OCSC Mike

On Wonder in June I wasn't ever given a receipt for a D drink, not once. No hit or miss, just miss, lol.

I never spend anything extra on CocoCay other than tipping for my Diamond drinks.

Really? Looks? No need to get dressed up for the DL. Even the SL on Wonder this past June was full of shorts and t-shirts. Wear what you want... that said, no reason to specifically go there for drinks other than the coffee machine.

You'll be fine, just mention it when you order, as others have suggested. Also, I assume you'll at least be getting soda from a Freestyle machine at least some of the time, so it won't be an issue then obviously.

Someone gave me some hack involving soft serve, ice, and a shot of espresso from the DL/SL machine to make a frozen coffee that apparently Dunkin serves. I never tried it but adding Bailey's could only make it better. 😁

We don't do much specialty dining. Usually one actual specialty meal per cruise and we now go to Playmakers after trying it on Indy last year and loving it. The $9 burgers are now $12.99 but we'll live. I'll eat anything and my wife doesn't need fine dining but she is very picky so it's more for her (although I do think the food there is very good). Happy wife...

Sorry to remind you, lol. But yeah, that's my attitude. Never had a bad cruise. Some are just better than others. CocoCay wasn't quite as fun the day the heavens opened around 2pm and we huddled in Chill Grill for shelter. At least it was towards the end of the day there and it turned into a gentle rain for the walk back to the ship.

Yes, midnight in the time zone of departure (or a few minutes later in my experience). And if you're unaware, you can use the app to just grab your arrival time and then worry about everything else later. If you use the website you have to go through the other stuff to secure an arrival time.

I hear ya. Freedom/Grandeur won't be a problem at least. Indy/Freedom wasn't bad and I did that 3 times last year. Dumb luck on my part that Wonder usually goes on Monday after departing Sunday and is alone and I only sail from PC out of convenience so I'm just going on Wonder for a while (also love the ship). A Celebrity ship is joining her some Mondays but more dumb luck as it's avoiding my weeks. My 4th Wonder cruise booked (March 2025) breaks the trend though. CocoCay is day 7, which I already don't love, and we get there 2 hours after Indy which isn't great because we always camp out at one specific spot. Somehow we'll survive though. I'm sure we'll check out the adult-only beach along the way and maybe we'll wind up there on that March 2025 cruise. It's spring break so could be extra quiet since families will presumably be with their kids.

Except on Indy last year when it was awful (in both July and October). A small portable heating tray with 3 slots of stuff like luke warm mozzarella sticks. I'm assuming it's the better stuff on Wonder, like I described, just never got to check.

If on Oasis class, some of the pre-packaged stuff like wraps in Park Cafe aren't bad for that sorta thing (when you just want something edible). I grabbed one to toss in my fridge just to have last cruise and it served its purpose. And I have a gallon ziploc bag of cookies at all times, of course. Never a bad time to grab a cookie.

NOOOOOOO! 😭 Sometime in the past year they actually started making smaller funnel cakes. We were told it both prevents waste and it allows them to fry up 6 at a time instead of 2 to help move the lines along. They also came out crispier that way. Made sense to us, you can always order more. Now I am ordering you to return to a Snack Shack, lol. I will admit I've been a bit lucky. My last 4 trips there have either been Indy/Freedom or Wonder by itself. That said, hopefully the opening of the adult-only beach helps alleviate some of the congestion for when more people are there (which will be more and more common going forward).

I think you did, and I've never found the line that bad at all. I really enjoy that sandwich and the funnel cake from Snack Shack. Also a big fan of the taco bar at Chill Grill/Skipper's Grill... which has lots of other stuff like a few hot sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs, salads, fruit, desserts... Wife's favorite dessert hack there is to take a plastic drink cup to the soft serve machine and then add chocolate chip cookies to the vanilla soft serve. Not trying to convince you to like CocoCay, of course, just mentioning some stuff in case you ever want to give it another shot.

It was 8 days on Wonder in June... I suggest sailing Wonder if you're impatient. 🤣 Jokes aside, it was 5 days for us on Harmony last year, it will come in the time frame others suggested.

Someone else I was chatting with a week or two ago had the same experience, that's why I mentioned the later today part.

@deliver42 I was in a GS in June on Wonder so stuck to the SL but kept meaning to check the DL for our future non-suite cruises (we have 4 booked). I did see a picture of 2 coffee machines (love the machines). How were the happy hour snacks? They were excellent in the SL so I was hoping they were similar in the DL. Nice spread of stuff like breaded shrimp, dumplings, mini egg rolls, mini quiche, etc.

This. They could even show up later today.

Blasphemy! 🤣 I'm not even a beach guy but the food (and being able to use vouchers there) does it for me.

That's been my experience and the coffee machine has always been one of my favorite perks. I do miss the social aspect of the old happy hour but I definitely prefer the vouchers... and I'll prefer them even more as I turn D+ after our next cruise.

You're a bit late to the party...

We were treated to a GS on Wonder in June so it was the SL but I know what you mean. I knew there was nothing on the dinner menu in CK one night that I was excited about but there were delicious crispy breaded shrimp in the SL... I must have had 20 while enjoying happy hour that night, lol. I'm hoping/assuming the DL on Wonder has similar snacks. By contrast, the DL on Indy last year had one of those small portable heating dishes with 3 compartments that looked like it came from Target and the snacks were awful. At least there's always cheese and crackers.

As mentioned, yes to the snacks... though they may vary in quality from ship to ship. I haven't seen a busy DL since vouchers began but this also varies from ship to ship and sailing to sailing based on other reports. We still like to pop in there most nights just to check out the snacks but the coffee machine every morning is the bigger draw for me these days.

Cheers to that... except for my electric bill last month. 😭

That's fairly similar to how I feel. I do like to eat a lot on cruises but I don't need fancy or gourmet. Like you, it's about the unique experience of being on an Oasis class cruise ship. Of course you can find most of this stuff on land but not all in one place while floating in the ocean.

I need my promenade. Felt lost without it the only 2 times I was on smaller ships.