camptalcott

Question? can you book through a Travel agent or must you go the the organizers?

also why such a short cancellation window? After 15 days you lose your deposit and any thing else you've paid. Is this normal? seems draconian for a cruise 16 months away.

thanks for the review Liberty. We sail Oasis end of May, our very first cruise. very excited.

I would assume there's been some. But, the point is more about having perspective and not letting the little things bother you.

See thats where I disagree. Where is the acceptable list of things you are allowed to be perturbed about?

Op's list is just as valid as any other. He/she is a paying customer.

Actually I've often found that the little things in customer service are what makes the difference.

Hey Op,

In a way I feel your pain.

I am a first time cruiser, the reason I'm cruising this year is because my old happy place (Disney) that I had been going to for well over 20 years has gone downhill to the point where it was time to move on.

Now personally I'm not going to jump on you about the luggage tags, I think it's more of the "straw that broke the camels back".

Everybody has a line in the sand as far as quality goes that you say "that's it".

I left Disney when they got rid of complementary valet parking at their hotels for their timeshare members. I got the same replies. yeah, I guess for some that was whining but hey, I don't like when I have to start paying for things that I use to get for FREE.

So, I'll be the lone poster who says "good for you". I am a firm believer in voting with your wallet. I have certain expectations when I shell out my hard earned vacation dollars and if others think not getting towel animals is a silly complaint, hey I'm cool with that.

There are so many great ways to vacation, wishing you best of luck.

WOW-- 250 a day? I dont even spend that for 3 in a week.

 

What about pictures did you budget for those?

Hey that's good to know. I didn't think of pictures. The 250 budget is what we spend at Disney. I know they aren't the same I was just trying to think of all the possibilities so I gave it the same budget.

Thanks all,

Camp

Woohoo, our excitement is building and I'm starting to cross my "t's" and dot all the "i's"

So, I've got my excursions picked and paid for

I ordered our drink package

I've ordered our on board entertainment.

I also pre paid for our tips.

What other things can I expect to pay out of pocket for?

We have the soda package, do I tip when we get refills?

We only booked on specialty dining, the rest we signed up for mtd, do I tip the waitstaff as in a normal land restaurant?

After an excursion is it customary to tip the tour leader?

I apologize if this is a nosey question, trying to get a roundabout budget. I was thinking ~250 bucks a day for three of us. I have flexibility just don't have any idea what to expect? We each also have a 100 on board credit, what can we use that for?

Thanks all,

It's good for the customer to get out there and experience different lines and not get stuck in the 'Loyal to Royal' rut. In my opinion, Royal are great at some things, but some of the others outshine them in some areas. Different strokes for different folks, and such a lot of choice!

 

There has been a lot of negativity about Royal on this, and other forums. I don't know if they pay any attention to such things, but it could be a wake up call.

Why not? As a consumer, I do put a grain of salt into negative reviews. If one person prints a horrible review about a restaurant, yes it may not garner much attention but if 200 people write about horrible food, darn straight I'm paying attention.

Now the problem becomes cost. If I ignore a negative review at a restaurant it's only a hundred bucks and a few hours of an evening. A cruise is a different animal, that's tens of thousands of dollars (for my family of 4) and a bucket load of vacation time.

So I most definitely pay attention to reviews.

thanks for the review. I'm sailing for the first time on Oasis the end of this may.

Question? If you don't mind me asking what times did you eat? Our trick at other vacation destinations (Disney) is to not eat during prime grazing hours. Will this work?

LOL, add another to the 'supply and demand". they charge the price the market will bear. as simple as that.

If I make widgets and I can get 20 bucks for a widget consistently, why would I only charge 10 bucks????

Actually I don't think those prices are outrageous. all other vacation venues I've been too recently are pretty much along those lines. Go to wdw or Universal. same price.

I don't like "staged" pictures so I carry my trusty dslr everywhere. I purchase one or two simply to have the entire family in one. I figure instead of a tee shirt, I get a family photo as a souvenier.

I'm sorry for the silly question but I'm nrew to cruising. My first cruise is 5/30 on the oasis. what is MDR?

Yes, if you want to read endless debates, go to the family forum here and do a search to pull up old threads on this tired subject. You will be amazed at the vast majority of posters on CC who have extremely gifted and talented children.

 

Many people do it, it's your choice.

LOL, it's not only the cruise boards. I visit another family friendly vacation board and all the kids there are mense students.

Generally we never took our kids out of school for vacations. I never played the "educational" card because there isn't a darn thing educational about our family vacations. LOL. I've also never went with the theory that my kids needed a cruise or a Disney vacation to make "memories". what do kids who cant do this do? never have happy childhood memories?

Also my kids went to Catholic school and they did not allow it. I'm a rules following type of gal.

But I never understood why this always turns into a debate??? Actually I never understand why people ask. do people also ask should they take their kids to the doctor, to the dentist or any of the thousands of other places we haul our kids too? If you want to take your kids out, do so.

Why ask?

I agree that is why when we on the Allure we did not do that excursion there wasnt enough time to be able to enjoy it

I agree. Atlantis is a pricey and you want to have enough time to enjoy it to make it worth going. :)

Thanks for the advice all,

I totally forgot to check the total time at port!! 10 lashes with wet seaweed for me.

I think we'll pass.

Am I taking a HUGE risk by booking a 6am flight for the day OF departure? Flying into FLL, flight scheduled to land at 9:45am.

 

Is flying departure day a big no-no? Have you ever risked it?

Myself no. I simply could not stand the anxiety but I do know many people do so.

When are you flying?

Where are you flying from.

I'm in Philly, PHL is a great airport in the summer. IN the winter flights are delayed all the time so no way would I chance a day of flight say in feb. or March.

Hello all,

I wasn't sure how to search for an answer to this questions so I apologize if it's redundant.

We're first time cruisers getting super psyched for our May 30th sailing on the Oasis.

Our first port of call is Nassau Bahamas and we were thinking of signing up for

the water park day at Atlantis.

couple of questions.

1) a few folks have suggested to book our own excursion and don't go through RC. does anyone know if the Atlantis allows non guest to enjoy their water park without going through RC?

2) Of course with this being our first cruise I have horror visions of missing the boat. :rolleyes: when do folks recommend getting back to the ship?

3) do we arrange transportation back ourselves and is it fairly easy to do?

Thanks all

Camp

Hello all,

quick question, how are the sleeping arrangements in a Jr suite. I was told that the room occupancy was 4 but trying to figure out how that would work with no sleeper chair.

I know there are two twins but yooza, two adults per twin. ouch?

Hello all,

As I've been reading and hanging out (waiting not so patiently for our first cruise. lol), I keep reading about a sail and sign card.

Could some one explain exactly what it is?

My family and I will be on RC Oasis of the seas on May 30, 2015 for the 7 day Eastern Caribbean.

I apologize if this is one of those questions I could google and find the info.

Do all cruises have them. My kids are 19 and 21 so they will probably kick the parents to the curb once or twice, do they get one also.

Not sure if my youngest can handle the "power" of a credit card. LOL.

I know this will be repeated many times but it doesn't seem to sink in - you don't have to have ANY reservations. The only advantage is perhaps slightly less wait time. If there are some places/times available that are convenient book the first couple of nights - after that just wing it. You don't even know if you'll like the food to go back a second time. So, again, don't stress over restaurant reservations.

 

The main production show OTOH......

I'm also going to add, be flexible and set realistic expectations.

With any vacation venue where you have a large number of people all eating at the same time with limited places a couple of scenerios can play out.

1) you make reservations months in advance. cutting down wait time.

2) You wing it and make plans the day of or a short time earlier.

for my family we tend to do a combo.

I've accepted the fact that popular places will be packed so maybe on the sea days I make reservations there.

Like Mrs.Pete, I cannot for the life of me figure out how I am going to feel on X day, 6 months out. so for shore excursion days I'm going to skip the reservations.

But those days, I've also adjusted my expectations. I know htat if I eat during prime grazing hours that I will have a wait. so there should be no stress involved. NOw I'm lucky in that my kids are young adults, if we get some where and the wait is more than we want to stay it's usually not a big deal. we just keep it moving and try some where else.

Hello All,

First and foremost a big thank you to everyone who has been answering my questions and giving me advice.

So I'm set to cruise the Oasis through the Eastern Caribbean on 5/30/15, signed up for my meet and mingle and registered online at RC *** dancing around happily***

I have two questions, I apologize in advance if they are ridiculously simple.

I have free style dining. What exactly does that mean? I had assume (foolishly?) that we could go and eat any place on the ship except the specialty restaurants.

Speaking of the specialty restaurants, if I book one do I prepay? are they set price venues? Does everyone in our party have to eat there. for example, if I want to try an upscale say steak house could my two older teens still go grab a burger or sandwich?

Thanks

C

Would trip insurance even help this man? It would have to be a "cancel for any reason" plan wouldn't it? He wasn't denied boarding, he chose not to get on the boat...(no, he had no other choice) but it seems like most insurances would say "sorry 'bout your luck"

This scenario was my worst nightmare when we took 4 adults and 6 children cruising during the h1n1 fiasco (not cause we were scared of the flu but we figured it would be a minor miracle if none of the 6 young children had but a sniffle and we were allowed to board with ask the extra screening-- miracles happen I guess ;) )

 

Anyway I started thinking about it after this was posted and joking with my husband that I was boarding without him if he got sick for our upcoming cruise when I realized....I guess I'd have to-- I purchased what I think was pretty decent insurance, but I don't think they'd pay because I "didn't feel like going alone" even though that would pretty effectively ruin the vacation...

 

Anyway, interesting thread.

Not sure that's correct (I work for an insurance company here in the states). If a minor child gets sick, we would most definitely expect that a parent or guardian would assist the child. In fact, they would probably insist as most medical facilities request a parent or guardian to get the child help and we definitely don't want to be put in a position where some one says they didn't get the kid help because the insurance only applied to the minor child. Oy Vey, talk about bad publicity.

It is truly my pleasure to read your post Herman. I am also very sorry that your daughter was ill. This has happen to us (not on a cruise) on a Disney vacation that we were anticipating for a year. I was the one who came down with pneumonia and like you I sent my family on their way while sobbing like a baby. LOL. With all the little kids running around Disney I simply couldn't live with myself if some one had gotten sick due to me. ON top of the fact I felt and looked like crap on a cracker.

I hope RC comes through for you and that you and yoru family enjoy many future cruises.

Ah...you learn quickly, grasshopper!

 

We gamble, so we bring the cash we are willing to lose, as that is the usual outcome...the house always wins! At least, that's our assumption!

 

I always bring more clothes than I think I'll need. Folks seem to take great pride in packing 3 outfits for 12 days....I think it's stupid! As long as I have room for what I want, I'll bring it! As long as they don't have to carry it, why should they worry about it? I like having fresh clothes!

 

We don't drink soda, so that's not a big deal...we do drink alcohol, but so far, I've never exceeded the cost of a package....hubby doesn't drink anymore (kidney issues), so going forward, we'll have to account for only MY drinking!

There is a God! I read on many travel sites including here about folks bragging about tromping through Europe for 3 weeks with 2 pair of black pants and a pair of "serviceable" shoes and a pair of sneakers.

Sweet lord above, WHY??? Personally watching me in an airport is like witnessing Cleopatra's barge. I'm not taking a European cruise with one pair of shoes (not knocking anyone who can do it). All it's going to do is make me buy more items

LOL

I am not questioning anything OP said. I was not there. However, I have found that on TAs there is an unusually large number of adults and repeat cruisers that participate in the same types of things. [i.e. trivia, movies, etc] This leads to overcrowding. . . . And, it seems everyone eats on the 6pm seating. [ok--mostly everyone] Our late dinner seating was more than 1/2 empty. I am sure the shows timed for the main dinner seating we packed. :eek:

 

Iffy weather adds to this. The public areas are packed. Also, excursions tend to spread out eating times for breakfast and lunch. When everyone is on the ship they all tend to eat within a 1.5-2 hr time frame.

 

On our TA last month we tried to watch a movie for three days. We did not get there early enough to get a seat at any time. Decided we did not want to arrive more than 30 minutes early to see a movie we could see on Netflicks. :D

Here's the thing I don't understand though, if you have figured out when the high grazing hours why can't RC and make adjustments?

My family owned and operated a restaurant in NYC for 37 years, after a while my grandfather and uncle (who ran the place) could tell you with pinpoint accuracy, people's eating patterns.

Breakfast gets crazy btwn 7-9? Ok, over staff your venue, over staff your kitchen. have hours overlap. plan activities around the ship to ease the pressure off of the kitchen.

my point is these are not random events, these are events that RC can plan for. bad weather? break out plan B, extra movies, karaoke, games for the kiddies.

Their website is notorious for being a bit difficult to navigate. Do you see your reservation on it? If not, that will be the first step. Don't give up and come back here for questions - most everyone is happy to help!

thanks Tgnorton,

I'm trying to take it slow with the questions. I don't want folks to start "virtually" running from me whenever they see me coming. :D

"oh no here comes that crazy Jersey girl with 10 thousands questions".

with that it mind.

Formal night. Is that a requirement? does everyone attend or can you just hang out on another area of the ship? I would love it, my teenage sons? not so much. They get mad because I won't let them wear shorts and sneakers to church. LOL. "but mom, is the summer, dress codes are relaxed"

The new Dynamic Dinning does not open for booking on Oasis until Jan 1, 2015. The entertainment usually does not open up for 180 prior to sailing, so if it's not loaded yet, just keep looking.

 

You picked a great ship for your first royal cruise!

 

Here is a review I did on the Oasis last Fall: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1942611

Thanks Mike,

Very much enjoying this review and the pictures. May I ask, what is a "diamond club"

C

I recommend doing the roll call and then the meet and mingle , cabin crawl is fun and you get to see what the cabins you didn't book look like.

check. Oh that does sound like fun.

One more question. I know some of the restaurants have additional charges but a few are included with the price of the vacation.

Are reservations required with all the dining. Or is there opportunity to simply "wing it".

for example, if I don't make dinner reservations because I'm lying around the pool like a sea lion :D is there opportunity to grab a light meal some where or is it better to have reservations every night?