Grandma Dazzles

Definitely not on the Oasis (diamond lounge). Watched a parade from there and it was very hot - would have loved something cold to drink. Even put on my comment sheet that I wished they had water in there (not necessarily bottled) - just one of those containers like in the promenade cafe where you could get a paper cup and a drink. Love the coffee, but sometimes water is better.

Not sure if the OP is referring to the solarium pool - notice they specified "adult pool." I honestly would have said the pool in the solarium is more like 3' 6: or 4' in the shallow end. I think it is deeper than 3 feet.

Posted this on previous similar threads - just an FYI.

Had no problem using the sea pass card vouchers in bars on the ship, except the bar directly outside of the MDR. Bartender was very nice, but indicated his computer could not take the coupons - that bar was considered "the dining room." That's the bar that waiters/assistant waiters use to get drinks for people in the dining room - and thus is considered "the dining room."

Once I knew it was not a problem - just picked up a drink in the Schooner Lounge, Dazzles, etc. on the way to dinner. This was on the Oasis in July.

Many of the RC excursions that I have taken have met off the ship - usually at the end of the pier. There has been a RC employee or tour guide hired by them with a sign to gather under. Only once have we met in the theater - and that was quite a while ago.

Notice the OP is from the UK - I am referring primarily to Caribbean shore excursions - not sure which ship he is referring to, or which excursion.

We have stayed at the Embassy Suites several times. Very convenient to a shopping mall directly located behind the hotel - good for picking up last minute things - wine for example, if you plan on carrying on board.

Also has a manager's cocktail reception in the evening with free drinks and snacks. Good breakfast in the morning.

As it is an all-suite hotell you would have plenty of room - two rooms, two t.v. etc.

They do not offer airport transportation, but can fare is around $15 from the airport to the hotel. Also, around $15 from the hotel to the port. They do offer a shuttle, as do many of the hotels, but you normally pay around $8-$10 per person, so a cab is easier and cheaper.

Thanks for the heads up! What is the usual tip for room sevice?

 

Room service tips - I usually tip between $2 and $5 - depends on what is ordered.

 

Be aware that room service is free. However, there is an additional service charge if you order between midnight and 5:00 a.m. Not sure of the actual charge - somewhere around $5 - the food is still free.

 

Tap water is fine - make sure you ask your room steward to fill your ice bucket - tap water is often not that cold. Steward will replace ice twice daily.

 

Also, other free drinks are juice in the morning (not the fresh squeezed, just regular juice), milk, chocolate milk, lemonade, iced tea, fruit punch.

Thanks. I've read where on some ships people bring over the door shoe bags to hold things. Would that be recommended too?

Personally never liked those - tried one time and found it too difficult/annoying to put stuff back in the pockets! Found plenty of room for everything and did not need extra storage. I think there are lots of little spaces to store things.

Would recommend large 2-gallon Ziploc-type bags - I pack underwear, socks, swimsuites, etc. in those and then throw the bag right in the drawer and leave open just to take things out. Found sometimes drawers/shelves can have a rough spot that can snag clothing.

Would always bring loads of sunscreen - you use a lot and it is expensive to buy on board.

Always bring a sports bottle to fill with ice and water, and/or lemonade, etc. Also a coffee cup with lid, if you are a coffee drinker - so much easier than trying to carry a paper cup.

Ok all you wonderful 'Alluring' travelers, can you tell me about how the air conditioning works in the staterooms? Especially you more hot natured people! I'm at my MIL for the weekend so hot. Do not want to be like this for a week on my 'dream vacation'. And what year were you on the ship?

 

Thank you. Forgive me, I'm still learning how to use CC.

 

 

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Have found a/c on ships to be very much hit and miss - sometimes hot/sometimes cold. Make sure you do not turn off your master switch - ask steward to explain. It is with the lights outside of the bathroom - if you turn that off when you leave you also turn off a/c.

I think you will be fine if you purchase a hard-sided carryon. Fly Delta frequently and have two different carryons - both are hard-sided with no outer pockets. I think the problem is when people fill the outer pockets over capacity, making a bag that is "legal" too big and that gets called out. If you stick with a smooth, harded-sided case this cannot happen.

When it gets closer to the date, highly recommend this weather site:

http://cruiseoutlook.com/

It has been very accurate and helpful for many cruises that I have taken. Did a TA in November 2012 - had rough seas and fairly cool weather - as others have posted, no one can know what the weather will be like.

If you don't want to purchase a birthday cake they will still bring a small cake/large cupcake - serves one or two. There is no charge. Also, staff still sings happy birthday.

Don't know if this will help, but have used this website a number of times and found it very helpful

http://cruiseoutlook.com

Did a B2B on the Allure last Oct/Nov. We were given a complimentary luncheon at Giovanni's on turnaround day - perhaps they do this on the Oasis, or something similar.

Dining room is open on disembarkation day. See the hours in the flyer linked in post #2.

Thanks for the information. We had a quick breakfast at the Park Cafe around 8:00 - thought the dining room was closed.

We waited in the dining room on deck 5 to depart (had luggage valet and was told we couldn't leave until 8:00, plus family with us had an 8:30 departure call). Dining room was all closed up - as flyer indicated, it closed at 8:00 a.m.

We didn't even have any coffee/juice - already gone! Even though flyer indicated it would be available during departure.

Departed ship around 8:30 or 8:45. Thanks for the posting.

We are cruising on the 2 nighter, as well. Taking great effort by flying in and staying overnight in Ft. Lauderdale. Spending a lot of money, too! :D

 

I think it best to be ready to leave by 9:30...maybe sooner. We are going to eat breakfast in the dining room, freshen up, and then vacant our stateroom. We will do one last walk around the ship, perhaps lounge for a bit until that "call" comes for us to leave. :( Our flight is not until 1:45.

Perhaps someone can post and give an answer, but I didn't think the dining room was open for breakfast on disembarkation day. Choices were more limited than a normal day as far as I remember.

Thanks for the info, no drinks package booked yet but it sounds like we have a basic package which includes drinking water, standard tea & coffee and juice!

None of the speciallity tea's or coffee's are included therefore would have buy a package for them.

Drinks included with your basic cruise fare are coffee, hot tea, iced tea, tap water, some flavored waters, white milk, chocolate milk, lemonade, fruit punch, juice (not fresh squeezed orange juice - charge for that).

There is a charge for soda/pop, such as Coke, all alcoholic drinks, bottled water. There is an individual charge slip to sign and an automatic 15% tip.

You can check out one of the drink packages and see if you think it would be to your advantage - really depends on what you like to drink and how much.

I will probably not use the lounge as my DH and I (diamond members) will be traveling with non-diamond members. So we do not get paper vouchers? The vouchers are loaded onto the sea pass card? Can we use for Martini's outside of the Diamond club cocktail hour at any other bar?Must they be used betweek 5-7 PM only?

All "perks" are loaded on your seapass card - no paper coupons for anything any more.

You will have three free drinks loaded on your card (both you and your DH). These can be used at any lounge, but no dining facility. They can only be used between the diamond club hours, usually 5:30 to 8:30 approximately. These are in addition to free drinks in the diamond lounge. There is a list of drinks available - believe martinis are included - basically no frozen drinks and mostly basic cocktails/beer/wine.

Just booked our 2nd ever cruise, Southampton to Fort Lauderdale on the Oasis of the Seas. The first one was the Med cruise with Costa Serena.

Few questions for which I would gratefully appreciate your answers.

 

1) Some of the beverages including drinking water are included in the package so is there a need to buy the water package!

 

2) The Oasis docks at Fort Lauderdale at 0400 hours on Monday 27th October 2014, so do we disembark at this time or later.

 

We have opted to spend a couple of nights at the Hyatt Regency pier 66 and explore Fort Lauderdale before flying back to UK.

 

3) Are there any shuttle services between the port and hotel

Welcome to Cruise Critic. The Oasis is a great ship - you will have a wonderful cruise.

1. Would need to know what package you have - some include bottled water. However, be aware that the water on board - tap water - is perfectly safe to drink. You do not need to specifically buy bottled water. You may have purchased a package that includes alcohol, soda, juice, water, etc. Check what package you have.

2. The ship may dock at 4:00 a.m. however normally self-disembark does not begin until around 6:30 a.m. It may be later considering this is a transatlantic cruise. You really do not need to do self-disembark - that would mean you have to take your own luggage off - normally people who are in a hurry to catch a flight, or get home, etc. do this. The normal disembarkation times are usually between 7:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. If you do this you will put your luggage outside your cabin the night before (other than hand luggage) and the staff will have it in the customs hall for you to pick up and take through customs.

3. As far as hotel shuttle, check with your hotel. Cabs are plentiful and usually the easiest way to do. The hotel may have a free shuttle, or a shuttle that you pay for. Would normally recommend just taking a cab.

Don't forget that you will have three free drinks, to be used during Diamond Lounge cocktail hours, loaded on your sea pass card. You would be able to join your companion in any location to have a cocktail, if that was your main reason for using the diamond lounge.

As others have indicated, if you reside at the same address you can get your status linked.

Here is my experience with the program this past week.....have a backup plan just in case. My husband works in law enforcement. He has a valid gun permit. He has been fingerprinted for his job. He has no criminal background. Per NCL (late Friday afternoon) , Jet blue denied him access to the program. They accepted my luggage though. I had to scramble at the last minute to rent a car instead, to hold our luggage since we had a 10 hour time lapse from when we got off the ship and our flight took off. No explanation is given by NCL or Jet Blue and we cannot think of any valid reason why this happened. I requested NCL to cancel my luggage valet since it didn't serve its purpose for just accepting 1 of the 3 pieces of luggage we had.

 

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Talked to someone else on the ship who had the same problem - it is very annoying and a last minute thing that can happen to anyone. Was told that the airlines/TSA/customs - any of the people involved - randomly pick people to deny. Didn't make sense to me, but sounds like that is what happened to your husband.

One thing I learned also, they do not weigh the bags, learned this from customs working spot checks on Valet services. Twice my party has been pulled out for additional searches from customs using the valet services.

Great service though, funny both times I used it, I got pulled for additional check, which actually worked out good as your personally escorted of the ship to customs, right pass the big line ups. :)

Customs may have said they do not weigh the bags, but the airlines definitely do. Used luggage valet with Delta last year - was charged for one of our bags - overweight by 2 pounds! Argued the point with Delta seeing as we had 3 other underweight bags on the same flight, and we were also flying first class and had a larger weight allowance anyway. Delta refunded the charge to our credit card.

Hi,

 

I have the US Airways MC, so our first two bags are free.

I guess you can write this in on the form somewhere?

I want to use this service on our upcoming Allure cruise, but do not want to write my credit card number on the form.

Can someone who has used this service with the Master Card, please reply.

 

Thanks,

Barb

All fees are charged to your Sea Pass account - you do not have to write any credit card numbers on the form. If you have a frequent flyer number you do put that on the form.

I used it in July of this year - I think they had updated the form - there was a line that said something like "flying first class, premier flyer, or other ......" regarding paying the airline baggage fee.

"Did the time change? Our last cruise is was flights after 11:30 am."

__________________

 

 

Depends on who you speak to at Guest Services.

 

Can it be done at 11:30 A.M. ? - Yes

 

Do they encourage it ? - No

 

Will they officially guarantee that your bags will make it to the airport on time. - Definitely not.

 

That was my experience on the Oasis & IOS out of FLL and FOS out of Port Canaveral.

 

My thoughts ? - Why chance it. Have a late breakfast on the ship and take your time getting to the airport. It's the end of a vacation - who wants any unnecessary stress .

Have used luggage valet on 4 occasions catching the same 11:30 flight out of FLL. Paperwork said for flights after 11:30 - never had a problem. Love the service. No one at guest services ever mentioned the 11:30 flight time.

The only thing I would suggest is to sign up early in the week. You cannot do this last minute as it has to go to the airline for approval Also, I found it easier to do the paper sign up at guest services than do it from the cabin TV. Cabin TV had problems with doing "no charge" baggage because of airline status, etc. It was easier to fill out and hand to a guest services rep.

On a recent galley tour on the Oasis question was asked about crew food. We were told that in many ways the crew was harder to cater to than the passengers as the crew galley had to deal with so many nationalities and in some instances religious preferences. Chef also indicated that some of the dining options for passengers that were of an international flavor or type of cuisine were actually originally crew recipes and ideas that had been "tweaked." He indicated that the crew galley was indeed separate and in some instances similar menus on any given day simply for convenience and use of food on board, however, the crew definitely did not get leftovers.

Interesting, and good to know. I guess we will see how it all plays out over the coming months.

Yes, it might just have been "early days" of the program - bar tender was very nice - said his computer was programmed as "dining room" - where the waiters came to get drinks for the tables; so perhaps it may change, but it made sense and I didn't push or argue.

It was nice to use the vouchers in other bars and take a glass of wine to dinner.