laura85

I’ve always found the abyss to be so slow and I’ve never heard of any injuries occurring on it. Thanks for sharing as it’s a good reminder to make sure my youngest uses proper techniques if she’s ever brave enough to try it. Glad your son is ok, and I’m impressed with how much followup Royal gave you guys over the incident. 

Windjammer- no comment since I avoid it at all costs!!

The key- typically you will get an email about 1-2 weeks before the cruise describing when you can board. We had the key recently on Harmony and it was lovely. I did select a boarding time while checking us in for the cruise since it’s just another box to fill out. But we ended boarding at the key time (it was earlier). 

Thanks for the info! I’ll be on Oasis for the first time in January, it sounds like they are doing a good job of keeping this older ship up to par! 

I hope so! I really enjoyed it on the Navigator. We’ll be on Oasis for the first time January 2025. 

Yes definitely makes it easier to find your room! I always do door magnets. Sometimes I do something elaborate, like handmade signs for each stop on the itinerary. I’ve put up whiteboards or even post it notes for random people to leave us messages on the door (people are usually just silly with the messages)!  Sometimes I just grab a random magnet from the fridge and toss it in my suitcase. I’ve been lucky to never have something stolen. 

Awesome! I’ll have to keep an eye out for a deal like that. With UDP, can we book restaurants in advance? In the past you couldn’t, but I think they were changing that? 

Yeah the cruise planner purchases will be refunded, it just takes about a week. If you don’t see a refund post, give them a call. 

I think smart phones killed off Wow bands. I have some old ones I may let my kids reuse on our upcoming oasis cruise. 

We had the key over our Christmas cruise on Harmony last year. As others stated yes you can switch devices on the internet. While I don’t think the key is entirely worth it, we did use the perks and enjoyed them. The embarkation lunch and decoration breakfast were so nice! Not only was the food great, but you didn’t have to worry about reservations or lines! Not worrying about finding a seat at shows was nice too.

Ok thank you so much! Would be so nice if he can do the rock climbing on his own. He’s not interested in any of the teen club stuff, but enjoys the physical activities like this. 

Great idea! I always bring a few sheets of stickers so our family can “decorate” our cups 👍 

On oasis class ships we usually head to the Park Cafe for lunch. It’s not as packed as the windjammer. The solarium bistro seems like a great idea too for a light lunch. May try that on our next cruise! 

Can a 13 year old do the rock climbing wall without their parent present? Last year my son was 12 and loved the rock climbing, but it was tough to always have a parent go with him since he basically lived on that wall. Does anyone know what age teens can go by themselves? We’ll be on Oasis. 

On 11/15/2023 at 1:54 PM, SRF said:

And while the policy is you cannot take drinks out of the lounge, every cruise we have been offered to have glasses of wine to take to dinner.  And those glasses are a heavier pour that normal. 😄

 

Hold up, you’re not supposed to take drinks out of the suite lounge? We’ll be staying in our first ever suite (crown loft on oasis) in January, I was hoping to grab an occasional glass of wine to bring back to the room, or take with me to dinner. Is that not typically allowed? 

I know food is subjective, and things vary greatly by ship. On our most recent cruise, Harmony Christmas 2023, the food was incredible! I was prepared to be disappointed by the new menus, but was very pleasantly surprised. Moreover, our entire party consisted of people with high food expectations and they were also extremely pleased with the food. 

I’ve been to Labadee twice and really love it! I have a cruise booked for January 2025 and have not received and new info on Labadee, and the itinerary still lists Labadee. However, I fully expect it to get canceled. I saw an article that Royal has officially suspended stood there through September 2024, and I’m guessing it will continue to be pushed back until things are much better there. I understand why Royal is doing this, and hope for things to get better for Haiti’s sake most of all. 

Oh ok thank you guys for the info! I think we will be fine with some heaters in there. On another note, how early do we need to cancel specialty dining reservations to not be charge?

I'm probably overthinking this...but what else am I supposed to do when we are just 10 days away from our cruise? We'll be on Harmony out of Galveston, and have booked Sabor for the first night at 5:30. I'm concerned that with the temps being in the low 60s, the restaurant will be too chilly for my elderly family and small children? Has anyone dined there when it is on the cooler side? The restaurant is basically open to the Boardwalk, and I don't know if they have space heaters.

Well this sounds really great! My son - and our entire family- will be thrilled to listen to music together. I love the Schooner Bar, and hope the player is good on Harmony in a couple weeks!

Ok thanks for the info. I do know that sometimes piano bars can get...rowdy...late at night so I wouldn't bring him around then. I tried bringing him to a piano bar on NCL this past summer, but they said he was not allowed in the bar and we had to leave. He was very disappointed to miss the music!

My son will be 12 on our upcoming cruise and he loves music. He plays piano, guitar, drums and is in several bands. (No, I don't want him to be able to play on the ship, don't worry). He absolutely loves hearing live music. He would love to see a great pianist, Is he allowed to watch the piano player in Schooners, or is that 21 and over? Are all bars/lounges with live music off limits to him? What are the best places to check out live music he can watch? Pool deck? We'll be on Harmony Christmas week. 

59 minutes ago, Wanna Be Retired said:

I'm getting on Voyager tomorrow.  My Key email encouraged me to get there early to take advantage of my lunch.  I have never checked in to the port in Galveston where they actually checked the time.  That said, I usually have the Key and they are already boarding when I get there.  I get there early.

Ok thank you so much for the info! Have a great cruise tomorrow!

I'm curious about this too. We have The Key for our upcoming Christmas cruise out of Galveston. I just did check in and the earliest time available it 1:00. But if we wait until 1:00 we will miss the special lunch for people who bought The Key. Hopefully we will get an email with more instructions.

On 11/11/2023 at 4:55 AM, S.A.M.J.R. said:

We'll use the sofa bed for our cruise next year.  Haven't decided if we're doing morning or evening service.  Here's our plan...

 

* Ask the steward to come back an extra time to put up/take down the sofa bed.

* If he/she can't/won't, then (gasp!) we'll do it ourselves.

 

We've stayed in plenty of hotels with sofa beds and NEVER expected/asked a hotel employee to set up/put it away.  We've even put sheets on it.  

The problem is pullman beds require a special tool to be put away and taken down. I agree, a sofa bed is not the end of the world to put away. But a pullman (or 2) taking up space in a cabin all week is no fun. Granted to avoid this is the future, we are booking 2 cabins for our family of 4 instead of . Kids are getting kind of big to have the 4 of us in one room regardless.

I'll be on a holiday cruise this year, and I'm definitely not doing the holiday dinner. I think it is super overpriced. But if it sounds fun to you, go for it! I'm sure plenty of people enjoy it!