juanarcin

I did a few cruises pre pandemic (about 7). I was averaging one a year and obviously had to stop during the pandemic. We recently decided it was time to cruise again, and we booked one on the oasis, our first time ever on an RC ship that size. My biggest surprise was the muster drill. We no longer had to stand outside in groups for 30 min. instead we were instructed to do it from our rooms on our tv. Then you had an hour or two to go to your designated part of the ship to confirm with a crew member that you watched the muster video and to learn where your emergency evacuation location will be. This was the best experience I've ever had with a muster drill! Now I'm wondering, is this new due to social distancing? Is this something all ships started doing? or is this something that has always been done on the bigger ships?

Honestly this is what I found to be the most useful part of it. In past cruises we would walk over to the MDR early in the day to see the days menu and decide if we wanted to eat there or make plans for another option (or have a bigger lunch while out in port for the day). It was nice to just check it for the entire week on day one and start planning what days we would have specialty dinning.

I don't mind carrying my phone around since I still use it as a camera and to communicate with others on the cruise with me. But I agree that I will likely not use it as long as I don't have to anymore.

I was on the Oasis a week ago, it was my first time on this size ship and I loved it! However the app was more of a headache, maybe I was doing something wrong? There were many minor issues, such as my phone not always working to open the door, no biggie. incorrect times for restaurants openning/closing...no biggie. Passing by bars / lounges and seeing activities that arent on the app...somewhat of a biggie. I found myself not looking at the printed version of the daily schedule because I was relying on the app, so it sucked to see, days into the cruise, that I had been missing things. For example I marked all the karaoke events in my reminders, I believe their were like 3. But almost every time I passed the karaoke lounge, there was karaoke happening...but not shown in the app! A basic issue...why would it give you every single thing happening on the ship for the entire week, but not have the itinerary! Everytime we wanted to remind ourselves what time we docked or how long we would be in port, or where we would be on what day, we would have to ask someone because it isnt on the app! sure you can go through the calendar and scroll through all the events until you see something like "All aboard" under 7pm. but that means I have to scroll through 5, 5:30, 6, 6:30, and finally 7...oh ok we leave at 7. Instead of just having a calendar of ports and times. Another big issue for me (and many guests) was that it allowed people to rsvp stuff for multiple days, preventing others from enjoying them. Main example, the comedy club. 2 comedy shows every night, and we learned it's the SAME comedy show every night. So some people rsvp both shows for every night. go to the first show, then the second...realize its the same and just stop going. But now each show is full and we all have to wait in the non rsvp line until 5 min before the show, and that line starts forming an hour before the event, only to walk into an empty room. But my biggest issue with the app was that it seems to block your calendar if you already have something set. so on the first day of the cruise, I went through all the events and added a LOT of things to my calendar. trivia, live music, games, etc. My week was practically booked. I figured I'd get the reminder and decide if I wanted to go or not, but at least I would know somethign Im interested in is happening. But now for the rest of the cruise, if we wanted to rsvp a dinner or anything, we would get an error saying that we already have something scheduled for that time. so I found myself having to constantly go back and forth cancelling multiple things in order to plan dinners. It got old real quick. I love the idea of the app and hope it improves because the things that did work, made our cruise a better experience, but the things that didnt made us feel like we missed out on things or added some frustration. If it werent for that vacation happiness we felt the entire time, this would have been a bigger issue! lol, but wondering what everyone elses thoughts are on the app?

If classy is what you are going for, then may I suggest skipping the backpack and instead opting for a top hat my good sir?

Thanks!

I have a cruise booked on the Panorama to Mexico out of Los Angeles in December. I'm taking a lot of family...14 to be exact (all first time cruisers!). One of them are here on a green card and only have a Mexican Passport. I'm guessing she just goes with both the Passport and the Green card but dont want to assume and get rejected at the port. I'm going to call CCL, but those wait times are insane so in the meantime...any one have experience with this?

Thank you for this reply, my concern was the entertainment and things like trivia might make them feel sort of left out, but you're right I'm sure they will have fun either way. Thanks,

They understand English, just not as comfortable speaking it. But as another poster mentioned, I may be over analyzing. I'm sure they will have fun. But thanks for the advice on dining. This makes a lot of sense. We may plan one or two dinners for everyone but after that everyone for themselves! Also allows guilt free trips for that second (or third) dessert!

Thank you so much! Not misread or taken the wrong way at all! I appreciate your words 🙂 Our biggest concern is making sure everyone enjoys but you're right, our first cruise was an amazing experience and I'm sure the ships already put the thought into making it fun for everyone so we don't have to. Thanks again!

Wife and I are traveling on the panorama with 2 sets of Spanish speaking parents. They understand English ok, but there may be a few limitations. Since panorama lives in Los Angeles, we imagine we won't be the first in boarding it in this situation. So we're wondering to others who've traveled with Spanish speaking parents or family... how fun was it to spend 7 days full of trivia, shows, comedy and events in English??

My wife and I have been on about 8 cruises. Mostly Europe and Asia since we are not beach people. We always see if any friends or family want to join but always get turned down. We'll it fi ally happened... EVERYONE said yes! Lol. We mentioned a cruise were taking on the panorama to our families (both hers and mine). And 90%of them said they are in. Our concern is that there will be a lot of people looking to my wife and I to sort of guide everyone. So I'm hoping for tips or suggestions, ideas and advice to avoid issues. Info on main points of concern below, thanks! The people going are... Our (4) parents mostly speak Spanish... Huge concern because they will be leaning on us the most on things like "what do we do next/now?" Couple with a newborn (about 8 months by the time of cruise) Couple with 2 young ones (3 and 6) 2 sets of Young couples (mid twenties) probably the least of our worries as they will likely explore a lot on their own. My wife and I Concerns: Ports on the panorama (specifically excursions) seem very repetitive. All of them seem to be bar hoping, swimming with the dolphins, atv's, or bus exploration. Again, my wife and I aren't beach people, so maybe we are being over critical, but it seems like we would be bored with this (we wanted to see the ship more than anything when booking this). But if we feel we will be bored with the ports and they're looking to us for guidance... Lol Dining? We are currently on the oasis and have been taking notes of possible issues. One huge one is wait times for MDR. We've done about 20min each time for my time dining. We're fine but we can imagine a group of hungry people all looking at us with angry eyes haha How to keep everyone entertained? Sure there's things to do, but what about the in between? We just did trivia and the next activity isn't for 2 hours? Now what? Setting expectations for the parents who are used to the grandparents watching the kids. Comments have already been made such as "well one day we can leave the kids with X and then the next day with Y" but my wife and I bought the cruise for X and Y and we want them to enjoy it! This is more an internal issue but wondering if anyone's gone through it. Long walks, boarding, exploring etc. Our parents are older. They aren't using wheel chairs or anything, but in a way that might make things harder because they do get tired easily and might feel odd if we suggest one. For example the other day my mom was bragging to me that walked 1700 steps while out exercising. Yet today I went to grab food before heading out and it was 2000 steps just between my room and the buffet! I have so many more but this is already getting long so I'll leave it at this for now. Thank you so much if you read this far! Lol