Itchy&Scratchy

Limited to 15 drinks a day now, not so all inclusive really.

15 alcoholic drinks per day.

How much alcohol can a person drink??? It's like a drink per hour.

Watch what you buy as I found out GEO Blue will not cover you on a cruise ship.

oh, I didn't know I could use the coffee card for gelato. We don't care for coffee, especially, fancy coffee, but hubby and kid spent a lot of $$ on gelato on our Regal cruise last time.

Princess website:

New Grounds Coffee Card $35.65 per punch card (15 beverages)

Save 20% with our New Grounds Coffee Card that includes 15 hot or cold specialty coffee drinks along with unlimited brewed coffee and premium tea for the duration of the cruise.

and what does "along with unlimited brewed coffee and premium tea for the duration of the cruise." mean? I thought the premium teas at the espresso bar were counted as specialty drinks against the 15 beverage count.

Find it interesting that there is another post on this board where the OP advocated for a passport, had a medical emergency but no passport and was able to return home without any major issues. ...

that OP may have looked like a US born citizen and spoken with a southern accent. May have even had his birth certificate with him.

My foreign birth certificate will not help me get back in the US, despite me being a US citizen. Neither will my foreign accent and foreign name.

we have passports for all three of us.

Last year my hub's passport came in very handy when the airline clerk at the airport lost his driver's license right in front of us. She never found it. We handed her 2 boarding passes and 2 driver's licenses, and she gave us 2 boarding passes, 2 luggage confirmations, and 1 driver's license.

Thankfully, we were able to use hub's passport to get through TSA.

That's besides a possibility that one may have a medical emergency and have to fly or be medically evacuated back home. Just recently on another forum there was a story about a guy traveling with his kid on a cruise and suffering a stroke. The guy was incapacitated and was evacuated to Florida (he is from another state).

For a 7 day cruise maybe buy the cruise company Insurance.

so, what would work best for my parents?

67 and 69 at the time of the cruise. Cruise is 7 nights. Both have Medicare and the usual age related health problems.

I was thinking GeoBlue Voyager Choice Single Trip for $100K or $1M medical. Both of these also have $500K medical evacuation, which I am assuming is different from the $100K or $1M medical expenses.

I don't know whether MedJetAssist is needed on top of GeoBlue. I can't tell what's different about what it offers.

I have cancellation insurance through my Visa upto $5K. So do my parents.

My family has regular UHC group plan through my work. Do I need travel insurance (we never bought one, but now I am getting paranoid)? Should I just contact my UHC provider and see what it offers in terms of international medical treatment coverage/evac services?

yeah, the area right around the airport is not good and usually is not very safe either.

We have, however, had business meetings conducted at the Marriots around the airport, and as long as employees stayed at the hotels and didn't venture out, they were safe.

this bucket of beer option doesn't work in MDR, does it?

I would do the cave river tubing in Belize (we did it and it was wonderful - http://www.coralbreezetours.com/Product.17/tours_add.html?t_product=17 we did it in 2009 with this tour company), and I'd do Stingray City + snorkeling in Grand Cayman.

Cozumel is kinda useless to us, but we are thinking of beach/snorkeling this time.

Regal has MDR menus even in Russian. And movies on demand dubbed in different languages. And Princess Patter is available in several languages - you can request it via cruise personalizer in advance. So, surely, Spanish would be no problem.

Not sure what you are insinuating by tossing "someone" and "elsewhere on the ship" into this discussion.

insinuating? really? what a big strong word to use in response to me saying "someone elsewhere on the ship" is monitoring the kid.

you said:

one person monitors the monitors from another cabin.

My kids enjoyed the aqua duck slide and I think bigger entertainment like rock walls, zip lines, skating rinks would be a good fit. BUT if a ship has these are they really crowded, long lines, reservations needed, etc?

I'd consider Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas and her sister ships (whichever ones have the skating rink and rock climbing and water platform).

My friends went on the Allure and there were huge lines for everything, including the buffet. They loved Independence of the Seas for all the activities minus the lines.

How does your kid go to school? Kindergarten starts at 5...preschool earlier. Doesn't he/she have to learn to stay with a teacher?

 

And going to camp isn't exactly "staying with strangers;" its meeting and playing with kids of the same age. Something that is very socially healthy.

 

Of course as a parent you have a right to do as you see fit but personally at 6, IMHO it's time for some socialization and independence in a safe and secure environment.

he has been in preschool since 2 years and 9 months. He still has stranger anxiety at 6, and is extremely shy. He is doing much better at 6 with new situations and people than he did at 3, but it still takes a couple of weeks for him to warm up to new teachers and kids. Once he is comfortable, he makes friends and is very social.

Going to camp with a bunch of kids he doesn't know and teachers he's never met is the epitome of "staying with strangers".

we are on a late Nov Regal cruise, and the prices have been steadily climbing since July when I got it on a very nice sale. The cabins were sold out, then came back, sold out, came back, but the prices just kept going up.

No, but the OP may be in a suite, or have family in an adjoining cabin.

it doesn't make sense to buy a wifi package if the baby is in the same suite with you or you are visiting family in the adjoining room. Just leave the door open. Free!

We could hear our neighbor's kid crying on our last cruise. It was annoying as heck, because he cried for an hour straight every damn evening - after we went to bed.

Sure. Why not?

We travel with extended family in more than one cabin. Kids ge put down for a nap or the night and one person monitors the monitors from another cabin.

seriously? You leave a 13 month old baby in a cabin by themselves and "someone" monitors the baby via a baby monitor from elsewhere on the ship????

Even in our own house the dang monitor sometimes didn't work properly, and our kid's room is literally 5 feet away, and at times we were able to hear him "live" while the monitor was silent.

remember, she has to be 40#+ to use bubblebum. It may or may not provide a correct seat belt fit at 4, especially if she is not on a taller side.

https://csftl.org/bubblebum-review/

Besides the Family subforum on CC, check out Traveling with Children forum on babycenter.com. And, maybe, the Car Seat Board as well.

Remember that if you bring your own US seat without build in lock-offs and a foreign car doesn't have isofix/locking seatbelts, you will have to use a locking clip. May need to buy that in advance and practice installing a seat in a car. A great travel seat for kids that age (assuming that she is not close to 50# yet) is Evenflo Maestro.

P.S. She is not a toddler. She is a preschooler. :)

The poster was referring to the post quoted. The one about "enjoying the view of the tender boat". It was a pretty snide comment that was uncalled for.

it WAS OP's comment. :) lol He was the one who made a "pretty snide comment".

completely unrelated to Irma's damages, but I would be happy if my upcoming cruise replaced Cozumel and Falmouth, Jamaica with Aruba and Bonaire. Or 2 Bonaires. Luc (Lac) Bay!!!!

never mind about finding a video, Astro Flyer provided a link just above.

I feel claustrophobic just by looking at that video :o

The three of us are fine in the regular inside room, while the kid is small. Once he grows up and reaches my DH's height, we'll be cramped.

P.S. I've used ear plugs for about 9-10 years now because I am a light sleeper.

I just wanted to chime in with this: if you are petite, check out children's swim suit section at your local stores. You can find what you are looking for in your local walmart. A boys/girls size 12-14 may be a good fit for a petite person.

I have a son with red hair and snow white skin (although he doesn't really have freckles like a true redhead), and I get long sleeve rashguard shirts for him, plus BananaBoat SPF100.

do a search on the this board for R522 Regal and you will find a post (titled something about extra berths) in which somebody gave me a link to a youtube video of that cabin. That's a sideways cabin. I don't think I would have liked it, but I got upgraded to a balcony.

I like regular inside (non-sideways) cabins better because 1) there is a hallway before you get to the sleeping area and 2) the closet is not split in half, meaning we can put a large suitcase on the floor flat. We don't usually unpack the little stuff.

Wife's stubbornness and the persistence of the person asking made this situation more uncomfortable than it needed to be.

I don't believe your wife was stubborn. She was comfortable with the choice of the seats, and there were other seats around you that those other people could sit in. So, I wouldn't have moved either, especially since the request was forceful.