OCSC Mike

Yet many people report not being able to use them on disembarkation morning. RC needs to clear it up one way or the other.

I don't think most do either. I only tried it once after reading about it b/c we were on a B2B. The morning of turnaround day I got a couple iced coffees and my wife got a couple water bottles from Cafe Promenade. My comments were just for discussion's sake. It's somewhat ambiguous, IMO. If RC would just add a line to the Diamond and up benefits letter that says "you do not receive vouchers on disembarkation day" then there would be no need for any of this discussion, but that makes too much sense.

Not sure about this. Cruises are listed by number of nights, not days. The app calls it "Day 8" on a 7-night cruise, for example. People may expect it because you were given new vouchers on disembarkation morning in the past.

Almost anything besides coffee from a freestanding Starbucks and there are mixed reports about JR milkshakes. Soda, fresh squeezed OJ, mocktails, etc.

Oasis Class has the "extra perks" like CK, free beer/wine/seltzer/soda from 11-11 in the SL, free internet for the entire cruise, etc. Pretty sure Quantum class has some added perks but I've never sailed that class and always screw up info about it so I'll let someone else respond there. All the smaller ships do not have the above. P.S. And I assume Icon is the same as Oasis plus some extra stuff.

Noticed this on Harmony last year but thought it was b/c I was in a GS. Nice feature. Do all cabins on Wonder have this?

Are you not using the bar code trick?

"Best" check-in time is a matter of personal preference. If you plan to go to WJ for lunch, it's best to get on the ship as early as possible and be there when it opens, yes. It will likely open around 11 or so (I've seen it open earlier than whatever the app says). Many people will tell you stay away from WJ, it's too crowded, especially on embarkation day. Personally, I like to be one of the first people in and I don't find it too bad until some time passes and more people board, figure out where they're going, etc. Different strokes...

They both work fine, it's mostly personal preference. The good thing about the app is for people who stay up til midnight when check-in opens 45 days out, you can just grab your arrival time and do the rest later (however/whenever you feel like). You have to enter more stuff via the website.

One big difference, most restaurants don't automatically add an arbitrary 18% tip or whatever. If I eat somewhere with a BOGO coupon, of course I tip on the cost of both items, but I choose the tip amount, not the restaurant.

It varies. Reservations for my June 4th Wonder cruise didn’t open until 30 days out, not on May 1st. For others it was much earlier either on that magic 1st or not. FWIW, mine also opened at like 6:30am-ish et and some things in small venues filled up awfully fast (escape room, adult comedy, etc.)

Well before my time but I obviously know who they are. Very cool. You only get the status if you order a cheesesteak properly. 😁 I have some loose Temple connections myself.

[ Insert Fresh Prince reference here ] I went to Penn in a former life. Grew up in the Philly ‘burbs. Very weak ending to the Sixers/Celtics series. Been here since 2000 but still root for all Philly teams except in MLS. At least we have Wawa & a pretty good water ice chain.

I've done 8. My guess is that 9 isn't a problem. If you have your reservations linked you can try to make a mock reservation.

That's my general philosophy. That said, our cabin attendants have always been great, ranging from efficiently doing their job and fulfilling our requests to also chatting with us quite a bit over the course of the week, saying "hi, how's your day?" every time we saw them etc., so they have always gotten something extra (the amount may vary). The only tip I plan in advance and give no matter what is to the bartenders when using D vouchers. We don't camp out at bars so we don't really spend enough time with any one bartender to receive enough special service to warrant an additional tip but anyone who makes me a free drink deserves something. Back in the days of the DL happy hour, when we spent time there nightly and had the same server every night, they would almost always get an envelope at the end of the cruise. Anyone else gets an extra tip for going above and beyond in some way and that could be a completely random crew member. One recent example... the crew member who sets up the breakfast in the DL every morning heard us talking to the concierge about not seeing chocolate croissants anywhere that cruise (my wife's favorite pastry). One morning towards the end of the cruise, I went up to get coffee alone and there was a covered plate on the concierge's desk with my wife's name on it on a post-it. The breakfast set up guy not only remembered but when he finally came across some chocolate croissants, he put 4-5 of them aside for my wife. It's that type of small personal gesture that can go a long way in our book. Naturally we tracked him down to thank him and show our appreciation before disembarking. Another example was a greeter in the WJ a long time ago. We ate dinner there most nights that week and saw her every night. To this day she was the happiest, friendliest RC employee we have ever come across. We got to know her, she always told the WJ manager or assistant manager to take care of (not that we needed special attention), she kept telling my wife how much she loved her dimples, etc.. In any case, my wife wound up friending her on FB b/c she was so friendly. It really is the little things to us. We're easy going and don't require a lot to be happy while cruising.

In your opinion from cruising recently or from an article you read? I have routinely sailed on full ships for years and prices are up but I'm certainly not paying double (and I've booked 2 in the past month). To each his own. Until I don't enjoy cruises I actually take, it's still worth it to me.

I don't think so.

No, to be fair, I pretty much only sail larger ships so I can't tell you if that makes a difference.

No, never had a problem getting a 2-top.

This is off-topic but the GS's on Harmony have a partial wall separating the bed area from the couch area with curtains in the openings on either side of the partial wall. I've seen many people say they didn't like the wall but I thought it was better than just having one big room with a curtain.

Not true. the Memorial Day cruise planner sale just started today. There's a pop up announcing it when I open my cruise planner or open the app and some things are 5% less than yesterday... but I see nothing exciting as usual.

In general, yeah. Never know when the base price of a restaurant may go up. That said, I'm not looking to book individual dinners for my cruise 10 months out. If it costs me an extra $8 in the end, so be it. I'd be more inclined to lock in the DBP, UDP, Internet, etc. farther in advance. Dinners require some planning. Just how I look at it of course. If others feel differently, that's cool too.

Some things seem to have been repriced higher. Mason Jar dinner on Wonder has been $39.99 full price for a very long time, so the standard 10% off made it $35.99. It is now listed with a $44.99 full price so the standard sale price is now $39.99.