SeeTheSeas18

Hi Campolady! Thanks so much for all the help and information you've put out here. I'm using it to put together our day in Malaga on our upcoming Transatlantic. We'll be there on Tuesday the 30th, so it's coming up fast!

We were originally planning on taking the bus or a taxi to the top of Gibralfaro and working our way down through Alcazaba and the Roman theater to Atarazanas, stopping at as many places as possible along the way to eat and drink.

However, I just found out that Gibralfaro doesn't open till 9:00. We dock at 7, and certainly don't want to waste any potential time in Malaga waiting around, so what would you do in that first portion of the day? I was thinking maybe walk past the Cathedral, get churros at Casa Aranda and follow that up with the Atarazanas Market (which should open at 8, right?), but I can't find consistent information of when Casa Aranda opens! I see 7:30, 8, and 8:30 depending on where I look. Do you happen to know when they really open? Or is there something else you'd recommend doing with that first portion of the day? Perhaps your favorite place for coffee or breakfast in Malaga?

We're in port from 7am to 6pm, so we don't get the chance to experience any Malaga nightlife or a proper dinner, but we certainly plan to partake in wine and tapas all afternoon! We're looking forward to visiting this beautiful city.

No need to call, just check in your cruise planner. And to be honest, you will have to check occasionally to find the best deal.

 

However, I will say that in 2018, I have seen no reports of anyone paying less than $45pp (plus 18%) for an OASIS class sailing. The smaller ships seem to be cheaper.

 

It all varies from sailing to sailing. I've paid as high as $55pp (plus 18%) buying in advance through cruise planner.

We paid $42 pp for our Symphony Transatlantic. We’ve seen the same price again a few times since we purchased.

Hahahahahaha, I guess in the eyes of some, I guess I am!!! The beverage package on one of my upcoming trips just went down to $42. That seems to be a good deal. I'm going to give it a try. My other sailings are still at $50.

It’s definitely a different atmosphere to have it! We knew we’d be getting it for our upcoming Transatlantic, regardless of the cost. To some people, getting a beverage package for a 12 night cruise just wouldn’t make sense as they don’t drink much at all, and certainly not for an extended time! But to us, it’s part of the atmosphere of a cruise. My brother gets the opportunity to try drinks he wouldn’t otherwise, my mom can get a new drink next to the hot tubs after hers melts. I would easily get the value out of it regardless, but for me the biggest factor is being able to order nicer liquor in every drink and having it be included - I’m a bit of a snob about my gin! Basically, getting it one time might ruin you for future cruises, like some people say about staying in suites.

Also, for what it’s worth, I certainly wouldn’t call four drinks on a sea day a big drinker. Like some have said, it’s easy to have a couple mimosas with breakfast, a Bloody Mary or an alcoholic specialty coffee to bring up to the pool deck, a beer or drink of the day with lunch, a couple frozen drinks over the course of the afternoon, a cocktail before dinner, a glass of wine or two with dinner, a cocktail at the shows, and drinks if you dance at night. That’s easily over 10 drinks on a sea day without ever even feeling tipsy! And not including specialty coffees, juices, smoothies, and getting a water botttle with each alcoholic drink. I’ll admit I’m a big drinker. But I don’t think you are. :p

Thanks for your review! Was there a favorite among the places you went for tapas in Barcelona? We’ll be on the Symphony for her Transatlantic in October, so that’s the only port we share, but I love hearing about the boat!

Also, if you happen to make it to Park Cafe, could you perhaps look to see if they sell specialty coffees there? I know they do on the oasis, but I’m not sure in the larger format.

Thanks again for the live review and taking time from your vacation to keep us Cruise Critic people informed.

Royal is pretty flexible on their deluxe package. If you enjoy particularly premium liquor or wine by the glass that is priced over the package allotment ($12 for smaller/older ships and $13 for newer ones), you only pay for the amount over the included amount. So a $16 glass of wine would cost you $3.54 (including gratuity) on the plan. It’s actually easier to get your value from the plan drinking things priced over the limit than it is drinking draft beers, as you’d be paying $18.88 for that glass of wine anyway!

While Royal’s official policy is that you aren’t allowed to bring on outside drinks, most people report being able to just put a luggage tag on a case of water and not having a problem.

So...this is going to be way too many words, but there are a number of factors involved in whether a package is worth it for you:

1) Do you drink a lot of bottled water? If you prefer bottled to tap, it is included in the package. This is only really relevant if bringing on a case proves prohibitively difficult or inconvenient. Or if you drink so much bottled water that you’d need multiple cases!

2) Do you drink specialty coffee? Lattes, cappuccinos, americanos, etc are included with the drink package. Without the drink package, these can add up. The only time coffee is not included is at the actual Starbucks locations on the Oasis class ships. It is included at various locations throughout the ship and with meals (including at specialty restaurants).

3) Do you like juices? Fresh squeezed orange juice is available with breakfast on the package, however glasses of basic from-a-bottle or concentrate-based juices are included in your cruise fare. If you’re on an Oasis class ship, squeezed to order juices with your choice of fruits and vegetables are included at Vitality Cafe. Vitality Cafe smoothies are also included. They can be a good way to feel like your getting in something healthy!

4) Do you drink soda? Soda is available by the can out of pocket. With any package, you get soda by the glass from any bar or restaurant. You also get a mug to use with the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines with any package - you cannot use these machines without a package, if they matter to you.

The four above are before you even get into the alcoholic options. If you drink a lot of soda, but no juice, bottled water, or coffee, the soda package might be worthwhile. I believe it costs about what 2-3 cans of soda per day would cost. If you like all those other options, plus mocktails and blended non-alcoholic drinks, you can often find the refreshment package on sale for $18 per person per day.

So if coffee, juice, smoothies, water, and non-alcoholic cocktails are worth $18/day to you, depending on the sale you get on the drink package you might get it for $48 per day. That’s $30 more, or a little over two specialty cocktails/blended drinks.

I actually purchased the package for $42/person/day, so sometimes you can find even better deals.

What would you want your port days to look like? Do you grab the fastest meal you can in the windjammer or get continental room service breakfast, then rush off the ship and not come back till the last minute, at which point you have just enough time to change for dinner, get a glass of wine with your meal and a cocktail with the show afterward? Then a drink package wouldn’t be close to worth it. Do you wake up early enough or leave the ship late enough that you’d want to start off the day with a latte or two, have fresh squeezed orange juice with breakfast (or a mimosa, it’s vacation!), grab a couple bottles of water to bring into the port, come back to a carrot orange ginger juice or a smoothie from vitality cafe, grab a blended drink poolside before sail away, a cocktail to take to your room before you change for dinner, a glass of wine or two with dinner, and another cocktail (or more) during the evening show or at the dance clubs? Then the drink package would more than pay for itself even on port days, and allow a lot more flexibility with what you order. It’s really up to what you want to do while on vacation, and how much money that is worth to you.

We’ll be renting a car to do the reverse (Miami to Disney World) after the Symphony Transatlantic. However, our original plan was to fly Southwest between FLL and MCO. Our particular date was unusually expensive (hence the switch), but I’ve seen that route be $50 a person. Southwest does include 2 checked bags if that matters to you.

Since you’re going to the theme parks, if you will be staying at a Disney-owned hotel immediately prior to when you need to travel, Disney does offer a free transportation service to MCO. The flight itself is only an hour. If you are taking Disney’s airport transportation, they often make you leave earlier than you usually would for your flight, but they pick you up right at your hotel.

With a larger group or a ton of luggage, renting a car can easily be the cheapest option. It can also be really convenient to Disney hotels: Disney has a National and an Alamo car rental location on property at what is called the Car Care Center. This is fairly near Magic Kingdom and should have a shuttle to the Ticketing and Transportation Center. Florida also doesn’t seem to charge for picking up your car at one location and dropping it off elsewhere. My car rental from MIA to the Car Care Center is less than $70, and that’s not even for the smallest cars. From everything I can tell, it’s a very easy drive as long as you’re willing to pay for a toll road.

I know a lot about Disney options, but not as much about transportation from around Universal or other theme parks. Though I know for a fact the on property Universal hotels do not offer free airport transportation. I also never bothered to look into shuttles in more detail: they seemed more expensive and more inconvenient than flying or renting a car for my purposes.

As far as questions go, can you check for me what specialty coffees may or may not be available in Park Cafe? I know when we were on the Oasis, Park Cafe had an espresso machine. It doesn’t look like the expanded layout on the Harmony or Symphony does, but I just want to be sure. We’ll be on deck 8 for the transatlantic, so it’d be nice to have such a convenient spot for a morning latte. Thanks!

As someone who has been a server at a restaurant in the US, you are VERY wrong about restaurants not spreading the tips around. The guest doesn’t see it, and many that haven’t worked in a restaurant don’t realize, but at the vast majority of places the server “tips out” to a number of other roles. The amount to each role and which get tipped out varies depending on the restaurant. In my experience, for the most part, the nicer the restaurant, the larger the tip outs. That 15-20% you tip your sever at a US restaurant gets split between them, bartenders, barbacks, bussers, foodrunners, hosts, etc. It’s usually based on a percentage of your sales, so when a table doesn’t tip, or tips a small amount, that table can actually end up COSTING the server money. Because they still have to give the down-the-line tips even when they received nothing themselves. At some places I’ve worked, tip outs have been about 10% of sales-so anything below that and the server is paying to serve you.

Just wanted to put that out there. You may not agree with American tipping culture, and that’s fine. But a lot goes on behind the scenes that you aren’t aware of. Stiffing some people out of spite towards the way things work may have unintended consequences. You’re more than welcome to reduce or remove tips, but realize that some people you never see will be working to ensure you have a fabulous vacation. And not getting paid for the assistance they give you.

Even if we stay on the ship on port days, I just can't drink that much alcohol!

The value for a lot of us isn’t just the alcohol.

On our upcoming transatlantic, I can get the refreshment package for $18/day on sale. For that, I can drink fresh squeezed orange juice, bottles of water (especially fabulous for the few port days we do have), fresh juices and smoothies at the vitality cafe, and specialty coffees - I love lattes and chais. By the time you have higher quality orange juice and a coffee or two in the morning and grab a bottle or two of water for those port days where it’s harder to get your value, it’s already close to that $18, and you’re not even back on the ship yet for a fresh squeezed celery-cucumber-ginger-whatever juice to cool you off when you get back from port, or a cappuccino or chai with dessert. And also not taking virgin cocktails into account.

From there, it’s $42/day for the alcohol package on the sale we found. That’s only $24/day more, or two alright glasses of wine with dinner, or a glass of wine with dinner and a cocktail at the show. I don’t think most people would say that’s a ton of alcohol.

It’s really up to the individual. I like being able to get a new drink if I left mine unattended. I like being able to get a coffee without the extra expense. Sure, I’d drink fewer alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks if I didn’t have the package. I would think about the cost of something and whether I really needed it. But with it, I can get what I want to have. It might be a LITTLE more money over what I’d spend otherwise, but it goes a long way to making things feel far more all inclusive.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I took a look at a navigator as suggested - the daytime events on some of the sea days are definitely less packed in than the Oasis class ships. I don’t want to end up being in the theater all for multiple movies just to not feel bored! Then again, it could probably be said that I need to learn to relax on vacations. :P

The midship detective agency does sound like a lot of fun, though. We enjoyed both the pirates scavenger hunt and sorcerers of the magic kingdom on our trip to Disney World last year, and this sounds like it’s in the spirit of those.

Mixology and cooking classes also sound right up my alley! What are the prices usually like on the mixology classes? I know the ones they offer at Epcot’s Food and Wine festival are usually fairly pricy.

Thanks again for the help! I’ll go over a few navigators with my family and see what the consensus is

Firstly, I apologize for posting another of this sort of thread. I’m sure I’m just another in a long line of people asking others to validate their cruise choices.

My family is entirely adults. It would be my brother and I (both in our 20s) and my mom (in her 50s). We’ve cruised on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas a few years ago and will be cruising the new Symphony of the Seas when she makes her transatlantic crossing this October. We’re planning on booking another cruise (together with a short jaunt at Disney World) for Fall of 2019.

Originally, I was planning on booking the Harmony of the Seas out of Port Canaveral. I was thinking I would book us in a suite-level accommodation for the first time so we could take advantage of all the perks that offers. Then my brother mentioned doing a Disney Cruise (specifically the Fantasy) in a more basic stateroom instead and essentially derailed my planning/train of thought.

To be completely clear, I love Disney. My mom loves Disney. My brother loves Disney. We did two weeks at Disney World last year in addition to me having a Disneyland annual pass and making the trek at least once a month.

Everything I see of the small touches on Disney ships just melts my heart. They seem fabulous and detailed through and through. Each restaurant in the rotational dining list seems fabulously themed and exciting.

My worry is that I don’t know if there’s much for adults to DO on a Disney cruise. I’ve never been a laze-around-the-pool kind of person. We hit the parks pretty hard when we visit Disney. On our Oasis cruise, I probably spent half of each Sea day on the FlowRider, and the other half finding some different activity. There’s so many different things to do, I worry I’d be bored on a smaller ship.

It seems evenings are completely fine, between dinner, shows, and adults-only lounges. My problem is during the day.

If I don’t want to lounge by the pool all day and I’ve already met my favorite character or two and done the Aquaduck a couple times, what is left for active and/or younger adults on a Disney Cruise during a sea day? And would you recommend it over a Royal Caribbean Oasis class Suite? It seems like Disney does the “little touches” so well...but Royal has so many BIG touches, even if they’re not as well executed.

Thanks for your patience, and thanks in advance for any help! :)

 

 

 

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That looks like it’s not the Royal IQ app, but a newer RCI app they’re rolling out. From what I’ve read, this newer app doesn’t have on board texting functionality-at least not yet. RoyalIQ should still function on ships that were compatible, but that’s a different list.

Look again they did not mention deck 9.

 

CP can be pretty but I have been on 2 Oasis class ships and so many times either looking up or down never saw many folks on balcony even with pretty view.

 

But folks do use balconies on boardwalk.

 

In any case many choices.

All the Central Park View interior rooms (which the OP was asking about) are on deck nine. These are the rooms with the bay window overlooking Central Park, as opposed to being a balcony room.

I agree with previous posters that said the Central Park View is much better than the promenade: in fact, this was the type of room we chose for our first cruise years ago. The bay window is lovely to have over a standard interior room: it makes it feel much larger and more open. And the Central Park is my personal favorite neighborhood. The promenade and boardwalk can get loud and busy, and while there are certainly more people passing by on the promenade if you’re into people-watching, I see that as a downside. Plus, there’s something so magical about sitting in that cozy little bay window at night, looking out at the peaceful trees and lights of Central Park, and needing to remind yourself that all this is on a cruise ship. The promenade is a little too Mall-like for me to want a view of it from my room.

You’d probably have the most luck to posting this sort of thing to our roll call. It’s got quite a few people signed up, and people have talked about getting groups together for tours and such before, both pre- and during the cruise.

I might even send her an email saying how much you appreciate her assistance and ask if there’s anything she might want-like a particular chocolate, a scarf, or even something more practical. Some people might feel that’s tacky, but if you’re set on giving a gift with such limited space in crew quarters, at least you’d know she wouldn’t immediately have to throw it away.

Bar staff is not “culinary service staff.” That’s your wait staff and other people at the included restaurants that are behind the scenes. Nothing to do with drinks. For the package, you pay the 18% bar gratuity on the package price rather than each individual drink.

OK working on the basis we are good... here's the hotel room and views. It really was great and set us up for the whole holiday.

 

 

 

view from the 20th floor lift/elevator

 

Please can someone confirm you are getting these ok? thanks

I can see all these pictures, so you’re all good. Looking forward to your review, as we’re on the Symphony TA in October.

Correct...and one of the many features about the Harmony that I dislike. Not a fan of this ship at all and I'll assume Symphony will be the same.

I’ll be on her transatlantic, so I’ve been doing a lot of reading and watching a lot of videos on the symphony as information has been coming out over the last few days. This is not the case on the Symphony of the Seas- Royal acknowledged the backlash. From what I’ve seen in the videos, I personally find the solarium pool a lot prettier than the one I remember on the Oasis- it’s sort of built into the stairs to the lower floor of the solarium, creating a sort of split-level feel that I personally like.

Both of Harmony's big sisters, Oasis and Allure, have adult only pools in the solarium. You could see about transferring to one of those ships.

As does their newest ship, the Symphony. With the Symphony you keep the slides and escape room if those were of interest to you. The Symphony also has Laser Tag. If considering changing ships, check the differences in available dining, entertainment, and activities first. If the newer amenities aren’t your speed, you may prefer the more open look of the back of the boardwalk on the Oasis and Allure without the ultimate abyss in the way.

All the Oasis class ships have the four pools on the pool deck (the main pool, beach pool, sports pool, and kids pool). All except Harmony have a small pool in the solarium. And, like I said before, that’s not even taking hot tubs into account. My favorite spot is in the cantilevered hot tubs that push out over the edge of the ship. They’re fabulous at night. You’ll have a lot of options, no matter which you go with. That’s kind of the name of the game with the Oasis class. :P

That stinks! We really wanted to try the bigger ship and it was the only that worked with the itinerary and time we could go but since we spent about 80% of the cruise in the pool or lounging at the pool, may need to go back to the smaller ships.

There’s still the pool deck and its 4 separate pools for poolside lounging, as well as hot tubs inside and outside the solarium. There is just not a pool inside the adults-only solarium itself. It’s not ideal, but you won’t be stuck without water to dip into if you’re so inclined.