jmaedcruise

I posted this on someone's Dream review but this would probably be a good place to get the answer....

We are planning a cruise for our HS son's senior year spring break trip in April 2017. I am trying to decide if Dream would be a good fit. Our son has been on one other cruise which was a family Christmas cruise on RCL Oasis December '14. We all had a fantastic time on Oasis and my husband and I have only been on one other cruise which was Carnival for our honeymoon many eons ago so I can't really compare that to what Carnival has to offer now. I am wondering what kind of teen activities are offered on Dream. On the Oasis my son REALLY enjoyed the activities offered including 3v3 basketball tournaments, ping pong tournaments, soccer etc... and met a ton of friends through these activities some of whom he is still in contact with today through social media. Do you know if they offer these activities on Dream?

We are considering Dream but I have also looked into prices on Oasis for the same week and although it is more pricey it is not as much more as I expected given the cost of our Christmas cruise! That one nearly bankrupted us!! haha

We would be able to get better cabins on Dream like the cove balcony which looks awesome but I worry about the crowding on the pool decks as we like to sit around the pool on sea days and we never really felt crowded on Oasis - errant children tend to annoy me too so based on your experience this may be a problem on Dream!

Any advice/help would be appreciated.

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Really enjoyed reading your review! Your description of your dining experience with "Mr. Conquest" had me literally laughing out loud! I probably would not have been as polite as you were and told the guy that I would prefer if he shut up about Conquest so I could try to enjoy my dinner.

I have a question that is probably out of your area but perhaps others reading this review might be able to answer. We are planning a cruise for our HS son's senior year spring break trip in April 2017. I am trying to decide if Dream would be a good fit. Our son has been on one other cruise which was a family Christmas cruise on RCL Oasis December '14. We all had a fantastic time on Oasis and my husband and I have only been on one other cruise which was Carnival for our honeymoon many eons ago so I can't really compare that to what Carnival has to offer now. I am wondering what kind of teen activities are offered on Dream. On the Oasis my son REALLY enjoyed the activities offered including 3v3 basketball tournaments, ping pong tournaments, soccer etc... and met a ton of friends through these activities some of whom he is still in contact with today through social media. Do you know if they offer these activities on Dream?

We are considering Dream but I have also looked into prices on Oasis for the same week and although it is more pricey it is not as much more as I expected given the cost of our Christmas cruise! That one nearly bankrupted us!! haha

We would be able to get better cabins on Dream like the cove balcony which looks awesome but I worry about the crowding on the pool decks as we like to sit around the pool on sea days and we never really felt crowded on Oasis - errant children tend to annoy me too so based on your experience this may be a problem on Dream!

Any advice/help would be appreciated.

Thanks again for your awesome review!

We just returned from a Christmas cruise on OAS and we used our phones (5 of us) to text each other on the ship. Each text costs us 55 cents (50 to send 5 to receive) so we did it sparingly as to not rack up too much of a bill. We have verizon. If you have iphones make sure that you turn on the "send as SMS" toggle in your message settings as imessage will not work without data. We all turned our data off when we left port and kept it off the entire cruise - we could still text each other throughout the week.

does anyone know if there are Christmas religious services on board? and when they might be?

Wow - a whole multi page thread on opinions and the pros and cons of wearing your robe to the hottub!! CC never ceases to amaze me! :) I ordered the RC robes with my visa points for DH and myself to be delivered to our stateroom. Given the state of our overpacking we will probably be wearing ours to the airport and on the flight home. Does anyone have a problem with that??? Guess the only ones I need to worry about are the TSA officers

Thanks so much for posting these - very helpful

We just returned from FLL. I have done this 3 times now:

 

We self disembark, grab a cab to the Airport (20) and rented a car at EZ Rental for $35. If you enjoy the beach - Drive 5 miles south to Hollywood beach area and walk this nice boardwalk. There is a Public parking lot at Taylor street. Cheap food and drinks right on the beach.

 

You could also enjoy the downtown area - Drive down to Los Olas and park near the riverwalk (SE 3rd). You can walk along the river and/or take a water taxi ride.

 

No problem doing this and getting back to the airport at 1:00pm

 

We drove to Sawgrass once. Nice mall, but overcrowded. Did the airboat ride. OK but renting a car is much cheaper and we like our independence.

 

Enjoy

thanks for the ideas, we will be renting a car in FLL for the day our ship returns as we have 6pm flights... What is EZ rental? Our flights are out of Miami though can you return one of these rentals to a different airport??

I always use Homewood Suites in Dania Beach. Free airport shuttle, all suites, Just checked and they have availability at $159.00 for a king suite. They also have a great complimentary hot breakfast . Hotel is great, only about 4 years old.

This is where we are staying next Friday night for cruise next sat. Glad to hear it is good!

Wonder what the charge would be? Are verizon to verizon texts and calls still free?

 

 

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Nope not free - all incoming texts are .05 and outgoing are .50

Makes perfect sense...especially for $25! Most of my family will be onboard with me but I thought it would be great to be able to text each other while on the ship. Sounds like it won't really work well at sea which would defeat the purpose for me.

 

Sent from my KFTHWI using Forums mobile app

This is our situation as well - our whole family will be on the ship and I was hoping that we would be able to text each other when necessary (infrequently of course because of the charges) I was told by Verizon rep that we could turn the data off on our phones for the whole cruise and would still be able to text each other or make voice calls - for a charge of course. Hope this will work for us

I can only speak to the cellphone data part of your question -you will have to check with your cell provider for global data capabilities on your phone and for their global rates. we are leaving a week from Saturday on the Oasis and I spoke at lenth with verizon (our provider) the other day. All of our phones are able to send and recieve while on the ship (we have mostly iphones 5 or above) but the data rates are astronomical if you don't buy a package ahead of time - even then it is quite expensive. The rates for calls and texts are also high - I believe on the ship calls were $2.49 per minute and texts were .50 to send and .05 to recieve.

Burger King has garbage compared to JR burgers. They are hand formed and nice sized juicy patties. On land they are cooked to order. ( don't recall being able to get rare at sea) and you can get them on whole wheat buns or bread. They have real fries and onion rings. and on land sweet potato fries ( not at sea). Plus great shakes.

The breakfast is only on the oasis class ships. Eggs just about any way you want with toast and so on.

okay - 2 questions - are the shakes at JR included in the cover charge? Also - I had heard that the breakfast at JR on Oasis is complementary - or I should say included in the fare.. can anyone confirm??

What exactly is this service? I am assuming it entails getting your luggage directly to the airport and home without having to manage it yourself?? Does anyone know if this would be available for debarkation from OOS in Ft. Lauderdale if our flight is out of Miami airport? American airlines to Detroit

It is my understanding you can get coffee (regular not specialties like latte or cappuccino) in any of the dining establishments.

I ordered these for DH and myself for our cruise in 2 weeks on the Oasis. I appreciate montekat suggestion of wearing them home on the plane because they will most likely not fit into our luggage!! Haha. We live in Michigan though so if we do manage to get them home they will come in handy as it is cold here and my family is constantly complaining about how cold the house is as I try to save $$ in energy costs.

does anyone know if there is an option for water available from the Coke Freestyle machines? We have the soda package but it would be nice to be able to fill my cup with ice water for by the pool.

I don't see them being dropped altogether on the non-DD ships just yet, although I will say that from the perspective of a first-time or infrequent cruiser, it can be seen as a drawback as much as a neat experience. Most people don't have purchased, fitted tuxes and evening gowns sitting around in their closets anymore, so it's this thing you've got to buy and prepare for specifically for one night of your cruise. Then the clothes sit around potentially for years until the next time, because where else do you actually where evening formal these days? Even if you're a member of someone's wedding, they typically want you to have a tux/dress that matches everyone else's.

I totally agree with you - we are infrequent cruisers and although my husband and I have somewhat formal attire (him a suit - not a tux - and me a dressy black dress) we are cruising with our three children in their teens, early twenties and they do not have appropriate dress for formal night. My sons will wear a dress shirt and tie because buying a suit for just this occasion is not cost effective - especially after paying the cost of the cruise for 5 people!! I know people will say just eat at Windjammer on formal night but why should we give up a good meal that we already paid for just because the still growing teens don't have a suit to wear.

We are on Oasis in 3 weeks and I know when I made show reservations Cats was only offered twice - 8:45pm on departure night and a matinee the following afternoon. The show is approx 2.5 hours long. We booked all the other shows as well with show times beginning between 8:30 and 9pm with the exception of the comedy show which is later in the evening. I believe there were later show times available for the other shows except Cats.

Anyone had a promenade view stateroom on Oasis - we are sailing on the Christmas cruise and have 2 promenade view rooms on deck 7.. wondering what the noise level is in these rooms... I have seen lots of pictures posted of the promenade deck and it appears there is lots of activity going on there even later in the evening, just wondering how loud it will be in our rooms. I have searched CC and the RCL website for reviews on these rooms but have not been able to find any...

thanks for any input you can give

Following...

No idea what we should do on Christmas Day in Cozumel. Have read so many posts, and still cannot decide - esp with the unknown holiday closure factor.

 

 

Julie - mom to newlyweds Tyler & DIL Michelle (23 and 25), Lauren (21), Jack (17) and Alicia (14) and wife to Derek (awesome funny guy - hub of 25 years in 2014!)

Yes - same dilemma here . We did book a snorkling excursion for the morning with Eagle Ray Divers - they will be doing dive excursions that day. We will have several hours in the afternoon though and I was thinking we would do some shopping in town and then go to one of the beach club locations like Money Bar but not sure what will be open???

Julie -are you on Oasis of the Seas too? My hub and i are celebrating 25 years this year too - hence the cruise!! Our kids will be with us too ages 23, 20 and 15

Hello all,

We wil be on Oasis of the Seas stopping in Cozumel on Christmas Day 2014. Which pier does RCCL dock at in Cozumel - the one right in downtown San Miguel or the other one a few miles south? Also if anyone has been in Cozumel on Christmas Day before can you tell me if any of the shops or beach side restaurants are open that day??

Hey there, we are on the same sailing!! :D I just booked Nachi yesterday, I was there back in April & we LOVED it! When you book online you have to give a deposit $22.00 for 2 and pay the balance in cash upon arrival.

 

It is well worth the $55.00 per person for the day in my opinion. It makes for a great relaxing day at the beach.

HEY glad to see a fellow passenger on here!! DH and I are celebrating our 25th anniversary on this cruise and bringing along our 3 kids ages 23, 20 and 15. We haven't been on a cruise since our honeymoon 25 years ago and the kids have never been so it should be quite the experience!

Nachi looks like a great spot, I now remember looking it up when initially making excursion reservations. However, we are doing a snorkling excursion with a private tour company that morning which is costing us about $55 pp so I don't think we can swing another $55 pp for some beach time especially since we will basically have a whole day at the beach on Labadee a couple days before. I think we will just do some shopping and stop by one of the "Free" establishments along the water for lunch and lounging like Money Bar.

What is the cost of Nachi Cocum and do you have to make a reservation ahead of time? Is it all inclusive? We have a morning snorkling excursion booked for the day we are in cozumel and are looking for somewhere to spend the afternoon.