kearney

My husband and I have not taken advantage of this program. I am very frugal and I tend to track prices for an itinerary I am interested in and then book when I see the price below a certain target. We often book a cruise only a month or two before sailing. We are retired so we are flexible on time and tight on $. I do not see pricing discussed on this program. Is there a way I can take advantage of a sale I find now and when I get on board, somehow convert the booking on the new cruise to the next cruise deal? My fear is that I will miss a good deal (saving hundreds) if I wait with booking the next cruise until I am on the ship(saving $100). I hope you can follow my points....

Everyone go back to the earlier posting about how connected cabins are laid out and look at deck layout. I am sure this user does not mind helping.... but you can do this by consulting the deck plan

I agree that the Oasis class ship seems more suited to the caribbean. It's design is internally focused with relatively few public areas with views to the outside. Also the heavy outside exposure of the ship (boardwalk, central park) makes it ideal for warm sunny climates.

 

Years ago we took the Radiance of the Seas out of Florida and were impressed by the views it had from all of the public areas... at the time we commented that this would be a good ship to sail around Alaska.... and years later we again were on the Radiance and it was perfect for Alaska, you could be in line for an elevator or sit in one of the many bars and still have a nice view of the inner passage. It is something to think about when planning a cruise. I am not sure I would want to sail around say the Greek Isles having to rely on having a balcony cabin to see the views..... but Jamaica.... not that much to see.

On Allure, we were on deck 6 D1 category near the lifts, forward. Easy to get to the room. The balcony is a little bigger because of the ship - see deck plan.

 

Also, it was convenient for the spa. We like spending time in the thermal suite.

 

Rooms near the aft lift may be more convenient for access to WJ, dinning room and Diamond Lounge. Assuming same layout on Harmony as Allure.

 

My husband had surgery on his leg and we went on Oasis while he was still recovering. We lucked into a balcony cabin on deck 11 near the rear elevators. I was worried about noise, but it was very quiet and close to the diamond lounge and an elevator ride away from the dining room, Schooner bar and provided easy access to Central Park and the Boardwalk. Now it was far from the spa and areas in the front of the ship... but he was not up to working out anyway.

I know I'm the exception not the rule and my input to the press would probably stay in the editing room because I LOVE rocky trips and severe weather!

 

If it ain't raining, we ain't training! :D

 

OTOH, I hate to see others suffer too. I know it's ruining their experience and a lot of first timers will never step foot on a ship again after such an experience.

 

I've flown to ports and driven to them. Never cared for flying. Not anything against aviation but the check in process, limits on bags, hassle of losing, etc.

 

I don't mind the fact that weather can interrupt a trip or cause issues on departure and arrival. It's the nature of the beast.

 

I'm also a glass is half full kind of guy and make the best of a situation. I'd much rather be on a ship that can still provide hospitality than be at a resort hunkering down in a hurricane with no power, fresh water, etc.

 

It does little to complain about things you have no control over, that energy is better spent focusing on how you cope with it instead!

 

I have always been a half full person as well. I have often said that it are these tough events that can make for great stories. I vividly recall being chased by huriccane Dennis a number of years ago. At one point the navigation channel showed that we were traveling at a speed I thought exceeded the speed were were told the ship could do, so I commented to my husband that they must be throwing furniture off the ship to increase our speed. It was a bit of a rough ride.... but I remember that more than our smooth sailings. I have always had issues with motion sickness, but either I have changed or the ships have become so much more stable... that I actually miss some of the rolling action.... sick right? I am glad I was not on Anthem, but I would prefer to sail with a boat load of people who see the bright side than with those who feel the need to criticize particularly if they are not in a position to know either the capabilities of the ship or have the background information needed to make some of the decisions that the company had to make. Mistakes happen in every job and the key is what you do once the mistake has happened.

Thank you all for the various posts. It helps demonstrate how tough a decision it is to make. If you sail out of Florida they have a lot of options during a storm, in terms of ports. The problem with sailing south from so far north is that there are few places you can realistically stop... for lots of reasons, regulations, whether or not the port is set up for a large cruise ship etc. Bermuda is usually not an option either, too far out and often storms are passing in between.

 

The Captain and company had to make a tough call. I am sure if they knew how bad it was going to be they would have made another choice, but stuff happens. When it does you need to look at how well they managed. Frankly, I have a lot more confidence in these super huge ships now that I have seen how well Anthem handled it.

 

Now I get car sick, so odds are I would have been hugging the toilet.

 

I am glad I did not have to make that decision.

Check the back of your card. Most will have not only a domestic customer service number, but also a number to call if you are abroad. Put those numbers someplace where you'll have them if your card were to be stolen/lost.

 

I should have said that the banks can be costly to call from the ship... especially at $8/minute. Notifying them in advance can really save you a lot of grief if something happens to your card.

No to both.

 

Quickly repaired once in port is not necessarily minor. I don't know enough to know if the azipod related repairs could have been done while underway. But even if so, I don't think the seriousness of damage is entirely determined by how quickly it can be repaired.

 

I don't know of an organization more devoted to saving and protecting lives in maritime environments.

 

Sorry that I did not hit the smiley face. I was being sarcastic... sorry if it wasn't obvious.

We do now. :) Credit freeze, purchase alerts, etc.

 

When I travel I usually call my credit card company and tell them exactly where I will be and on what days. Once while traveling my card was denied... turns out that they noticed a charge out of state. It was quickly corrected, but it got me to thinking that if my card was stolen while out of the country it would be difficult to reach them until home.

I don't see any options that would have avoided angry customers. Cancelling would have been the best. People would eventually get over having a cruise cancelled once they calmed down and realized why. The people who were actually on the ship, who were traumatized will live with that for a very long time.

 

The best option given that we now know the storm grew larger and became even more powerful than anticipated. If the storm had become less severe and smaller.... we would be saying that they should not have cancelled. The benefit of being able to monday morning quarterback.

Thanks POA thats what I figured. There's an article posted saying RC notified the Coast Guard of the damaged Azipod. So they knowingly lied saying the damages were only cosmetic. Obviously there was no way we could make it to Bahamas and back traveling less than 10 knots, so that was a convenient way to end the trip.

 

Yeh the damages were so serious that only a few hours the USCG allowed the ship to go on. If you read the millions of posts you will find many that corrects the story.

I recognize that bow. Didn't someone earlier in one of these threads insist that was the bow of a freighter? :confused:

 

No, actually someone tried to pass off youtube video as being from the Anthem when it was not. Shot was clearly from something other than a cruise ship... it was pretty funny actually

Cheng is the acronym for Chief Engineer, KP stands for Kings Point, the US Merchant Marine Academy, and 75 is my year of graduation.

 

Did you know a Pete Creagan at Merch Marine Academy. He grew up with my husband. He thinks he was there around the same time.

Actually, changing a propeller in the water is not that uncommon. When Freedom lost a bearing in one pod, in order to reduce drag, since the propeller had to be locked from rotating (to keep from totally destroying the bearing), divers came and removed the blades and the hub presents little resistance or drag. It is just as easy to re-install propeller blades in the water.

 

I'm not saying this is easy, there are about 2 diving companies in the world that will do this, and it takes time to stage the equipment and a good day to just remove the blades.

 

Anthem did not renew blades or propellers. An early article "quoted" a USCG spokesman as saying the "pod was replaced". You don't, over the life of the vessel, replace a pod. That is a major undertaking in a drydock.

 

One of my ships had a stern thruster that was leaking oil. We had the manufacturer's rep come onboard, with a crew of divers, who took the propeller completely off this thruster while in port, and when we needed to get underway, they would lash everything down tight inside the thruster tunnel, and away we would go. It took them a week, and 5 port calls to complete the totally underwater repair.

 

The fact that the ship is underway, essentially on time. Does that suggest the issues were 'relatively minor' or can we now include the USCG in this conspiracy to put passengers lives at risk?

That is not true. The storm was upgraded to hurricane force on Saturday. All of the meteorologists on ABC NYC are confirming that.

 

From what I read they were forecasting winds in the 75-80 mph, which is low end of hurricane scale... cat 1. So yes a hurricane....But it sounds like the winds they had were actually closer to a cat 4... The question is not if a storm was predicted.... there is always a storm.... the question is did they go out knowing they were sailing into a cat 4 level storm? So far it sounds like yes there were going to be hurricane force winds... est cat 1... but what they experienced as an unexpected cat 4.... or there abouts. There is a lot of circular arguments... Did the weather folks miss the forecast and underestimate the seriousness of the storm? See now I can turn this all around and blame the weather folks for once again missing a storm. But I am not doing that.... Stuff happens. Ships sail in bad weather all the time.... cant be avoided or nothing would ever move. You have to make a judgement call. Sometimes it goes against you. I can not believe a captain would risk the lives of his passengers and crew period. Makes no sense. Perhaps there is an opportunity to improve wind forecasting to provide a more timely forecast of increasing winds... assuming ships have not already departed

This seems to support the case that this was something that would have been difficult for the captain to anticipate accurately... since its strength seems to have been unexpected. It seems that it could easily have gone the other way and become a nonevent. Thanks

Kudos to all of you who have been posting your honest observations and accounts from the ship.:) I'm sorry for your experience and your cruise being cut short, and I truly hope you can make sweet lemonade out of the rest of your trip.

 

 

 

You must be talking about my relatives. My last name is MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK!:D:rolleyes::D

 

 

 

 

I don't think that article said anything different than what knowledgeable professionals (including my husband) have been saying...the storm exploded. Everyone knew there would be some rough weather, but 100 + m.p.h. winds weren't forecast, and the storm blew up quickly. It's really no different than a hurricane changing tracks or intensity. In severe weather, people make decisions based on the best information available to them at the time. Unfortunately, weather forecasting isn't an exact science and sometimes conditions are worse than expected. In the case of this Anthem cruise, they were much worse.

 

I know peoples' emotions run high in situations like these, but I really question the motives of people claiming the captain deliberately and intentionally put the passengers, crew, and ship in harm's way.:(

 

I have a question.... if the weather folks knew this was going to be terrible and if it was a hurricane... why no name? Seems to me if this was something everyone should have known about... it would be a named storm. (I am using my husband's cc account... so dont blame him if this is a dumb question)... just wonderin

Excuse me.....don't read well??? You must be new to cruising....as I said in my post which you quoted, USED TO BE......those jackets were indeed kept there until they started doing Muster without them. Long about 2008 or so. You used to have to take them out of the closet, put them on and go downstairs to your station to do the drill.

 

I can't tell you the number of times I stepped on the straps of someone's life vest. Also, people who put them on in their staterooms had trouble navigating the stairs. Now they keep them at muster stations. Safer for the drill... which happens each cruise. However, I think it would be wise to let people know where they are kept at muster station. Under an emergency situation your crew member may not be at the muster station soon enough. Just a thought.

My husband and I tried MYD and we were usually seated at a table for two, except for one night when were were asked if we minded sharing.

 

I think if you make reservations you generally get in a bit faster, we never had to wait more than 30 seconds.

 

If there are shows you are interested in you can make reservations for the shows on the website (assuming you made travel arrangements with Royal directly... not sure you can do so otherwise). One you do that then make MTD reservations... allow 2 hours.. although it generally took less time.

 

Observation .... if you go with fixed seating, it is difficult to see the shows if you go to the late seating... early seating is better if you plan to see shows... just an observation

We were on the Oct 31 cruise. Our first on Oasis. I expected it to feel crowded, but it was not as bad as I expected. I think this was due to a few extra steps we took before leaving.

1) we booked dinner the first night at one of the specialty restaurants. People forget about them until they are on the cruise. The first night or two in the dining room can be a bit crazy

2) we made our reservations for various shows and then made MTD dinner reservations. We never had to wait more than about 30 seconds to be seated for dinner.

 

The windjammer is crazy on every ship we have been on. We tried eating some of our lunches at some of the other options or came a bit early or a bit late to the windjammer. We also ate some of our breakfasts at Johnny Rockets and in the main dining room. I do not like the windjammer to be honest. I think people tend to gravitate there out of habit from previous cruises. There are other options. We had dinner one night at the solarium bistro and it was empty... only 20% full... it was fabulous.

 

We ended up with a cabin near the rear elevators. Surprisingly quiet.... this put Central Park, the Boardwalk, Royal Promenade and dining room all within easy reach of an elevator ride. My husband had knee surgery recently so easy access was important. The only real hikes were to the Opal Theater and the Solarium.

 

We are not sun people, so if deck 15 was crowded, I can not say. I found the freedom class to be more of a problem from a crowd standpoint. I think it has to do with the Oasis having more elevators and larger elevators. Never saw the gym on this trip. My husband was not up to working out, so we did not check this out nor the spa. I love the different feels of the various parts of the ship.

Any word from passengers boarding and leaving on the Oasis??

 

I noticed she is still in port (webcam) What time is she scheduled to leave? Was she delayed just because of getting back late? Or are there investigations to be done?

 

We were about an hour late due to the rescue efforts

Captain told us that security was alerted to a domestic disturbance by people near the cabin. When they arrived a woman answered the door and the man headed out the balcony. They alerted the bridge that there was a potential man overboard situation. Bridge slowed down the ship. Meanwhile guy jumped off ship landing on the area supporting the life boat. A member of the beverage staff was in the area and was the one who grabbed the guy and tried to hold onto him (frankly risking his own life) when the guy fell the bridge hit a button which established where he went overboard and they began the rescue efforts while also sending message to coast guard and a general alert to any ships in the area. Alas we had six to seven foot sees, it was dark and it was raining. Difficult task in daylight with clear sky's. My husband and I did not realize what was going on until 8am. We noticed on tha tv that we were not heading in the right direction, but it never occurred to us that we were circling. The incident occurred around 1am, and we were still circling at 8am. Soon the coast guard released the Oasis. The oasis teem searched for some 7+ hours. Captain noted that the currents were very strong in this area. I believe they now keep life vests near muster areas. Too many people tripping over the belts and in case of emergency it is a long way to go to get your life vest before going to muster station. Although in this case it might have been helpful to have a vest tossed overboard with it's blinking light. Not sure it would have been anywhere near the victim..but it might have provided some visual assistance

I have not been on this class ship before. I burn just thinking about the sun, but I like to sit and read. On other ships I have found chairs in the shade... near Windjammer, in the Solarium and also on deck 5 (the muster deck on some class of ships). Looking at photos, it looks like there is little shade anywhere near the pools and the Solarium looks very sunny as well... any ideas?

Regarding up coming Oasis cruise. Looks like most of storm will be further north by sailing time. I think the question will be how hard was Nassau hit. The port cam suggests that other more easterly areas took the brunt of the storm. So you might luck out as far as itinerary. You might have your friends pack sea sickness meds. These should be taken before you get symptoms. Down side is drowsiness. I have tried wrist bands designed for this purpose and they worked for me. I have never tried a patch. I was on a hurricane cruise once with RC and the captain tried to out run it going around Cuba. He was successful, but it was quiet a ride.

We are on Oasis at the end of the month.

Enjoyed your review. This will be our first cruise on Oasis. I can appreciate the comments about Ocean views. The Radiance class, which is a smaller ship, always impressed me with the ocean views all around the ship including the elevator areas, various restaurants, bars etc. I noticed the lack of views .... at least from the deck plans. It will be interesting to see if I notice this once on board. My husband injured his leg and has trouble walking, so we sprung for a balcony cabin, should he feel he needs to take a break from walking. One reason I like the speciallty restaurants is the view of the ocean, we are going to try the Solarium bistro... I am going to miss the Viking Lounge... one of our favorite places to sit an look out at the ocean.... How was the solarium area during cocktail hour? I am hoping it will be a nice alternative t the Viking lounge... which on the Oasis is now where the suites have their special dining/bar area. Thank you for the information.