happymanitee

I have a Thanksgiving cruise booked on Allure.  I am just waiting for them to cancel so I can start trying to get my refund for airfare.  I didn’t feel like doing the L&S because I just don’t know what our plans will be next year.  My oldest child will be a senior in high school and I don’t want her to miss any senior events.  I know there is no way that the cruise will happen.  But, I booked with a non refundable deposit, so I have to wait for them to cancel so I can get my money back.  
 

I’m going to use that money to book a land-based vacation instead.  I love cruising, but I’m tired of wondering when things will get back to normal.  Land vacations are already happening.  We had an amazing time at the beach this summer renting an Airbnb.  So, I’m going to stick with those types of vacations for now. 

Should I cancel my cruise planner items now while I still can? Or, is there a plan where I can get 125% credit on those items too if I leave it alone?

4 minutes ago, soremekun said:

The health and travel alerts page has been updated again but they still plan on sailing on June 12.  Discusting.

Did anything change?  I can’t see any differences between today’s update and the one that was already there

2 hours ago, KsucAts said:

I am hoping the announcement comes out today, because of the irony for me.  We just got our GTY room assignments this morning for our June 14 Liberty cruise.  (and actually got rooms right next to each other, which was my concern about booking 2 gty rooms with kids, but took a chance)  

 

I would have no concerns with sailing in a month if it weren't for the unknowns like masks.  Also, wouldn't want my kids who have jobs at Wal Mart and a grocery store to have to quarantine for 2 weeks before going back to work, which I think they currently would if a cruise actually sailed in June (I know it won't).  

I have 2 guarantee cabins booked on Liberty for 6/21.  I wonder why they even have people working on assigning cabins? It just seems like a waste of time.  I still haven’t gotten my room assignments, but I know it doesn’t matter anyway.  I also work at a grocery store, so I wouldn’t want to quarantine after sailing.  I am just waiting for that cancellation.  I’m thinking today is the day!

My cruise is 6/21 and has not been officially cancelled yet.  I was planning on taking a cash refund and not the fcc.  But, today, their website says they are automatically giving 125% fcc to all cancelled cruises.  There is no longer a cash refund option listed.  I guess I’ll know for sure when they finally cancel my cruise.  But, I’m disappointed because I was planning on taking the money, booking a less expensive cruise and using the excess to pay for flights.  

I’ve had 2 kids vomit on 2 separate cruises.  Both times I think it was just too much food/ sea-sickness because they woke up, vomited, and then said they felt better and were fine the rest of the trip.  Both times, it was around 2 am.  For my daughter, she threw up in her Pullman bed.  I took all the sheets off and wrapped them up and wiped everything down with Clorox wipes which I always have.  She slept in our bed the rest of the night. In the morning, they took everything and replaced it.  
the second time, my son vomited all over the cabin room floor....like everywhere.  When I called the main desk, they told me they would call our steward.  So, I guess they woke up our poor steward and he came to the room with a wet vac at 2 am to clean our floors.  I felt bad, but there was no way we could’ve cleaned it up ourselves.  He was SUPER nice.  This was on Liberty and he is still one of the best stewards we’ve ever had.  He cleaned everything and then left a fan in the room to dry the floor.  Medical called is the next day to check on our son, but he was fine.  I am so glad my kids are finally old enough to recognize that feeling and make it to the bathroom in time!  Plus, the last time my son complained of nausea, I gave him some meclizine and he felt better.  

I just prepared my kids in advance.  I told them there would be water slides, but we weren’t going on them.  We can visit the local water park here in the summer.  I told them we were just going to play in the beach and swim in the ocean.  The price was $99 for our trip, but I have a family of 5 and I’m not going to pay $500 for a few water slides and a wave pool.  They were 100% happy and not disappointed at all because they were already prepared to ignore the water slides.

I would consider myself a port person.  Seeing all the different islands is the entire reason I cruise.  But, after sailing on Liberty, Adventure, Majesty, and Freedom a few times, I decided I wanted to try Symphony.  My Symphony cruise included all ports that I had been to before so I wasn't sure how I would like the cruise.  But, let me just say BEST CRUISE EVER!  I know lots of things can make a cruise great, but I just really enjoyed the ship.  There is just so much to do.  And, the shows are just so good.  And, we didn't even have trouble finding a seat by the pool on a sea day.  And, I really enjoyed Wonderland (but Hooked was just okay to me).  We did the escape room and laser tag.  I can't wait to sail on Symphony again!

Thanks for the review.  I have sailed on Liberty twice already, but will be sailing again this summer.  I love reading reviews in the mean time. 

On Symphony in November, I put a 12-pack of Coke, a 12-pack case of water, and 2 bottles of Prosecco in the same duffle bag and carried it on.  No one stopped me.  I actually had 2 rooms booked for my family so I wasn’t breaking any rules, but the security people didn’t know I had 2 rooms.  I really don’t think they care about non-alcoholic beverages.  

I’ve only seen them in Galveston.  I’ve been on 3 Galveston cruises and I’ve seen them every time.  But, I’ve never seen them anywhere else.  

Did you stop to eat lunch?  I’m thinking about this tour too, but I am wondering if we should try to schedule a lunch or just bring some snacks

If you have reservations with My Time  Dining, they will have your table ready for you with no wait.  If you make reservations for all or most of the nights, you will have the same table.  I would switch to MTD and then make reservations in your cruise planner for earlier times. 

I usually put them in my checked luggage. I’ve never had a problem with the ship, BUT lately, every time I fly, my bag gets inspected by TSA.  Nothing is really moved, but when I open my luggage, there is a note inside that says my bag was inspected.  It could just be random.  But, on the last flight home, I put them in my carry on and my luggage was not inspected.  So, the magnets might flag the TSA somehow.  

Starbucks is not included.  There are specialty coffees at Cafe Promenade that are included, but my husband said they weren’t as good as Starbucks.  Plus, there was always a long line in the morning.  

For the lockers, you are given a lock and key and then you pick your locker and put your lock on it.  Then, you keep the key with you.  The pictures they take are good, but pricey.  It cost $25 for one picture and $100 for all the pictures.  So, you might as well bring $100 and just buy them all.  I personally did not like the food at the buffet, but that’s subjective.  I have 3 kids who didn’t like it either.  Luckily, I had packed some snacks for them so they ate those instead.  

Overall, we enjoyed the caves.  It was my husbands favorite day of the cruise. 

We were on this cruise too and I agree the ship is amazing!  My favorite show was Hiro.  I was amazed with dancing in the water and I enjoyed the music.  I also loved El Loco Fresh.  Chips and guacamole is my favorite snack!  

This was my first experience with with using the WOW bands. I liked wearing it and leaving my seapass in the room, but I thought it was odd that you had to have your seapass to check your kids out of the kids club.  I dropped my daughter off and gave her check-out privileges because she is 11.  Then when I went to pick her up, they said the bands don’t work there and I needed my actual seapass card.  Even though she had check-out privileges, they wouldn’t let her leave because she didn’t have her seapass either.  So, I had to go back to the room to get it and she had to carry it with her whenever she went into Adventure Ocean.  It wasn’t really a big deal, but I thought other parents might want to know that.  

I agree with you that the ship never seemed over-crowded.  We didn’t even have trouble finding chairs on the pool deck on a sea day.  Since I am a Texas girl, I can’t wait for Galveston to get an Oasis class ship.  This is definitely my new favorite class.  

We just got off Symphony.  We boarded on Deck 5 around 11:30am and I went to the MDR right there on Deck 5 where there was no line at all.  He quickly made my reservation and we got all the restaurants/times we wanted.  The line that was super-long was the line for show reservations.  I was glad we already had our reservations for all the shows. 

Well, I’m on Symphony right now and you can’t reserve it on the app.  So, I’ve been standing in line for about 45 minutes just to book laser tag.  The problem is that it’s the same line for entertainment.  Each person is taking at least 10 minutes because it takes awhile to book all the shows.  I asked if there was another line for just laser tag, but they said no.  So, here I wait.  I’ve only moved about 3 places since I started waiting.  The good news is that they just made the announcements about rooms being ready so I can go straight to my room after this 🙂

I just look back at my records for our upcoming Symphony cruise to see when I booked our shows.  It was also 104 days before. 

I am SO excited about your review!  We sail on Symphony next week.  So, it will be fun reading along knowing that we can see it all for ourselves soon.  We also have a Chill Island Cabana, so I’ll be interested to see what you think about those.  Have fun!

I have never linked 8 cabins together, but I link 3 together all the time.  Make one person in charge of booking everything.  That one person needs everyone’s reservation number.  When you go to book dinner/excursions, there is a link to ‘book members on a different reservation’.  Just click that and add them.  Then, you will have to pay for everyone at once, but you can split payments between credit cards.  Like I said, I’ve only done it for 7people total in 3 separate cabins.  So, I don’t know if there is a limit.  

Hi, you mentioned tipping the tour guides at the sloth and money habitat.  How much tip do you think they expected?  I just want to be prepared when we go there in a few months.  

I have 3 kids, ages 15, 13, and 11.  Luckily, they agree with me that it’s crazy to go to a water park when there is a beach right there.  We can go to a water park anytime. But, we don’t live close to a beach and only get to see the ocean once or twice a year, so a water park is a waist of time.  

I had a 10 am flight and I was worried, so we did the self- disembark.  We got into the line earlier than they said to and we were probably about 10th in line to get off the ship.  We got a cab and go to the airport and through security by 8:00am.  Then, we had to sit and wait for 2 hours.  You’ll be fine with 11am