Itchy&Scratchy

Wouldn't know. We don't go to church or eat at upscale dining venues. However, even adults wear athletic shorts and questionable outfits here to, say, Longhorn Steakhouse. Judging by what kids wear to school even in the dead of southern winter, only my child owns pants and a jacket. 🙂

I do not recall seeing my preferred name anywhere. They called out my coffee orders with my actual name, until I started asking the IC lady to write my preferred name on the receipt. She was there every morning, so she remembered. They didn't write the names on the cups like they do on RCI ships. Same with the MDR hostess - she addressed me by my actual name every evening, but she really liked my name, so it's ok. We have a somewhat different issue with our names - they are foreign and hard to say, so we both have much easier Anglicized nicknames which we use in every day life. So, if the crew member is from our countries of origin and can actually pronounce our names - great, but not many can. So, I think that the crew rarely needs to use the names in the system, and if it is more or less repetitive, like the International cafe or the same MDR hostess situation - it's easy enough to ask/tell them to use your preferred name and they should oblige, unless they forget. Which they try very hard not to. However, I agree, it would be great if the system worked properly and actually displayed your preferred name to begin with.

the ones that live in CA or FL?

as a mom of a 12 yo boy who will not wear khaki pants I can definitely say - nobody cares what kids wear. They can definitely wear cargo or khaki shorts. DS actually wears athletic pants from Walmart as his MDR pants , and sometimes his joggers - and nobody cares. Like these, but solid black and solid grey: Oh. Yes. Forgot the crocs. That's all he wears, besides his beat up sneakers. Even to MDR.

I don't recall that it did on our Nov 2022 Princess cruise.

of course, you can. We never got the Key, but we've always had a sit down breakfast on debarkation day.

I believe one person can register the whole family. You may also need to sign a waiver for your minors. In the past once you signed the waiver, they punched a hole into the child's card. Don't know about now.

yes, people lined up before 2 pm for a "registration that opens at 2:45" and the line was so long, the crew decided not to wait till 2:45 and just start dealing out time slots. By the time some people, including me, showed up at 2:30, all the time slots were "sold out". * Thankfully, my kid doesn't like ice skating anymore, but he was very much into laser tag. Laser tag is open only on the first 2 days, so make ALL the reservations on the app as soon as you get onboard, and you can reserve more than one session, unlike show reservations. My kid loved it so much that he played for hours. Sessions are about 10 minutes long, unlike the app info that says 30 minutes. They mean - you are going to wait for 20 minutes and then play for 10. 🙂 *My town has an ice rink and public skating is only $7 per session - no lines, no waiting. I'd look into that if your kids want to skate. Mine doesn't like skating onboard Oasis class anymore because "the rink is too small and crowded." But when he tried it for the first time on the Allure pre-pandemic and loved it, but they didn't have sign ups and it was just show up and skate.

which ship? Oasis and Allure have a regular double sofa (it did in our inside cabin on Oasis and in a balcony room on Allure, and I don't know if it can be made into a trundle style), but Harmony may actually have a trundle style. Did you google images?

yes, there was a huge table with the tumblers stacked on it, and the crew members were checking your names off of the list when you picked up your cup. If you lose it, there is a $5 replacement fee.

2 weeks ago both MDR and WJ were scheduled to be open till 8:15. WJ was open past that for sure. Sorrento's didn't open till 11 am on any day. It no longer has any small items. It only serves pizza when it's open. Promenade cafe was really funky on disembarkation day: I tried to get a coffee, but the line barely moved, so I gave up after 10 minutes (only 4 people in front of me) and the food items were not in the displays.

2 weeks ago on Oasis we had one pictured above. And on 2022 Allure as well.

same here. I got OBC for my Silver level, but not my DH who is also Silver level (matching status). I am afraid to call. 🙂

why in the world didn't you get together with any one of these 14 people and get off the ship with them?

I wouldn't know about that. 🙂We usually get in late, leave by 10 am, and don't need to do anything besides getting a quick dinner.... And we only started getting in the day before after the pandemic, when all those airline messes started happening. And this time there was a freak winter storm and many people from the east and north didn't even make it to the cruise (even though they were flying in the day before). Some even boarded in PR...

Before the cruise I made reservations with SAS shuttle to take us from the port of Miami to FLL. We got off the ship around 9 and I called the shuttle people as instructed. The guy told me the shuttles were gone till about 10 and we were ok with that and actually knew that in advance. Our flight was leaving at 1:30, so we had time. There was another family with kids waiting for SAS as well. Their mom called them several times and so did I, because no shuttles showed up by 10:40. All the other passengers waiting for shuttles were gone. The SAS guy either didn't answer the phone, or gave all sorts of excuses why the shuttles weren't coming. A different shuttle company offered to take us and we took them up on the offer ($20 pp as opposed to SAS's $15 pp). It was quick and easy, and still saved us a lot of money - DH priced an uber and it was $150 from the port to FLL at the time. Yikes.

sorry, we did not have breakfast at all. We usually head straight to the buffet when we board the ship, so we don't usually want to have breakfast, unless we are flying in on the same day. Some rates include breakfast, but ours didn't. If we wanted breakfast, we would have probably walked over to Burger King, since I am a cheapskate. 🙂

not SAS shuttle. Ugh.

traffic was bad, but we still made it to the port by 11:30. Left the hotel about 11.

word of advice: the cruise line may have only one shuttle departure from the airport, say, around 11 am. You are cutting very close with the late arrival..... A lot of people didn't make it to our April cruise from northern and eastern states because of the freak storm... By the way, how did you book the MSC transfer? I looked for a long time today and couldn't find the option on their website.

wow. Is that just the cruise portion or everything combined??????? Doesn't make any sense. I wouldn't spend this kind of money on a cruise, unless it was for a bunch of people in some kind of a Royal Suite. But for an inside room on Carnival? Doesn't make any sense, unless you are including ALL the charges. We have just got off the $2,500 weeklong RCI cruise (inside for 3 ppl, but they don't have these prices anymore). Also booked a $2,300 MSC cruise for the fall school break (balcony for 3 ppl). Looking at booking a $2,000 MSC cruise for next spring break - balcony for 3 ppl.

none. My parents are dependent on us for off-the ship time, so they always come along to whatever we are doing in ports. On the ship, they have dinner with us and we go to all the shows together, of course, but other than that, they are free to explore on their own. We run into each other at food places or at the pool all the time. My kid is younger (just turned 12) but he doesn't do kid's club, so he is attached at the hip with us. My MIL is coming with us on the next cruise (most likely), so it will be a bit different, because my DH wants to show everything to his mom, whereas we are usually fine with just beach trips. My dad isn't mobile enough to see "everything"...

we stayed at EB hotel 2 weeks ago and absolutely loved it: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2930782-oasis-april-2-9-2023-a-wonderful-cruise/#comment-65200542 Hubs had a fish plate at the Pollo Tropical, and we had chicken. They have enough non-meat sides to make a full meal out of (fried plantains, rice, beans, fries, etc.). It's literally a one minute walk from the hotel.

we stayed at EB hotel 2 weeks ago and absolutely loved it: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2930782-oasis-april-2-9-2023-a-wonderful-cruise/#comment-65200542

Cococay was as gorgeous as ever. This time I discovered a "secret" path from Chill Island to the South beach, and took it several times. It's so serene.... if you stop for a second, you will see little lizards in the bushes: The island is so beautiful and colorful: we ate at the Snack Shack like last time (Nov 2021), but I could swear - the food was much greasier this time. We had the same food: a chicken sammich, mozzarella sticks, funnel cake, grilled veggies. Seagulls were out of control this time. They descended upon the tables and loungers while people were still eating. And if you got up to get something else and left your food unattended for a second - whoa!!!! Madhouse. The water was cold again, despite it being April instead of November. But it was sunnier and a lot more pleasant this time. I took at look at the buffet when I got some hamburger buns to hand feed the fishes. Buffet food looked very good, especially compared to Princess Cay buffet food.