Itchy&Scratchy

you are very welcome! You know, JamieLogical has recently written a fantastic live Enchanted review which is way more detailed than mine. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3004747-jamielogicals-live-from-the-enchanted-princess-54/

Thank you! Planning to be there in November, but will probably try a different beach (club). Sorobon beach was sooooo crowded there in April, like never before. We couldn't enjoy ourselves in the water because of the windsurfers, many of whom were inexperienced and coming too close to the swimmers. Too close for comfort.

well, since he is now an adult, he can participate in pretty much ALL of the activities Carnival schedules for adults (except for the ones involving alcohol). Nobody needs to hold his hand and have him participate in organized activities for teens like scavenger hunts, teen karaoke, teen dance parties, etc.

we've traveled between MIA and Port Everglades, and between FLL and POM several times, and IMHO, Lyft/Uber is the way to go.

DH has to have it elevated, so he just uses many extra pillows (mine and DS's) to do so.

Sleep Inn 1500 SE 5th Ave, Dania Beach, FL 33004 or Best Western Plus Ft Lauderdale Hollywood Airport Hotel (south of the airport) 2601 N 29th Ave, Hollywood, FL 33020 We are looking for a clean and decent place to stay at for one pre-cruise night next April, and these two are the cheapest in the more or less decent hotels.

you can bring your own booster. Mine has been using a booster for travel (short taxi/uber rides) since he was 4, even though he was harnessed at home till almost 7. Harmony Youth (Juvenile) booster and Cosco Rise are nice, light and easy to travel with. We put it in a woven bag and used it as a personal item on the plane and put it in the overhead compartment. If you want to use an inflatable booster and your child is over 40#, use Bubblebum. It has a good seat belt fit on children over 40#.

depends on the airline and time of the year. It was 4 hours in April for Spirit. that won't be a problem. We had a 5 pm flight, now THAT's a problem.

last year the next year's rate didn't pop up until very late. I think December. That's when I made my reservations for June.

I only get ones related to my 2 cruises next year.

that's not cutting it close. We had a 1:30 pm flight out of MIA and we had a leisurely breakfast, walked off after 9:30, and then ubered from Port Everglades to MIA airport and sat there for 2+ hours.

a couple of months ago, the site was glitching for a very long time, promoting this particular deal, but not displaying it for any of the cruises once you got to the selection. I had to wait till it finally worked properly for the cruise I wanted.

not on March 29th.

can't confirm, but when we were there on March 29, they told us the refurbishment was supposed to start in April.

https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/reservation/find

we just stayed at the Hyatt Place (through Valuetrips*) 2 weeks ago and at ES in April. Both are literally next door to Outback which we used both times for dinner. ES wasn't as awful as I feared. Maybe, our room wasn't as bad as others. Definitely not worth more than $160 per night... If I paid more than that, I'd be very upset. Breakfast was great. Didn't see anyone pushing timeshares. The line was only to the made to order eggs station, and it was not long. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3002524-a-great-first-cruise-on-celebrity-reflection-review-dailies-menus-food-and-cabin-pics-march-2024/#comment-67222827 Hyatt was definitely newer and cleaner (and cheaper through Valuetrips), with small issues: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3013301-enchanted-princess-review-june-1-2024-western-caribbean-with-food-pics-dailies-and-more/#comment-67507044 *we saved a lot of money, especially since we needed 2 rooms.

we've just stayed at the Hyatt through Valuetrips reservations (2 rooms). I checked the Hyatt website several times up to the day of arrival to make sure our reservations were intact.

there are many SF Monster flavors, some we love, some we don't. Seascape had only Red Bull last November. Some bars had regular, some - only SF version. No consistency.

they made me the Account Owner (all the way at the top of the folio), and the rest of the people were authorized users. But yes - to transfer the OBC from cabin #2 to my cabin/account, I had to make a trip to GS to request it. I prefer to do everything in person, because I hate typing on the phone. I did this on the last night because I wanted to spend the entire leftover $123 on one purchase instead trying to match the leftover amounts to 2 smaller purchases. The shops could not split the payment for one item between two cabins, and that's why I had to combine OBC into one lump sum. Once it was combined, I went and spent the entire leftover amount in one store. My son's specialty dining was charged to our cabin's folio sometime later that night as well (I figured it into the total before making the store purchase). Before the last night we simply told waiters to charge specialty dining or extras in MDR to X or Y's account. Then GS combined the leftover OBC into one account and put my parents on my folio, which is the resulting folio you see above. At that point it wouldn't have mattered who in our group of 5 made the purchase - it would be applied to a combined OBC.

no, it will be taken out of OBC automatically. Look at the statement I posted above.

yes, use the same credit card, especially if you are in the same cabin. I was in the same cabin with DH and DS, using the same CC, so all of our OBC was pooled. I also needed to transfer my parents' OBC to myself, but GS couldn't do it until I used the same credit card for all 5 of us. Then it only took a minute for GS to then transfer my parents' OBC from a different cabin to mine. I spent all of it because we don't use the casino and I can't convert it. We had a combined $250 OBC (I know it's peanuts compared to some people), plus $25 Princess prizes, plus $12 pp tax refund OBC, and we spent it to cover DS's specialty dining and gratuities, dad's excursion, and my onboard shopping with leftovers ($123).

do these kids not produce any trash? consume any foods? sleep on beds with bedding that needs to be washed? Do they not use the cabin at all? Does the 9 month old not go through a number of diapers a day? Do they not use the bathroom in the cabin? what do you mean? If you get your kid a meal at a restaurant, its price is included in the total, and one usually bases the size of gratuities on the total dinner price and the level of service provided. When we dine with our kid in tow at a land based restaurant, he is getting the same service as we are, so we pay grats for his meal as well as ours. And there is a lot more cleanup involved when little kids are littering all around them. Do you exclude your kid's meal's price from the total before you calculate the grats? If you are in the US, of course. It's not customary to pay grats in many other countries.

but sadly not zero cases of SA.

stupid tile can't even find my DH's wallet in our own house.

never had a problem with getting a taxi to Sorobon beach.... Taxis always get as many people as possible into them, so it was 10+ of us in a taxi each way in April.