KSprite01

Whoops, I meant to write on #1 someone else got an AS2 a few weeks earlier (not GS2). Our most recent trip (#3) is also a JS Guarantee not JS if that matters. Yeah, we feel pretty fortunate. My only thoughts are: 1. Popularity matters a lot. Traveling on high occupancy dates/holidays? Very low chances of an upgrade. 2. Similarly, you have a much better chance when there are more rooms. It’ll be much easier to get a plentiful balcony than the only royal suite. 3. Luck is a huge factor. Why was our low bid picked over the better bids for other rooms? No idea, I’m assuming due to the chain below us or other things such as lifeboat availability (we have 4 people). Not every room can have extra people if it’ll fill up the allocated lifeboats. 4. Gaming bids risks getting no upgrades. We didn’t bid on OS in first scenario because we really wanted a separate sleeping space for the kids, didn’t feel like the difference between GS1 and OS mattered to us, and we didn’t want to risk hurting our chances of getting a room with 2 separate sleeping areas. (We were having issues with kids going to bed at nap/night then.) Which was a perfectly fine decision. But had we not bid on the OS this time (to avoid getting it instead of the GS2), I doubt we’d have an upgrade right now. 5. Bid as much as you feel it’s worth. Don’t bid so high you’ll feel ripped off if you win, or so low you’ll be annoyed at yourself if you don’t get it because your budget really was higher. We never expected to get the OS but I’m glad we bid on it just in case. 6. Book an initial room you’ll be satisfied with if you don’t win. Now to worry about hedonic adaptation, as Royal is hoping for!

I'm confused by the different passes. What's the difference between the All You Can Eat pass and the Sun and Fun? It seems like they both offer buffet. Per the list of activities it looks like the kid's pool area is available only for All You Can Eat, but since the cheaper passes include it that seems wrong. What's the difference between the Fun and Beach Break passes? Is it just the Underwater Mayan City? Same as above, the cheaper one seems to offer a hydro massage tub and pool access not listed in the Beach Break pass, but maybe they both cover it it's not just listed for the more expensive one?

2/3 of success rate First time: Oasis 9/3/23 Labor Day sailing, GS to GS2. Upped our GS2 bids a few times to about the mid-point as we decided we wanted it more than we initially thought. Also could still see availability (~2 of them) so we felt we had a chance. Bid low on OS just to have a bid in, maybe a bid a third of the way on AS1. We bid the highest on AS2 but still didn't break the halfway mark given it was Star class. Won GS2 a few days before sailing. Someone else from the sailing won a GS2 a few weeks prior. Second: Anthem sailing 2/25/24, Balcony. Can't remember the bids, but we didn't bid very high and didn't expect to get it given high occupancy dates. Didn't win. Third: Enchantment of the Seas, sailing 10/12/24 over the holiday. Had a JS. Bid midpoint for GS2 (fair territory), a solid bid maybe 1/3 of the way and for **** & giggles, a tick over on Royal Suite and Owners Suite. Won the Owner's Suite on 8/31, even though it hadn't been showing much availability...we were shocked, but looking forward to it!

I appreciate you can't do it online, but can you have the concierge make reservations the week before if you're in a suite?

Pretty sure it’s $20 pp with the package, although you *may* get lucky and they’d let you do $80. I suspect it’s deliberately low to discourage UDP usage.

I went there as a college student, and everyone was tearing up (and actually serious). Beyond maybe visiting a Holocaust site, I can’t think of a more emotional experience.

Yeah we got a cheapish GS and royaled up to a 2bed GS last cruise on Oasis, which with 2 little kids was amazing. Beyond all the general suite perks (don’t forget beer/wine 11-11), the room was great. No fighting about sharing a bed, our preschooler could nap separate, when one bathroom broke (entire stack on ship), we had a second one, two showers at a time, huge balcony we didn’t use enough, I could pack us out while the kids slept, etc…. Our next cruise is a balcony guarantee so it’s going to be a tough come down to reality. But I’m also not going to pay $10k for it so we’ll just have to suck it up.

Thanks, appreciate the tips. Particularly helpful to know I *can't* book it free ahead of time, so I don't need to waste my time checking for it. One more question: Are you limited to one reservation per cruise? And is there a walk up line like there is for North Star?

When can I reserve iFly (regular, not extended $)? And where specifically do I reserve it in the cruise planner? I see it in the "calendar" for activities in the app for extended, though I can't find it in the web version. Is that where it'll be for the regular experience, when they make it available? We missed out the last time because they were full, so I'm trying to avoid a repeat experience.

We Royaled Up from a Grand 1-Bed to Grand 2-Bed on Oasis.

Sky Perks: - Coastal Kitchen access - Suite lounge, with apps/drinks 5-8 - Probably free beer/wine in the lounge 11-11 (note, not on all ships but yes if Coastal Kitchen ship) - Expedited entry on ship/suite lounge - Expedited departure from ship - Lounge concierge to assist with dinner/excursion reservations/other issues etc - Double points - Free room services including ordering from the main dining room - Free internet (note not on all ships, but yes on Oasis etc)

We almost had this happen to us. Two women took one of our bags on our last trip, but fortunately returned it before they left the cruise port. We had to wait for the bag to be screened again and cleared by security, but they had to wait for all passengers to leave to get back in to get their bag. We were pissed a passenger was so careless as to not check their bag, but grateful they at least realized it before flying/driving off. Could have been much worse as you note. Honestly, I’m glad they had to wait to get in, as hopefully that minor inconvenience encourages them to be more careful going forward. We plan to add more obvious tags going forward. But we never even considered blaming the Porter… So yes, it’s theft. They can talk to the police re filing a report if the don’t get it back (or even if the do). Cost shouldn’t be on them. Hope you have a good inventory of items.

On Oasis we were told "if your kid is crazy enough to try it, then can go down it" for splashaway bay. For the two big water slides (Perfect Storm slides), it's 48 and 52 inches. My 3 yo tried the "big" splashaway bay slide the second day and loved it, doing it over and over after that. She can't swim yet and was fine. I watched a dad try to get his kid (4 or 5? bigger than my kid) to do the splashaway slide unsuccessfully. He wanted to just throw the kid down despite her protests, but the lifeguard politely suggested he take her down, and didn't entertain his suggestion.

Was there recently with Oasis and Independence. Oasis had 6486 passengers, almost max capacity. If Independence was close to max too (4375), it made almost 11k. I wasn't at the waterpark, but the rest of it was insanely crowded in my opinion and too much. Independence was not originally scheduled to be there per the port listing.

Yeah Francis (suite concierge) who gave me the number said there were some late opening schools and that next week was much fewer kids/lower occupancy. We missed 1.5 days of school to go (our school calendar shifted a week later than prior years, after camps were already planned. Camps didn’t want to extend another week so we planned our vacation then in part to deal w the lack of childcare (daycare was closed Tuesday as well).

My 6 ft husband burned his knees on Oasis last week because he couldn’t keep his knees bent and grab the hand loop at the same time, he was too tall. They need to make longer loops or two sets of mats, one for taller people.

There were 6486 passengers onboard Agree on small Park Cafe portions, though at least they asked me how many I wanted. I said one, not knowing the pesto, prosciutto Brie sandwich would be 50% smaller than the display one!

We too are on Oasis and noticed a bad rattling/creaking in our cabin as well. Hoping it’s better tonight if we’re going slower to Coco Cay. My 3 yo kept asking if it was thunder (she’s become very scared of thunder recently) and has had a hard time falling asleep as a result. Deck 9 a bit forward of the stern elevators. Agree aqua show was amazing!

Yep, I'm aware it's a reserved section, not specific seats. Thanks for info, I'm reworking our meals to have Izumi/Playmakers before instead, as I think they'll be faster meals and we won't eat dessert there.

Trying to figure out how to juggle dinner+show for A80 (7:30PM) and Frozen (7PM). How early do we need to be at the theaters for our reservations? What time do they start to give away seats to standby? We're in a suite, if that matters, and will likely be doing specialty dining or coastal kitchen before those shows. We have little kids and don't want them overtired with too much later than normal bedtimes, so we can't really shift to later shows. Trying to back into dinner times (do they need to be at 5 or can we do 5:30?). Can we send someone to the theater a few minutes ahead while the other goes more slowly with the kids or do we all need to be there? With the suite reserved seating area I'm less concerned about getting a "perfect seat" and more concerned about getting 4 seats together/not losing our reservation. Thanks!

Posting to follow. We've got a 3 and 6 yo, so are similarly looking for beach with chairs/lunch. We can bring our own shade 🙂

Good to know, thanks.

Too bad they didn't just impose a 3 hr rule between orders. As it is, I think you get the $20 credit only once a day, so you can't go to playmakers for lunch and izumi for dinner, which is probably cheaper for them than if you went to somewhere else than playmakers. But also - what's really the difference between doing a few rolls at Izumi and going to 2-3 different specialty restaurants (which is permitted) instead?

Oh no! That’s so sad. I used to live on Mendenhall Loop Road.

We paid $5223 for 2A/2K ($186.5 pppn) for a GS on Oasis this September, booking right after final payment. Should have booked before though, as it was just over $5k then.