jodyneel

We have a 1, a 2, and a 4 year old (2, 3, and 5 at next cruise and have cruised every year). We love Playa Mia in Cozumel for the little ones, particularly Buccaneer's Bay.

https://www.playamia.com/park-attractions/free-included-attractions

It's not a Carnival excursion as far as I know (but I believe it was in the past), but it was a major factor in the itinerary we chose for our February cruise (Covid willing).

In general, we aim for beaches and waterparks with our toddlers. However, we did this itinerary in reverse with a 2 year old (and a 6 month old) last year. Here's what we did:

Grand Cayman - the "submarine" + turtle farm tour. The submarine held our 2 yr old's interest for about 10 minutes. Then it became awkward to have a fussy child that we couldn't take anywhere to get away from everyone else.

Belize - Did not plan on anything, then took a bus tour of the city. Somewhat educational.

Roatan - Nothing. Was too hot for our 6 month old. So we weren't off of the ship for very long. There's a Carnival beach close to the dock that we were going to try.

Cozumel - Playa Mia Grand Beach Park- it has a great waterpark for toddlers. Took a cab there and back as it wasn't offered as a Carnival excursion. This was the highlight of that cruise cruise. 

My wife and I have gotten each other drinks with each other's cards on Cheers packages a lot.

However, every bartender that I remember wanted to see the both of us together first (and we tipped).

With everyone else giving you what I think is the obvious financial reason why not, here's why our October cruise is in a Captain's Suite (CS):

• Traveling with small children
• Traveling with others
• Can afford it
• Random benefits

Small children - For our next cruise, our 3 children will be 3.5 years old, 2 years old and 6 months old - it's amazing what you can sign up for on the Amazon subscription plan 😉 

• It's really nice to have a tub with children that small (hence at least a suite).
• It's really nice for mommy and daddy to have a separate bedroom from kids in the the living room (just a subset of the suites).
• The extra space helps for:
  • the pack and play for the littlest one
  • storage for strollers and everything else that helps when you're traveling with small kids
  • a little play space for the kids when we're getting ready
• Naptime means someone ends up spending more time in the room, so it might as well be somewhere you like hanging out

Traveling with others - For our next cruise my wife's parents, my wife's sister and her boyfriend will all be coming along (fortunately, I like my in-laws).

• Given that we've got little kids, everyone meets up to head out for dinner or whatever from our room. That means space and a nicer space helps
• And they'll hang out while we're nap-babysitting or babysit for us so a nicer space (in particular a nicer balcony) is a good incentive

Can afford it

• There's the no-duh part 
• I have the flexibility to fit in a few billable hours here and there (e.g., kids napping, but need to be in the cabin), which more or less covers the cost difference to the other option I considered (a two room combo like yours). Working on vacation is less of a downer in a nicer room. 

Random benefits

• My wife is a little bit sensitive about sunbathing on the deck with thousands of others 6 months after giving birth, but loves the sun. A nice balcony addresses this
• The ladies (wife, MIL, SIL) like the jetted tub (always accessible and clean as opposed to the hot tubs)
  • This is also where the two bathrooms come in handy. 
• It's nice not splitting up the family and there aren't many cabin options for a family of 5

It varies by cruise as who I'm cruising with and why I'm cruising changes. For instance:

First cruise (birthday present for my then girlfriend, now wife):

1. Date (had to be a specific week)
2. Price
3. Itinerary
4. Departure port

Family cruise (my parents, brother and SIL came)

1. Itinerary
2. Price
3. Dates

Engagement cruise

1. Itinerary
2. Cabin
3. Date (some flexibility)

Bachelor / Bachelorette Party Cruise

1. Date / Duration (needed a weekend over a handful of possible weekends)
2. Cabin (the group took all the aft balcony cabins of one floor along with some indoors nearby)

Cruise after first child (MIL, FIL came along)

1. Departure port (wanted to drive)
2. Date (child had to be > 6 mos)
3. Cabin (needed a tub to bathe the infant; upgraded to an Owner's Suite and discovered the joys of separating the bedroom from the living room; in-laws on a different floor)
4. Itinerary (kept it short)

Cruise after second child (departure port didn't matter as we flew; MIL, FIL, SIL all came)

1. Cabin (group had three sequential adjoining rooms on aft balcony; one was a Vista wrap-around suite for the tub)
2. Date (2nd child had to be > 6 mos)
3. Itinerary (not another Bahamas; took a week)

Cruise after third child (upcoming, MIL, FIL, SIL + her boyfriend coming)

1. Departure port (driving; flying with 3 very small children seems daunting)
2. Cabin (it's hard to find accommodations for 5 with a tub, way harder than with 4, so CS for us; all nearby on same floor)
3. Date (3rd child had to be > 6 mos)
4. Itinerary (something different)

These have all been Carnival, but other lines were looked at (I have a soft personal goal that all my kids will be Platinum before college).

You'll notice that cabin is frequently high on my list, which I've mentioned to Carnival repeatedly as a shortcoming  - the website doesn't let you do searches across cruises based on cabin criteria; apparently it's the same limitation for the Carnival staff.

Sailing next week in an Owner's Suite for the first time (good year + no vacation in a while or for a while) and I see where our boarding pass lists us as platinum status. However, we're actually gold and the Carnival website shows us as gold.

Does anyone know if we will indeed have the platinum perks on board as an added perk of the Owner's suite or if that's on the boarding pass just to further help expedite boarding or is it just an error?

What port are you sailing from?

We're sailing from Charleston on the Ecstasy. I can pre-order about 40 types of liquor (and some more items combined with mixers), but bourbon is not one of the liquors available for pre-order. Sambuca, chambord, frangelico, yes; bourbon, no.

The Funshops person I spoke to made it sound like the lack of bourbon for pre-ordering was fleet-wide and not specific to my sailing (as I didn't give her my sailing or reservation info).

It appears that it's no longer possible to pre-order bourbon online to the room via the FunShops - also called; they were also surprised it wasn't available and couldn't help. Some other liquors are available (including some whiskys), but no bourbon (e.g., Beam, Makers, Woodford, Blantons...)

There are also only about 40 liquors that can be pre-ordered, which is a much smaller selection than I remember from my last cruise (2015).

Questions:

1) What bourbons do they actually stock on board now (2017)?

2) How can I get a bottle of bourbon delivered to the room for drinking while on board? (Traveling with extended family including an infant which means there will probably be some evenings we need to spend "in" rather than around the ship)

I proposed on a cruise to my fiancé last June. I did it in the cabin, but had arranged for flowers and so on to be in there with a note setting up the proposal. So as she read the note I got on one knee behind her and when she turned around, voila!

I also considered the steakhouse and what I knew was going to be her favorite excursion (a beach hopping boat ride with lobster and champagne), but I went with the cabin because it could be done while we were still in port. That way we could call friends and family for a couple hours before mustering without having to make the calls over the satellite links.

So here's my suggestion- if the proposal / renewal will prompt a bunch of phone calls, do it in US waters (it's a renewal, so maybe not). Otherwise pick what you think will be the most romantic excursion and do it then.