CleverUserNameHere

Not for nothing, but when we found out our family of three (w/a 4 year old) could go for a week in may for 5k in a oceanview balcony guaranteed we signed up. We then told my father and mother inlaw about it and when they looked for two adults it showed $6,600 for an oceanviw balcony guaranteed. It was not a mistake, we checked with our travel agent who recommended we add a child onto their reservation to get the cheaper rate...

I've heard that the alcoholic drink packages go on sale for Black Friday. How low do they go?

Which sailings? We just booked Anthem December 3rd which goes to Port Canaveral, Coco Cay and Nassau

I would say if you are not checking a bag, are walking off the ship, and have TSA precheck you could probably be safe with an 11 am departure. But if you are checking a bag or don't have TSA precheck I wouldn't book anything earlier than 1:00pm, maybe 2

Thank you so much for your reply! This is good to hear. I can definitely understand about there being too many children on the Disney ship. We just got back from the wish and we went to open house hours at the kids club but it mostly looked like chaos in there which was why I was much more comfortable leaving him in the nursery.

We are looking at booking Anthem of the Seas post Thanksgiving cruise this year and will be taking our almost 4 year old. His first cruise was on Norwegian when he was 2, but our last two cruises have been with Disney. On our Norwegian cruise we kept him with us the whole time (basically parenting in a different location lol), but the last few cruises with Disney we have been letting him go to the nursery for a 1-2 hours at a time and he has always LOVED it and asks to go back. He is potty trained and was eligible for both the Oceaneers club and the nursery but since the age bracket for the Oceaneers club was 3-12 we felt safer leaving him in the nursery. My question is: how do the kids clubs/nursery work on Royal? We haven't sailed with Royal since our first cruise on Anthem back before we had our son in 2017 and obviously we didn't pay any attention to that portion of the cruise. Thanks in advance!

There are several nice hotels within walking distance to the terminal, but I would recommend checking out the Glasslight and Hilton Main. They are newer and more updated. The Main has lots of really good restaurants including a rooftop bar.

Not to put a damper on your plans... but there really isn't much to explore in Norfolk (as someone who lives here). The only thing I would suggest trying is to see if Nauticus (which is a marine/naval museum right next door to the terminal) might be able to hold your luggage if you want to check out the museum before your flight.

I have always just browsed the company websites. My husband just happened to be looking because we were hoping for a short vacation in September/October and saw the sailing with prices. If you look on other company websites, they will often have a page with deals on it. Some of the deals are newly released or less popular routes, but others are "short dated" so to speak.

We typically book cruises within the 90 day window where they will release heavily discounted guaranteed cabins if the cruise isn't full. Also, shoulder seasons (think before spring, summer break or after school starts) are typically cheaper. We booked the 3 night Disney Wish leaving September 15th 45 days out and scored a balcony cabin for 3 people for $2700. Still crazy expensive, but downright reasonable for the ship/sailing. Also, we booked with a travel agent once and it was completely useless. She didn't do anything wrong necessarily, and maybe if we had more questions she could have been more use to us. But basically they were an unnecessary middle man. I found it annoying that we couldn't make any changes to our preferences through the app without reaching out to her.

I think this must be a industry wide thing as well. I've watched many videos on RCL and they always say that the food in the MDR is significantly worse since they've changed the menus. I will say that we sailed with the Norwegian Joy in May 2022 and I was actually very impressed with the included food. So much so that I actually thought that it was on par if not better than the specialty restaurants. Maybe it's because most people get a few specialty meals included in the price of their cruise that they are actually not any different quality wise. The buffet spread was consistently good and they had a really nice "snack time" in the observation lounge that had a really nice selection. Again, the food on Disney was not "bad" (except for Cabanas in my opinion) it just wasn't extra good or anything. Some of the things that I actually thought were amazing were some of the quick service options on the pool deck. They often had Asian rice or noodle bowls with a wide variety of toppings and shwarma served on pita bread that we went back to multiple times. I'm looking forward to the BBQ on the pool deck on the Wish!

It's peak summer holidays and post-COVID revenge travel so pretty much all ships are sailing over 100% capacity, and this is especially true of child-focused Disney ships. Cruise ship capacities are based on double occupancy (2 people per cabin). You cram families of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) in half the cabins and all of the sudden you're sailing at 150% capacity. As for the food, we have learned to temper our expectations on cruises in general. If you enjoy going to fine dining restaurants on land I would prepare to be disappointed by the included offerings. Not that the food isn't "good" because it definitely is, but Disney wasn't heads above the rest, more like on par. I would argue that most of the people sailing on Disney rave about the food selection just because perceptions of what "fancy" are differs for this crowd. If your idea of a fancy restaurant is Cheesecake Factory or Olive Garden then the food on the ships will be on par with that. On our cruise on the Magic last year the food in the dining rooms was mostly good, but not great, and the food in the buffet was actually pretty sub par. The only cruise I've been on where the food actually lived up to the hype was Celebrity and that was in Aqua Class. All of that to say, we loved our Halloween Cruise on the Magic, so much more than the food contributed to our good time, that we are sailing in less than a month on the Wish for another Halloween Cruise.

I'm not vegetarian but I found myself selecting the vegetarian options on my Disney cruise. They are clearly marked on the menu and are actually some very interesting choices. Some of the best dishes I had were the veggie curry options at the quick service location on the pool deck, or main courses from the dining room.

It's just because it's Disney. Until recently they literally could not raise the price high enough to deter people from going. There are families from all over the country who have timeshares and visit their parks multiple times a year. They finally hit a wall with their Galactic Star Cruiser when they tried to charge $6,500 for a two night "cruise."

Hello Everyone! We just returned from our 4th cruise to Bermuda and we decided to take it slow during our stay there. Prior to our stay I contacted the Pompano Beach Club for information about their day passes. They require you to call or email them 4 days prior to your arrival for a reservation. They have very few that they make available so depending on how booked the hotel is. The passes are $40 per person (kids under 2 are free), and includes access to all of their facilities and restaurants which included a pool, kiddie pool, several hot tubs, and their small (but pristine and sheltered) private beach. They have bathrooms, an outdoor shower, and towels for guests, and beach loungers, umbrellas, floaties, pool noodles and even sand toys all complimentary. We didn't check it out but they also have a game room. The pool bar and restaurant opened at 11-12pm. The food and drinks were great, standard casual island fare, and actually very reasonably priced for Bermuda (They could have gotten away with charging a lot more IMO). We had 2 rum swizzles, fish tacos, a fried mahi mahi appetizer, and chicken tenders and fries for about $75. We walked right off the ship and into the first taxi we found, it was about a 20 minute drive and about $30 each way. I can't recommend this place enough, the only downside is that if you have mobility issues you will not be able to easily access most of the facilities because it is located on a cliff and there were steep steps down to the beach. We will absolutely be including the Pompano Beach Club in our plans for Bermuda in the future!