BillOh

As usual, we stayed at the Radisson near the port. There maybe better, but it suits us and I frequently stick with what works. We arrived and our room was ready and we got our shuttle to the port set up. Cruise morning arrived and we were on a 10:30 shuttle to the port. Port Canaveral especially terminal 1 is a well run terminal. We arrived at 11am for our 11:30 checkin and we were on board by 11:10am. Not bad at all! On most cruises we put our swim suits in our carry on and hit the pool, but since this was a new to us ship we went off exploring, right after a slice at Sorrento’s right after we boarded. I was dissatisfied with the fact that they no longer do the custom personal pizzas at this Sorrento’s like they did on Allure and Oasis (don’t remember symphony) The pizzas was the ok stuff Royal has served for the past 15 years or so. My wife is the queen of all cruise ship pools so we did make our way up there to check out the pool deck. The Splashaway bay catches your eye right away, seems like a great area for kids, but we didn’t use it. We did identify the ice cream station, all the pools, where the Windjammer was, and we toured the Solarum. My wife the sun worshipper didn’t want to spend any time in the encloses solarium, but it was a nice area to retreat to if we had any rain, which we only did for a few minutes. I did notice that there was only one Cantilevered hottub on this ship and it had a glass edge to it below the water line. Where the other tub is on other Oasis class ships is a bar. I do remember seeing the first clam shell type beds on Oasis when she debuted. Wonder had several more in her solarium and several other “premium seating” around the pool. There was a few nice beds, I think they called them casista’s on the pool deck, similar to a beach bed on Coco Cay or Labadee that you could rent for what I consider an exorbitant amount of money. I never saw them occupied, but I did hear a few people say they were always chasing people out of theirs. On our initial walk through we did inspect the boardwalk, Central Park, the Promenade, and the Windjammer. We avoided the WJ at first since we boarded late, but after hearing about the new WJ

Once again Roll calls played a big part of my cruise joining a super active roll call and helping it grow. As my signature shows we are experienced cruisers (first D+ cruise) , but there were people that had already been on Wonder multiple times before (We have been on Allure twice, Oasis, and Symphony before) I also started a thread on CC called – STARTING MY WONDER RESEARCH and that helped a lot. As much to pass time as to learn stuff! We have now made 9 cruises out of Port Canaveral and 8 of those have been road trips. This year was no exception. The major difference is I was burning up all my year’s vacation almost all at once. We left 5 days before our cruise to visit some family in Orlando before heading to the cruise. We started our trip 6am on a Tuesday and that I think turned out to be a great idea. There was almost no traffic the entire 976 miles! We planned on stopping between Savannah, GA and Jacksonville, FL, but when the GPS said 10pm arrival on Captain Morgan Drive in Orlando, I called my brother in law and asked if we could come in that night! We made it just before 10pm! Oh, it seems like every time we make this drive, something noteworthy happens. This time, we took a golden shower on I-95! I had just stopped at a gas station and filled up and cleaned all the windows. Just as we were entering Georgia on I95 we came up on a large cattle truck. As I was looking for an opportunity to pass it, we started driving into this yellow mist. It seemed like at least several cows started urinating at one and created this golden storm on the highway. Good thing the AC was on recirculate. While visiting with family and waiting for my new cruise friends to arrive, a lot of attention was spent on watching the news for the Boeing Starliner launch. Delayed several times, it was scheduled for the day most of us were to arrive in the Port Canaveral area and we all feared a manned launch would really crowd things. I was there for the last Saturn V launch back in the 70s, so no doubt it would make traffic a nightmare. I guess its fortunate for us, that the launch was delayed again and as of this writing, this still hasn’t happened. (Launched as I was typing) One of my cruise traditions around Port Canaveral is to have dinner/drinks at Fishlips the evening before our sailing and watch the ships leave the port. That was another wonderful experience again this year! I was about to start talking about boarding day, but I must go back and blast Royal’s IT department a little bit. We are always FIRST ON BOARD people and always try to get on the ship ASAP. One of the several IT screw ups came when checked in for our cruise finally arrived. I’ve been using the same log in and password for at least 10 years. I got up at Midnight to check in to the cruise and pick my boarding time, but was told my password was incorrect. I knew it wasn’t, but checked my typing carefully. I figured this was ANOTHER Royal IT SNAFU and went to bed. At 7am, I got up, got the same error so I relented and reset my password, only to find out the earliest check in was 11:30. I was furious at the time, but it worked out ok.

I always start my reviews with a lot of background information, so feel free to skip down to the pictures! (Speaking of pictures, my reviews are usually stocked with them, but this time I left my camera home and only used my cell phone. (This was real hard for me) So I think there will be less pictures and not as many WOW pictures.) Our first cruise as Diamond + was supposed to occur in the spring of 2023 on Wonder of the Seas, but life got in the way. My wife lost her job of 43 years and threw our financial plans into chaos, but she had already put in her retirement date, so this ended up being a year of paid severance and then she was allowed to retire. With that stabilized and my retirement date set we decided to book Wonder for 5/26/24. Normally we book for the last days of April and first days of May because our anniversary is there, but Wonder was doing the Western Itinerary that week and I wanted to do my first return to St Martin post shut down. We decided to make this our official retirement cruise as when we returned I would have just 14 work days left in my full time working career. I may or may not be writing this review in my final work hours 😊 My 65th birthday is also just a couple of days away. So this was a real cruise celebration. Being as old as I am, I remember when the school year didn’t start till after labor day and remained in session until after Memorial Day. I didn’t realize at first, how many kids would be on board. Step away from the reply button! I know this is a family cruise line and this is one of their top family ships. We are empty nesters and try to cruise at times when there are less kids on board and I messed up this time. That said, the Oasis class if big enough for everyone. It was never a big problem and only had one or two minor encounters with small ones! There were far more positive interactions.

Got back from Wonder late last night, good trip more detail soon, I usually do BLUE COLLAR DIAMOND reviews, will work on that today

Hi Nancy! Heading to magic kingdom today!

Sunday the 26th.

Hello all, after all the wait, I am here in Orlando relaxing for a few days before the cruise. Thanks for getting me this far!

By the way, 24 hours from now, we are on the road!

Yes, as prepared as I need to be. I did learn something new watching her sailaway yesterday. I have loved the cantilevered s since they came out on Freedom. The ones on Allure, Oasis and Sypmhony look nice, but I think I spotted on Wonder the glass goes all the way to the bottom making it an infinity hottub?

My last Oasis class and my next one together today. I think they will do that again in 2 weeks when I get back.

After all this waiting, finally my first cruise at D+. I had thought on my last trip as Diamond they just automatically use the first (then 4, now 5) drinks against your vouchers. I thought I didn't even say anything on Mariner and would get back a 0$ receipt.

How much for loungers on the south end of Orient? Current taxi rates from cruise port to Orient?

Watch here on CC for another BLUE COLLAR DIAMOND + review here around June 6th or so. I think my last cruise planning decision is to decide if I am still taking my camera (Canon) or leave it home and just use my phone. My phone usually goes in the safe as soon as we leave port, but now with needing to use their app so much I might have to have it out quite a bit.

480 hours till we cruise on Wonder of the Seas. 672 work hours left.

Wonder is docking in St Thomas and people on board say the Dominican Republic stay has canceled, they appear to be on the normal eastern itinerary for Wonder, but skipping Coco Cay (as planned)

I was checking on Wonder's position this morning expecting to see her approaching San Juan for the first time in a long time, but she just turned into St Thomas Crown Bay. Quick search says something closed the port of San Juan, didn't see anything here yet.

Thanks for your participation! About the time you board, I will likely be headed back up I-95 near Georgia. Boy I sure don't want to think about this cruise being over! By the way, are you going to the Crew game on May 25?

I want to thank everyone who participated in this thread! I've enjoyed it a lot and I accomplished what I set out to do when I started it. 1. I killed time waiting for this cruise. 2.,I did learn quite a bit about a ship I haven't been on and learned a few things that has changed since my last Royal cruise of 2022, and a few things new about this Oasis class. Thanks.

I did hear that somewhere else as well, a planned annual event. Not to old to learn something new.

For no good reason other than curiosity and time on my hands, is anything special going on at Coco Cay during the subject days? We leave on Wonder is just about 4 weeks so I have been tracking her every movement for the past 8 months. Normally whether on her east or western itinerary she usually is at Coco Cay on Monday. I noted this week when she should be doing her normal Coco Cay, St Thomas, and St Martin itinerary, which is our 5/26 itinerary, that she is/was going to Nassau/ a port in the Dominican Republic, San Juan and Labadee. (I know she isn't going to to Labadee) But I was wondering why the one week change to this itinerary I checked and it APPEARS to me no ships are at Coco Cay for 3 days and I haven't seen that before. Someone charter a ship/island for a few days? I've seen some special concerts here in the past. Obviously I don't need to know, I am curious. Save the Why do you want to know posts! 😛

Coming into this thread late, not going to read all the messages, just skimming. Has anyone mentioned how far out Royal has already canceled visits to Labadee. (Now that I have posted, I will keep watching posts from here on.)

I've enjoyed enchanment, I guess the numbers didn't work out for them to stretch more of this class.

I forget was the old Legend a Soverign, or Vision class?

I didn't know that! Interesting

Nice info, not that I asked what the reason was, you don't say, just mention "the reason" I know as @gatour said its a registration of convenience, which is understandable. The main question was are there rules about that and specifically do they have to return to the home port ever?