ARandomTraveler

I went with my 20 year old on Symphony in November. We met another 20 year old and her Mom at dinner the 3rd night, and that girl told my daughter she'd been going to the "hyperlink" every night, which sounded like a venue where the "in between" could hang out. The Hyperlink turned out not to be a venue, but just a name they gave the group, which was supposed to meet at different venues for various activities like trivia, dancing, karaoke etc each night. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be activities that were set aside specifically for that age-group, and it wasn't organized, so the "kids" would show up and have to just know who the other 18-20 year olds were. There wasn't even a table or anything set aside and labeled so that they could find eachother. My daughter tried going to 2 of the activities, but she walked in and wasn't able to figure out if anyone in the venue was part of the 18-20 group, and just ended up wandering aimlessly and sitting by herself. So, from that experience, it was not a well organized group, and unless you happen to be able to figure out who else is sitting alone in the activity and can go up to them and ask if they're there for the Hyperlink meet up, it's not gonna be much of a meet up. Thankfully, my daughter prefers to hang out with me and go to shows and do activities together, so it didn't bother her. She only went because the girl we met at dinner invited her (and she did find that girl at one of the activities), but she never did meet anyone else in the group.

That's different than being invited on a vacation to be a babysitter. When you plan to take children on a trip, your mind is set accordingly to be the babysitter and playmate. When I book a vacation for myself, it's not my idea of fun to be put in charge of other people's children. Maybe that's just me, but I wouldn't do it.

I get that totally. I don't dislike children at all, in fact most of them at that age are hilarious and entertaining, but I don't want to be in charge of them on vacation...ever. And I don't mind if they're in my vicinity while on vacation, as long as I'm not expected to keep them entertained or to disrupt my adult time, which I paid good money for, in order to give their parents a break. Every time I see people make suggestions about bringing the grandparents on vacation to watch the kids, I wonder how the grandparents feel about that. I wouldn't appreciate it. Becoming a parent means making some major sacrifices in your life for many years. Relaxing on vacation is one of them.

1000% agree with @poocher! Who wants to be invited on a vacation to be a babysitter? That is NOT fun, no matter how cute your kid is. For me, and I'm sure this is not how everyone feels, but having graduated from that stage of parenthood, the last thing I want to do is have to entertain or give attention to a toddler who is distracting me from adult conversations and relaxing. Sorry but, no thank you.

I cruised with a 2 year old and it was not relaxing at all. Extended family who was on the trip with us were understandably not interested in giving up their vacation time to be babysitters, so I spent a lot of time in my room for naps, or trying to do tours and sightseeing while pushing a sleeping child in an umbrella stroller, or hanging out on the ship while everyone else went out adventuring. Personally, I don't think it's worth the money to take a vacation like this with small children, but it also depends on how much relaxing and/or adventuring you want to do (you won't do much of either with a toddler in tow). It cost me $2600 for the 2 year old between airfare and cruise fare, and she wasn't allowed in the adventure ocean program, and she was very confused and upset the whole cruise as to why she wasn't allowed to swim in the pools, which was really the only fun thing on the ship for a 2 year old to do. 100% would save my money and never do that again. That 2 year old is now 20 and we cruise and travel together all the time, and we have the best time, but at 2? I'd save my money.

Good point!

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I made a claim on my travel insurance policy for trip interruption back in September. I bought a policy from Trawick International (which I guess is part of Nationwide Insurance), which I found on insure my trip dot com. I wasn't on a cruise, I was on a land vacation, and I had to change my travel plans due to a strike in Europe, so I had to pay an extra night in a hotel, and I missed an excursion that wasn't refundable. I made a claim to the insurance policy by sending them emails from the airline, receipts from the hotel for my extra night, and receipts from my excursion that I missed to show the price and that they were non-refundable. I also made claims for the food and Ubers for that interrupted travel day, but sent no receipts for those. I received a response from them within a day that said they were backed up with claims. After a month I ended up calling insure my trip dot com instead of calling the insurance company, and insure my trip called the insurance company on my behalf. I heard from the insurance company the very next day, letting me know they were expediting my claim. A couple days later my claim was approved, but it took a couple more weeks before I got my check. So it took about 2 months to get my money, but I had no issues with my actual claim. They were fine with the receipts that I sent and never asked for anything additional. There was a maximum limit on the hotel room, and since I was staying in an expensive hotel, I only received the maximum amount of the policy for that portion (which was $300). But it was totally worth having the insurance policy.

Same! We had a high school graduation trip planned for summer of 2020 where we were gonna go to Japan, and then fly to Singapore for a 4-day cruise, but it was canceled.

At least this time it's because someone actually has relevant and current information to share 😂

I'm sailing on Spectrum out of Singapore next summer (12 day Singapore to Japan). I thought it would be a great way to visit Asian countries that I probably wouldn't travel to on a land vacation due to the language barrier, but on a cruise I'll have a home base I can come back to each day where I can ask questions and get help in English, while still enjoying the cultural stuff on land during the day. I've watched a couple YouTube videos about spectrum and the food looks several steps above the usual Caribbean cruise fare, but I also enjoy Indian and Asian foods. For someone who doesn't, they're not gonna like the food, even if it's done well. Im looking forward to the cultural differences on the ship, and don't care if it's not full of white people. I hope it's not actually.

Wow that's an awesome perk!! Did he do an internship on a ship, or in a corporate office? I need to get my daughter to look into that 😂 maybe she can help their IT department.

When the waiter introduced himself, he asked who had the dining package, and everyone raised their hand. He started explaining the different menu items, and said some were "included" and some were an upcharge. We wanted to order the items that were an upcharge, so he told me it would be an extra $20 or something like that. So I said something along the lines of "I booked this online before the cruise, but I paid full price for it. Since I have the UDP, can you actually just refund me the difference?" And he didn't understand, he kept telling me I would get a bill for $20 at the end of the meal, and I kept saying "but I paid $60, so I actually should get $40 back" and so he eventually said "we'll figure it out at the end of the meal." So at the end of the meal, the manager came over and all I had to do was say that I paid full price online, but I have the dining package so I'm hoping you can give me a refund. And she did. But if she hasn't understood what I was talking about like the waiter, I would have just had to accept that I was gonna pay full price.

The usual prices? $73-78, $23-$27, $9? US dollars?

The Thanksgiving sailing on Symphony was the first sailing that introduced the new menu. I was on that sailing and did see that the menu every night was different, but I never tried it because I had the dining package and ate at specialty restaurants every night. I thought the menus looked fine though.

Does your March sailing have beverage packages available in your cruise planner yet? My July sailing on Spectrum only shows a "soda plus Voom" package.

I would suggest paying out of pocket to book the hibachi now, before you board. You'll probably be able to get the manager of the restaurant to refund your money and transfer it onto your dining package, but before you pay out of pocket, you'd have to be prepared for them to decline that request and be ok with it if that happens. If it will break your budget if they don't refund you, don't do it. When I sailed in November, I got on the ship at 11am (I think I actually made it on by 10:50, I'd have to look back at my notes). I booked my shows first, and then went to book dining about 10-15 min later, and the hibachi was already booked for the entire week. Not sure if it would have been available had I booked dining first and shows second. I did meet some people at the hibachi that got in on the waitlist, so that's an option too.

When I was on symphony, they had the spin room locked up and wouldn't let anyone use it unless they signed up for a class, which I didn't do because I didn't want to workout at 9am. I wanted to workout on my own time, doing my own hour of spin that I know works well for me and is a good workout. I took up extra space in my luggage with spin shoes I never got to use.

I always go to insure my trip dot com, and select the options for comprehensive, cancel-for-any-reason insurance. I like that because it gives me a back-up option for getting a refund if none of the other covered reasons of the policy easily apply to my situation. For example, if for some reason a hurricane rolls through the islands you're visiting a week before your trip, and you don't feel like visiting an island where all the businesses are closed and the beaches are full of debris, then you can cancel, even though the cruise is still sailing and the island is still technically visitable (making it unlikely that you'd be able to make an insurance claim under any other rule of the policy). The website will narrow down a bunch of different insurance companies and their various policies that offer that. In order to buy cancel-for-any-reason policies there's usually a rule that the insurance has to be bought within 14-21 days of making your initial trip deposit. I generally just start reading the terms of all the policies in order to narrow them down to the ones that have the best coverage for a reasonable price. Sometimes there are policies that offer really good coverage on things you wouldn't even think about (like paying you money if your cruise changes itineraries), but that you might not care enough about to justify the extra cost of that policy. But on the other hand, you might realize, after reading multiple policies, that there are things you'd like covered that you might not have thought about, and reading the policies is what educates you about all those options. For example, having a policy that covers trip interruptions due to a strike might not be something you would have even thought about or known was a thing you could cover, but it is. That came in handy for me when I went to Europe because they have lots of airline and train operator strikes that can disrupt your travel, but maybe for a Caribbean cruise, you wouldn't care about that. And the terms on different policies will be different. For example, some require you to cancel your trip more than 72 hours before the trip, and others may require more or less. And some will give you trip interruption compensation, but only if you've already completed at least 48 hours of your trip. Some will compensate you for airline delays, but one policy will say your plane has to be delayed 6 hours or more, while another says 10 hours or more. So, knowing all of these details ahead of time will make it so you're not surprised later when you try to make a claim.

So after 10 cruises the gift is a bottle of water? 😂

My only experience with specialty dining was in November on Symphony. They had lots of kiosks on the promenade to make reservations, right when you walk onto the ship on boarding day. I was unable to make any changes to my dining using the app, but that may be because everything was booked up for the entire week. I had to either go to a restaurant to make changes, or go to guest services (when restaurants weren't open). I was also unable to cancel reservations using the app, which probably leads to a lot of no-shows at restaurants, and un-filled tables that would have otherwise been booked if the app allowed people to cancel and make reservations themselves.

I think it depends on how many ships will be in port, and if they expect a lot of children (holidays, summer breaks, weekend getaways etc). For my recent Thanksgiving cruise the price was really high, I don't remember anymore the exact price but it was somewhere around $150 or maybe even $175. I don't think it got to $196, and it definitely never went over $200, but it was $150 or more. We were on Symphony (a big Oasis class ship) during a family holiday, so lots of kids, but we were the only ship in port. I didn't think it was worth it so I didn't buy it, but having seen it, I think if I had to walk a kid age 15 or under past it, they would have wished they could go. My 20 year old saw it online before the trip and wanted to go, but once I told her the price she didn't think it was worth it anymore, but I don't know if she'd have thought about it that way when she was younger.

Hooked is a "pay extra" restaurant. You can either pay for it per-meal, or you can go there as part of the Unlimited Dining Package. The lobster is included on the Hooked menu (as opposed to Chops, which is also a "pay extra" restaurant, but which charges an additional fee if you want to order lobster off their menu).

Hooked (specialty restaurant) has the smaller warm-water lobster tails on their menu (included). They also have whole main lobster on the menu (included).

I'm not on a transatlantic, but I'm booked on a 12 day that starts in one country and ends in another. Our UDP is selling for $315/person. Same price during "Black Friday" so I'm not sure if the price ever changes.