in on Deck 12 - right where those gorgeous sea view windows used to be - I'd estimate that the gym's footprint has been reduced by at least half. The pool is most likely gone - that was one of my favourite things in that space - and the number of machines has most likely been reduced.