Jaxer05

UPDATE-For those that asked.... I cannot begin to express how much we appreciate all the input, advice and kindness that you all gave us! You have no idea how scary this was for us to try and figure out...I really wish that we had come to cruise critic from the very start of this adventure! We decided to put the extra on their onboard account as OBC as that seemed to give them the most flexibility with their options AND it has the added benefit of being a done deal and they can't refuse to accept it as we were afraid they might do if we tried to give them cash. They are those parents that never want us to spend our own money on them! (Kinda blew that out of the water on this one...) So.......the grand reveal went WAY better than I could have ever expected. We have a tradition in our family that whenever there is big news or something to be discussed we "call a family meeting". So my sister and I made their favorite dinner and said we wanted to have a family meeting during dinner. We sort of tried to say it ominously so that they wouldn't be thinking that a surprise was coming..... 😉 We waited as long as we could to tell them, which meant that we hadn't even taken our first bite yet! My mom was like....we will always love you, just tell us what's wrong! 🙂 YOU GUYS....it took us three times of explaining to get them to understand that we had already paid for the cruise and that they were going! They literally thought we were just talking about how neat the itinerary was!!! When it finally sunk in that IT WAS A DONE DEAL, the fare has been paid and THEY WERE GOING they both burst into tears. For like 10 minutes. I am not exaggerating, it was a crazy amount of waterworks. My dad later told us that my mom has been wanting to go on another cruise for the last 10 years and they could just never manage it. It was awesome. Once they recovered it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life! They are talking about it non-stop! They went THAT NIGHT to Barnes and Noble to get a cruise guide book and they have been researching all of the ports. They are looking at options for ship excursions and watching so many YouTube videos about the Caribbean Princess that I think they have already seen every nook and cranny of the ship! They have basically turned into kids at Christmas. The exact reaction we were hoping for. They haven't made it to cruise critic yet but I am waiting for my mom to find this post....she loves cruise critic! (Love you mom!) Thanks again for all of your wonderful advice and kind words. What a wonderful online community this is. We are going to take a family cruise someday and rest assured I will back here with a ton of questions! Until then....Bon Voyage.... 🛳️🥰

This is great information! I didn't know they could carry on their own wine! They are both wine drinkers and this will so appeal to my moms little frugal heart! 🙂

I love the IDEA of a couples massage (sounds so romantic to me!) but I don't know if they would like it or not. I do agree with Papa Yoda about them possibly not spending cash. We already know that they are going to think we spent way too much of our own money on this...I think we are going with a combo of OBC and a little bit of spending money. Thanks again for all the wonderful replies and information! You have all been so helpful!

That is the hope! After doing all the research on this my sister and I want to take a cruise so badly! Someday we will all take one together!

Thanks for all the info! We just paid the tips...no Plus or Premium. They do drink, but not a lot. I imagine they will have 1-2 drinks per day. They are techno savvy and we will help them get the apps on their phones. Glad its a good itinerary! That's a good thought! Maybe some OBC and then some spending cash? They are flying in the day before and then flying out the evening the cruise arrives (that was their original plan when they got the plane tickets) and they still have the hotel that they originally booked so they should be all set!

We are telling them next week which will give them about 3 weeks to plan. We only just bought it and wanted to make sure all our ducks were in a row before we told them! Thanks for all the advice and kind comments...it definitely sounds like onboard credit is the way to go!

Balcony cabins are more than double what we paid so we can't manage that. The Princess Plus plan was also a lot more and out of our price range. The ship is the Caribbean Princess. It sounds like onboard credit is the way to go? We weren't sure what all they could buy with that but it sounds like just about anything they want?

They got their passports when they were still planning to go, so we are good there. What is trip insurance? We bought a vacation protection plan when we got the tickets...it was called the platinum plan. Is that what you are referring to? Is there something else we should get?

Ok, so I came on here for some advice because our parents love cruise critic so much and we need advice on what to do for a surprise cruise for our parents! The short story is this: my sister and I have bought a cruise for our parents 20th anniversary and we have a little extra to spend on it after the fare and we need some advice from people "in the know". My mom and Dad took a cruise for their honeymoon 20 years ago and they loved it...they have been talking about it and reminiscing for 20 years about it. Their plan was to take another one this summer, they have been saving for 2 years and they put a down payment on it last summer. This has been a hard year financially and in December they decided they couldn't afford to take it. 😞 The problem is, they had already bought the plane tickets and they can't get a refund on it. So their plan is to go to the port city (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) and try to find a place to camp (they are hoping to only spend $500...on a 2 week trip!). They are trying to be excited about it but they are so disappointed and not really looking forward to camping in Florida in June. So my sister and I had both already been saving money (her for a car and me for a senior trip) and we kicked it up into overdrive this year and managed to save enough to buy the cruise! We just bought the tickets and we have a bit left over to spend and this is where we need your help! What would you suggest we do with the extra? What would you want? What can we do to make this the most magical cruise ever? Here are our thoughts...They are in the cheapest stateroom category...we could upgrade them to an Oceanview? They were going to stay in an interior room originally so I know they are ok with it but is an Oceanview a lot better? We have already prepaid the crew gratuity so, in theory, they could take the whole cruise and not have to spend another penny...but we could just give them onboard credit if there are other things to buy onboard? Do most people go to the restaurants that cost extra? We could prepay that for them...or do most people eat at the free food places? Any other better ideas that we don't know about? As you can see we are out of our depth here! Any thoughts or advice is greatly appreciated! We are so excited to give this to them and we want it to be the trip of a lifetime! We are telling them next week and we want to have everything done and ready to go so we have to decide what to do quickly! Also, if it helps, we have about $600 extra to spend and the cruise is the June 10th Caribbean East/West Adventurer on the Caribbean Princess. SORRY this turned into a long post and THANK YOU in advance for your help! Jax and Emily