LOVINCRUIZIN

I saw that same reference on another thread.

I will add that the steakhouses on both the Explorer of the Seas and Carnival Splendor are excellent and are worthy of my top 5.

French Manor in Poconos PA served a really divine breakfast.

I will stop at these three.

Why not get a list of ships that meet your timing and embarkation locations and have the Grandkids research which one they would like to cruise on?

This works great! I did this with my kids and they worked together and narrowed their options to the Carnival Breeze and Carnival Sunshine. They debated and chose the Breeze. I am much less particular what ship I sail on, as long as I go :D

Thanks everyone! I actually went ahead and booked the steakhouse on the last night. Only reason I did that was because I am not too fussy about food, but my DH is... and I'm afraid that if he gets the best meal on the first day that the rest of the dinners will be a disappointment ;)

Now we just need to decide if we want to do the Italian as well... I find that to be an excellent value!!

On Carnival, we really thought about the Italian restaurant, but never made it. I agree - the price was great (I think it was only $5 for a kid!). But we did love the pasta served there during lunch and did that twice over the two weeks.

Great thinking regarding steakhouse revervation - I like it;)

All true :)

I would reserve one sooner than later, and I would try to choose one farther down the beach, as the closest ones seem to be crowded with nearby people, and yo'll forever be trying to protect your porch, chairs and noodles :eek:

I can cope with most grammar/spelling horrors (I teach 16-19 year olds!), but dinning, desert and room stewart do grate somewhat.

clever :eek:

My pet peeve is when a review is written by a cruiser who has been on multiple cruises, on the same ship, in the same year, and they complain about there not being enough variety.

 

The next pet peeve is when they nit-pick. "My cruise was ruined because I had a cracked tile on my bathroom floor." or "There was a rust spot." :eek: If something is broken, and it is crucial to the function of the ship, then yes, it may affect their experience. I usually stop reading when there is nit picking.

I am with you, Linda....they need to GET OVER IT :D

There is no need to buy dollars before you go. You register a card when checking in at the port. To use the arcade just activate all cards so that your room is charged.

That is an option, but I choose to keep my kids cards turned completely off on RC, and force them to use cash using the machine Cuizer2 shows in his/her pic. That best protects me, and makes my kid understand the value of the money they are spending (I am not an arcade fan :mad: )

Have an awesome trip!!!

Some day I wanna be just like you - retired and cruising, or dreaming about it :cool:

I agree with much of what you say. But I am talking about pulling them out once a year for a meaningful vacation. I am not condoning being irresponsible and "consistently" pulling them out, or pulling them out on a "whim".

Some of what your DD is experiencing in the workplace, I am also experiencing. I believe this is a general trend in this "entitlement" age. And I am parenting my kids in many ways so they DO NOT develope that attitude.

Call Maury (or whoever runs those shows these days ;)) (I wouldn;t know, I am at WORK:p )

Having done a bunch of cruises with kids, I would say the Carnival Breeze and the larger RCCL ships are the most apt to keep teenagers entertained.

As for ports, I agree the Caribbean is the best treat. I choose based upon excursion. Some of my kids favorites over the past few years have been:

ziplining in Antigua

scoot cars in St. Maarten

flow rider in Grand Turk

scuba diving in St. Thomas (Coki Beach)

Aruba (can't remember hte private island, but had a water park, smorkeling, banana boat ride)

Swimming with dolphins

Snorkeling with sea turtles in Barbados and St Thomas

River tubing down the mountain in Grenada

Have fun!

I spend my time reading on cruise critic. No visuals, but this this is still enough to pass the time and keep me super-excited about the "next" one...

Oh - and the flow rider on Grand Turk (located at Margaritaville) is a hoot! My kids loved it, and itr was fun to hang out in the pool and watch the participants. Highly recommend this :D

Grand Turk is now one of my favorite ports. Unless you want to do some specific activity, you def don't need a shore excurion there.

Aside from the super-convenient beach and MArgaritaville, my favorite spot is Governor's Beach which is very close, but a $4 taxi ride. It is secluded, if you choose to have a more private beach, like I do.

My kids are 9 and 13 and I DO NOT hesitate to take them out of school for 2 weeks each year for much needed vacation and family time.

Just because we all are not school teachers or school district workers, does not mean that we have to forego vacations because our work industries work on a different calendar cycle.

As long as they make up the work and their grades don't suffer - I am an avid supporter, and WILL be doing ti again next December:D

Check when you board to see if they still offer a free bottle of wine if you eat in the steakhouse the first night.

YES - they are still offering this - great bonus - good advice;)

I had always been opposed to paying for a specialty restaurant when the dining room food is adequate. However twice (RCCL and Carnival) we were given a comp to the steakhouse, and BOTH were excellent, excellent experiences. For the small fee, I would not hesitate to eat there again, in fact I am planning to do so in April as a little extra treat to me!

We visited Jamaica two weeks ago on the Carnival Breeze. It was raining so hard, that they were offering informing everyone at the gangway to go back to the shore excursion desk for a refund if they did not want to go on their excursion.

Generally, I agree that they are nonrefundable. But, as I described, they are reasonable and do make exceptions.

I didn't know they were making changes. I don;t like the guesswork with their program. You rarely know what benefits you have unless you reach out to them.

Carnival gives letters and emails and clearly shows you on their website what spefically they are offering you. In fact, I just got another offer for a free cruise and am considering Alaska for May (after my April Caribbean)

I cruise with my kids when others are NOT cruising with their kids. I prefer fewer kids on board.

MArried on Splendor - congrats! Actually, I am sailing for the third time on Splendor, and it is my favorite ship as well!

I will have to check out hte Liberty.

I thought mykids would enjoy Sunshine, but see such mixed reviews

OK - so, you cruise Carnival a lot! What is your favorite ship? Best to keep teenagers happy?

Thanks - that is what I worry about with NCL. I like traditional dining - not sure I am a freestyle type :o

RCCL is, in my opinion, a small step up from Carnival, although I am not complaining about Carnival. Give it a try!

Nope - not RCCL - but I have snuck it on in my suitcase. shhhhh ;)

Agreed - though cruise lines do tend to take a more cautious approach than the State Dept, and itineraries are often revised very early when the potential for problems is pretty low.

 

Happens more with US lines than others, I suspect because American cruisers are more risk-averse than other nationalities - even if the State Department considers places to be safe, it makes no business sense to advertise cruises to those places if bookings are going to be affected by media reports.

US ships abandoned places like Egypt & Tunisia early on, UK & Italian ships continued problem-free with those itineraries for many months after - locals were very grateful - though eventually they stopped too.

We had an RCI Holy Land cruise re-scheduled months ahead to include Athens instead of Cairo - we actually booked after the switch.

By the time the cruise took place, Cairo was safe & peaceful and our Athens day was affected by a general strike & demonstration. :rolleyes:

 

Cruise lines also have to figure out the alternatives. Crimea was a recent classic example - some cruise lines changed Black Sea itineraries when political unrest first started. Months later, when travel warnings were issued, those ships had alternates already in place whereas those which had persisted with Crimea had limited options - alternate ports were already booked-out.

On the other hand, because of the Crimea/Ukraine situation there was also concern about St Petersburg & bookings for the Baltic suffered.

Unnecessarily, as it turned out.:rolleyes:

 

All of which shows that predicting the future is an impossible task.

But cruise lines are well-used to adapting to political situations as well as weather, natural disasters & such.

 

And one advantage of cruising rather than vacation hotels - ships can re-schedule ports, whereas hotels are notoriously difficult to move. ;)

 

JB :)

Well done :)

My inclination is no - but ...just call the cruise line!

I agree. For me, the ship experience is at least 50% of the reason for taking a cruise. I would love to take a cruise on The Reflection.

Absolutely right - I agree and would choose this option. Enjoy!!!