Jcol5786

That's a great idea. I could put the BW tag on my wife's bag and when she doesn't get it as quickly as mine I can tell her is was an experiment suggested by someone on Criuse Critic😁.

This is just an observation based on our last cruise on Anthem out of NJ. We left on December 17 and returned December 24'th. We have been on Anthem several times and always enjoy our time on her. Anyway here is my unoffical observation on luggage tags. We always print out our tags an put them on our bags just before we head out to the cruise port. We have tag holders and we drive so they stay on the bags pretty good. This time when I went to print them out on my home printer which is black and white laser the tags came out too light, cartridge needed replacing. No problem - I emailed the cruise docs to myself and printed them out on a colour laser printer I have access to at my work. They were green. Fast forward to embarkation day on the ship. In the past when we go up to our room usually just after 1 pm our bags are not in the hall. They usually show up by 3 or 4pm. This time after getting in our room just after 1:30 pm I spotted our bags about 20 feet down the hall from our room. It was nice to get them so early. When I brought them back to our room and remarked that this was a record for getting them my wife commented that it might be because the tags were in colour making it easier for the crew to sort them. Sure enough I went back out into the hall and evwery bag that I saw had a luggage tag that was printed in colour. It might be a coincidence but after we returned to our room to change for dinner around 5:30 only then did I see bags with B/W tags. We are going on Anthem the last week in Februay and I plan on printing the tags in colour again and test my theory.😉

After watching some of the videos ICON looks very nice however I didn't see a Solarium. Does she have an adult only lounge area for all adult guests?

This might be a good thing. If all these folks that are concerned about food quality stop booking cruises maybe the prices will start to go down😉.

Never been on NCL so don't know about Syn Normans however we were on Anthem Dec 17 - 24. In the main threater they have We Will Rock You which is a boardway show with a bunch of Queen songs. The music is live but the "band" is for the most part hidden from view. If you can get by the campy plot it is a lot of fun. The Music Hall is where live bands usually preform. It's a two story setup with lots of good seating. On our cruise there was a very good band called the Iconic Band and we really enjoyed them. They played most nights and by the second set the place was packed. Don't know if they are still onboard but if they are they are worth checking out. Be sure to arrive a little early to get good seats. Have a great cruise.

There are mistakes in the sub-headers for the sections that talk about Brooklyn and Cape Liberty. After each of these locations are introduced the following sub-header appears: Major Cruise Lines that Depart from the Manhattan Cruise Terminal This appears within sections talking about the Brooklyn Terminal and the Cape Liberty terminal. Might add some confusion.

Thanks - I didn't know that. Only Quantum I've been on is Anthem.

I like both Oasis and Quantum Class however Quantum class has more inside space which makes it better for cooler climates. Given that this is a Caribbean cruise Symphony might be a better choice, but both classes have things I like for any cruise type. Oasis class - Aqua Threater - best shows at sea IMO. Central Park - beautiful quiet space. Rising Tide bar - lots of fun. Play Makers - my favorite bar at sea. Nice Solarium but bar is on second level. Zip line - lots of fun. Ultimate Abys - fun if you like slides. Quantum Class - 270 venue - Great views out the back and a nice bar. Some entertaining shows. Solarium - Nice pools and bar on main level. Rooms - We've only cruised on Allure and Oasis so this might not be the case for Symphony but in our experience there feels like there is more storage areas in our standard balcony rooms on Quantum class. There is an over the bed storage cabinet that is not present on the two Oasis Class ships we have been on. North Star - great views if you like heights. Bumper Cars in the Seaplex - love them, what more needs to be said about bumper cars? iFly - great to do and watch. I'vd just summarized the things specific to each class that we like. There are probably others that I've left out. As I mentioned Symphony would probably be my pick for a warm cruise but depending on price and itenary I wouldn't hesitate to do Quantum class as well. Enjoy your cruise.

While not exactly the same we like to order an extra plate of steamed vegetables along with our entrees. Our waiters usually start adding it automatically by the second or third night. The extra veggie plate comes out with our entrees. In case anyone is wondering,, yes I like my veggies. I like to think it's one of the few healthy things I do on a cruise.

Thanks for confirming!! On with the planning. James

Hi, Just planning our travel options after we disembark from our RCI Alaska cruise which starts in Vancouver and ends in Seattle. This is for the May 9'th 2024 cruise on Ovation. As I read through the forums it seems that RCI docks at Pier 91 when in Seattle. Is this always the case and or is there a way to confirm? Thanks James

We are on Anthem in December and February. These are 7 day cruises. On both of these cruises Formal night is on Day 2 and Dress Your Best is day 6. Day 6 is lobster night. You can also go to the app and check the other nights for the MDR menus and decide what night you want to go to Wonderland. When you purchase Wonderland you can always cancel and rebook if the price goes down but I suspect this week will be the best price. You can also change your night once you get on the ship assuming they can accomodate you. If you have a TA you can still purchase through the cruise planner yourself. We enjoyed Wonderland very much. Have a great cruise.

It's perfectly exceptable to pool D and above drink vouchers. You can do what you want with them. It is also exceptable to call in and purchase 1 DBP with the explination that the other person has vouchers and does not need a package. You will be asked that the second person purchase a coffee or soda package. We have done this and I don't consider it either a "loophole" or "cheating" in anyway. I'm always amazed how judgemental people on this board are sometimes.

This means that you cannot cash out your free play amounts. As Diamond we get $8 free play at the start of every cruise. If you use that and win $50 you will only get $42 back as $8 has not cash value. It's just seed money to get you to gamble.

No not automatically. I don't play much in the Casino so I might have some of the details wrong and I don't know if it's the same on all the ships but on Oasis it worked like this. You put your SeaPass card in the machine and enter your PIN #. After that there is a screen that comes up with options. One of the options is called "My Banker". You are given the option to transfer funds from your onboard account into your Casino account. You enter the amount you want transfered and it goes from your onboard account to your Casino account. I checked with Guest Services about the order and type of funds transfered. They told me that they always transfer the non-refundable OBC first (if you have any) followed by refundable OBC. If you have no OBC in your onboard account you can still transfer and it will show up as a negative on your account which ultimately gets charged to your credit card. After you do the transfer to your Casino Account this amount shows on the slot machine display and you can start to play. There is a "cash out" button which is a physical button on the machine. At any time you can press it and cash out your Casino account. When you do this the machine prints our a voucher that is the value of your Casino account. You now have 0$'s in your Casino account as those funds are now on the voucher. You take the voucher to one of the cash machines located around the Casino, insert the voucher and your cash to the nearest dollar comes out. For the amounts under a dollar the machine prints out a new voucher with the cents value which you can take back to a machine and scan in.

We were recently were on Oasis. Toward the end of the cruise I noticed that I had $50 in non-refundable OBC on my account. I wanted to make sure we used up all of the nonfundable OBC since it's gone if you don't use it. I went to the Casino and transfered $50 to my Casino account. Played for a while and ended up with $60 on the machine. I cashed out which gives you a paper voucher, walked over to the cash machine, put in the voucher and got my $60 in cash. I don't think that the fact that I played the slots and won a small amount made any difference. I think I could have just have done the transfer and cashed out. Good luck and have a good cruise.

We were on Oasis the last week of October. We went to our room shortly after they opened and met our cabin steward soon after. When we asked for morning service he told us that he could not do morning for us as he said those spots were full so we had to take evening service. I wondered how this could be since we were talking to him so early. Anyway we didn't mind the evening service but a couple of times he knocked on our door at 4 pm wanting to do our cabin. As we had early dining this did not work for us. We asked him to come back after 5 pm which he did as the cabin was fine when we came back after dinner. Really not sure how late he worked but I know he started at 4 pm if not earlier.

I did this before Covid so things might have changed but I was allowed to clip my phone to my chest straps and have it recording. Risky as if the phone unclipped it would have been gone but I did it anyway. As I remember they really wanted you to have both hands free to grab parts of the the support when you left and when you arrived at the end of the line. I got some great views considering the phone camera was just pointing based on my chest position.

We just got off Oasis on Sunday. We cruised with friends and this was their first cruise. After the our second meal in the MDR they commented that they really enjoyed the MDR experience and enjoyed the food and service. We had excellent wait staff. Our friends had read may posts about food quality and were concerned. We are frequent cruisers but this was our first cruise with the "new menus". We found that every night there was something we liked. We also did CP150 which was excellent. Our friends enjoyed WJ for breakfast with made to order omlettes and the guacamole (sp?) toast. Our lunches were split between WJ, El Loco Fresh and Portside BBQ. All were good. Our friends are now currently looking at cruises in February so I guess that answers the question about whether or not RC will still get bookings. I think people sometimes people get jaded and forget how enjoyable a cruise still is and how fortunate we are to be able to take a cruise given the terrible events going on in the world. It was really refreshing to look at our overall cruise experience through fresh eyes.

The tribute band Phoenix is scheduled to be on Oasis this Nov 17 - 26'th. We saw them last year and they were very good.

Some years ago Cruise Critic did have a private message feature. It was useful for direct communications with fellow CC members. I used it a few times. I noticed it had gone away a couple of years ago but it had probably been gone longer than that. I assume it was disabled because it was abused.

Thanks for this Ferry_Watcher. Their online calander does not go out to May 2024 yet but I will check with them as we get closer to our sail date. If Quick Shuttle ends up not being an option what would be our next best option to get back to Vancouver?

Yes, I think they will really love cruising and it will be fun to see how they react when they see how large and beautiful OAS is. They are good friends,, but not that good 😄. Thanks for this thought BirdTravels

I'm pretty sure the answer to this is none but I thought I would ask to make sure. We are Diamond and have convienced our good friends to join us on an Oasis cruise this coming October out of Bayonne. They have been researching, watching videos and are very excited about the cruise. I assume that there will be no perks loaded on their Seapass cards as they will have 0 points and the perk chart shows that Gold starts after 3 points. If there are any other first time cruise perks at all I would appreciate hearing about them so we can let them know. Also, I assume it is OK to share some of our Diamond perks with them? We don't use our JR milkshake perk so we could share that one. We also have lots of pictures of us so I was thinking of a picture with all 4 of us at dress your best night which we would simply give them. Any other thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks for the suggestion but exploring might be difficult when we have our bags to drag around. That's why I'm looking for something near the pier.