RFerrington

2. Allure (Crown Lounge) Deck 11 Utopia (Crown Lounge) Deck 4

The double balconies are “29”’s. XX229 on the port side and XX629 on the starboard side. They are the balconies immediately aft of the living wall. On some of the newer ships they have put an interior room next door but since there is no balcony on those, it doesn’t mess with the double balcony. We stay in those rooms a lot. They’re great. The only ones I wouldn’t recommend are the ones on deck 14, which are directly beneath the pool deck.

That waterfall coming from the glacier is stunning.

Is Luggage Valet still complimentary for Suite Guests ?

I love this statement. Very clever

Congratulations on your recovery !

There's a small sitting area outside of the Suites Lounge but it always looks kinda dirty to me. I think it must get a lot of soot. We have wandered out there a few times but never stay long. Not very appealing, IMO

I think the furnishings in ALL of the Oasis class suite lounges/CK are cheap-looking. No idea why they picked those barrel chairs...both ugly and uncomfortable.

If you're lucky enough to get onto one of the handicapped-accessible pier trams they will actually continue on around the island - they do not stop at the big tram hub and offload you. I always try and get one of those trams if I can. No changing !

We were just on AD for both Christmas and NY and had no problem whatsoever booking our BOGO meals. In both cases they allowed us to use our second BOGO later than day 2. It does seem as though Christmas and NY seem to be the big "holidays' that have limits to dining options but we are booked on AL over Valentine's Day and there is something in their dining packages about a special holiday meal so I guess we'll see how that one goes. Special note about our recent Christmas and NY bookings on AD. Not only did they allow us to use our 3 day dining package AND our BOGO over these holiday sailings, but we were able to dine right along with those who paid the big bucks for the special "holiday meal" menu. They seated us on either Christmas Day or Christmas Eve (can't recall at the moment) with the "regular" Chops menu and those who had paid extra had a separate menu and whatever additional dining options they were entitled to. There was really no difference. I had been afraid that they wouldn't allow us into the restaurant at all on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day but on AD, at least, there was no problem at all. I agree, @nelblu, if I had been told "no" to using my BOGO I would have taken it ALL the way to the top. I think that's absolutely WRONG and EVERYone in the management chain on that ship would have heard from me...

WOW ! This is the first time I've ever heard of them not allowing BOGO at ALL. I would have been much more than "frustrated". I'm wondering if EX has some weirdo dining/booking rules as I have been completely unable to book a boarding day lunch on our upcoming EX sailing (4-5-24). The lunch offerings simply do not include Day 1. I thought this was some kind of database FUBAR but now I'm wondering if it is intentional. We have sailed EX many times and never had any issues with booking or using our BOGO. I'm sure that your particular issue was related to it being a holiday sailing, but that doesn't make it right (IMO). Thanks for the feedback.

I had the same misconception

I should have said I went from a connected ocean view room…

I went to a connected ocean view room to a spacious ocean view balcony. Very happy with the result and the location.

Those 'burgs are amazing ! How in the world are those dome-arch-things formed ? So beautiful.

This has been our experience as well.

Wow ! What an exciting part of the cruise. One of those "here's the good news and here's the bad news" kinds of events.

The "key card" is your seapass card.

I'm so with you on this one. Frankly, with the way specialty dining is going, I doubt they have any trouble filling ANY day anymore.

lol. Yep. Should say 3 night package plus BOGO.

We used to get the UDP every cruise. We really enjoy the specialty dining and we loved being able to skip the MDR altogether. However, for the past few years, we have come to the conclusion that the UDP is just too much food for us...especially if the cruise has a number of sea days. Too many big lunches followed by big dinners is just too much. So, we now get the UDP plus our BOGO's and that has proven to be a perfect combo. Like @Tree_skier we will usually do a specialty restaurant on boarding day just to get away from the roving hordes and pass some time before the rooms are ready,

Don't forget. "To enhance your cruise experience....".

EEUUUUWWHHH.

There's boarding time and then there's arrival time, which is basically the time that the terminal opens up and you are allowed to come inside and wait until you board. The time that you are assigned at check-in is actually arrival time, not boarding time. When you are in a suite or Pinnacle, you are basically permitted to enter the terminal whenever it opens, regardless of what your published "arrival/boarding" time says...which, historically, is somewhere between 10-10:30 AM. Then some time after that (usually not very long if things are going smoothly) they will begin boarding and again Suites and Pinnacles are usually allowed to begin boarding first (wedding parties will be first on if there is a wedding party). Next will usually be The Key and then general boarding (GenPop) in whichever order they designate (usually first come, first to board)...although I think some ports are still boarding by C&A status. Not sure about that one. Most ports have gone away from that. It has been my experience that Suites/Pinns don't usually really get any kind of head start in boarding, They basically allow both Suites/Pinns and GenPop to start boarding at the same time, but from different directions (different lines). It's usually a race to see who will actually get to the gangway first....but you will still be among the first to board if you are in a suite.

Technically, you must wait until you are onboard to book your BOGO meals and pay the full onboard price. Additionally, per the rules of the program, all BOGO meals must be booked and consumed on days/nights 1 and/or 2. While we always adhere to rule #1 (book once onboard) we do fudge rule #2 whenever we can. We will always use one of our BOGO on night #1 or 2 and then book the second of our BOGO for later in the cruise. Every ship handles this one differently and sometimes they handle it differently even on the same ship ! Sometimes they make us pay for the second BOGO (the one we use later in the cruise) NLT night #2 and sometimes they allow us to pay for it when we use it. We just never know how that's going to go until we get onboard. Regardless, BOGO is still a very good deal even when you have to pay full onboard price....which ends up being 50% off.