Crazy planning mom

Some ideas

https://www.butterflyworld.com/

The Jungle Queen

https://www.groupon.com/deals/jungle-queen-riverboat-dinner-cruise-2-miami

In Boca when my son was that age, I used to take him to Sugar Sand Park.

http://www.sugarsandpark.org/ It has a neat playground, carousel and science exploratorium.

Also Loved visiting the Borghese Gallery and Gardens

Reserve tickets ahead of time

http://galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it/it/visita/visita-galleria-borghese

We used Rome Cabs. Was very happy with them

Wee you able to book it in advance through the cruise planner?

I stayed here once with my husband and it was very nice. http://www.themusehotel.com/

But they want to explore, so it would probably make sense to stay in Manhattan. Plus, don't they use some of those hotels as temporary fami,y shelters?

Yes, you are right it would be better to stay in Manhattan. Was thinking they were trying to save money. Thats why I suggested the JFK hotels. Obivously staying in Manhattan would be most convenient and make it easy for sightseeing.

No, we land at 11:00 pm and off to the hotel in N. Bergen, NJ. We have all day Saturday to recover and explore then cruise departs on Sunday.

My plan was to train/subway to Manhattan from airport then taxi or Uber from there to hotel, but I wasn't sure if that would be safe for the family. Nothing says tourist more than a family dragging Hawaiian flowered suitcases through the subway. Lol

 

 

 

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I am sorry but it makes no sense to stay in NJ when you arriving into JFK and leaving out of Manhattan.

Here is a link to hotels by JFK airport

https://www.panynj.gov/airports/jfk-hotels.html

Following

this is the website which will tell you about subway service changes every weekend.

http://web.mta.info/weekender.html

Personally, I take car service to the airport specifically Dial 7. https://www.dial7.com/

Was on her in July. She was in fine shape after her 2016 drydock.:)

Its important to reserve your cars in advance as they sell out. We used Discount Car Rental https://www.discounthawaiicarrental.com/ as it had been recommended by the Hawaii Cruise Port Board.

That Celebrity Southern Carribbean itinerary is great and the Reflection is supposed to be beautiful. The only thing is the people on the cruise would have lots of seniors considering you are traveling right after Passover and Easter.

Have you been to Europe yet? It may not be on your birthday but the Symphony in Europe would be the best solution .

I don't know why they don't let you make the reservations for where you want to dine with the dining packages online prior to the cruise. NCL let's you reserve ahead of time when buying a dining package or Ala carte.

I know it feels good to just vent sometimes. It is frustrating when a company has all the "power" in situations like this and are holding your $$.

 

Before I give up on RC, I would send an email to the CEO. They have always been very responsive in the executive offices and I think your Diamond Plus status works in your favor.

 

It will be difficult to build up to a comparable Diamond Plus status by starting over with another cruise line. Good luck with wherever you go. And for the rest of us... one less person in the Diamond Lounge I suppose.

If she switched to Celebrity wouldn't she get status there based on being a Diamond member on RC

I recommend getting an app Shaka Guide Waimea Canyon. Download it for $5. It was totally worth it. It's like having your own personal tour guide.

https://www.shakaguide.com/kauai

The misleading information from those posting that information is even more astounding...including the gross misrepresentation that 1) such a directive lasted more than a short period of time; 2) this was prior to more weather facts becoming known in every-changing conditions; and 3) there was ample opportunity to cancel plans as more real weather facts became known.

 

Blame blame blame...that's all people want to do. We see that on TV all the time these days too - it appears that many people don't want to take any personal responsibility for their own decisions/actions.

 

How about blaming people for not having the wisdom to make their own choices (like cancel things) without having to be told what to do hour by hour like sheep? Nope...won't do that. :eek:

Wrong. Royal was not telling people on Friday that they could cancel or change without penalty while Carnival was. Carnival handled the situation . Plain and Simple. This about customer service and Royal blew it. On Friday, people could have changed their plans. Exhibit A. Ebfurry. At least, they did the right thing finally on Sunday and offered people refunds.

Actually...it's more of a "herding cats" story. Some cats go astray, some cats need to be led in the right direction, and some cats won't follow a simple/straight path. Nonetheless..good cat-herders work with and adjust to all the variables that come up.

 

No doubt that after the hurricane hit (and uniform flooding forecasts for the region), it would have been extremely easy to make a decision to cancel any next cruises and re-route ships to different (safe) ports. Logistics for the passengers to return home would have still been a complex mess, but manageable. Other impacts would be on a different scale.

 

The pace of weather change and severity were actually beyond even most meteorologists' forecasts during and right after the 24 hours that Harvey hit landfall, so blaming anyone for not getting things right is misguided. We watched 3 different weather expert reporting channels (sometimes with conflicting data/information that ranged from Galveston getting anywhere from 4 to 18 inches of rainfall on Sunday - major differences. There were also some forecasts that pointed to Galveston mostly missing the brunt of the storm - which would allow for a late Sunday return of ships to the port. Clearly conditions evolved and changed.

 

Some "amateur armchair experts" sitting in their dry and air-conditioned homes far away for the "action" and claiming to have known all the right answers along the way were a sad testimony to the key issue - passenger safety. Royal AND Carnival appear to have BOTH been making decisions based upon that (correct) priority.

 

Carnival chose to pull the plug and bail out early on Galveston earlier than Royal - no question on that fact.

 

Of course if Galveston had missed any major impact of Harvey and indeed opened up later Sunday as some weather experts had predicted, then some people (especially the chronic complainers who post regularly) would likely have said "Carnival was too quick to make their decision and inconvenience all those passengers, costing them money - a bad decision - they should have waited". Experience shows there are just some people who love to complain about nearly any topic online, especially hiding behind the anonymity provided on a message board - pathetic but true.

 

Royal took the "wait and see" approach. Was that the right approach? There are two sides to that coin. Few will argue that the decision to move Liberty came at a slow and methodical pace. Few will argue that knowing the final plan sooner would have been a good thing. Most resonable people will agree that passenger safety is always the most important consideration.

 

There's no shortage of people sitting in their dry & air conditioned homes sitting back and managing their version of "all the right moves". Others see how things develop, and adjust to the cards they are dealt. There are shortcomings in both approaches - but erroring on the side of safety is always the best approach during catastrophic events.

 

The only thing that textbooks will show in the future is that this hurricane had a wide range of fast-changing variables to deal with, and not every decision (by any active participant) was perfect. Then again, reasonable people realize that given the circumstances, demanding perfection would be a ridiculous/absurd goal.

 

Here's to the safety of all those affected by Hurricane Harvey - cheers. (y)[/quote

Cruisefan, while Royal had a right to take wait and see approach, they should have given their customers, the right to switch plans on Friday like Carnival. People would have had the choice as to what to do.

Great start to your review. Beautiful family. Will be following.

I am a reg. guest not a suite guest. I reserved an OWB cabana at Nellie's. How do I know which one is mine? What is to stop someone who hasnt paid from squatting there?

We had an aft balcony on the POA. It was very tight for the 3 of us. We managed because we were off the ship alot.

The Epic has a lot of inward facing public space. We had a balcony on the Epic and I wouldn't do am inside on that particular ship.

So I just spoke with THE nicest United agent ever. After I explained to him that we were on a cruise that was leaving Saturday at 5p, he changed us to a flight tomorrow evening for FREE! I am in shock.

So glad it worked out. Check out TripAdvisor and cruise critic Italy board for Venice hotel recs for Friday nite.

I understand as I am as a planner as well. If you don't want to wait you may want to Google Roberts Hawaii and book directly with them. They were the main tour company The Pride of America used. We also rented a car through Discount Hawaii Car Rental and went on our own in Kauai. You can Google them as well. We bought the Shaka Kauai app and it was like having our own personal tour guide in the car for 5 bucks.

I was able to book ours a year out but there is not set time when they become available I understand.