Itchy&Scratchy

that's Oasis. Prices at the "rib place" went up ~50% since April 2023. I would pick Harmony. We don't care about the Solarium since we travel with a kid who is not allowed there, and Harmony is newer and better.

I love that song.

imho, people who are 80 probably don't have the strongest immune system to begin with.

but you are in an inside cabin, right? We smelled it a lot while trying to enjoy balconies on cruises.

I doubt it. But for the first couple of years I burst out laughing every time I saw them somewhere in the house. My poor husband didn't expect such treachery from a seemingly nice local guy. In our defense, it was our first time in Jamaica...

honestly, the only time we get to smell it is while cruising. It is a terrible odor, indeed.

wow, sounds like you went on quite an adventure.... Way worse than getting duped into paying $20 for a carving of our names on some really ugly wooden sticks, lol.

nah, Falmouth was a lot more subdued when we were there pre-pandemic. We were just in Ocho Rios and just went to the beach next to port. This time went better than our first time there, lol. But the smell of weed at the beach was overwhelming.

we have our 13 yo in the cabin with us on all cruises, and since Celebrity is running a 3rd and 4th passenger in the cabin free promotion right now, it was a no brainer to also book him in the cabin with us on Ascent and Beyond next year (porthole balcony). This will be our first time on X - we are on Reflection in an inside room which has both a sofa and an upper berth. Our kid loves upper berths. It might change when he gets to 6'+ very soon. 🙂 On Edge Deluxe Ocean View staterooms in the front of the ship and Sunset Veranda Staterooms (aft) are larger than standard rooms. X Edge doesn't appear to have rooms with both a sofa and an upper berth on them.

you will have better luck asking on the MSC board specifically. You should also specify if you are sailing in Europe, Caribbean, etc. and the ship. In any case, you are better off bringing nappies with you.

she and her husband already have a Plus package each. She is asking about the kids who don't need ALL the drinks. It makes no sense to buy a $60 pppd package for a 7 yo and a 9 yo.

in all honesty, we never found any smoothies on Enchanted last time. Not that we went looking for them specifically. Our kid had a Classic Soda package he put to a very good use (we didn't have packages for adults). He did enjoy all the mocktails and sodas in copious amounts (but he is a size of a small adult). His favorites are Zero Mojito and Key West Cooler (the adult version is called the Ultimate Cooler - it's super delish). The zero proof Strawberry Daquiri is just a strawberry smoothie, imho. Zero proof Dirty Banana is just a choco-banana shake. The bar staff can make pretty much any cocktail into a mocktail. Like zero proof Miami Vice is just a pina colada-strawberry icee. Pssst - I'd probably not even get a separate package for your kids. Since you got a plus package for 2 adults anyway, just order non-alcoholic drinks for them. I know sharing packages is frowned upon here, but how many smoothies a day can each kid drink? One, two?

fully booked was the reason.

you may have meant this for OP. 🙂

she already said - it was prohibitively expensive.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/315-west-coast-departures/

mine is not bored without any other kids. He does not want to make friends on a cruise, he doesn't want to play with other kids, and he is an introvert. DS lasted about 30 minutes in a kid's club during his first cruise (RCI) and said never again. He doesn't care about a cruise being loud, crowded and hectic, he just doesn't care for other kids. His favorite line is Princess, but we are going to give Celebrity a try (3 tries 🙂 ). Just yesterday he was telling me that if he won a multimillion lottery, he'd just purchase a year round cruise on Princess. A year ago on Oasis DS didn't do any of this. I vowed not to spend my money on RCI ships anymore because he didn't want to do any activities. The only thing he enjoyed tremendously was laser tag.

Celebrity provides makeup remover wipes?????????? Wow. Good to know. We always bring our own anyway, so we don't have to buy it in port if we don't like the provided stuff. Plus, my kid breaks out in hives from unfamiliar products, so it's safer to use our own.

depends on the cruise ship. We were on NCL Jade (a sister ship to Pearl), and the movement was very significant compared to much bigger ships, and forward was much worse than the aft (back of the ship for OP). I don't get sea sick, but on that voyage I felt pretty bad. @Arlene89 I hope your cabin is in the back or the middle of the ship, where you may feel less movement. The weather may also have an affect. Also, car sickness/sea sickness changes overtime. Our son who was never car sick or sea sick before and rear faced till 4 without a single problem, developed pretty bad car sickness over the course of the pandemic. He is a teen now and gets car sick on any trips longer than 30 minutes. We make sure he takes dramamine before our ride to the airport, and he sometimes needs it on cruise ships as well. Taking OTC meds helps him 100%. Your doctor may be able to prescribe a scopolamine patch. I recently had one put on me before the surgery and didn't have a single episode of queasiness caused by anesthesia.

YES!!!!

looks like you are sailing in Alaska....

looks exactly like the cabin we were in. 🙂 But, of course, our sofa bed was open at night, taking up the entire space....

thank you for your advice, but we already sailed on MSC in November and formed our own opinion of the MSC's steerage class cruises. We enjoyed some aspects, but not all. It was the right decision for us personally to cancel our April 2024 cruise on MSC. We will revisit cruising with them at a later date, but we are not in a rush to come back to MSC any time soon.

you can see (and copy if needed) the old menu in my Oasis thread from 2023.

this is crazy! No wonder we started exploring other cruise lines. I mean - they raised their cruise prices unreasonably high, but I didn't realize that the rest of the prices also went up 50%.