bajathree

Just make sure your not staying during a weekend of an art fest or boat parade.

Not all room have balconies....only rooms in the newer wing.

Solstice series with a little bit of a "stretch" to it....thats the Royal Caribbean'ized part...lol

Odyssey (quantum class) is a Solstice series ship that has just been Royal Caribbean'ized....they both were built by Meyer Werft. We love Odyssey just for that reason...it has that Celebrity feel to it.

No

Yes....in the past when I have usually done a GTY...closer to the sail date after final due date if I didn't like what was assigned to me I would usually see a price drop to the point that I could just make a change to an assigned category for the same price I had paid or maybe for $100/pp or less. No more...it seems that Royal is mostly keeping their assigned category pricing high and stable and just putting out GTY's at a very discounted rate compared to assigned cabins. Also in the past I have always been assigned a cabin when booking a GTY within days to a few weeks....even if the sailing was months out...not anymore....at least with this Wonder sailing and from what I have been reading....they aren't assigning GTY's till much closer to sail date now. Or they are assigning them but aren't telling you what the cabin is....as I have been hearing from people that once you check into your sailing and download your sea pass to your Apple wallet you will find coding and be able to often see what your cabin is going to be even though when you look up your sailing in the app or on-line under your account it will still show as a GTY....sometimes till a week or even days prior to your sailing. If you remember....spring break last year it was Wonder that had a few overbooked sailings....effecting people mostly that did GTY cabins. I am now wondering....no pun intended....that they used Wonder for a new pricing strategy going to this new pricing model....and working the kinks out lead to the overbooking that seemed to only been effecting Wonder.

On my upcoming Wonder sailing GTY cabins in all categories have consistently been running a 40% savings over an assigned cabin....HUGE price difference.

No pool in the solarium on Harmony was a deal breaker for me.

What I have noticed trending more recently is a huge price difference between GTY cabins verse an assigned cabin, Following my current April Wonder sailing....with many cabins still available in both Neighborhood balcony and Oceanview balcony.....they are asking double the pricing for assigned in both categories compared to booking an assigned. I don't ever remember pre-covid a disconnect between pricing like that. I remember pre-covid booking most GTY cabins saving maybe a couple hundred bucks maybe compared to an assigned....not what I am seeing now like where an assigned is saving thousands.

From what I saw in Dec at Labadee with the cabanas I would have to agree.....sky high prices remained prior to the sailing and half remained empty the day we were there. People were staring at the ones occupied laughing at how much those people paid while all the others remained empty.

Running into same thing for April Wonder

Odd thing is even Solarium Bistro which is a no charge is showing sold out.

Yup.....same for Wonder April....changed over to showing sold out for dining as of last night.

The infinite veranda is a love or hate. I have sailed on Celebrity in an infinite veranda and wasn't a fan. When you open the window on a Caribbean sailing it immediately made the cabin very hot. The idea of closing the bifold door and opening the window to create a "balcony" also did not work as once the window is open the AC turns off. Also the space was cluttered with furniture that had to be moved on Celebrity in order to open and close the bifold doors. It looks like Icon is using a curtain instead...don't know that makes anything better. I also found that with that large window if you were sailing in the direction that your window was in full sun it really heated the cabin even with the window closed if you didn't close the shades. If you were sailing in like say Alaska or a cold climate sailing I would say the infinite veranda would be a good concept....but in my opinion on a warm weather/Carribean it's terrible. The window was also overridden in bad weather from the bridge that you weren't able to open it at times. For me the whole idea was nothing more than selling you a glorified Oceanview cabin. I am very surprised to see the infinite veranda move over to Royal and new builds. I have avoided booking an infinite veranda sailings as it isn't a true balcony experience at all.

Yes

Columbia is one of my favorites....not sure if you know but there is also Columbia Cafe located right near the port in the Tampa Bay History Center...it's an abbreviated version of the Ybor original but just as good. If you like Italian check out their sister restaurant in Ybor called Cafe Santos Stefano...excellent! If you're looking for a little different experience but want to be right around the Ybor area with these great restaurants in walking distance....take a look at Hotel Haya.

I walked into the wrong cabin on an inaugural sailing....door wasn't closed all the way and I walked in.....to my surprise it was actually Richard Fain's cabin. He said hello and I said OMG I am so sorry, I must have the wrong cabin..what a nice guy he is...we both laughed....it happens.

If it were me I would be looking for a hotel in the Channelside district or Water St. district...many hotels to choose from in all categories and budgets....from budget to 5 star. Many more places within walking distance such as restaurants, attractions and bars....as well as depending on the exact location in the 2 areas above I suggested, you might even be able to either walk to the port or take a free trolley.

This is an older property in a pretty remote location....defiantly newer properties in better locations available. Only restaurant in walking distance is Bahama Breeze....or if you go over to the Westin.

Oasis class ships were the same...priced crazy high for the first season....wait a year and pricing will drop to less than half. They keep pricing crazy high on the newest ship....it makes things look more attractively priced for the rest of the fleet. Have to fill the "older" ships first, they know they can always book out the latest ship last minute if they need. They will also keep it priced crazy high and comp it out to Club Royal and such before lowering pricing. I have already received Utopia offers via Club Royale.

Not anything good....try to find a good cigar shop...there are many in FL.

I never had an issue parking at PORT EVERGLADES

Not sure about how many taxis......but Uber or Lyft shouldn't be easy to get in Tampa.

Yup....they made it at second attempt once they got back in line behind the other ships arriving....odyssey just dock at 7:45am...about 2hrs behind their scheduled time.