OCSC Mike

I think we had this conversation, lol.

That's what my wife does... so I get up with her but my version of exercise is walking to the DL/CL for coffee and then somewhere for "pre-breakfast." I love walking through the ship in the early hours. Central Park is very peaceful and I often go to Park Cafe when it opens at 6:30am.

No, not that early... but I do empty the grounds at least once on most cruises. I consider it a necessary skill. 😁

That's usually my experience. I usually sail with low top tier numbers (spring break and summer on boring itineraries) and wake up very early. I'm lucky if I see another human when I get my coffee.

Agree with this. @silversneakers If you haven't gathered from the wide range of responses by now, food is very subjective, so pick the restaurant that looks most appealing your family's tastes.

Highly unlikely but thanks. That's great for those who frequent the casino and the coffee voucher is nice if it's in addition to a coffee machine.

That doesn't surprise me. It's the 15 minute range that got me, lol.

I think this still varies by ship. I was a little surprised to see my early dining was still 5:30 on Allure next week (according to my invoice). The app says 5:15-5:30... no idea what that means exactly... we'd like you there at 5:15 but 5:30 is OK? 🤷‍♀️

That's great! We usually don't even like walking through the casino b/c it can be so bad.

I'm just going by the app menu. It could easily be wrong. Haven't tried Kitchen yet either. We're 7 points away from D+ (2 after next week). We'll likely try it with a BOGO on Wonder this summer after we get there.

Pretty sure it's something like this. I have cruises with say $150 in OBC where $100 is already showing and my TA has told me the other $50 will show up onboard on day 2 (as mentioned earlier).

Ours too. Will be eating there on Allure in 6 days. 😋

I did get that the last couple times as my app. Good stuff. Even the pickled veggies on the side are good. Years ago when calamari was only on the lunch menu, I asked for it and got it at dinner. Then I started getting a "sorry, we can't" so I switched to the meat & cheese, blessing in disguise. Now they have calamari on the dinner menu... so I think I'll have to get both. 😋

Definitely and can be very good at times. I care more about food than the average cruiser but glad someone else appreciates them.

I hate saying no but I avoid the casino like the plague. My gambling days are behind me and I can't stand the smoke. We pop in to use our free play (now in the tiny non-smoking casino) and that's it. If you have any food-related chores, let me know. 😁

Hey, we have early traditional dining and I'd like to think we're still young-ish, lol. We just don't like the MDR much, never have, so I don't mind filling up on snacks unless we have a specialty dinner planned. And of course I don't exactly "fill up" how I eat, lol. We eat early so we can eat more later before WJ closes... or sometimes just go to the WJ to begin with. And we prefer to have the rest of the night free for shows or activities.

I feel like I've posted this a dozen times already. Some of us really enjoy the happy hour snacks there. It has nothing to do with drinks or the room for me (which is usually the windowless basement but will actually be the nice one on Allure next week). I never order drinks there. I won't complain (they have the right to change rules so there's no point) but I will be disappointed if I can't pop in for the snacks next week on Allure. Will it ruin my cruise? Of course not. But I will miss going there for maybe 30 mins to have some hors d'oeuvres that I can't get elsewhere before dinner.

I hope you assured them that there is plenty of great free stuff and that the seagulls will attack their food just like on the boardwalk. 🤣

Great service, upgraded food, comfort, shade, access to the beach club, pool, etc. OTW cabanas have a few other nice features & great views. You’re kind of comparing apples to oranges. I spent many summers at the Jersey shore growing up & it was what you described. Beach club cabanas are a different experience than “sitting on the beach.” Mostly playing devil’s advocate as we love CocoCay without spending anything except tips for voucher drinks but I have been treated to a cabana twice & it was a great experience both times. People should spend whatever they want on whatever they personally deem worth it. I may not personally understand paying for an expensive car but I understand it brings them some form of happiness. Their money, their preference. All that said, as a frugal guy who loves CocoCay for free, if you have 8 people, the lower prices from this thread seem a lot more reasonable to me than the 3-4K I’ve been seeing.

We won prizes on Wonder in June. Not just pens & highlighters but some stuff I hadn’t seen before like stress balls & drink koozies.

We both always get the filet and a pasta (wife actually gets risotto but close enough). I would order the gnocchi if I didn't like carbonara so much. I can eat but double pasta plus a steak sandwiched between an app and dessert is a bit much, lol.

Those are new to me and look interesting. Thanks for the food porn. Enjoy Giovanni's (our favorite).

Cheap, more convenient for retired people without kids to sail in October, new cruisers are less likely to go on Jewel than Wonder... I think there are many obvious reasons.

I never experience numbers like that how and when we sail. Wonder in June/July had maybe 500-600 total D, D+, and P on the multiple weeks I saw numbers for (including my own cruise in early June).

That was actually close to the very 1st thing we did in Alaska. We flew into Fairbanks fairly late in the evening, had dinner, and went to sleep after what was obviously a long day... so we could get up at like 5am to drive north along the pipeline across the arctic circle. We stopped just across the line though, took some similar pictures, had cake with "permafrosting" to celebrate with our tour guide, then thankfully flew back. Ironically, that was one of our warmest days out of the 18, crossing the arctic circle. I have an online acquaintance who is a hunting/fishing guide somewhere near the Kenai peninsula. Could be around there but I'm not sure. I have a standing offer to go see him... but I made sure that he knew that we would love to go around to see the animals, we just have no interesting in killing them, lol. He was of course fine with that.