bajathree

I have dined in CK many times. Overall I have found Luminae to be of better quality...actually I always find Celebrity food to be of better quality overall. Celebrity has more $ to spend on dining compared to Royal so really not that surprising. Royal has to spread out their $ to more areas to pay for all the bells and whistles. Actually my favorite is Blu...even over Luminae. But yes....food is all subjective and can vary greatly from sailing to sailing...ship to ship.

Pricing for Hideaway seems to be all over the place. On my upcoming Wonder sailing I got it for $19/pp.

We go back and forth between Royal and Celebrity. Honestly Celebrity is our preference but we get a lot more offers from Royal. One ship however we have found the best of both worlds on is Odyssey....it is basically a Solstice series ship that has been Royal Caribbean'ized. Odyssey is a very nice cutting edge ship that has a Celebrity feel to it but with all the bells and whistles of Royal.

That is true for most Oasis class ships except Wonder. Wonder's solarium is totally enclosed.

If you are comparing against a Celebrity Edge class suite with retreat access ....it doesn't come close. Luminae is defiantly better than Coastal Kitchen. Coastal is just a smaller scale main dining room with a bit more personal service.

IMHO Icon looks to me like Sponge Bob Square Pants....as an empty nester (kids grown up) I have no interest in that class ship. Unless it's a casino offering and that's why you are considering...I would be looking more into Celebrity Edge class ships.

Sounds like may have stayed in South Tampa or Westshore area as there are no outbacks in either the Channelside or Water St area.

That would be some high dive 😬

What LNG does Wonder use? Thought Icon was the first ship to be powered by LNG.

Just curious...there has been a little debate on the purpose of the aft tower on Wonder that comes out of the Wipeout Bar. It was reported back from Oasis that this is a ventilation stack for the aft restaurants on the ship. This makes sense on Oasis cause if you look at photos of the tower on Oasis you can clearly see vent stacks coming out of the tower. However as Oasis class has developed those pipes seem to disappear and the tower gets more of a streamlined look. To me it still looks as though it's still used for some type of ventilation but others say no. Anyone have any info on the towers purpose?

You might want to look at staying in the Water Street/Channelside district if you have any concerns. You will have the best of both worlds as you will be right along the river...walking distance to the port and can still jump on the free trolley if you want to jump over to Ybor....quick 10 minute trolley ride. There honestly would be more to do during the day in the Water St/Channelside district.

I have sailed in just about every category cabin...including Aquatheater suites.

Have you sailed other lines in suite class?

Jamaica isn't a place to go off wondering on your own. Stick with a ship excursion or have a private tour planned thats meeting you right at the port exit.

I can't help you on an e-mail....hopefully someone else will. But with over 50 Royal sailings under my belt lower your expectations a bit on suite class with Royal. Royal honestly doesn't do suite class well compared to other lines. It's really just the bigger cabin you are paying for with ROYAL.

I always hear people here mention Columbia but not their sister restaurant. Also owned by Columbia.....try Casa Santo Stefano...excellent and located a stones throw from Columbia.

I would avoid the whole beach area in FLL that weekend....traffic will be terrible...look for a hotel maybe off Las Olas towards downtown or over near the port area.

No Broadway production show on Wonder.

You can't even compare Labadee to Bonaire...night and day difference.

Just make sure your not staying during a weekend of an art fest or boat parade.

Not all room have balconies....only rooms in the newer wing.

Solstice series with a little bit of a "stretch" to it....thats the Royal Caribbean'ized part...lol

Odyssey (quantum class) is a Solstice series ship that has just been Royal Caribbean'ized....they both were built by Meyer Werft. We love Odyssey just for that reason...it has that Celebrity feel to it.

No

Yes....in the past when I have usually done a GTY...closer to the sail date after final due date if I didn't like what was assigned to me I would usually see a price drop to the point that I could just make a change to an assigned category for the same price I had paid or maybe for $100/pp or less. No more...it seems that Royal is mostly keeping their assigned category pricing high and stable and just putting out GTY's at a very discounted rate compared to assigned cabins. Also in the past I have always been assigned a cabin when booking a GTY within days to a few weeks....even if the sailing was months out...not anymore....at least with this Wonder sailing and from what I have been reading....they aren't assigning GTY's till much closer to sail date now. Or they are assigning them but aren't telling you what the cabin is....as I have been hearing from people that once you check into your sailing and download your sea pass to your Apple wallet you will find coding and be able to often see what your cabin is going to be even though when you look up your sailing in the app or on-line under your account it will still show as a GTY....sometimes till a week or even days prior to your sailing. If you remember....spring break last year it was Wonder that had a few overbooked sailings....effecting people mostly that did GTY cabins. I am now wondering....no pun intended....that they used Wonder for a new pricing strategy going to this new pricing model....and working the kinks out lead to the overbooking that seemed to only been effecting Wonder.