allisonb22

On 2/1/2023 at 10:03 AM, olesiabr said:

I feel like in general this class of ship has its emphasis inward: the promenade, central park, even boardwalk with very little reminding you that you are at sea. 

 

We just got off Wonder and I felt the same way! I don't know why I never felt this way on Oasis, but on Wonder it seemed to stick out more to me that there weren't any great ocean views. I do like all the options of places to hangout but miss the feeling of being at sea

9 minutes ago, Big_G said:

We've sailed Oasis Class multiple times and had another great cruise but I might be hesitant to book it again for that week

I definitely agree with you! We sailed Oasis in May and yes, there were a lot of kids, but not to this extent! & they were overall pretty well behaved in May, this trip it was madness! 

We sailed Anthem Jan 2020 and Jan 2022 with very few kids on board (like less than 20!), so we were expecting there to be more than we had experienced before, but not nearly as many as there were

On 2/3/2023 at 10:06 AM, mandyleighflies said:

I do not like children (unruly, feral children, not well behaved clearly parented children)  and their adult's only concept is fantastic

totally agree! I am trying Virgin this year for the first time because they are adults only! 🙂

On 2/3/2023 at 6:53 AM, Sunshine3601 said:

Had you emailed rcldining for your special request for a 12 top table?    It is best to do that 2 weeks within your sail date.

 

When you boarded the ship did you go to the dining room to speak with host about 12 top table?

When planning special things it is important to double check before arriving at dinnertime.

 

I did not email- I called. They assured me we would be fine.

The first place I went once on board (after checking in at muster station) was to the MDR. That is where they explained we were all linked but spread across two tables and that there was nothing they could do. Rather than stand there and argue about it, we accepted it as it was, but it does not take away the frustration. 

On 2/3/2023 at 6:51 AM, matj2000 said:

Most people will not read it.

 

Quite amount of time wasted.

 

But I guess the OP has a lot of time

i don't need anyone on here to read it if they aren't interested, as you seem to say you aren't but want to keep commenting. seems like you're wasting your own time. 

i guess i'm lucky i have so much time on my hands i can recall my experience to share with others to maybe help someone or give some insight 😝 silly me!

On 2/3/2023 at 6:40 AM, zeberdee said:

This is not a cheap trip and I am getting very frustrated by Royal. 

 

This is exactly why I was frustrated! I hope it does not end up being one of those cruises and you don't have to change your sailing. 

On 2/3/2023 at 4:46 AM, ellie1145 said:

We were also shocked at the way they treated staff and their sense of entitlement. They were incredibly demanding in the dining room and so rude to the poor waiters

it was terrible!! I felt so sorry for the staff, they were brutal! 

Our sailing's FB group kept kicking out members who brought up this group's poor treatment of staff.

On 2/2/2023 at 10:14 PM, Thisguylikestocruise said:

I board Wonder this Sunday, and today we went to Disney. I thought a weekday in February would be a good time to visit Disney. I was so wrong! It was EXTREMELY crowded. I’ve been there many times, and it’s the worst I’ve seen it. Elbow to elbow crowds. Boxed in by double strollers or electric scooters at every turn.Totally overwhelmed and exhausted. I feel like it’s unsafe. If there was an emergency, people would get trampled in the park. Ready for a relaxing cruise. After my experience at Disney today, I’m sure getting on Wonder this week will feel much more relaxing.

We did Disney the day prior to boarding and the day we disembarked. We felt the same way, but I'm not much of a Disney person so my crowd tolerance is always at an all time low there LOL.

7 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

Just Google

thank you!! i really appreciate your help and totally understand board guidelines. 

we were also on this sailing with an Elvis group, everyone we interacted with were lovely and we LOVED the door decorations, even though I know nothing about Elvis (im in my mid 20's). I was a bit worried when I heard it was also an Elvis cruise, but they were nothing but a joy to have on board with us!

1 minute ago, reallyitsmema said:

When sailing a 7 night cruise in January it makes sense to do some searching to find out what ships are having kosher cruises

how would we go about doing this? we definitely will for future trips as January is our preferred time to travel (usually off season so not too many kids!) 

5 minutes ago, flamingos said:

Well, that might account for the number of kids?

 

could be! there were so many kids! 

9 minutes ago, flamingos said:

And yes, having two venues closed the entire trip would indeed be disappointing.

I just wish we were told ahead of time! 

This was disappointing in many ways. If it were my first cruising experience I definitely wouldn't want to go on another. 

Let me start by saying that I am a cruise lover, and always loyal to Royal. I am two nights short of Diamond and RAVE about Royal Caribbean to anyone who will listen. This was my 5th cruise in a year and all have been with Royal. However, this cruise was extremely disappointing and has caused me to look at other cruise lines for my vacations. I will be sailing with two competitors this year after this trip with no plans to sail with Royal Caribbean anytime soon. 

The great things about this cruise: 

-Bar staff and most crew were EXCELLENT, the few that stood out were Howard from Boleros, Roel, Roman and Judit from the Lime and Coconut bar, Sanya and Uros from the Trellis Bar, and the bartenders from Wonderland (I can’t remember their names). 

-Our room was extremely spacious for a Boardwalk balcony and the room attendant (Iwayan) was great. We loved his towel animals. I did not find the room noisy at all and would book it again in a heartbeat. 

-The entertainment was fabulous; comedians were great, production shows were awesome, and we are so happy the Quest is back! The Quest and Love and Marriage game shows are always highlights of our trips.

-We booked this specifically because of the visit to both private islands, we always enjoy the day at CocoCay and Labadee. Both islands were beautifully maintained and we wish we could have spent more time there!

-The Wifi worked extremely well!! Never had any issues with it. 

The not so great things:

-We were extremely disappointed that our cruise was taken over by a very large group, which caused two venues to be closed to us for the entire cruise (music hall and solarium bistro). Had we known this, we would have chosen a different sailing. Not to mention the attendees from this group were extremely rude and entitled. On more than one occasion we witnessed guests from this group yelling at and disrespecting staff. We know this is not Royal’s fault, and the staff handled these disrespectful guests very well, but we wish we were notified of this prior to sailing because this group definitely negatively impacted our vacation. We should have been told that this was a chartered cruise for this group because we sure as heck would have changed our plans. 

-We were on a family vacation, with 12 people and one infant. We called two weeks before sailing to link all of our reservations and arrange a table at dinner. We were told it was all set and we would all be seated at one table. Upon the first dinner, we were told the largest they could accommodate was 10, even though this is different from what we were told on the phone. We were split between two tables and couldn’t communicate with each other because of the arrangement of the seats. The only time our entire group would be together was for dinner, so this was a huge let down. I wouldn’t have spent 1.5 hrs on the phone with Royal out if they told me they wouldn’t be able to accommodate us. I also wouldn’t have booked this cruise because why are we going to sail together but not be able to eat dinner together? Now we know, we will never book another family trip on Royal. Not for nothing, but there were other groups they were willing to accommodate, but I guess we weren’t worthy enough of it. I could understand if there were 20 of us, but there were 12, they could have made it work, since they were able to for other people.

-Certain bathrooms were unsanitary. The bathroom outside the MDR on deck 5 was usually messy and the bathroom on deck 15 outside the Windjammer was always dirty and usually had empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls. I understand that these are high traffic areas but I’ve never felt a bathroom was unkept on any other ship. 

-CHILDREN! So. Many. Kids. definitely not Royal’s fault, just something we noticed. For the last week of January we weren’t expecting there to be SO MANY. I felt like we were in Disney.

-The dining room food was extremely hit or miss. We are super upset with the new menu. I prefer the old menu so much more!! Most dishes were lukewarm at best and tasted like cafeteria food. I know that is to be expected on a ship of this size, it would be logistically impossible to hand craft each dish to perfection, however, it stinks to pay such top dollar for such low quality food. Service was just OK, we have had MUCH better service on other ships, so that was disappointing. 

-The windjammer was far beyond disappointing. The food was not good and there were never any tables to be found for breakfast. Again, I get it, we are on the biggest ship in the world, we can’t expect the buffet to be 10/10. But the food was very underwhelming and just overall not good. I really think Royal makes a strong effort but it's just impossible for the quality to be there on a ship this size. We utilized other venues (not the solarium bistro since it was closed) as much as possible because of how disappointing the Windjammer was. 

-As on any ship, there’s always an issue with the chair savers by the pool with no enforcement. Not Wonder specific because it happens on every ship but still an annoyance. 

Overall, this trip was a let down. It was by far the most expensive cruise we’ve taken and some of the lowest quality experience. We paid 5 star prices for a 3 star experience, at best. I do understand logistically things may not be possible on a ship this size. However, we never had some of these issues that we experienced when we were on Oasis in May. I am disappointed in the overall experience and feel bad I suggested this to my entire family! I’m embarrassed about the trip quality after raving about Royal for so long leading up to this trip.

On 12/18/2022 at 10:24 AM, Jasukkie said:

As for oversupply, it's usually suggested to pump less so your breasts aren't being given the message to keep making more milk. Obviously that's individual but if things are still that prolific this baby likely has a freezer full of extra milk at home and dumping the extra for one week is not a big deal

what is the relevance of this to the question? 

Reread my inital question- I wasn't asking for breastfeeing advice. I was simply looking to see if it was possible to have access to a freezer for it to be stored. If you believe it would not be possible on board, a simple no would've been fine. Thanks

On 12/18/2022 at 8:31 AM, Stede Bonnet said:

Looking forward to hearing how it works out.

 

The family member may be planning to use the babysitting on port days, may prefer to pump and store before drinking alcohol, may have inconsistent supply...

 

The why doesn't matter too much

exactly! thank you 🙂

On 12/18/2022 at 7:32 AM, death_star said:

So we faced this on Enchantment earlier this year and they eventually found us a real dorm style fridge with one of those tiny freezer sections. We turned it as low as we could and I made a cocoon of ice packed in zipper sandwich bags to help lower the temperature. It all stayed frozen. Would probably not be cold enough to freeze freshly pumped stuff but did keep our already frozen. 

 

We had to really keep after them to find us the real fridge instead of the glove box sized medical ones they give these days. They can certainly note it on your reservation but I've often found that it still takes telling the steward what you need when you get onboard. 

thank you so much for your response, this is very helpful!! 

On 12/17/2022 at 11:07 PM, BND said:

It's not something women do when traveling.   Trying to freeze and them travel just isn't the norm

Whether this is the norm or not, what a mother prefers to do is not up for debate.

Your opinion on the issue is not adding anything to finding an answer to my question- I was simply looking for guidance on IF it was possible to store in a freezer on board, not for your personal feelings on the matter.. 

On 12/17/2022 at 9:15 AM, reallyitsmema said:

This was from Oasis. Definitely no freezer section. 

thank you so much for providing the pics!!

On 12/17/2022 at 6:27 AM, Maierkai said:

Some women exclusively pump and/or overproduce. 
 

Although I have not experienced this on the cruise ship, when staying in hotels I’ve cooled in bags on ice or ice packs and then once/day traded supplies for staff to put in a freezer used for guest medical supplies. The fridge on wonder wmshould work well enough as a “cooler.” Then just deposit milk once a day?

 

Flying with breast milk actually isn’t complicated, ESPECIALLY if you have the little one in tow. 
 

 

I appreciate your input! Thank you 🙂

On 12/16/2022 at 11:15 PM, brillohead said:

Exactly. I'm trying to figure out how and why this scenario needs to even happen if the child is traveling with the nursing mother....

 

As stated above- this was a request of another member that I was simply asking on her behalf. What she is choosing to do is not for anyone else to debate, I was simply asking if this was possible. 

On 12/16/2022 at 3:41 PM, flamingos said:

How many does she anticipate needing to store?

Good question- I am not sure, she simply asked me if I knew how we could go about this since I'm the most frequent cruiser going on our family trip. I figured since I didn't know I'd ask on here if this was even possible!

12 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Ask special needs to replace the cooler in the cabin with a real fridge which should have a freezer section. 

Can this be done before boarding? 

my grammar mistake in the title is making me crazy. *ARE* there freezers on board... 

We are sailing on Wonder this January for 15 person family cruise. One of the people in our party is traveling with a 6 mo old and is breastfeeding. She needs somewhere to freeze the breastmilk on board. I know there's a refridgerator (i guess its more of a cooler than a fridge) in each cabin but we need a freezer. Does anyone know the best way to go about this?? Thanks in advance.  

I've had really good luck this year with Royal Ups. For the cruise we went on in March on Freedom, I found out our bid was accepted 4 days before sailing. For our cruise in May on Oasis, we found out just under a week before sailing. 

We sail on Liberty next Monday and I haven't heard anything yet regarding our bids... hoping we get something..