asquared17's Content - Page 99 (2024)

and be flexible with your time - on crowded sailings we were able to get an earlier than desired time because that was the only way they could accommodate us. we were fine with that and happy to be in and out before the main crush of people came in.

looking back, i think we could have maybe also done super late too but we are early birds

3 hours ago, rmulks said:

I called this morning to report this issue and they said that they've yet to receive a complaint or report of the issue...

Maybe if we all report it, they'll be more likely to fix it. It's so frustrating!

uhhhhh. that's bizarre.

17 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Everyone has their preferences. I make cheap stuff with flavored creamer at home so anything the machine spits out is an upgrade to me. I'm not picky.

absolutely. and the big machine is really uniformly excellent, especially for the quality and volume of coffee it pumps out on the daily. it's very tasty!! sometimes we like to do a shot or two of espresso with hot water, americano style and it's just crisp and delicious. you have the right idea!!

thank you for the info, @Pattycruise!! i will try this out when we sail in february and see what happens

2 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

It's a ghost town in the early AM (based on Harmony and Indy over the past few months).

Be aware, not sure how long you exercise, but the coffee machine may not be prepped and ready until 7am and breakfast was put out later than it used to be on both my recent cruises.

My wife gets up even earlier than you to go running most mornings (yes, she's nuts) and my routine had always been to go to the DL for several early morning cappuccinos and a couple pastries (I call it pre-breakfast). I had to settle for my coffee at 7-ish on both ships.

One DL concierge told me HQ decided to not leave the coffee machine on overnight as they often had pre-covid b/c they found too many people were breaking it while it ws unattended. Made no sense to me b/c it's on and unattended all day between breakfast and happy hour but oh well. Minor annoyance but I still enjoy my free cappuccinos.

ah yes, pre-breakfast -- i refer to it also as "first breakfast" to be honest, the coffee is usually an afterthought for me, since i am that psycho who travels with their own cold brew and will have some before departing the cabin in the morning -- but this is good to know. i noticed that the coffee machine was offline a few times when i had gone early in the morning last time we sailed on oasis, but i figured i was just there too early for signs of human life

the big espresso machines make me nervous for that reason; i worked at starbucks for many years prior to getting into retail and into the tech field now and the thought of everyone being able to just punch whatever combination of keys in kind of blows my mind. then again, i am the type a/control freak person who makes their own coffee, so maybe i am not the right person to advise on this the automatic machines are so finicky and have so many things that can set them off -- it is definitely a treat to use them but they can throw error codes so easily. (or maybe it's operator error for people like me haha)

thinking we will have to get creative with how we plan our cruise activities this time around.

not sure if the excursions or things in the cruise planner will calm down in another year or two, when RCCL gets back in the black from covid, but i sure am hoping that they do.

congratulations!! diamond is such a fun achievement the last time we were in CK for dinner, our server did a doubletake when he saw that i was diamond and said i had to be the youngest person in the fleet i know he was just being kind but it made me laugh. (i also have a young face, i suppose )

the diamond lounge is nice to visit in the early mornings; i used to get up early to exercise around 6 and then hit the DL on my way back to the cabin for a quick yogurt or fun pastry and coffee. it's not usually as overrun as some of the other elite lounges (or at least, it wasn't pre-covid, so take this with a grain of salt!) and typically is quite mellow and relaxing. part of that may also be due to the fact that you have to haul it down to deck 4 on the oasis class ships, which is usually pretty quiet in the mornings as there are no shows/entertainment happening at that time.

i am excited to use the free drink coupons now for all day (and also at coco cay thanks to @twangster's helpful reminder) and am so happy to offset my poolside treat/drink without having it hit my seapass card!

also did not know it could be used for freshly squeezed OJ in the 'jammer, another special treat i would not have ordinarily taken advantage of if needing to pay ala carte for it.

and don't forget you can also use them at wonderland for drinks at the bar!! (clearly i have my drink plans all mapped out hahaha)

sidebar: does anyone know if it can be used for freshly squeezed juices in the vitality cafe?

i never would have thought of the air mattress, @CALFROM! that's a great idea.

we are a family of three and have stayed in a crown loft before -- it is ample room for us (three adult travelers) and keeps everyone centrally located. we had other family that got the CL next to us and we were able to keep centrally located with CK, pool deck, insulated away from most of the masses involved on a 6K passenger cruise. (A nice perk as the crowds can get overwhelming at times.)

to date, it remains one of my favorite cabins on the oasis class ships. the views are unbeatable, the two bathrooms are incredible, and the layout is fantastic. you get all the benefits of sky class suites (free/included voom for all, priority boarding, all day CK access and more) which isn't possible with two connecting balcony rooms -- if you're looking to duplicate the second bathroom thing.

would highly recommend if you are comfortable with it from a financial standpoint -- we've always loved it and had a wonderful time. also gets you special access at labadee with the beach, which was sooooo nice. free beach chair/toy/float rentals etc.

i often encourage my fam to wear what they feel their most confident in; for many, a tux is over the top and uncomfortable -- and that will translate into your body language during the evening.

a nice pair of pants, shirt and tie is elevated for so many, especially while on vacation, and lends an air of confidence much better than it would to be fidgeting uncomfortably all night in a tux or a suit that is never worn and doesn't fit properly. plus, the pants can likely double for the second night, with another nice shirt, and then you can save space when packing!

if i go into the cruise planner now, i can purchase the water package but it's likely not evian based on price. i put it into my cart two nights ago just to estimate how much it would cost and now it's over $40 for 24 cans of water. previously it showed the "true" water bottles in the picture and now it's just generic.

wondering what kind of water roulette we should prepare for in february for our cruise

i'm **not opposed to bringing some water onboard or lugging it around until we can get into our cabin -- but i will already be hauling specialty cold brew from home (don't ask, i have an unholy addiction to this coffee) and most likely, unsweetened almond milk (have just submitted a request to see if they can accommodate this onboard but if not, we will have to bring with us ). so i don't want to short our liquids in any other way if we can get around it.

R2-3PO i am dying @TheRick

sorry to hear of your coco cay struggles and am glad that your family is all safe (and hopefully still recovering nicely).

3 hours ago, teddy said:

I’m in retail. Since the pandemic started in early 2020, I’ve been working 6 and 7 days a week other than the three cruises we’ve taken. Costs have increased and we can’t find enough help. No one is happy…customers or workers.

When we are lucky enough to have 7 to 8 days of doing nothing, we appreciate the people who wait on us. We not only pay the gratuities that Royal charges, we pay additional cash directly to the workers who have made a direct impact on us

Food for thought: Something we hear from a lot from new hires who leave after a month or so is that they don’t want to work in retail because of the way they get treated by customers. I know I’ve personally seen crew on ships get talked to by guests in ways I don’t know if I could handle….and I’ve been interacting with customers for 37 years.

i worked retail for 15+ years and right during Peak Pandemic and it was,,,,, something.

while i think everyone can agree that things have changed since 2020, there are just as many people who refuse to adapt and take their frustrations out on people. so many times i have seen or been a victim of people just flipping out over something trivial because they were already irritated at XYZ.

i was able to get out of retail last year and remain grateful that i can work in an industry that allows me some space from that type of interaction; but that doesn't mean i'm fully clear of it -- i still have calls and meetings that go rogue, where people ream me out for no reason and just make me the scapegoat for their anger. thankfully, i can walk away at the end of those calls/meetings and put it behind me (this is far easier said than done).

my point is -- i can't imagine being on a ship with their insane workloads and having to be "ON" all the time. their schedules are grueling and people are NOT respectful. they don't often have the ability (if ever) to walk away or take a breath; they have to roll with it and go on to the next guest interaction like nothing happened. i know for a certainty that i would not be able to do that job with a fraction of the good attitude they have, and believe they deserve every single penny of gratuities and then some. (always why we pre-pay and then tip onboard with those we engage throughout our stay.)

26 minutes ago, RCIfan1912 said:

We had just the best cabin attendant last week on Oasis, Ryan. He was so good at his job, spotless room, friendly and always great info and tips. Tipped extra cash. He told us he has 18 rooms to take care of.

wooooof 18 cabins under his care!!! i don't know how they do it, the crew all work so hard, and the cabin attendants are unfailingly pleasant and kind every day, no matter the hour!

i do not think i could be that cordial with everyone if i was tidying up after them all day long, that's for sure! we try to keep things pretty neat on our end but having the room cleaned is a treat/perk of vacation and i can only imagine what they see/have to take care of on the regular.

they deserve medals or sainthood, honestly.

thank you, @Swar!!

peace has been restored in my kingdom

1 hour ago, twangster said:

You clearly have a low threshold for "hero".

i think you may underestimate the importance of el loco fresh (at least to us) hahahaha

@twangster you, sir, are a hero!!

thank you!!!!!!!!

11 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

With demand what it is, expect the Beach club to stay above $150. Pay what you will be comfortable with, Beach club is not a drink or dining package. There are limit spots with full ships. You can't use last year's prices as a bar, since ships were sailing at reduced capacity.

that's true and completely fair -- and i appreciate your candor here.

coco cay looks beautiful; we will not be disappointed if we need to reframe our goals to include a complimentary beach experience and save the beach club passes for another sailing. we had initially planned a trip Nov 2020 on allure and the passes were much cheaper then -- definitely not expecting that to the case this time around but was hoping for a little more of a discount.

Can anyone confirm if el loco fresh is serving breakfast on symphony?

one of the main reasons we booked our current february sailing was that we could have breakfast there every morning (since the restaurant is not available on harmony) as we loved the grab and go, open-air ambiance.

On 8/17/2022 at 3:33 PM, twangster said:

The diamond drink vouchers also work at the private destination, CocoCay and Labadee.

STOP i was wondering this

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

On 8/21/2022 at 9:25 PM, TMatl said:

Frank, from the looks of your last name, it appears you may be Italian. As I am. If you live in a city/town that has real Italian food then Jamie’s might be a bit of a let down. Jamie’s is good but you’ll never confuse it with with great, true Italian food. It’s great with a group bc they just basically bring any and everything you want to try. If you go as a couple, it’s more like a traditional restaurant in that they take your order, and what you order, that’s all they bring to the table. It isn’t a bad meal at all but it will not be confused with some of the great Italian restaurants you can find in NYC or the NE.

Now, 150 Central Park is great. Go with the Lobster Thermidore and you can thank me when you get back from your cruise.

i second this. if you're italian or KNOW good italian, you are probably going to want to pass on jamie's. it's decent! but you're probably used to the good stuff in NYC or NJ (shout out!!) then you'll likely be a bit underwhelmed.

that said, DEFINITELY go to 150 central park!! it's just an incredibly nice experience with a great staff + overall unique time; truly fine dining the signature co*cktail was DELICIOUS. also it's a bit of a calm respite compared to so many other dining experiences within the ship. they did a great job here.

wonderland is also fun and a bit theatrical, but the other member here who said the food may not appeal to all is dead on. we did wonderland on harmony a few years ago and it was fun; wouldn't rush to go back except for maybe fun drinks at happy hour

3 hours ago, JimnKathy said:

The Beach Club is an amazing experience I suggest everyone try at least once. The trick is to snag a good price for the venue. We always purchase it right after booking a cruise to save our spot, with the intention to cancel and rebook at a lower price during the sales...the Black Friday sale around Thanksgiving seems to offer the best deals.

yes, we are going to try to look at the price, hoping to snag in double digits and then if it drops for BF sale, we'll do the old cancel and swap out. will keep an eye on it earlier on though, based on this tip i'm going to have a hard time convincing the others in my party to pay triple digits for this otherwise,,,,,