Itchy&Scratchy

we sometimes travel as a group of 5 and it's never a problem to get a taxi minivan at FLL.

taxis are usually a bit more than ubers/lyfts, but they don't have holiday surcharges. YMMV. Our last trip was a total disaster in terms of waiting for a free shuttle. 2 hours later and we gave up and took a taxi to the hotel. The hotel was literally 4 blocks away, and we could have walked there in less than 2 hours. Just pay $10-15 and save yourselves the aggravation.

we used a usb night light in the bathroom and it stayed all night long, with the door cracked. It has a dimmer, so it was just bright enough for me not to fall down in the dark (been there, done that) but dim enough not to keep us awake. And it was bright enough for me to get some clothes and get dressed in the closet area while the boys still slept.

Enchanted didn't have them in November.

Nice. 🙂 we never got more than $100 a piece when we got super lucky. Even when Princess was trying to bring people in after the shutdown. We got $125 OBC total on our last cruise... Some people have all the luck. 🙂 In any case, $200 pp will not get eaten up by the grats in its entirety. There will be some left, even if they don't have a package.

how does a first timer get that much?

just to chime in on that: instead of bringing sippies with us, we simply went to the coffee shop onboard and got a bunch of cups with lids like this: granted, not every 8 month old is able to drink from those, nor should an 8 month old drink regular cow's milk. But just in case someone finds this info useful. P.S. My kid was still breastfeeding at 8 months, hence no sippy cup at that age. He used regular bottles (not sippy cups) well after 12 months.

I did a lot of research on MSC and actually booked 3 cruises with them, two of which were cancelled due to the pandemic. So, yes, I am commenting on food on MSC because I am prepared - it's not going to be razzle-dazzle, but I am ok with that. But I wouldn't count on MSC food being better than Celebrity's. I am sure that so does Celebrity.

Miami and Ft Lauderdale by far. Uber from MCO to the port is so dang expensive. It was $140-150 each way last November (2021). We can stay in a hotel for that much a night. kind of late in the game... RCI's prices seem to increase more when it gets closer to the sailing time, especially during spring break. And the availability of the cabins dwindles. As for flights, check Spirit. We fly with them to port about 80% of the time. Within 90 days of the travel dates the ticket prices start to fall and I usually get them for a much more reasonable price. Like, right now Delta - $800+ RT from Atlanta to FLL, while it's $350 on Spirit. But I am going to wait a bit longer.

seeing how they said they don't eat much and love salads, I am going to assume that they probably don't eat fast food or biscuits and gravy.

well, that's a generalization.... We like buffets and do not like Bloody Marys...

I would not cancel Celebrity in favor of MSC because of food. It isn't MSC's forte.

and also on the phone model. My DH was able to listen to Spotify on his Galaxy S22, but in the same spot my Galaxy S20 FE wasn't even loading Yahoo email... We switched the same one device plan between phones and a tablet. I didn't even try my Galaxy S9...

that depends on the person and their spending habits. We just had $90 of OBC total for the 3 of us, and we got some drinks, gelato, I had a fancy coffee every day, and we still had $1.25 left at the end of the 10 day cruise. We didn't have the Plus or Premier packages. Since drinks and gratuities are already included in these packages, $200 pp is a small fortune. Last time we had $100 pp, and we still had $50 left at the end (with nothing prepaid).... I didn't know that we could apply it to grats, so I spent it on a perfume set. @Christinky bring all of the baby meds with you. This age is sort of bad for cruising because the infants become crawlers and are super active and fast. With a child constantly wanting to crawl around on the floor on the ship - it's just icky, imho. I don't even allow my kid to go barefoot in the cabin for the fear of him picking something up. Bring ALL the diapers. And then some. Some people bring a small inflatable pool for bathing the baby and to use on deck or balcony for splashing in. Check out this subforum for more info on cruising with the baby: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/28-family-cruises/ are you bringing a car seat to use in ports? Or are you leaving the baby with the grandparents on the ship? Or are you doing bus excursions only? P.S. We left DS at home with my parents at 9 months and 2.5 yo when we cruised. It was better for all of us. Starting at 3 and being day potty trained he began cruising with us and hasn't stopped yet.

I am not sure what exactly the problem is, but have you tried sitting on the bed and then just lying down backwards? Also, having 2 twin beds pushed to the sides instead of a queen in the middle will solve any problem. As you can see on the photo below, there is space available between the sofa and the bed, and between the desk and the bed.

I honestly don't know what they are talking about. We had none of this on Enchanted a month ago, or on Regal in 2019.

that depends on your kids... Mine has always refused to go to the kid's club, so he spends every minutes of the cruise with us. When he was your kids' age, he loved going to the pool, spray ground and hot tubs. He doesn't anymore. We used to bring some toys with us even on RCI and Princess cruises. Don't forget to bring beach toys. 🙂 Of course, a tablet with cartoons and movies has always been a must with our kid. Plus headphones. It's nice to have a nice uninterrupted MDR dinner while your kid is occupied and is not running around like a Tasmanian devil. P.S. We've never ever used an arcade on the cruise. Probably, since they are so dang expensive.

you are allowed. Also, all sorts of transportation options are discussed here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/386-florida-departures/

is it me or we didn't have any motion sensor lights on Enchanted? I had to bring my own night light, though, for the bathroom. It's not motion sensor activated, but it is USB charged. 🙂

I just wanted to chime in that we do not cruise on RCI ships for the food - we became sort of disappointed in the offerings back in 2011-2014 time frame, because it was the same food cruise after cruise, and gave Princess a try. Since then we cruise on Princess (Royal Princess and newer) for food, and with RCI for fun and entertainment. May want to look at it this way to make it more bearable.

the new menu looks very close to what we had in the last year (as in - a lot of the same items), like I said above, but even more limited. So, not sure what you are glad about.

wouldn't it make more sense if a casino staff member held a "check" up instead of a random entertainer? We were assisted by a casino staff member on our last Princess cruise, who definitely had a name tag which displayed his name and department. This was at Guest Services on the first day of the cruise.

ok, a funny question.... I booked EB hotel with my corp discount and when I was booking it, the corp site didn't give me a choice of the rooms. The rate is nice for this hotel, so I booked it. When I called them, the hotel rep told me they had NO rooms for 3 people left, and offered a rollaway bed for the kiddo. Has anyone used a rollaway bed in that hotel? According to the hotel, it's big enough to accommodate an adult. It's not too late to cancel and get a hotel for about the same money with 2 queen beds.

did you try asking the headwaiter? My mom and dad have dietary restrictions for health reasons, and the headwaiter came to our table every night to work on the next evening's menu for my parents.

they look similar to what we had on the Allure in June 2022 and on Harmony in Nov 2021. A bit more limited, but still very similar.