dgramling

In completing the survey from our last cruise, the section for ports of call, listed the question about the distance of activities from the cruise port. Is Royal finally acknowledging you can't plop down a port, invest no money outside of the fence, and expect it to flourish?  We have loved the excursions we have done in Jamaica, but it has remained the one port we don't go off on our own.  The port is simply too far from Ochos Rios and Montego Bay to be comfortable to get back on time.  Add onto that Royal's desire to shorten port time as much as possible.  This last cruise we lost 2 hours in port for undisclosed engine maintenance that Royal claimed the shortened time was done for comfort and safety. The other contributing factor making the Jamaica stop less than desirable is the loss of Margaritaville and other stores in the port, making your food and drink options limited to one restaurant and some booths.

Royal spent alot of time and money to change the Oasis class to be LNG starting with Utopia, it was inevitable they would want another ship to justify that expense on.

4 hours ago, fletch1027 said:

Drinks:

There are plenty of bars (at least 3-4) to walk up and get a drink and there are also a lot of roaming people taking drink orders from the beach chairs. We only had the coke package but had our 4 Diamond vouchers that we had no problem using. Actually it seemed like the 2 vouchers we used never "sync'ed" up with Oasis because when I got a drink later that night on the ship the bartender said that I had 3 vouchers left. 

Be careful with using vouchers on CocoCay/Labadee and in specialty restaurants, they often don't enter them into the system until much later.  This can cause you to be charged for a drink you thought you used a voucher for.  On CocoCay they enter vouchers on paper and then ring them in once the ship sails.  In specialty restaurants where they fill the drink order in the restaurant and not by going to a bar they ring them after they close.

2 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

What terminaI and how long ago? I have  cruised out of the updated Terminal A several dozen times since 2019 and have never seen porters in the parking garage. Also, I have never seen porters in the parking garage the handful of times I have sailed from Terminal G. 

Terminal A, I know they did it for both our Symphony cruise in '19 and our Oasis cruise in '20 I was able to find this video on Youtube of them doing it in '18 

We were just at Blue Lagon (Nov 6th).  The ferry process was the worst part of the excursion. They did give the standard safety speech on the way over, but very few people listened to it.  The way over is always slower than the way back, not sure which direction the sinking occurred in.  We were on the ferry that sank and sat in the bottom port aft the speaker above us didn't work well, so we didn't hear most of what was said going over.  If they tried to use the intercom in an emergency people would not hear them.  The workers that were on the ferry with us were the same ones who met us at the dock to "organize" the group, I put organize in scare quotes because the workers weren't organized enough to be able to organize the guests.  One of the workers from the dock even said he was an animal encounter person so I would surmise being on the ferry is not a main job duty.  I will say as this was the second time we have been to Blue Lagoon we do enjoy it and think it is a nice place, just wish there was a different way to get there than the ferry that is crowded and takes a long time.

In past cruises out of Miami, they had porters in the parking garage on the levels that had open parking to take your luggage. On the cruise that we just got back from (Oasis 7 night) they didn't. Is this a one-off or did they stop this practice? There was quite the backup getting into the curbside drop-off, so even though it was a pain I still would have lugged my luggage down the elevator anyhow, but the porters being in the garage was so convenient. It will make me rethink driving to Miami in the future.  I considered taking Brightline as we usually come from a family home stopover on the space coast, but didn't want the hassle of luggage in an Uber.

17 hours ago, colesc15 said:

For those who have used a drone to take pictures and videos on cruises down in the Caribbean, have you generally run into any issues at any of the islands of getting shut down? Is there permission you have to get? I understand around the cruise port is generally a no go, I think, but beaches etc.. Interested in maybe getting into that hobby as I en

I just returned from a cruise to Nassau, CocoCay, Labadee, and Falmouth.  Since we went to Blue Lagoon in Nassau, Jamaica was the only place I could fly my drone.  I looked up the laws ahead of time and they did make it difficult, such as no flying over private property, no flying over groups of people, and height restrictions.  The hardest restriction was that the take-off and landing had to be 165 feet from anyone.  Even though I followed all the rules and only flew it over an uninhabited part of a river, I had a worker walk past me and ask if I was okay with leaving the drone in Jamaica.  So be aware that even if you follow all applicable laws, you may still upset someone.  I can imagine a lot of people don't follow the rules, but I have always gone by, when in someone else's home follow their rules.

On 8/15/2023 at 9:53 AM, Ravensfan1973 said:

What would you recommend getting to record yourself going down the Dragon's Breath Zip Line.  Don't want to lose my phone coming down.  What experiences did you have?

I used a Gopro, but keep in mind which one you are doing, if you are doing the sitdown a chest mount will work, superman style would require a headmount.  I wouldn't trust using my cellphone its a long fall and I'd rather have a camera that could potentially take a fall, rather than a phone that absolutely wouldn't.

On 8/16/2023 at 3:49 PM, Nabalab said:

Hi!  I heard there is a place near the Nassau cruise port that has different Dole Whip flavors? 

 

Would anyone know the name?  Or location?

 

Thanks so much!

10:34

Does anyone know a store that definitely sells Goombay Punch either bottles or cans? I saw a vlog that had it available at the drink booth (Bahama Mama's I think) in the port, but a newer vlog wasn't there.  Also, does anyone think I will have an issue bringing it back onboard RCL, even if it needs to get confiscated until departure?

3 hours ago, Merly said:

We have booked the unlimited dining package for the first time.  Having read the boards I can see that I have to wait until I am on board before I can book the restaurants. My questions are - when will I find out which venue they have booked for the first night?  Do I have to wait until on board? Will they be able to tell me when I book the others?  Can I change it?

TIA

It will usually show when on the ship connected to the Royal Guest wifi, but this hasn't always been the case.  You can book a restaurant in the app for the first night if it doesn't conflict with the automatic reservation.  We usually book every night but the first night on the app and then stop in to a specialty restaurant and say please change the first night to X.

1 minute ago, cruisetorelax44 said:

Surprised not to see The Mason Jar.

I know it's super busy on Wonder....

There are several restaurants that aren't named on the deck plans, my most likely suspect would be deck 16 aft, but there are others: on 15 forward, though I think that will be solarium bistro, deck 8 forward, deck 7 aft in the surfside neighborhood. 

On 10/6/2022 at 2:05 PM, Jmaison said:

The last time we were in Nassau ( April 2022) I think the pier was under construction and a complete mess.  There was transportation from the ship to the edge of port.  Have the conditions improved?  My husband and I both have some mobility issues and need some kind of transport from ship to street.  Thanks joanie

Was there in September piers are done as far as decking is concerned.  They are adding canopies now.  They entrance is still under construction so they were routing you below the new entrance building and the new but yet open outdoor market.  This was on a new paver walkway.  It has improved greatly since we were there in February. 

59 minutes ago, topanga49er said:

Wow, is it really as large as it seems?  Is this on every RCI ship?

 

No just Wonder.  Seems like it and the large print name will be features going forward

23 hours ago, orville99 said:

Thanks. I guess there will be a "Where's Waldo" type of thread sprouting up soon looking for one of these things. 

Its the one on the right without the stand, laid flat.  Just got of Indy.  They are installed on the Canopy for the Flowrider seating and the top above deck 13 forward.

4 minutes ago, sheezsmith said:

I did see this, so would this be possible for them to do while we order with our UDP?

There is even a small a la carte food menu at the adjacent Giovanni’s Wine bar (replacing Vintages).

The Wine bar is a separate, but adjacent venue.  they don't let you order from the Wine Bar menu in the restaurant.  

4 hours ago, luckyinpa said:

what will the employees who served us now be doing? wonder what jobs got neglected before

Areas I noticed were pool deck drink attendants, On CocoCay all the drink attendants disappeared between 11 and 2, when we went to the buffet we saw the one that had been serving our section dishing out food at one of the stations.  I know we also saw one of our servers from the specialty restaurants serving at the windjammer, so I'm thinking this also is impacting specialty restaurant capacity.

On 3/26/2022 at 9:01 AM, LuCruise said:

Anyone know if Odyssey has laser tag?  Royal's site shows it does but I read an article on the other cruise site that says no laser tag (no ice rink).  Anyone confirm?

Odyssey was suppose to have laser tag, but the ship was launched during COVID so it hasn't been run yet.  I would guess at some point it will.

13 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

Thanks for the photo!  Guess if it's sailing in warm areas, it doesn't need to be indoors.

The kids area on Anthem is nice with a shallow wave pool . Our kids are teens so way past that.

On our cruise in Feb we joked that the pools went from cold in the indoor solarium, warmer in the middle open but shaded pool, and warmest back pool that is in the direct sun.  My biggest complaint about the middle pool is that they included the Caribbean tree sculptures which block the screen from many of the side seats unless you are in or behind the pool.

1 hour ago, LuCruise said:

Thanks....so no indoor pool then?  

Thanks....so no indoor pool then (middle pool comment above).

 

From the plans, it also looks like the current/donut pool is not Odyssey and kids wave pool replaced by kids waterslides?

 

We enjoy El Loco Fresh so good to hear it's on Odyssey.

This is the middle pool

I don't have an pictures of the kids area, but from what I remember it was more splash and less actual bodies of water.

2 minutes ago, Tee & Chilli said:

Does Odyssey have a covered solarium?

Yes

• Playmakers above the SkyPlex
• Lime and Coconut & Caribbean Pool Deck
• The middle pool is not enclosed in glass but does have a roof under the northstar arm
• The Pool Deck movie screen is at the middle pool instead of the back pool area with kids water area
• additional hot tubs on deck 15
• El Loco Fresh on the pool deck
• No Johnny Rockets Express
• No Dog House
• Giovanni's Italian Table rather than Jamies. but no extended outside seating.

15 hours ago, tmneill said:

For those who have been on the Odyssey 8 night So. Caribbean - what nights were formal?

3 and 7, sailed 2-12

On 2/27/2022 at 4:45 PM, J18ktleo said:

Hi!

We are looking to book a tour that leaves from Palm Beach at 9am and our ship docks at 8am.

The tour company (Octopus Aruba) says the ships time is one hour earlier than the port time, it's been 2 years since I've sailed and don't recall if

the ship stays on their own time or changes for the islands.

Anyone have any input?

 

Also, used Octopus Aruba two years ago for snorkel tour and it was AWESOME!!!!!  Had a group of 10 and the service was perfect!

Just sailed on Odyssey of the Seas out of Ft Lauderdale on Eastern Time the entire cruise, so in Aruba there was an hour difference.  One thing we found odd was my phone stayed on ship time, while my wife's switched, didn't check the settings but we were both on airplane mode. 

This is great, I just got off Odyssey and would go to the Fitness Center before getting ready for dinner.  So my choice was to wear a sweat damp bracelet, or a water soaked one.  I preferred the plastic one from Allure in October over the cloth self cinching ones.