bajadahl

You will hear many different answers to this. While I have only been on one RCCL cruise I do have personal experience with this.

I was told 15 minutes between drinks. This was when I was trying to grab a bunch of water for us to take ashore in Cozumel. I wanted 2 or 3 bottles for all of us so I claimed one for each of us in our drink package and then immediately tried to claim another round at the same place. The server explained the policy to me but ended up giving me a second round of water bottles anyway.

Now if they see you drink it I don't think they care at all. Later in the cruise I was sitting in the R Bar and drinking margarita's really quickly (it's a long story) but over the course of an hour or so I probably consumed at least 6 (tall very skinny margaritas) The bartender even laughed and claimed I was drinking them like a shot... again long story.

Bottom line is this - if they see you drink it, probably not a time limit. However, they may cut you off if you're intoxicated but that's another issue.

If you walk away and then come right back you may get the 15 minute rule.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone! We are in the mad rush of packing, and buying last minute items. The Days are really flying by now!

Dry Cleaning is done, just needs to be picked up tomorrow.

To add just a bit more pressure my wife gave me a new camera for fathers day so I am playing with it tonight to make sure I am not fumbling with it on the cruise.....

A little more info for you photophiles out there - It's a Nikon D500 to replace my D7000 (which I wasn't terribly fond of) The D500 has the pro menu system much like my really old D200 so it feels like home again.

Anyway the D500 is ridiculously fast at up to 10 frames a second and has a 200 picture buffer which is what I needed when I was chasing two year olds.... but I digress.

So everything is going well, just need to get my youngest through 2 more days of basketball camp without major damage (she jammed a finger today while going for a loose ball) I told her ease up - Cleveland already won the title this year. Let's not tear anything up before vacation. (Vigorously Knocking on wood)

This is the child who has broken her arm a month before vacation (TWICE!)

Just as FYI to all following - I will be posting reports for all of my vacation days starting on the 28th while the cruise doesn't actually kick off until the 2nd. I hope some of you find it entertaining at least. Just want to make sure I get my typing wheels greased up real good so that my words just flow eloquently onto the screen..... Is it getting deep in here...

Oh well back to packing and finishing up all the little household details.

Departure Countdown 6 Days 5 Hours 53 minutes

-Alan

Thank you - More reading material for me. I'll be on this itinerary in less than 2 weeks.

Oasis of the Seas - 2 July 2016 Eastern Caribbean Sailing

May 11, 2016 -

This will be my attempt at a trip report. I was’t sure about doing one but then realized how much I enjoy reading them. We all have different ideas about what’s important to us on our vacation but I hope you find some useful tips and information from this report.

First a little about us - We are a family of 4: Me, DW, DD(14), and DD(12)

On this trip we will be joined by my Mom and Dad (So I will mention them from time to time)

We love traveling. We typically go to a Disney Property at least once a year along with some other more educational or historical vacation such as National Parks or historical destinations. In 2012 we finally discovered cruising. We’ve been on 4 cruises prior to this one.

Disney Dream - Summer 2012

Disney Magic - Spring Break 2013

Disney Wonder - Alaska Summer 2014

Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas - Summer 2014

We still love Disney but we have really felt the pinch of a Disney cruise compared to Royal Caribbean. Prior to booking this cruise we compared it to the Disney Fantasy on a similar itinerary.

The Fantasy Cruise was the 18th of June 2016 - 7 Night - Eastern Caribbean with Stops in Tortola, St Thomas, and Castaway Cay. While we have normally cruised with a Deluxe Family Ocean View Room with Veranda, on this cruise we priced a single Deluxe Interior Stateroom (Category 10A Room 9579 204 sq. ft) The Price for this cruise as priced in March of 2015 was $8315.00

The Royal Caribbean 2 July 2016 - 7 Night - Eastern Caribbean has stops in - St Maarten, San Juan, and Labadee. We booked 2 connecting staterooms over looking Central Park with Balconies. (C1-14211 and C1-14213 182 sq. ft and 50 sq. ft balcony EACH) The Price for this cruise was $5664.36

Neither Price included Tips or other incidentals. So just comparing the basic cruise fare the Royal Caribbean was $2650.64 cheaper and gave us quiet a bit more space and comfort with two staterooms and two bathrooms! (Did I mention I have two teen daughters?)

This enormous difference in price made it an easy decision. Of course I am very well aware of the fact that Disney is still selling out their ships so I have no answer for when I will ever be able to cruise with them again. Maybe it was a mistake to price shop…. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

However, After sailing for a buddies wedding cruise on the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas Ship in August of 2014 I do understand there are differences between these cruise lines. There is something about the level of service on a Disney Cruise that I just can’t explain. Maybe it’s the Kool-aid. I may never know. My last comment on this subject at least for now is this — We were on the Disney Wonder in June 2014 and the RCCL Navigator in August 2014 so we were able to compare the two cruise lines pretty fairly and both were fresh in our minds. I felt Disney was hands down the better cruise line…. The question for me was how much better. I guess I got my answer when looking for our Summer 2016 cruise. While Disney was better it was not almost 50% better… maybe 20%… Maybe 25% but not almost 50%!!

So that’s how we arrived at this sailing.

We booked the cruise on April 3rd 2015 -

Oasis of the Seas - Eastern Caribbean 2 July 2016

Let the count down begin - 439 Days…. Ugh that’s going to be a long wait!

Please forgive me if I revert to comparing to Disney…It’s what I know. For instance no one can tell you exactly when “Excursions and things” open up for booking on the RCCL website. On Disney there are specific rules.

Platinum level can book 120 days prior to sailing, Gold 105 days, *and Silver 90 days. *First time cruisers, who are not yet Castatway Club members, may book 75 days.

There has been quite a bit of confusion on our Roll Call for this cruise because Royal opened some onboard reservations while holding back others. This led to the inevitable questions about show changes or cancellations. And since there is apparently a large private group on our sailing some thought they were taking over some of the show areas and blocking the rest of the cruise passengers from a full Royal experience. IE - Letting “CATS” go dark or maybe a private viewing for the large private group… maybe…. Let me cut to the chase… This was all nonsense. Royal just delayed opening different type of reservations. There was not a set release date for anything.

Here is a summary of when I was able to book on board shows and excursions:

74 days till cruise -

19 April - Frozen in Time Ice Show - This is approximately when it became available

19 April - Oasis of Dreams Aqua Show - Again this approximately when it became available

19 April - Labadee Dragon’s Breath Flight Line - Zip Line - This had been available for a long time. I was just waiting to book it. I chose the 11:30 AM availability. I felt like 11:30 was a good time but I guess we’ll see how that day goes. As a side note this is the only “excursion” we have booked for the entire trip. We might add another excursion but nothing on the web site jumps out at us. We are going to be happy just to be on island time for the week with no real set schedule.

67 Days till cruise -

26 April - Headliner Showtime,

26 April - Stand up Comedy Show

26 April - Cats

26 April - Come Fly with Me show

So these shows opened up 67 days prior to the cruise. Kind of an odd time. There does’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for when shows become available. Just a tiny bit frustrating but not the end of the world. We booked these shows immediately upon seeing they were available. Also, I learned they were available by someone on our Roll Call. So here’s my plug for joining your Roll Call. It’s great to have a bunch of eye balls watching RCCL’s website since there seems there is no schedule to making shows available.

A Little More About Our Summer Vacation

This isn’t just a cruise… Oh No. We are a very travel friendly family (This means we like to travel) Plane, Train, Automobile, Hike… Whatever.. Just try to see it all.

This trip will begin bright and EARLY on Tuesday the 28th of June. How Early? Must you ask?

Let me preface my next statement by the rule follower in me… We must be at the airport at least 2 hours prior to departure.

Our Flight leaves Austin at 5:10…………AM - It even hurts to type it. This means our vacation will officially start around 2:30 AM Tuesday Morning the 28th of June.

2:30 AM - Leave the house

3:00 AM - Arrive at the Airport

3:00 AM - 4:30 AM Wait patiently waiting and realizing absolutely nothing is open in the airport this early in the morning

4:30 AM - Board my Southwest Airlines Direct flight to Ft Lauderdale that I only paid $64.98 per person for. Whoo-Hoo! By the Way Total Round Trip Austin to Fort Lauderdale for my family of 4 - Drum Roll Please - $519.84 Thank you Mr. Saint Paddies Day Sale!

5:10 AM - And we are on our way

Scheduled Arrival in Fort Lauderdale is 8:55 AM (EST)

We are then renting a car and driving to Savannah, Georgia. It’s a goal of mine to get my daughters to all 50 states before they finish High School. We’ve got 9 states to go and only 4 more summers to get it done! We will make Savannah Base camp for 3 days and visit sites in Georgia and South Carolina knocking out two more states off our list! On the 1st of July we’ll drive back down to Fort Lauderdale and turn in the rental car.

I know what you’re thinking…. Why not just fly into Savannah and rent the car there? Two reasons the air fare sale mentioned above and the ridiculous drop fee when renting a car in one location and dropping at a different location. I don’t mind spending money on vacation but I can’t stand wasting money……ever! Those two reason would have easily added over $1000 to the cost of the trip.

Anyway - After dropping the car back at the FT Lauderdale airport I’ll take the free shuttle from the airport to the Hampton Inn (Airport North Cruise Port Location)

We will stay 1 night in the Hampton Inn and then Board the Oasis on the 2nd

Then we will cruise, cruise, cruise (yada yada yada)

and disembark on the 9th.

Finally, We will spend the last two nights at the Margaritaville Resort on Hollywood Beach. This is our detox time before having to go home. This is a new resort in Hollywood Florida that I think just opened a few months ago. We are really looking forward to this part of the trip!

Last but not least we fly home the night of July 11th. This is another painful moment. Yes it’s a direct flight but it’s not scheduled to depart until 10:50pm with an arrival the next day at 12:40am.

So that is the basic synopsis of our trip! I hope you’ll join us for the ride.

The Drink Package challenge - What’s the square root of 7 * 98 + e4 * pi / 4 bottles of rum

This is the formula for figuring out whether or not the drink package is worth it. At least it seems that way by the way people talk on the boards. It seems like rocket science trying to figure out whether or not a drink package is worth the money.

I believe there is some level of value just having the ability to grab a drink and never think about the cost or budget. Kind of like the fact that Disney includes the cost of sodas in the price of the cruise. Of course like everyone else I do a little bit of math to make sure the drink package isn’t just plane foolish. So here is my math for the drink package.

For my wife and daughters

Royal Replenish - $156.94 Per Person or $22.42 per day

All three drink “foo-foo” coffee drinks (Yes I know Starbucks is not included) and I’ve already caught some or their wrath for this. I do expect each of them to give the Seattle’s Best at the Cafe Promenade a try. (At least I am told it’s Seattle’s Best) I guess we will see.

The prices below are the values I have assigned Not the actual on board prices since I don’t have those handy. I will update my review with actual numbers during the cruise.

Daily Coffee drink - $4.00

Dailey OJ at breakfast - $3.00

Dailey Soda Drink at Lunch and Dinner at $3 each - $6.00

3 bottles of water per day at $2 each - $6.00

1 Milk Shake or foo-foo drink daily - $5.00

Total for each day - $24.00

Again this is a simple estimate of what I think my wife and girls will drink in a typical day on the cruise. Some days they will drink more and some less, but on average I know each of them would spend $20-$25 a day on drinks.

For myself I have purchased the Ultimate package - $437.78 ($62.54 per day)

I will drink enough frozen margaritas to make this cost a non-issue.

Just in case you didn’t know - Royal Caribbean Margaritas are Not all created equally. I learned this on the Navigator in 2014. Up at the pools the Margaritas were made with a cheap mixer…. At the R Bar they were made with fresh limes, strawberries and a top shelf tequila upon request…. MmmmmTasty.

Inter-Webs Package

I am not a fan of being connected while on vacation. I’ve spent too many years in IT where I was the only expert on a specific group of systems and always available meant ALWAYS! I could bore you with the true story of getting a call about a server down while standing at Old Faithful and missing the excitement of the initial blast, or the time…… Never-mind - let’s not dwell on those times. I am currently part of a talented IT team where going on vacation for the most part means actually going on vacation.

So NO Inter-webs for me this trip!

But wait - I have teenage daughters. Their faces will melt if they don’t have inter-webs. It’s true - I’ve seen it happen. And the inter-webs is on sale. Dad we just have to keep our snap chat streaks alive! Dad….Dad…… DADDY!

Fine we’ll get the inter-webs package. There goes family time……

Voom Surf + Stream - 4 Devices - $274.19

Little do they know that with Inter-webs comes the ability for mom and dad to keep closer tabs on them anyway. “I didn’t hear my phone” cannot be used as an excuse when it is common knowledge that teen girls have their phones surgically attached to them at all times!

Also due to the fact that we bought the Inter-webs package I will be attempting to periscope from the cruise. I fear I won’t be that interesting but I will give it a try. I have asked my girls to be involved with that… We will see how it goes! You can find us on periscope @bajadahl

Final Pre-Cruise thoughts -

So there you have it. Our basic plan for our family of 4 with grandma and grandpa along for the ride. Feel free to ask me questions along the way and I will do my best, within reason, to find answers.

You can ask things like -

Do they make you walk the plank if your wife takes a sip of your rum (from the drink package)?

They probably won’t make her walk the plank, but heaven knows I would! Don’t touch my drink, If you wanted some you should have ordered one! Just like french fries at MickeyD’s!!!

Can one person really take up space on 6 loungers by the pool?

I don’t know but I’ll give it my best shot!

Do they really flog you if you show up at the MDR in shorts and flip flops?

(We might have to draw straws to see who tests this one)

As you you have probably gathered by now, the further I get into this the saltier I'll get. This should be a fun trip!

Enjoy -

Alan

Hello Rob -

First wanted to say so sorry for your losses over the last 2 years.

We'll miss you and your family on the Oasis July 2nd! You already sound like a fun family to get to know!

My wonderful wife of 24 years and I also started planning our cruise in April 2015 with an eye towards summer camp issues. Although our original plans ended up working out. Our girls, Ashlyn(14) going into high school, and Lindsay(12) 7th grade, are both at sleep away camp now. We pick them up tomorrow. Then it's a mad dash of cleaning up camp clothes, storing camp trunks back in the attic, and getting the luggage ready for an early departure on the 28th of June. Flying southwest - but I got a killer rate with direct flights!

We would normally include Disney World but not this year. Long story short (I know too late) - is we ended up buying season passes to Disneyland (California) last summer and have plans for a short trip back to California later this summer. So instead of Disney World we are spending a few days exploring Savannah, Ga.

One of my goals is to get my girls to all 50 states before the first one leaves for college. She has 9 more to go. We will pick up both South Carolina and Georgia with the stay in Savannah.

Finally, I also wrote a pre-trip/planning report but was holding off posting it until a little closer to the trip. Now you've motivated me to go ahead and put it out there. Invite you to follow along and enjoy a pre-trip....ummmm trip!

Alan

This is when a good travel agent would have come in handy.

I hadn't given that any thought before! I've used travel agents on a couple of previous cruises including my upcoming Oasis cruise but I have never gotten the level of service that made me think they were indispensable. So the key word in your statement is "good". I don't disagree - I just haven't found one.

I had a little chuckle because - after reading your post I saw in your signature "Sailed" for Todays's sailing. I thought to myself not yet you haven't. lol I can only imagine your excitement right now and the mad scramble to get ready for an amazing day and great week. Have fun and take care of her. I'll have your view in exactly three weeks!

Would love to tell you, yes you can use Ship Wifi on Labadee, but you are correct, WAY too far from Ship.

Not sure who is your Mobil Carrier. If you have Verizon, they have something called travel pass, where you can use your own Mobil Data plan for $10.00 a Day while in Haiti, if you can get a cell Signal. I was able to get a little bit of a Signal when I was there.

 

 

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That's what I figured. Too bad - Just checked AT&T international and it does't look like they have any partners in Haiti. Looks like I will be recording it the old fashion way and putting it on Vimeo.

I have set myself up to Periscope and should do some with my daughters on the Oasis 2-July Eastern Sailing. Hopefully we can have some fun with it and keep it fun and interesting. I am curious if we can get any wifi from the ship while on Labadee. We have the zipline booked and I would love to periscope that but I am guessing the wifi probably won't have enough range.

You should be able to find me @bajadahl

Alan

Let me start by saying I typically don’t price shop once I book a cruise. Maybe it’s because I am usually satisfied with the price before I book and don’t typically feel the need to continue to watch the pricing fluctuate. It can be maddening…… And of course I know there is really no use to recheck pricing after the final payment date. That’s just setting yourself up for heartache. lol

However, today I was making final arrangement for my Oasis cruise next month and I decided to go ahead and double check my pricing for a cruise I have booked for next March. Imagine my surprise when I was able to mock up a booking for the exact same cabin types that I currently have (a pair of connecting Deluxe Ocean View with Balcony) for $4427.16 WOW - My current price was $5813.80 a difference of $1386.64

I think that’s worth a phone call right????

To make a very long story short (or try to anyway) I call RCCL and talked to a very friendly young lady to try to get her to adjust my booking. To be clear I have nothing special on my booking (No On Board Credits or anything else that would make this a difficult change. I am a lowly Gold member) After a lot of talking she was finally able to mock up and SEE for herself the price I was seeing but she couldn’t figure out how to modify my booking to get that price for me. She double checked everything (Same Cruise and Date, Same Cabin Types… but could not figure it out.

She finally just asked me to book it again online myself and then she could “clean it up” and remove the old booking. Of course as soon as I started to add the guest information the price jumped up over $1000 and I could never get back to the original sale price that I saw when I first started the mockup.

Of course starting over did no use either… that price was gone. Of course I was smart enough to get a screen shot of the sale price but I know it’s pretty much useless at this point.

The silver lining is that she was able to get me some other current discounts including $76 in onboard credit for each stateroom. All told I saved $696.00 off my original booking. So not quite the $1386.64 I saw but worth the phone call all the same.

Basically I missed out on $690.64

The RCCL agent advised that the next time I see a major discount like that then I should just go ahead and book it immediately and call them to clean it up after the fact. Especially since I am over 6 months away from final payment. Lesson Learned! Attached is the mockup price that I almost got….

OneTwoFree.pdf

We just spent an extra $5 total on all 5 nights. I wanted scallops and lobster at the hibachi restaurant. However we did also tip extra a few nights just because we had amazing service, but the gratuity is already included and an extra tip is not necessary.

Thank you this is very helpful information. I prefer to preplan my budget for most of the time so I have never added on these things where the price was not already set.

Thanks,

Alan

We have never dined at any of the optional restaurants.

If we buy a package 3, 4, or 5 nights what can we expect to pay on top of the package price? We will already have drink packages for everyone in our family. I would assume although drinks are not included with the meal package that they would be covered by our drink package?

The web site says $30 included for ala cart locations. and I am curious how much over that price for a typical meal.

As far as the NON - Ala Cart locations I would assume there is no further fee?

Trying to decide if this is in our budget for the Oasis in 3 weeks.

Thank You

I was on the Navigator of the Seas in 2014 with the Ultimate Package (Wedding Cruise) I was told there is a 15 minute period between servings (several times)

But quite frankly I think it is almost never enforced. I believe it is there just in case they want to limit you or think you are abusing the system....

Two personal examples from my cruise.

During our shore excursion in Cozumel we wanted to take several bottle of water off the ship. You can get bottles of water at the Promenade Cafe. On this particular day they had a staff member with water on Ice just for this purpose standing out beside the Cafe so that you didn't have to stand in line if all you wanted was bottled water. I wanted a few bottle for each of us but he would only give me 4 (1 for each package I had with card in hand) After I got 4 I took them back up to the room and I went right back down to the same guy to get 4 more and we told me about the policy but gave them to me anyway. I then went to a few different locations to get another round of bottles so that we would have plenty of water for the day at the beach.

Later in the cruise I was sitting at the R Bar having a margarita. Side note - All margaritas are not the same... If you get one up by the pool it is made with a cheap mixer. Down at the R Bar it's made with fresh Lime and Strawberries. Anyway back on topic. My buddy was getting married and I was a bit nervous and drinking a bit - again another longer story won't repeat here. So I was drinking these very tasty margaritas fairly quickly. A very attractive lady walks up to me and says "ooh that looks good! What is it?" Before I could respond the bartender says without hesitation - "For you it's a margarita, For him it's a shot!" lol Needless to say I was drinking them much faster than 1 every 15 minutes but he never said a word and just kept me happy. And I kept tipping extra....

So I do believe there is a "rule" that can be enforced. And they can absolutely tell when you got your last drink if they really want to look it up. Even the guy handing out water on the promenade was having to keep a log of Sea Pass cards and time stamp to enter into the system later.

Thanks - I thought that was the case but I didn't like the fact that I had to "assign it" to myself so just wanted to double check with all of you.

I really appreciate your quick response.

Alan

I am typically so anti internet on vacation... Being in IT and fundamentally on call all the time I really have enjoyed the completely unavailable status a cruise (or back woods camping) provides.

With that said I have not paid much attention to the new Voom posts that have cropped up lately. And now I need some answers and can't find them.

My teen daughters do not share my and internet views.... And I do like the idea of being able to message each other throughout the day.

So here is my question (in multiple parts)

There is a package Surf + Stream for 4 devices in my shopping cart and the sale price is $274.19

To get this I had to assign it to myself (kind of like an excursion) As in One User but 4 devices.

Is this the proper package for my family of 4? or do I need to buy each person a 1 device package.

The 4 device package seems to be a little cheaper than adding a 1 device package for all 4 cruisers.

The other issue is that we are also split between two staterooms.... if that makes any difference.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Alan

We make our teens use the buddy system.... they are either together or with us. They do not walk around the ship alone. And they typically need a destination and a basic plan when heading out. Going to the teen club, or to the mini golf... So I have an idea where to find them. Just roaming the ship is not a good plan.

Mine were in connecting staterooms for the first time in 2014 when they were 12 and 10. Both very well behaved girls.

We specifically chose inside Promenade staterooms with windows not balconies on the Navigator of the Seas.

This year we are doing Oasis with central park balconies.

And next year we're doing outside verandas on Liberty.

All of these are or were connecting staterooms.

There's nothing like having two full bathrooms for the wife and teenage girls to get ready each day!

I also chaperone school field trips quite often and the tape on the doors is always a good deterrent for those less well behaved among us. And yes - I'm the dad that will knock on the doors just to see who forgets all the rules and just opens the door... It happens more often than I care to discuss but I'd rather have a teachable moment then have a tragedy.

Finally - I firmly believe just because you get separate staterooms does not mean you're not an attentive parent. My girls know there would be hell to pay if they disrupted another passengers vacation by being too loud at an inappropriate time of the day or night in their stateroom (or anywhere else for that matter) This includes proper behavior in the hallways at all times. They absolutely have no doubt that I wouldn't hesitate to crash their cool teen hangout if there was any problem... No one wants grumpy dad sharing a stateroom with them.... That would be a fate worse than death for my girls.