carohs

We have often taken a glass to dinner and it's never been questioned. DH even goes as far as to request glasses from a bar, and that's never been an issue either. Haven't tried the lounge but also there's nothing preventing you from ordering a glass in one place and walking around with it to another lounge. Not like you can really tell if a glass of wine is a one of the brands offered on board once in the glass, right?

We did them when they were $25. I wouldn't say they are worth the $85 though, unless they've changed the experience. The pours are small, and the bites were literally bite sized.

Generally, any cruise 4 nights or longer will have a pirate night. Fireworks are only a few short minutes, but lots of people like to dress up for it. You'll repeat one of the three restaurants, depending on your rotation, but that night's menu will be Caribbean/Pirate themed.

I agree that repositioning cruises tend to be the best priced, per night. They usually have a repositioning cruise in May that goes from FL to Barcelona. Summer 2025 cruises should be coming out real soon, sometime in March, usually. But if you're looking at 2026 you'll need to wait another year to book. The one that comes back from Europe I believe is in October. They have longer cruises too, on the Wonder around the same times, that go from Vancouver to Hawaii, then Hawaii to Australia (and back). There's been a lot of speculation on what routes will change, with the addition of the Wish and Treasure. Something to keep in mind is that the newer the ship the more adult areas you'll find. The Wonder/Magic only have one specialty restaurant. The Dream/Fantasy have two. In general, the closer to release date, the better deals you'll find. Although, sometimes, you'll find good deals for last minute sailings. DCL just opened a second private island, you can find cruises that will visit both, but these are more popular. Yes you'll find more kids, but they're there to experience the magic just like you are. I travel with mine, and I find that their magic and wonder adds to my experience. You'll walk past and hear a girl cry out, "mom, I see Cinderella!!" and there's just a certain joy there. But like I said they do have adults only areas too.

Hi! Anyone cruise recently on the Miracle, that also used the Wi-Fi? DH would need it for work, for video calling specifically. Just curious if this would be do-able on this ship. Oooh, and are packages available per day on the ship, or is it better overall to pre-buy the package?

Yes! And we get things like sushi burritos, or rolls with jalapeños. And sometimes you can even find refried beans and chorizo on a pizza around here. 😂

While I would try either, I won't pay extra for food on a ship, especially pizza.

Yes. I was very put off by the amount of smoking and the location of said smokers on this ship. I should be able to swim on lido without having to smell it. Or go from the buffet to kids club, without having to go out of the way not to walk past it.

I'm almost certain that the "kids eat free" benefit is the same as booking any other cabin. As in, kids under 12 eat free as long as they order from the kids menu. This is the same kids menu that is ship-wide. If your kid want to order off the regular Teppanyaki menu, you'll probably need to pay or use a specialty dining credit.

Yes no sense in upheaving everything now when you haven't reduced your "threat level". Both Cabo and Ensenada are just as safe as, Los Angeles, for example. There's parts you may want to avoid but you wouldn't be going there as a tourist anyway.

The best deal we found was right after the pamper party. There were also some embarkation day specials.

Yup, I'm outraged. Even the lack of pads in Pandora is bad. I prefer tampons, but not everyone is comfortable using them.

Before I get completely outraged that NCL wouldn't or couldn't provide a basic necessity item, I just need to ask for clarification. Were all your efforts geared toward getting a tampon, specifically, or was no hygiene product available anywhere at all?

What's their reasoning for getting a tour operator? Maybe y'all could compromise and get the GuideAlong app? As far as rentals go, both in Maui and Kauai you dock real close to the airport. We rented from Enterprise/National but we found we were in our rental and on the road 30 minutes-ish after getting off the ship.

Aw shucks and just like that you're off the ship. Thanks for another great review

PS my skin on my face is still very soft.

The second stop was The Hat for pastrami. DS loves pastrami. This place reminds me of my dad. He would always stop here if he drove up north. Then it was truly over. We drove up in the rain, drove back in even more rain, but somehow managed to squeeze in some beautiful sunny weather in between. It was an amazing trip. The only bummer is that I ended up getting sick and I think it took me longer to get over it than the time we spent onboard. Even today I was still clocking 102°. But even with that, it was just so amazing to have a vacation that was 100% vacation. In 10 years, when the kids are grown, this kind of trip will be a matter of habit. For now, I'll look back fondly on this trip. Maybe sometime soon I'll get another chance to do it again. I liked the Radiance though. Besides me getting turned around a few times, the vibe was super upbeat. Maybe it's having sailed out of Cali, but I was never bothered by cigarette smoke. I liked that camp ocean is right by Serenity. I could envision dropping the kids off while the hubs and I share a pitcher of sangria next door. It has slides, mini golf, and a ropes course. The ship didn't feel too big. I like the multi level deck chair layout and I could actually hear the movie as we walked through the area. Yeah I could see spending some family time out there. Maybe we'll sail her again, if she does anything longer than a 4 night route.

The Buena Park location is huge.

Before heading home we did make two stops. One, Portos. It's kinda well known and tends to be ridiculously busy.

At about 8:30 we were ready to head out and we'd just heard the announcement that all self-assist were clear to debark. The elevator waiting area by midship was packed. I looked at the #of people and their luggage ahead of us and judged at least 3 maybe 4 elevator calls before we got our turn. Nah. At least the forward elevators have 10 in the bank. Mid is only 4. So L and I made a mad dash to the other side of Lido through the pouring rain just because I'm not a patient person. Like at all. From there it was relatively easy and quick to get off the ship. Once on the ground floor they separated us into two lines. Those with a passport, etc and those traveling with just their birth certificate. This made me happy. It really irks me when I have to wait in a long line for something and then when I finally get to the front what I need takes all of 10 seconds. I know it's rude to line cut but there are times when I really wish I could just be like, "hi yeah this'll just be...oh look see I'm through already." But having the separated lines makes so much sense. Sure enough we never stopped walking getting through and out of the port. One family traveled with their toddler, and although they had passports their toddler did not and were told to go to the other line. Ooh too bad but yay no delays in my line.

Then it was time to vacate and let the crew do their thing to get ready for the next set of passengers. I had learned from breakfast the day before that I could reserve a table from the app, so I set that as we were just about done gathering our things. We headed to the elevators where we found a crowd full of people waiting to take the elevators all with luggage in tow. Oy okay it's just gonna be a day to pack some patience. We made our way to the aft elevators guessing correctly that these would be less crowded and finally made it to the Sunset. I pulled out my phone and saw the notification that our table was ready. Yeah! Oh but wait, where did it go? It disappeared from my screen. Did it time out? The host is telling everyone they have to get back on the elevators and head to 5 to get to midship, then go back down to 3. I guess we were the only ones wanting breakfast over here. But as it turns out even though it says it's open til 8:30 at some point they stop seating because at 8:05 I couldn't request another table. What?! So we headed back up to Lido. We spotted people leaving a table almost right away. Phew. It was a two top, which works out just fine, and near the food and drink station. In case you were wondering no I didn't get a burrito. At that point I was just happy to have found a place to sit and not really all that hungry.

Despite my intentions, I still didn't manage to sleep in. I did get a picture of the Queen Mary while it was all lit up so there's that. I did manage to sneak a few more winks after taking that pic tho.

Debarkation day. The day before the hub app had been nagging me to select a debarkation time. I thought I picked self assist, must have since I didn't get luggage tags, but the second screen then asked me to pick a time. Whatevs, I just went with the latest available hoping to actually sleep in this time. Nothing exciting about being kicked off the cruise ship. Once again I felt the difference of cruising without the fam. Being only a 3 night cruise, we had very little to unpack and repack. The night before I didn't have to figure out what to leave out and scramble to get everything else packed and out for the porters. When you have 4 people, 2 of which don't listen and are impatient at best, and add the lines and crowds of debarkation, you tend to want to make use of the porters. But I just had my own luggage to worry about this time. Made the last night of the cruise a full vacation day, unhindered by sad thoughts of leaving. It's incredible how little things like that can make such a difference. I'm convinced now that I would rather not do a 3 night cruise with the kids, but as an adults only trip it was a nice quick getaway to be sure.

Can I just take a moment to apologize for all the typos and grammatical errors? I'd like to say I'm better than that but evidence suggests I'm not usually. Today you could either blame voice to type and my stuffed up nose, or DD who put stick on nails on me that are impossible to type with.

Then back to the stateroom where I fell asleep while L watched a movie. It was a great day.