Smitty815

21 hours ago, Miickra said:

Hey all,

 

The website mentioned is mine that I developed and maintain because of trying to find information for each ship was frustrating me and a few close friends.

 

I'm happy to hear of improvements for the website and make it more useful for everyone who cruises with RC.

Awesome site you've made there!

10 minutes ago, S.A.M.J.R. said:

The only place I can see on the app where our reservations are linked is if I go to book something (dinner, etc).  Is there somewhere else I should see the other cabins?

Where else would you need to see that they are booked if you are seeing them when you go to book dinner, excursions, shows, etc? 

If they are showing up when you book something, then you are linked. 

Definitely wouldn’t recommend 

I had an 1115am flight after my cruise last week and I wouldn’t do that again to be honest. I made it okay but it was a stressor that I just didn’t need. It’s not fun ending a vacation that hectically. 

7 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

What ship were you on? In the last six months I have been on Adventure, Liberty, Independence, Freedom, Explorer, Allure, Symphony and Icon. The WiFi/Internet was excellent on every one of these cruises. I am currently on Celebrity Apex and the WiFi/Internet is working extremely well. 

The Oasis April 14-21st 

The other couple I was with has even more connectivity issues than I did. 
it became a running joke on the ship it seems as I overheard a lot of people talking about it and then a load of people literally laughed at the cruise director at the auction when he was talking about it being good internet. You could tell it was a sensitive issue for the cruise director so they must have gotten a lot of complaints 

7 minutes ago, Hogbay said:

Well it's not free , on land it is via optical fibre , mobile cell service etc at sea it has to come via satellite which is much more costly and add free. Just saying .

I meant free to the customer. Every business pays for internet and just lets their customers use it for free. I understand that satellite internet costs more than fiberop, however, it's a pretty minimal cost. Like I said, I don't even care if they charged something like $5-10 a day, but it's being done as a huge money maker because they know a lot of people need the internet these days. 

There are other lines that offer free wifi. All I'm asking is that they not price gouge. $29.99 would still be a HUGE markup if that was the total price for 7 nights. 

Edit: Not to mention, VOOM is horrible. I paid for the surf and stream last week and it was about the same quality that you would have for internet about 10 years ago. 

Can I just say how ridiculous internet prices are? 

In a day and age where internet is free absolutely everywhere you go, RCCL should be able to provide it for free but if they really want to make some money, just charge a max of $5-10 a day. 

The onboard price when I was on last week was 29.99 a day. 

It was actually pretty funny at one point. I went to the childrens make a wish auction on day 4 out of 7 I believe. The cruise director put up for auction internet for the rest of the week valued at $150. People literally laughed at him, and they got no bids. Someone called out that they would give him $50 for it, and the cruise director literally got half upset about it. 

Here is my review of my recent Oasis Cruise. It’s purely for informational purposes and some peoples experiences may have been different than mine. 
 

As a background this was my 6th cruise with RCCL and all have been on the Oasis class. This is my first cruise since 2017 so I’m sure some things have changed since my last cruise that you all may be aware of already. 
 

April 14th - embarkation day 

we cruised out of Miami. It’s my first time not sailing from Fort Lauderdale. This was the smoothest one I have done. Perhaps it’s the same at all ports now but the whole process to get on the boat was no more than 5 minutes from the time I got on the pier with my luggage to getting onto the royal promenade. I couldn’t believe it. In years past it took an hour. 
 

PORTS: 

we were supposed to do Labadee but it was cancelled and replaced with a sea day, 

Nassau: we did blue lagoon and did the dolphin encounter. I have done the dolphins swim one time before there. The encounter is pretty much the exact same thing except you don’t get pushed by the dolphin. If you have small children I would suggest this excursion and it’s about half the price. The beach was great and loads of chairs for everyone 

perfect day cococay: hands down my favorite overall port. We did the water park and did all the rides multiple times and still had several hours left to enjoy what else there was to offer. There is an endless amount of chairs there. 
food options were good, and they had these delicious brownies and mozzarella sticks there. I wish they could be found in the ship on a regular basis. The MDR had the same brownies on one evening but it would be great if they had them available 24/7 somewhere 

Falmouth, Jamaica: we did the river tubing and beach club. It was a bit of a let down. We only spent a little over an hour at the beach before they said we had to get the bus back. The excursion said it was 5 hours but the whole thing was a little less than 4 (including 1 hour of driving). I figured we would have had a lots more time at the beach. It felt like a sea day because we were back in time for lunch and then had 5 hours before the ship left the port. 
 

MDR: overall I had a great experience there. I believe it was one of my better times in the MDR. Some things were slight misses on the menu but I wouldn’t be able to complain. 
 

Other food options: the taco place is the best addition since last time I sailed. I loved it. Such a quick and easy spot to get food and it’s a good meal. Much better than eating fries and burgers all the time like what was in that area before. 
 

windjammer was pretty much same as always. I like it. I can always find something to eat. We usually only eat breakfast there. I got a good kick out of how everyone on staff now uses the line “washy washy before yummy yummy”. It became a running joke in our group and for the comedians 

snack food: I’m not sure what RCCL is thinking with the cookies but they still haven’t figured out how to make one. The cookies on board are literally the worst cookies I’ve ever tasted. Clearly the bakers have never spent a day with their grandmother baking cookies. 
 

pizza: maybe it’s just me but I feel sorrentos has gotten better. I like the “Caribbean dream” slices 

drink prices were absurd. We didn’t have the package because we don’t drink much but every time me and the wife wanted a drink it was $30. That’s a little

crazy if you ask me 

SHOWS:

the aqua 80 show is the best show I have seen on a ship by far. It was insanely good.

comedy show: they did both a small show that you had to book and then a Saturday night show in the Royal theatre. It was awesome as per usual 

CATS: we skipped it. Been there. Done that. Easily the worst musical known to man. I don’t know how they haven’t changed it yet. Everybody who has seen it skips it and everybody who goes says that they hated it (aside from a few exceptions). 
 

headliner was some guy who did ventriloquism. Fully expected it to be lame but it was actually awesome. He had people on the knots laughing. 
 

funny story: You know the 7 short beeps followed by a long beep that means to get to your muster station? Well somehow they hit that button at 5AM night 5. What a panic haha. It only got to 4 beeps before they shut it off. It caused a lot of confusion on my floor. People coming of of their rooms am wondering if they should take it seriously or not. I’m a first responder and have seen when alarms are not taken seriously so i told

my wife we were going down regardless as I wasn’t being the cause of her untimely death. We made it to floor 5 (from 12) before the captain came over the set and said it was a false alarm. People were literally in the halls crying. I really have no clue how that accidently goes off lol. I always figured it would be a big red button in a case or something. 
 

Now for my biggest qualm on the ship: 

THE POOL DECKS 

1) it wasn’t maintained well. The jets didn’t work in most of the hot tubs. There might be one or two that would work at a time in the tub. 

one of the water slides didn’t operate for the full cruise. The green and yellow bowl one 

2) lack of enforcement of rules.

- people hogged chairs all day with just leaving one towel on it. There are signs everywhere saying that staff will remove unattended belongings but it wasn’t being done at all. Getting a spot to sit was impossible and 90% of chairs of not more were unattended

- kids in hot tubs unattended . The place was literally overran with kids treating hot tubs as bath tubs. Tub toys and all. I don’t think kids should be in hot tubs anyway for medical reasons but staff should be monitoring and kicking out any kids that aren’t with their parents. The kids were in the tubs diving under water, splashing, spitting out water, eating and spilling ice creams in them. I’ve never seen anything like it in the cruise before. They were even in ones that specially say 16+ only. I usually don’t complain about things but this was next level. At any given time there was usually 5+ people under 5 years old in the hot tubs.
 

there needs to be more pools and hot tubs on that ship. They were waaay over crowded

overall a great cruise. Little more crowded than usual it seemed but I still had fun. I’d love to see RCCL offer some adult only ships. That would be a great time for sure.  

2 minutes ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

Yes it most definitely had pizza very good it was to.

It always had two choices but sometimes three.

Awesome. Thanks everyone!

7 minutes ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

A few weeks ago it was open until 2.00am but was nearly always empty no matter what time of day.

It had a limited breakfast menu mostly fruit cups and hot breakfast sandwiches.

Opened some lunchtimes through to late afternoon for snacks then again in the evening to the early hours.

There is water tea and coffee available from the self service machines 24/7. 

Thanks!

Do you recall if it had Pizza?

Slightly related question. I just didn't want to start a new thread for mine!

I just booked the Rhapsody for Sept 2020 and I am super excited! I have only ever sailed on the Oasis Class Ships so I know I am in for a different experience.

I am wondering if there is a place to get pizza 24/7 like on the Oasis Class. I don't see a "Sorrentos" on the list of restaurants.

Also, please tell me they have ice cream on the deck (or somewhere for free!)

Thanks!!

4 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Note that if you are booking under US/Canadian rules, you can still get a booking with a fully refundable deposit, as long as you are not booking a Grand SUuite or better, nor a guarantee category.

 

Those dates would normally open sometime between December 2019 and April 2020.

 

Thanks again!!

Just now, Host Clarea said:

 

If you book with a non-refundable deposit, then changing either ship or sailing date will incur a penalty.

Oh okay thanks!! 

They changed the deposit policy since since my last cruise I guess! 

Im thinking of booking a cruise to the Caribbean again in May of 2021. 

Wouldn’t happen to know when they would release the cruise dates for then would you? The cruise I was looking st is currently only up until April 2021. 

Can you still book a cruise and pay your deposit, but then change the date of the cruise? Or do you now lose the deposit if you change the date as well. You used to be able to change the date with no penalty. 

I would definitely do the St Martin, Puerto Rico, and Labadee on the Oasis.

I have done both the Oasis and Allure. I can assure you that the ships are pretty well identical, so if you loved the Allure, you will also love the Oasis. The perk, however, is that your shows will be different this time around. You'll have a new High Dive Show, New Skate Show, New Musical (although I'm not a fan of Cats), etc. That alone would make me choose doing a different ship.

As for the ports, it would be nicer to do a couple that you haven't done, so that's another plus with choosing St Martin, Puerto Rico, and Labadee.

You will find absolutely nothing on the ship for cheaper than you would find it in a retailer at one of the ports or back in the USA.

I didn't realize until this cruise that the watch sales where they promote 75% off are just a scam. I was looking at a couple watches on the ship and thought it seemed like a pretty good deal after the 75% off. I then went to Cozumel and found the exact same watches there for slightly cheaper and they were at regular price.

As for purses, I can tell you that I have gone to several purse stores in the USA with my fiancée, and you will find much better deals in an outlet or mall.

They also sell camera accessories on board now. Do not buy any of that. I am pretty into electronics, and most of the items RCCL was selling could be bought at your local best buy for half the price.

They had staff in the MDR upon boarding on the 4/22 sailing and you could book any specialty restaurants at that time. It was in level 5 (Silk).

They offered 3 specialty restaurants for $89USD when I was on board. Actually it was either 89 or 99, I can't remember for certain.

This was on the April 22nd sailing.

You could pick all three restaurants that you wanted, and what days they were. I didn't choose this option because I think Specialty Dining is pointless, but if it's the thing for you, then it's a decently affordable option.

Great news about the Buffet! Thanks for the quick response!

73 days until disembark and I'm already excited for my lunch!

Just two quick questions for anyone who has been to Labadee recently:

- Do they still serve a free buffet on the beach at midday?

- Are the blue mats for the water free? I just looked online at excursions and the mats are listed as a something you need to pay for. When I was there in April-2015 they were free to use.

Thanks!

Question: what time did they open up the rooms on the first day?

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Yes ! I was talking about MTD and saying you "Can't" just walk in...you still have to stand in line !!

Yes you're right. You do need to stand in line, however, if you are prebooked the line will be 5 minutes max (based on my 4 oasis class cruises) verses a half hour or longer if not booked

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That's the way my time dining is on an oasis class ship right now. I can't speak to the others. The only way you will be standing in a line is if you don't book your meal time.

Personally for the 5 minutes it takes to book the whole week, I don't see why anyone wouldn't.

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Lay down one of those little red plates from Sorrentos or the Park Cafe and show him quickly it's scooped up by one of the staff! Honestly that's probably one of the most impressive things to me, haha

I agree with another posted though. Emphasize looking at the Cruise Compass so he can decide what to do. I would, however, have all the main shows booked in advance (Comedy, Aquatheatre if applicable, broadway, Headliner) just show that he can see the quality of the shows on board. I think that's what got myself and my fiancee addicted. The reason I say to book them in advance is because having to wait in a line can make the difference for a lot of people. The same goes for your dinner. If you are on the Oasis class, have every meal booked in advance. It's a huge time saver. I walk into my meal every day and pass 20-30 people who are lined up because they didn't pre-book.

How do you tell if the excusions for your cruise are 20% off? I am sailing Harmony on April 22nd, 2017 and I don't know if the prices are any cheaper than before.

They only update their exchange every so many months. I can't recall if it's every 6 months but I know it's something specific. That's why we benefited so long with the 1.10 exchange before.