Russ Lomas

It is great when you book the panoramic cabins right above them. Just down the stairs and you are in the spa.

RCCL has cancelled all the stops in Bonaire for the Explorer and cut out the entire morning in Curaçao for all summer sailings on the Explorer (and added Grand Cayman). We, too, booked specifically for the THREE ABC islands, but RCCL messed us up. They offered to let us switch to the ABC sailing on the Mariner, which they did not change, but they said we had to pay "prevailing rates" which were triple what we booked the cruise at.

The massive showers in them are great as well. On the times when we had 4 people staying in one cabin, I often showered and got dressed in that area for formal nights

Everything I have read says that the sauna and steam room facilities still exist on the Explorer for free use. Fingers crossed. We sail on her in less than 2 weeks and this is one of the features I love about that class of ship before they refurbished them and removed them.

August 4th for our tests with Lifecenters. I wanted my in-laws to book it as well, but they are concerned it will be too difficult to do virtually themselves. Instead, they are paying double and driving 40 minutes to do it at Costco.

Thanks for the positive review. We booked with them to do our testing in a couple of weeks prior to our next cruise. Fingers crossed the experience is as good as your experience was and that everyone tests negative.

We asked about this. What you had were Bay Scallops, not Sea Scallops. Very different. The most notable difference, that you found out, is the Bay Scallops are way smaller.

You may have been talking with Celistino from Advance Car rental. We have used his service the past two visits and are booked with him again for August. By far the best rental service you will ever get. No need for a 4x4 on Curacao. Roads are good. We toured the majority of the island up to the northwest point our last visit.

That is the exact cabin we had booked for March 2020. Dang it! Glad you got to enjoy it at least. Thanks for sharing the unicorn photos

The poster who you were replying to was talking about CP and BW "view" cabins. These are listed as interior cabins, but are more spacious and have a window, not a balcony, so they do not qualify for the balcony discount.

Or adopt a child under 18 who has already achieved Diamond status 🤣

Thanks for the info. I had no idea they moved the screen to that location on the Wonder. Glad we are booked on the Oasis and not the Wonder (not that I would ever book the Wonder because it only has one Flowrider for that many passengers).

What is different about the CP balconies on the Wonder as opposed to other Oasis class ships? We have not had either a CP or Boardwalk balcony before. We had the choice of either for an upcoming cruise on the Oasis and I jumped at the CP option (it was cheaper than an interior cabin). I love the tranquility of CP and the live musicians that play there (quietly) and look forward to enjoying this from the balcony. I find the Boardwalk too noisy to be sitting out enjoying that balcony. The CP balconies are also much better located in terms of being in the middle of the ship, so less movement and so much closer to the stairs and elevators.

That is exactly what I wanted to hear. We will book them for our August cruise as well.

We did Izumi for the first time back in March on the Odyssey. We had a choice of à la carte or the $34.99 meal you mentioned. We went with the $34.99 meal. I was worried that I would leave hungry. I was stuffed. Found the food very good and really enjoyed that meal more than we expected.

We will be sailing the Explorer for the first time this summer as well. From my research and knowledge, I can offer some answers. Waterslides - no - they should have been added in the 2020 drydock but that was cancelled due to the global shutdown. Free steam room - should still be there (til they remove it when it goes into drydock next) - loved the free sauna, free steam room, and massive showers in the gym/spa area on the Explorer's sister ships Laser tag - once again was to be added in the drydock that never occured, so no Smoking in the casino - likely permitted - just one of the reasons we never enter the casino Yes you can go to the very front of the ship to the helipad I have heard that the Flowrider is one of the best in the fleet. I spend many hours there surfing, so I am looking forward to this on the Explorer (the one on the Odyssey was not good)

Looks like it is out of service from February 18th til April 1st. We were told that our January sailing on the Mariner was cancelled due to it going into dry dock, but they later corrected that incorrect email they sent all of us and said that they had just decided to cancel all the January - mid-February sailings on the Mariner since it was actually replacing the Independence sailings (which is going into dry dock) in January 2023. Not sure what the plans are for the Mariner, but she was the first ship to be Amplified, so I would not expect them to do any major amplification type work on the Mariner, since many other ships (Allure, Explorer, Allure, Voyager) have not yet been amplified once yet

Not sure if it is something you would consider or not, or how good the service is, but I booked my daughter 2 seats on the Flix bus from Ravenna (where they disembark the Rhapsody in 3 weeks) to go right into Venice. The cost is under 10 Euros each. It is a direct bus which takes 3 hours and 5 minutes. Looks like the timing going to Ravenna is in the afternoon, so it may not work for you. For my daughter, they offer a 9:20 am bus from Ravenna to Venice.

Did you mean a 70's dance party, or 80's like you said? Always hoping that RCCL would start moving onto the next decade for their parties, but when you say the Village People, I assume they are still doing the 70's party

You will not get a cent refunded from RCCL. Best bet you have is to see if there are any available cabins that you can move your cabins to so that you are closer together. Since you paid for the right to "select" a cabin and not have them select it, you can change your cabin choice to another currently available cabin. If you have a good travel agent, they will take care of this for you.

Only one flowrider on the Wonder and 2 on the Oasis. I will not be booking the Wonder.

My experience with "advanced" stand-up sessions echos most of what others have said here. They usually give a guest 2 chances to load themselves, with no assistance offered at all. If you can do that and manage to competently stand for about 30 seconds, you got your blue band. Some staff members made the person carve turns, but some did not. What really sucks for the "advanced" sessions on the ships with only one wave is that those trying to earn their bands did so in the "advanced" session and ate up a ton of the one-hour session because the employees were talking to the newbie riders and taking 5 minutes to explain it to each of them. This should be done in the mixed wave sessions, not the so-called "advanced" sessions. A first timer has no reason being on the wave in an "advanced" session. The staff members often told those who did not get the blue band to book a lesson session. We found that those who did PAY for the lesson, almost always were given a blue band, regardless of their ability to load themselves competently or ride for 30 seconds.

I will gladly swap you your day in Bonaire for my recently added day in Grand Cayman (due to the cancellation of Bonaire on our cruise). Would you please mind calling RCCL and suggesting this so that they can do the switch and make all of us happy? 😉 that was the port we were looking forward to the most. We do not plan to cancel because of the amazing deal we go on the cruise, but I will keep my fingers crossed that it gets switched back sometime before we sail (it has happened on some cruises I have had booked, including one last month).

We got the email (bummer) last week. It still shows on the September 3rd cruise for you (for now) and it also still shows Bonaire on the Mariner's August 13th sailing (the Mariner is supposed to be there exactly 7 days after we were scheduled to be there). People said it was because Bonaire changed some of their Covid protocols for dealing for ship passengers. I emailed Michael Bayley's office on the weekend, just asking why our sailing would be changed but not the Mariner sailing, but have not received a response yet.

Very disappointed (and confused) to have just received an email from our travel agent to inform us that the Mariner of the Seas is going into dry dock. Why the dry dock is going to take 2 1/2 months, I am not sure? It was just amplified in 2018.