OCSC Mike

Pretty much but the time slots may vary by ship/itinerary. On our recent 4-nighter on Indy (2nd half of a B2B really), the first 10 or so time slots were assigned as self-assist since so many use it on short cruises I assume (I've only ever been on one cruise shorts than 7-nights before this). Self-assist ran from 7-8am or thereabouts.

Hey John, my apologies but I failed you on the Playmakers request. We did have dinner there one night (great burgers and garlic parm fries) but I never got around to seeking out Alex.

Loved Rodrigo and his staff in CK on Harmony 5/29. Filet on night one was excellent. The ribs for lunch were also one of my favorite meals.

It is still a thing. Customer service has constantly been giving incorrect info. They keep citing whatever the covid-related deal was which has since expired. My FIL re-priced a family cruise for next June twice about a month ago after I alerted him to price drops. His phone calls went as you described.

You also get free beer, wine, hard seltzer, soda, bottled water in the SL from 11-11 everyday. Your SL concierges should e-mail you about 6 days before sailing. You can have them make reservations for shows and Coastal Kitchen ahead of time along with any other requests. We had our first ever suite on Harmony 5/29 and the concierges (Junior & Elaine at the time) took care of lots of requests via e-mail ahead of time. Enjoy!

That was basically my experience this past Monday.

On both my Harmony cruise on 5/29 and the Indy B2B I got off this morning, our Diamond drinks appeared in our account via the app (as $0.00) almost instantly. As mentioned above, this was also one way I kept track of how many my wife and I had used each day.

We just got off a B2B and checked in for both. It made TAD go very quickly.

Yes on Harmony 5/29. Also, wine and Truly hard seltzer if that's of any interest.

There are exceptions but it means you’re on deck 11. Add the set sail pass to your apple wallet (if you use Apple devices) or scan the bar code with another device. You will see numbers under the bar code. The numbers after the dash are your exact cabin number.

Have you tried booking it directly? It’s often not hard to find the company Royal is using for their excursions. They even cut & paste the description straight from the company’s website (then charge extra of course).

Because 2 cruises in a month > 1? 😁 We’re only looking b/c we’re considering squeezing in 11 nights before next June so we can hit D+ on our already booked Wonder cruise. My wife is a teacher so we really only ever cruise in the summers but she has a new position & feels more comfortable using up some of her stockpile of saved vacation days now. Is it technically worth it just to get to D+ sooner? Of course not, but it’s hard not to be impatient when approaching a new level.

Thanks for sharing this. Not a big deal since we’re not ready to book & the price right now is already pretty darn low, but we were considering one of the Indy cruises listed (he types from the Indy Solarium).

FWIW, we got to PC for Indy last Friday at 10am for our 10:30am arrival time & immediately entered the empty terminal. Boarding didn’t start until 11am of course but checking in early went as fast as humanly possible and we were on the ship by 11:10 or so as Diamonds without The Key.

Yeah, 300 vs. 24 might have made a slight difference. 🙈

That makes it even more cost effective if true & you can certainly fit another 1-2 people. 👍

Agreed, especially if it’s your first or even 2nd time there. Now that we’ve been there 3 times (4th is tomorrow), we have our preferred routine. This is the closest we come to chair hogging but it’s not that bad IMO. We have a spot by the pool we like (not far from the swim up bar, but not on the DJ side so we can hear music but it’s not super loud). Also not far from the Snack Shack on the way to Chill Island… kind of in between the pool & Chill Island. We claim 2 loungers with an umbrella early in the morning, then go to Chill Island so my wife can snorkel a bit (she saw a huge sting ray & her baby on Saturday) while I just chill and have my first drink, then we migrate back to our pool chairs, have some snack shack food later, eventually go to Chill Grill, then return to the pool chairs.

I saw you mention this before & passed it along… her (classic) response… I’m not a big fan of peach. 🤣 I can only laugh b/c she’s been picky since our first date 22 years ago. It used to be much worse (as far as food goes) believe it or not. Thanks for the recommendation though. A DL server had her try a non-virgin “Kiss on the Lips” but made it very weak on purpose. Tasted good to me other than the lack of alcohol, very sweet & mango-y … she said it was OK but of course wasn’t a huge fan of mango. 🤷‍♂️ She likes her virgin strawberry daiquiris & I’ve been getting the occasional mudslide as a last drink for dessert which she likes as long as there’s enough chocolate syrup in it. Finding more than 1.5 drinks for her is asking a lot.

Almost the entire island is covered in loungers with plenty of umbrellas at no additional cost. Several included food options & if you have a drink package or Diamond & above drink vouchers, they all work there too. We love going there & not spending a penny other than tipping for our Diamond drinks.

That is my understanding. Good catch.

They did have one in the MDR but my wife is very picky so we asked to see the menu before going in and not surprisingly she wouldn’t eat any of the 3 entrees, so we just went to the WJ… which is fine b/c I enjoy the paella they always have for day one lunch & we found a few good dessert they didn’t have on our 1st day one.

It would be pricey for me too, but finances & value are always relative. That said, when you consider it’s for 8 people, it’s not as expensive as it may first appear. I’ve seen random $199pp excursions on different islands that couldn’t possibly compare. Our attendant was the best. He brought tons of food and drinks, sometimes before we even had to ask. When we ran out of bottled water he showed up with a whole case. He even went to get the snack shack food in addition to the Beach Club filet & lobster b/c we mentioned how much we liked the chicken sandwiches & funnel cake on our last Cococay visit. If you find an even lower price, great! If not, and I know it’s just one man’s opinion based on one trip, you should be looking forward to it regardless.

We had one for the 1st 3 nights of our current Indy B2B & just switched cabins for the next 4 nights. The only time I ever heard our “neighbors” was when their iPhone alarm went off in the morning but we were always up already. The noise from the music during the promenade parties at night was far louder.

$1799 is actually a very low price for these. They can get to $3499 when only a few are left close to sailing during peak season. We had one for our extended family of 8 in late May & the experience was absolutely amazing! Enjoy!

Luggage & hanging clothes were waiting for us in our new cabin as expected. All in all, zero complaints about our first TAD. Back to cruising…