feisty77

10 hours ago, abkl said:

Also want to get first hand information about the adventure ocean time slots / reservations, I'm hearing very different things depending on when the person cruised, so just trying to find out the most current policy.  The most current thing I see is that reservations are required(?)/recommended during port days only

On March 20th sailing, no reservations required for adventure ocean ages 3 and up.  I did hear about some proper getting turned away cause they were full. But we never had that issue. We used every night from 7-10 for our 5 and 8 year olds 

4 hours ago, Bupperd00dle said:

If the laser tag is closed, I'm curious if the Mission Control Escape Room is open or not? Also, since you mentioned you are going to Saint Maarten today, can you clarify if you saw any large kelp issues there on any of the beaches? It used to be 4 feet deep and several yards out in some places. Thanks!

jumping in, but escape room was open for March 20 cruise, suggest to book early as we couldn't find a time halfway through cruise to book except for 1 person

My airwrap worked fine on the oasis as well....

Just now, topnole said:

Thanks for the review.   What is the age minimum for the rock wall?

6.  My daughter is like 3 months from 6 and has done some rock wall climbing before.  They don't seem to check on a card or anything but we never went back.

Some notes on our March 20th sailing on Oasis.

We were traveling with our kids (8,5) and another family.  My husband and I have cruised with royal maybe 9 times, most all before kids.  We flew into Miami Saturday and stayed at the Courtyard Marriot Brickell.  This was convenient for dinner that night and offered a $8pp shuttle that worked out well.  But our room on the 5th floor was very loud from street noise all evening.  We had 11:30 check-in the next day and just got a quick breakfast at Starbucks.  At check-in, we were asked if kids were vaccinated (there were) and were taken out of the larger line and shuttled along for a super quick check-in.  Once onboard we checked into adventure ocean (registered kids and were told my 5yo could not be with her brother and older kids), and got lunch at windjammer, then settled at pool and tried out water slides etc.

My family had connecting oceanview balconies on deck 8.  This was a great setup for us.  The kids had one room and we had the other, and loved having 2 bathrooms.  The balcony doors did lock up high, so no worries about kids opening themselves.  Balcony divider was already opened when rooms were ready, but we had to ask for connecting door to be unlocked and kids bedroom beds to be separated.  Our cabin steward did a fine job, but I did feel like we missed some information on things (laundry bag special I had to call several times to get everything I needed (forms/bags/etc).  We did get 2 services a day (other family mentioned they were only getting 1x day, and towel animals about every other day.

Dining:

We had early dining and ate in the dining room each night.  Our waiter was great at bringing kids fruit and cheese plates for the table every night and was pretty attentive, however, dining seemed to take longer than usual with some waiting between courses.  We got to dinner early one night to try to make 7pm show and even mentioned it, but we still were not finished until like 7:05 that night.  Just felt that maybe servers had too many tables or chefs couldn't get food out as quickly as usual.  Most dinners took us an hour and 45 minutes.  Food was a bit hit or miss.  Our group didn't really enjoy many of the pasta dishes or fish (I remember seafood used to be good).  But the beef/lamb etc stewed meats were quite good.  Lobster was good as well.  It was fun to get kids to try some new things.

We had breakfast a few times in main dining and a few times in windjammer (once in solarium).  Were happy with all of these. We didn't snack much, but I did go to central park for coffee each morning and sometimes a pastry.

Adventure Ocean:

This was my kids first real kids club onboard.  We were happy that our timing was such that adventure ocean wasn't as limited hour wise.  We did however only take kids each night after dinner.  My 8 year old was traveling with a friend and started off loving adventure ocean while my 5 year old wasn't a fan the first night or 2.  I think overall it ended up just being ok for the kids, which I was a little disappointed in.  They were only offering my 8 year old either craft time or active games.  He does not enjoy crafts at all, so he spent like 3 hours each night doing the games.  Which he likes, but he was exhausted and they were pretty much the same every night.  They did stay for late night 2x on cruise and one time I picked him up, he was watching a movie.  Only time I saw any screens on there.  I mentioned to worker, who said that they were not letting them on the computers/screens etc since they had so many kids.  My daughters group, 3-5years old had a different theme every night and did craft/activities based on it, then some movies.  I'm hoping they start offering a bit more things for them to do if we do more cruises.

Shows:

We were a bit disappointed on the timing of the reservation shows as they were offered at 7 (we missed due to dinner) and 9:30 which would mean we would have to leave early to pick up kids from adventure ocean.  We had reserved both ice show and aqua80 at 7, but ended up not going to our reserved showing since it was late by the time we were done with dinner/drop off kids.  We all did catch some of the aqua80 show at other times.  We watched the magic headliner show which we (adults) all enjoyed.

Onboard:

Spent a lot of time at the globe and atlas pub listening to the guitar player and had a great time there.  Also caught Aeromyth a few times in the music hall, spent some time at the casino and day times at the pool.  kids really enjoyed ice skating, so we did that twice.  My son did the rock wall, but my daughter at 5 was too young :(.  They just asked her her age.  She is also quite petite, so she was unable to do the water slides anywhere (even in splash away bay orange one).

Loyalty Program:

I was a little disappointed in some of the loyalty program changes.  I much preferred the printed coupons for discounts, as I felt like I had to ask for discounts and it was hard to keep track of that way.  I went to the loyalty desk with questions on kids discounts (we never got a sheet for them), but no one was there (during their hours), and I didn't know how to use things like the arcade credit for them.  Guess not a big thing, but I felt a little more special in the past - ha, we are only platinum though.

Cococay:

This was everyone's favorite stop.  Beautiful beaches, we just hung out at South Beach area.  Boys played ping pong/basketball/bags and everyone else relaxed in chairs.  Had a chance to sneak out to the floating bar when other parents were watching our kids and also took kids to free splash pad area on way back to ship that they loved.

Cozumel:

We just took a taxi to Chankanaab.  This was an ok day, but my daughter decided she was not getting into any water with fish in it, so that limited us a little.  We saw the sea lion show and dolphins from afar.  Not sure if we would go back unless kids really wanted to snorkel.  I never found the statues that were supposed to be in the water, and they never really gave us any information about the park (a map or something would have been nice).

Roatan:

We took a private tour through Bodden that I had booked beforehand.  Would definitely recommend touring this way here.  We had a great day and it was just our group of 7.  My daughter wouldn't hold any of the animals, but did enjoy watching them.  After sloths/monkeys, we went to the chocolate place (wouldn't recommend, was just too busy, and chocolate seemed expensive and it would melt if we bought it), then the rum tasting (yum, the adults enjoyed this), next to the glass bottom boat tour (I had checked with my daughter and she was ok with seeing fish like this).  She really liked this, but my son got a little sea-sick on this tour.  Next we asked for a local lunch, which ended up being that our tour guide took us to a restaurant at one of the ziplining places?  This seemed questionable, but maybe there aren't too many restaurants?  We had absolutely horrible service here.  Like it took 20 minutes to get a menu(we had to get up to ask), another 10 to order, another 20 to get the beer we ordered (after asking 2x - we almost got up and walked out here), another 30 minutes for our food.  all of this while other larger groups were coming in and getting service, food, drinks etc while we were sitting there.  Anyway, the food was good after all of this.  We originally were going to hit a beach, but decided to head back to the ship after that.  

Costa Maya:

We decided to just see what we felt like doing once we got up in the morning, and ended up just taking a taxi to the close beach/boardwalk.  Honestly the beach wasn't great, but we sat and had lunch and hung out for a while.  A lot of seaweed and a bit of smell, but it was fine.  I would probably make other plans next time we came here.  

Disembarkment:

Our flight didn't leave until 8pm, eek.  We selected the latest departure that we were able to and was called around 8:45am.  This whole process was really fast, customs just did facial recognition and we were out.  We decided to take a taxi to the airport and leave our bags there (there is a bag check at terminal E for like $15/bag).  Then we explored Miami a bit.  We had lunch at Little Havana and walked around and then checked out the science museum.  Then back to the airport, which was still crazy busy but lines went pretty fast with an uneventful flight home.

Final Thoughts:

Altogether a great return to cruising after covid cancellations.  We still have some FCC so may try to do another cruise this year, but also hoping that maybe kids club improves activities a bit or relaxes things again.  I felt with 4 port days we didn't have as much time on ship to check things out, so may do more ship stuff next time.

1 minute ago, BazingAu said:

Are these discounts supposed to be pre-loaded on the seapass? Or do you have to get physical coupons from somewhere? I'm confused how to use the benefits. 😄

I believe they are pre-loaded but you have to ask for them to use the drink discounts at least.  My laundry one was applied automatically, and the photo one asked me at purchase (on kiosk)

Just off Oasis.  Think there were like 4400 people onboard, not sure of number of kids but seemed like a good amount.  My kids (5,8) were in adventure ocean in the evenings.  Never had trouble dropping them off but also heard they accepted over planned capacity.  Kids were a little bored with the variety of activities (only crafts or active games for my 8 year old).  My 5 year old was not allowed with older brother (she turns 6 in 3 months), she didn't really like kids club first few nights but then warmed up to it.  

We did notice a bit of slow service everywhere.  Not bad service really, but it did take longer to get drinks etc and the dinner was slower than we wanted.  Probably close to an hour 45 m most nights.  This made it really hard/impossible for us to make the 7pm shows we were trying to do, 5:30 early dining, and shows offered at 7 or 9:30 and kids pickup at 10, seemed not really good for families.  Felt like a lot of staff didn't have the time to do more of the out of the way/outstanding service we have had in the past.

That said, we had a great cruise 🙂

We just got off Oasis, the kids club for that age group was from 6-12, I didn't see anything for "pre-teens".  My son was a bit disappointed as they only offered craft or active games during the kids club sessions.  I asked and was told they had limited computer/video games and it was hard to accomodate the large number of kids.  I'm hoping that future changes to kids club makes more variety of activities as they did the active games every night.   One night late night, they did have a movie on.  

1 hour ago, jbrinkm said:

I bought my teens the discounted arcade package last week ($40 for $50 of arcade credit). Looking at the teen offers, I'm thinking maybe I should return it and let them get the $25 back instead? ($50 for $25 instead of $40). Is that right? Is the "$25 back" an onboard credit? What happens if it doesn't get used? (most likely not a problem if we allow them to take advantage of some of the other deals on the sheet...)

I am just off Oasis (platinum) and had a hard time with the arcade (and the loyalty desk, we stopped by during hours and no one was there).  We never got any paper for the kids discount and I really didn't like having to ask for discounts everywhere.  The logo store still didnt' give me discount after I told them.  My husband and I are both platinum but we only seemed to get 1 50% discount on drinks each.

2 hours ago, Maitaivegas said:

Had lunch at Portside BBQ, the brisket was really good. Service was really good.

Not going to Cats today, due to the fact I fell down going up the stair to Portside. 
I fell on my knee and twisted my back. This lady also fell right after me.

So I’m going to stay in since I fell and I’m exhausted.

I hate that I’m missing so much, missed Aqua 80, missing live music.

Here is my food pic and will see you tomorrow .

Happy that food was good and so sorry to hear about your fall.  Hope you are able to rest up and enjoy the rest of the cruise.  Thanks for sharing your experience with us!

Yes please, we will be on Oasis week after you.  I"m not sure what all genie service gets you but interested in family/kid specific things.

21 hours ago, Ashland said:

I certainly wouldn't cancel our family cruise because of AO policy...that would be a bigger disappointment to our grand kids since this will be the 3rd time trying for this sailing after an RCI cancellation and then a L/S.

To each their own I guess 🙂

For us, with no family nearby, a bit plus for cruising is the ability for kids to have their time and us to have some kid free time.  But we are still deciding what our plan is.  

19 hours ago, sford75 said:

As of MLK Weekend, they are no longer doing reservations. I was told this is fleetwide. Every session is first come first served.

I was told this week from RC that they were still doing reservations....so who knows.

We also have an upcoming spring break cruise with kids and concerned enough that we were considering cancelling.  Maybe I'll ask again in a few weeks and see what answer I get.  I was guessing recent cruise were just first come due to number of kids onboard....

What hotel did you stay at?


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Am I right that you booked ~2 years in advance?  Were you able to book that cabin type directly yourself? Would love to see how you liked that cabin.  I would have loved to book one on our upcoming cruise, but I didn't see any available online.  guessing that they sell out quickly since I don't think there are too many.  Look forward to review, as we will be going in October.