WestfieldTraveler

But AA batteries are heavy and I was using about 12 every 2 days -- it adds up. For my Panasonic battery I have 3 of the batteries and 2 chargers (I have had 3 of the cameras in 4 years :o yep sand on one, and soda on one and the other is the current) You can buy the batteries in a battery plus store for just about $35.

The only problem is the techo-challenged person is less likely to remember to check and charge the battery (usually requiring removal), or even to remember to unplug the charger when leaving on the trip. AA batteries (environment aside) will probably cost a lot less over the expected use of the camera (one trip?) and be easier to carry/find as needed.

Also, per my prior post - the Canon A1400 is a later model that may be easier to find with the same features. And if you get an 8 or 16GB card you'll never run out of space (unless shooting video - then get a 32 GB card).

Depends on what you're trying to view I guess - my first trip on an Oasis class is upcoming, but the view of the sea or part of the outdoor show may be what is obstructed. You will have a front-row seat for the zipliners, of course!

From my research (we in 12th floor B1's) I would move lower as the 14th may be too close to the action on the deck above.

Also keep an eye on the prices, right now the B1's on my cruise are $$$ lower than the B2's, so you may be able to change for minimal $.

Nikon S-32' date=' very inexpensive, waterproof and shockproof.

 

I purchased this camera for my wife for our Oasis cruise last week, we also have a Nikon 5100, but for portability, and toughness the S-32 was great for her to stick in her purse or beach bag.[/quote']

 

I'd agree with the above, as it highlights one of reasons you would want to go with a real camera, rather than a phone - in this case, being waterproof and shockproof (both to limits) you could take this were you would not want to take a phone, like the beach, river excursions, not worry about the rain, etc. You can also take high-quality videos.

 

For a more traditional digital camera, I'd suggest the Canon A1300, which has image stabilization, a wide angle lens (another reason to get a real camera), uses AA batteries, a dedicated video button for HD quality videos and has has a viewfinder, which lets you frame and take a picture in any kind of light. It even has a nice grip and a help button! Plus you can order via Amazon for easy returns in case you don't like it.

 

And if the help button isn't enough, as Canon is the market leader a lot of other people can help you with the camera if you need it.

Hi Sue,

As an update, I've spent the past 6 hours scanning compasses and other docs we brought home, and have about another 4 hours to go. I will have a TON of material for everyone once I have all of the scans done, photos sorted and dive into the trip report itself.

:)

Looks like the beginning of a great mega-review! When you organize the scans of the documents will you be using something like flickr that can allow you to download a batch of the images at the same time, as well as providing individual links? We're doing the Oasis western itinerary in August and it would be great to just download those to my computer to refer to off-line.

Actually, that's the last thing I would do. I believe when you have cruise line transfers you are generally on a large bus...which means the bus isn't going to move until it's full. Cabs are plentiful at Port Everglades, just grab one and you'll be at the airport in less than 10 min.

I would agree that is that taking the cruise line transfer is the last thing to do if you wanted to get to the airport fast. However, to be SAFE, if you booked Choice Air, and the transfer, but still missed your flight, then Royal would have to get you there at no additional cost - correct?

I believe that Royal will not display all inventory to all cruise web sites. I have on several occasions entered a cabin number on the Royal Caribbean site and a cabin will show available there, but not on the site you mention, or my favorite "cruise" booking site, so you can't always make assumptions on what is available that way.

For instance, at the moment cabin 10329 shows available on the Royal site for the 8/2 Oasis cruise, but not on others (until maybe you search for it). In fact, I've fouind some of the 10325-10329 cabins will not show up unless you search for them (maybe to allow people who know their value to request them, and not allow someone unappreciative to book them!).

In fact, it would behoove Royal not to always show full inventory as people might wait to book cabins otherwise, and force the price down...

As in many other posts, if you get up early and walk your luggage off yourself between 630 and 7am and grab a cab you should be fine, as the airport is very close (10-15 minute ride) to the port.

We're on Oasis and our flight is at 9:30 on JetBlue, who does let you pay $10pp for the "fast security line"; option, which I took advantage of.

But it you want to be totally safe, you would have to do the Royal's Choice Air option (with their ground transfers I assume) and of course, those flights being later are much more expensive (except maybe the last flight of the day). Just depends on if you are at all willing/able to arrive later and pay extra $$$ on the really small chance (IMHO) you will miss your flight.

I don't like to put anyone down, but realistically, do you think a horticulturalist is going to be the person we would go to for realistic information about ship construction and development?

If they wanted to design the next round of ships the right way, I would expect those on board in charge of the current, especially unique, areas would be consulted for what should be done differently. And don't forget, not only would they have insider connections, they could easily be a "local expert".

As to larger ships - at some point the scale of the ship may just get too hard to full up or manage. As this is functionally a floating resort you would need to look towards what are the largest single location resort complexes and how does their size compare to Oasis?

I could see Disney creating some type of catamaran based resort that could go north in the summer and south in the winter which could even cater to the convention trade, although just simply provisioning a larger ship that could not dock somewhere could be too much of a challenge.

Well, you can try looking at the oldest reviews on cruise critic for each ship - I'm sure some people might have mentioned something...

Based upon reading a lot of other posts, we've got a 930 on Jetblue in FLL, and we paid the extra $10pp to get into the faster security line- I'd recommend spending extra for that if you try to leave before 10:30.

We will be doing the walk-off ourselves as early as possible and catching a cab for the 15 minute or so ride to the airport.

Great, amazing review, just finished my first zip through it, grabbing the links to the Cruise Compass and MDR menus for each day and pasting it into my tripit app for easy access while planning, along with the other menus and other useful info.

We're doing the same Oasis Western itinerary on August 2nd, and the rest of our party will be enjoying the review well. The one first-time cruiser I think will be blown away (we already told her having Oasis as her first is like doing Disney World as your first amusement park). It looks like definite WOW experience!

Your review is a great resource for information - reminds me of the Hawaii "Revealed" books -thanks again!

I'm just wondering how do they track the per-stateroom limit of two bottles - do they note it on the computer somewhere, or are they simply expecting people to check in together?

Also, one of our groups staterooms will have our 16 and 18 year old kids in it - will their stateroom count for the "limit" and thus be allowed two bottles as well? (and No, I'm not going to swap one of the older adults into the room just for the wine).

And what is the drinking age on board anyway? My 18 yo DD was curious, not that we would encourage that, but she is starting her first year at McGill in less than a month after the cruise where (in Montreal) the drinking age is 18 and pub crawls are an official activity of Freshman Orientation!

The prior point was that they must report it to Royal, as a condition of employment. Report as in hand the money over for redistribution, I'm sure. Whether or not all staff would do that is another issue.

Since you have such intimate knowledge of the internal workings regarding tips, etc, I have a question because I can't figure out how this is supposed to work. So let's say I leave my auto-gratuity as it is and then I want to give a particular server an additional tip. Suppose I just put some money in an envelope and on the final night at dinner I hand it to him/her along with the other 9 people at my table. You stated before that they could keep the tip amount above the auto tip, correct. So how do they know which tips were from which person and whether they auto tipped or not? So what if one of the other people at the table opted out of auto-gratuity and also handed them an envelope? I just don't see how they would be expected to keep track of who gave them what. I am sure they have to report all of their tips for tax purposes and for RC bookkeeping regarding an employee tip credit but not a rundown of what room gave them what.

For this to really work there would have to be some pretty sophisticated tip allocation methods at work - I can't imagine any cruise line would go so far with it. Probably the bottom line is - if you get tips, report it, and if you get a lot of them, you'll get some back to keep.

The cruise lines probably have "undercover tippers" dropping $20's or $100's around just to see what happens...if anyone has seen those folks around, please let us know!

I have asked a couple of waiters if they prefer auto tips or cash. One said either way and the other said auto tip because he knew it was in his account. Another time I told a waiter that I wouldn't be there on the last night but I had auto tipped. He said they got/saw a printout so they knew who had tipped already.

 

ymmv

First and foremost, this is a religious issue, with some people holier than thou, and more then a few non-believers...but anyway

I have been racing through this thread looking for something like the above quote to confirm my suspicions - once the cruise lines found it easier to track everything, they decided to use the tip/no auto tip info to their advantage.

Lets speculate:

- Cruise lines want to call it tipping not really for the passengers but for the crew, so they will still focus on service as we have seen in many posts, variable service will still result in changes in the way people tip. I would not be surprised if parts of this thread did not make it to employee communications in some way to remind them of the importance.

- I'm no psychologist, but I would guess that there is a greater esprit de corps amount the service personnel for EVERYONE to deliver better service for the benefit of all, or perhaps pressure imposed on those that seem to not do their best.

- I'm sure if the cruise lines wanted to (and maybe they do) have a computer indicator that shows up whenever your card gets scanned if you are an auto-tipper or not, and perhaps staff could treat you differently based upon that - either way!

- As much as computers can do, I really doubt there is a way staff (aside from maybe your room attendant) can keep the "excess" from a cash tipper - are they supposed to login to a computer to input each tip after finding out the account of the person they just got the tip from?

As my TA gives me "free gratuities" as part of my deal, I just hope it does get credited correctly (so the above is mostly irrelevant to me)

And I would love to see the difference in average tip on those $399/week cruises vs the full-priced ones, as I suspect there are more than the average number of cheapskates non-tippers (not YOU - please!) on the cheapest cruises.

For the $20 pd plan I'm on the fence, as I really like to start out the day with OJ and end the day with a cappuccino, and trying those nifty soda machines would be very temping (but not that required). So how much should an OJ and a cappuccino cost (and I assume I can order the the latter with dinner on the plan)? Also, where can you pick up the OJ, as we're on 9th deck over the boardwalk, and by the time I make it up to Windjammer I'd be fairly awake!

Could I get the fresh OJ via room service?

thanks!

I'm just wondering what my strategy will be on trying to get an unoccupied chair on the Oasis on my upcoming cruise, as I would hope just asking staff to clear a few chairs would do the trick. Or maybe I'll be so busy trying to do "everything" that I won't have time to sit down:D

Personally, I hate anyone hogging any limited resource (buffet tables anyone?) or playing the put one person in each line game as it makes everyone get more concerned that they will have wait even longer and makes hogs out of even normally moral people (I applaud those who don't change what they would do one bit on board). Personally, I would have no issue with rearranging the deck chairs, but on the other hand, two rudes don't make a right.

But, not to defend the hogs, are their obvious signs anywhere stating that unattended chairs will be cleared after 30 minutes (that I can at least point to when someone gives me the stink eye)

If you have booked choice air with your cruise and then cancel your cruise before final payment date, does your choice air also cancel with no penalty?

Or, what are your options if you can find a lower priced flight on your own or just want to cancel your choice air booked flight?

It does not take long to leave the channel at Port Everglades. Maybe 10 minutes or so from the time the ship starts moving. Just text the folks at home as soon as you see movement away from the pier.

Thanks - was also wonndering if the ship usually leaves the port at the posted departure time, or typically early or later (wanted to eat in the 6pm MDR as a family, but the prospect of doing the webcam thing is temping).

Not that I don't believe the reports, but one way to deal with it is just to take our your phone camera (or real one) and snap a picture with your flash on - you don't even have to get a picture of the face. Maybe then the folks with the hands will wonder why their actions are picture-worthy...at least, it will make for interesting slide shows at home! (or at least on cruise critic!)

I'd say it depends on two things:

1) how much you tip (don't stiff the bartender), and

2) what you order - if you get a fruity drink, then come back for beer, they might think something is up, or that you are just plain weird.

Personally, I would never have the ethical dilemma as I am way too cheap to buy one of those expensive all you can drink packages, or not so cheap that I would buy that for myself, but not anything for my spouse.

to each his own...

And about what time does sailaway start and finish( go past the end of the channel), and when shall we tell the poor folks at home to watch the webcam?

We have six family members, each addicted to at least one internet connected device. Is the unlimited-two device plan sharable among lets say 10 devices, assuming people log off when they are done? Is there a timeout where it will log you off automatically?

Of course, it will remain to be seen if the family can actually share...

Everything is likely to be overpriced and take longer on Super Bowl Sunday, especially if they decide to put in extra security precautions on that day (i.e close down a tube in the tunnel, etc). Whatever you choose to do, give yourself a few extra hours and probably plan to be in your parking space by 11am.

I would say the Port Imperial option is probably your best bet, but I don't know much about what you would do with your luggage or get from that ferry terminal to the cruise ship. You can go to http://www.nywaterway.com/PortImperialWeehawkenTerminal.aspx

for more info. You are likely to get a cab eventually, so getting their early will reduce stress. As long as their parking will be available that day, it will probably be cheaper and faster than parking near a train station to take a train into Manhattan.

You are unlikely to find parking for less than $25 a day anywhere near the pier (see bestparking.com) in Manhattan, and that is before they hit you with "event rates" for that day. A hotel room nearby will probably run you several hundred dollars.

Enjoy your cruise - we're from NJ and I can't wait until we can do a cruise on the Breakaway!

We'll be a party of 6 going to one of the beaches in August (probably Mr. Sanchos or similar) and are there cabs that could take all of us in one trip, or should we just take the next two cabs in line?