BillOh

Ricky Matthews said on his social media that Ken Jones is taking over on Wonder

I"m reading this a year later as I prepare for my cruise next May. Early on in the Oasis class history they used to have Diamond and above parties on the bow of the ship, I think I remember the bow was suite class only most of the time, but we are taking memory for the original Oasis cruises around 2010 or so? By the time we were Diamond on Oasis in 2016 they stopped those parties. I really want to go out on the bow of this class of ship. Why? Probably because I have been told I can't. I do like to sit out there on the Freedom and Voyager class ships.

FWIW, my app just updated (had been giving an error for our cruise) The Coke Freestyle machines do show up on the deck maps!

Another memory from that first cruise was many of the automatic doors, especially the ones near the Windjammer, headed to the pool deck were sticky and sometimes you had to push them open. I would imagine in the last 18 years they did something about it. I thought I would also post a picture of her that can no longer be duplicated. Before they finished the pier at Labadee, they covered up this window with bars so people couldn't fall 3 ft to the ground.

@BahamaPapa57 I hope you get good replies. I haven't seen a Royal ship go to Bimini, don't know anything about it. I'm sure it won't compare to modern ships, but we are empty nesters and we will find a way to have a good time. Seems like a good first cruise. They will definitely love the new Coco Cay.

I thought that I had heard that! Thanks.

@Admin Would like to suggest this thread be unpinned to the top.

I will look forward to seeing this urinal again! 🙂 Sure caused me some confusion about 3am on the last day of the cruise.

That brings back a very fond memory. It was out first cruise and on the final morning we had a noon flight out of Miami, so we ate in the Windjammer, and it really hit home that our cruise was over, they only opened up half the WJ that day and after a great week of great service, I could see the crew was focusing on the next cruisers. We were wandering around with trays trying to find some place to sit. A guy wearing an Ohio related shirt saw my Ohio related shirt and asked it we would like to sit with them. They were Diamond Cruisers and they were on a B2B. At the time I didn't know what Diamond or B2B meant. Our cruise was the last one from Miami that year and Voyager was doing a TA (didn't know what that meant either) This couple was staying over for the TA. After listening to how much we enjoyed our cruise he told us about the frequent cruiser program and about the TA. They were the first of many great people we would meet cruising. Pre-facebook so we didn't communicate with them, but they sure helped us get a good start to cruising. My next encounter on cruise 2 with a Diamond member wasn't so gracious.

I had heard about that, but I don't think youtube was as big of a deal then. so I hadn't seen it. My biggest memory was seeing Voyager at the West end of the port near the turn around basin. I didn't know anything about Azipods and Voyager was docked with her port side to the terminal. I was wondering how many 3 point turns Voyager would have to make to get turned around and head out. We were delayed departing a couple of hours because about 30 people were coming in on a flight from Houston that was late. When we finally left it was dark and people on the highway north of the port were stopping on the side of the road and getting out and waving. I almost thought we should have some confetti to throw down. (only seen Love Boat a million times before that first cruise.

@perfect match Is this is enough notice, feel free to join us 🙂

The layout of the solarium on this ship did cause a bit of confusion and almost got me in a fight on my first cruise! My wife and I were sitting in deck chairs just after of the pool and had been there a good 90 minutes or so. This guy came up to me and demanded I get out of HIS chair. He said he was only gone 10 minutes and I shouldn't have taken his chair. No amount of telling him I/we had been there 90 minutes and he was mistaken would help. Just about the time it was going to come to an altercation, I saw a woman waving frantically at us, I told the guy, "Are you with her?" He then realized he had left the solarium on one end and came back from the other and was turned around. Fortunately, I did meet several other wonderful people on that cruise.

We too like the Voyager and Freedom class, in addition to the ones you mentioned we did Navigator. I must be getting old, need to see if between the two of us, we missed anything. Been on Freedom twice, but never Indy or Liberty

I have not, was happy to see her at Port Canaveral when I was looking at spring 2025. A quick search of roll calls here doesn't show anything beyond some Greek Island cruises in Late 2025.

I was happy to see Voyager back to a location/date we can sail on her again. She was our first cruise in 2006 and got us hooked on cruising. We love the Voyager class and it will be perfect for this 5 day itinerary that we did last year on Mariner - PC to Labadee and Coco Cay and a couple of sea days! Now off to look for what has changed since 2006. Did they do away with the fountain urinal in the men's room near the WJ? Off to read recent reviews and youtube!

Great. I haven't been to Nachi since 2015, I'll look forward to seeing how well it survived covid and hopefully still in a nice place.

I'm at the point of my next cruise where I am looking at what ships are in port with me. When sailing out of Port Canaveral we usually go to Fishlips the afternoon before and watch the ships in port that day sail by. I just saw Carnival Freedom will depart that day so I will get to see her in all her new glory (paint job and funnel replaced)

Your point definitely has merit, but I go into roll calls for community and sharing, not so much question asking. On both platforms there are lots of people who can't just scroll by. I can get the bettter questions and answers here, but the roll calls, which probably made up 66% of my posts are dead here. I do still come here for the Q&A as well as industry news/sharing.

You might have to consider getting on that Fbook site 🙂 You know how much I loved cruise critic roll calls, but they are almost dead now with everyone posting "over there!"

I may come back and ask about campgrounds in your area. Next year the Nationals for Dog agility trials is in the Boston area and my daughter will likely be competing with her dog and expressed interest in Camping there.

Before I start my next question, let me thank all of you who have posted so far, great information and insight. Obviously with my post count and cruise history I know how to research this stuff, but your insight has been great! Next question - Where are the COKE FREESTYLE MACHINES LOCATED? On my previous cruises on on Oasis class (Allure, Oasis and Symphony) I think I remember 2 on the Promenade near Sorrentos, 4 in the Windjammer (2 on each side), and 1 back near what I believe is El-Loco Fresh. That was something else on Allure when I was last on her in 2013. BTW, I've had some funny stories about using these machines, When they were new, people had a lot of issues with them, but I do love having them.

The statute of limitations is probably up and I'm not in Cruise critic as much so the blast I will get here doesn't bother me so much, but on many ships I'm up walking a couple of miles on the pool deck or track . In the past I have found a stretch of 8 or 9 chairs all with cruise line towels on them at 7am with nobody around. I may have used one of them on occasion after my hot sweaty walk. I of course returned it to a towel station.

All of your posts have been appreciated, thanks for taking the time.

If the cruise has a lot of sea days, an Oasis class, or Freedom class (haven't done the Quantum class) But I did a 7 day cruise out of San Juan that had 5 or 6 ports and loved being on Jewel for that one. On a port heavy cruise I could do about any ship.

That is what my friend said, I challenged her to put on her suit and take a pic @ValerieJo