OCSC Mike

Hey now! You don't have to be THAT old to have used those. 🤣

You can look up the current sailing's schedule in the app to get a general idea. Just click "select a different cruise", choose Indy, and select the current dates.

We actually had a younger kid do something similar in the DL on Indy last summer, lol. Apparently he takes a lot of weekend cruises and had anointed himself assistant concierge or something. I was so taken aback by the absurdity that I think I laughed and walked right past him. It was embarkation day and we were just killing time in between lunch and rooms being ready too. I guess he was very protective of the empty room and coffee machine. 🤷‍♀️

South Beach beds are listed on my next 3 cruises (sold out but listed).

Some people also never go to the casino or WJ and wear far more casual clothes to the MDR every night, including formal night, than you choose to. Both you and them are doing nothing wrong and everyone should enjoy their cruise and their MDR meals.

No need to worry but we can hope, right? 👀 Wait, I think I may have taken that the wrong way.

Agree with this.

Maybe you should move there... oh wait. 😁

Enchantment out of Tampa in the winter. 😁 I think I've had this conversation before. If I compare apples to apples, the prices for my Wonder interior assignable cabins were several hundreds less per person than what I see on the RC site (especially March). You likely know more than I do about this stuff. Maybe cabin type or solo has something to do with it? Maybe I got lucky? 🤷‍♀️

Pretty sure there were OV balcony GTYs at one point. Not sure if they still exist. Someone else will know.

It's no big secret, @Ourusualbeach has mentioned them several times... TA group rates with a little OBC thrown in (which is new territory for me, as mentioned above, I'm used to booking myself using last minute deals, GGG, etc.). My March 2024 Wonder cruise actually had a very reasonable rate (based on current Wonder prices at least, not past deal prices) but that was total dumb luck. That's my teacher wife's spring break so it wasn't like I said "I'm flexible, got any good deals?" I mentioned that we also wanted to cruise in summer 2024 and my TA actually had the same rate in August but schools here start in August so I had to clarify that I really meant June/July, preferably June. My price isn't as good for June 2024 but it was acceptable to us. Also, unless we are able to sneak in another cruise (a long shot), that June cruise will be our first as D+. Oh, and one last thing that makes the prices more palatable to me... these are refundable deposit assignable cabins. I previously booked almost nothing but GTYs, which was obviously fine with me, but choosing my cabin holds SOME value and the refundable deposit is obviously also beneficial now that I'm booking much farther out. I joked with him that I'm used to booking after final payment, a deposit of any kind isn't even a thing for me, lol (until now). Hope this helps.

I give it a quick glance just to see if anything non-NE has been added then move on. As a bargain hunter, I will miss the flier deals (which I actually used on my last 3 cruises). Thankfully I have found another avenue to keep me cruising at what I consider acceptable prices... they're just not the deals of past years obviously.

Certain categories (like yours) are obviously limited to a much more specific range of locations, which is certainly a plus. When I was booking interior GTYs, I could wind up all over the ship.

This will always be one of the biggest factors. Different strokes... which is one of the reasons it's great they have so many options. We have location preferences but have never once had a cruise ruined b/c of cabin location. We did come close to getting a cabin in what we would consider one of our least desirable locations last July... but I likely could have switched and, as it turned out, we won a small Royal Up that made the original assignment moot.

That's crappy then and wouldn't be appealing to me even if I was willing to spend more.

I'll only be playing the role of suite guest one last time next week for the foreseeable before returning to the frugal cruise life but this makes a lot of sense to me. It may be factored into the price, of course, but the Oasis class suite perks were what I enjoyed last year and am looking forward to next week (nothing against the room, it was very nice). Without them it would be far less of an enhanced experience to me. Personal preferences, as always.

Choice is your casino status (everyone starts at Choice if they have ever played, even just to use your free play money).

This is true. The OP is from the US (going by their location at least).

This made me think of a Pinnacle couple my wife & I met a long time ago during the old DL happy hour. They were easily twice our age & magnitudes wealthier (clearly an assumption by me but I know my finances at the time & from the info I had to go on, I’m comfortable with it). We must have chatted with them for nearly two hours & they could not have been more down to earth telling us about spending months at sea enjoying simple aspects of the ship. We weren’t heavily into cruising yet so it was fascinating at the time. The conversation only ended because they had dinner reservations. Now that I recall that story, I feel bad for not saying hi on Harmony. Perhaps we’ll cross paths again when I’m not with extended family & you’re done with your world cruise segments & 45-day Aussie adventures & back to sailing boring Caribbean itineraries.

I have booked plenty of interior guarantees (that's letting RC pick your room) to save money over the years b/c my wife and I don't care a great deal about our cabin. It's just a place to sleep, shower, and get changed for us. Naturally sometimes we've liked our location more than other times. Once officially assigned your cabin, you are free to call and switch to any other cabin in the same exact category (assuming any are available). The ability to switch has always made it even less of a big deal for us. Now, all that said... since prices have gone up, the last minute deals I used to get are no longer available. So I now use a TA to book farther out who has gotten me rates below the GTY rates on the RC website except they are for assignable cabins and the deposits are refundable... making it a no-brainer. Hope that helps.

I think you're right. We enjoyed our time on Indy in July and October and I'm still OK with anything Voyager class and above but even on Freedom class I did miss some Oasis class features. My appreciation of and preference for only driving an hour to PC isn't going anywhere though.

I initially thought Brightline would make me look at South Florida, and of course I will, but once I saw some general details (price, length of the train ride, etc.) and thought about the other details like luggage, I started thinking it's only slightly less of a pain in the ass than driving myself to Ft. Lauderdale, which I have no interest in doing.

I wish I could book more... anything. 🤣

That's funny, I've always ignored Tampa b/c I'm really not a fan of anything below Voyager class. That said, as prices for just about anything out of PC went up, I did find some good deals out of Tampa and asked about the port here on CC not too long ago. I pretty much got the response you gave... easy to deal with. It doesn't really fit our schedule and likely won't happen, but we do have a "bonus cruise" in mind if certain things shake out the right way. We rationalized taking a smaller ship by planning to do longer excursions in nearly every port. As evidenced by my cruise history, we're content bouncing around the Caribbean enjoying the ship and love CocoCay but that's always on a larger ship. The other bonus would be that we'll be exactly 7 points away from D+ in 3 weeks so I certainly wouldn't mind getting there before the Wonder cruises we have on the books. 😁 Different strokes as usual. Maybe later in life we'll care more about seeing new ports.

The time difference could definitely explain it. We always choose the 10:30 check-in as we do like to be among the first to board. Born and raised in the Philly burbs btw. I keep going back and forth between whether it's a good or bad time to be a Philly sports fan. Orlando City is the only local team I support b/c they originated while I lived here and I didn't follow MLS when I left Philly 23 years ago.