mjkacmom

Drink prices on cruise ships have always been cheaper than local places for me. House wines start at $12, cocktails $12, beers $9. I’m a big fan of byob restaurants for this reason.

Get there early, rent a locker if you are worried about your stuff (we just put ours on a couple of loungers, get them early too). We set up by the huge lazy River that went to the slides. Once they opened, we used them before lines got long, using the River (which is awesome). We hit the beach and aquarium later. We are a big breakfast on the ship and brought prepackaged snacks. Buy water from vendors at the pier, I think water was $10 at Atlantis, I can’t imagine food prices. Easy to get taxis back and forth.

You can walk around the casino and the marina village, that’s about it.

I live in northeast NJ, there are fish tacos everywhere, Mexican restaurants plus plenty of pub style restaurants that serve tacos as an option (sometimes happy hour specials). Passaic NJ has great tacos (my kids work for a local garden center and the manager and a bunch of employees are from Mexico (live there in the winter) and shared the best spots. Definite not the Americanized hard shell/ground beef/lettuce kind.

Uber/Lyft is huge here, just download the app and request a car when ready to go to the cruise port.

I think any wagon/stroller that would work in sand would be too big for a cruise ship with very narrow corridors. I’d get a good compact umbrella that reclines. Worse case scenario you can carry it on the beach. I’d use a jogger for a beach stroller at home.

Lol not me! I was a SAHM of 5, having some time with just my husband was an important part of my vacation, meeting other kids from other areas was an important part of my kids’ vacation.

I thought they were referring to the thermal spa.

We are 7, I have to open both accounts to book excursions. Once I ran out of a spot for one of us.

I remember big delays years ago boarding and disembarking on the breakaway in NYC, the port was having issues getting enough custom agents so it took a while to clear the ship, boarding started after noon, it took us hours to get off the ship.

I think you nailed it (we’ve done it both ways). You can probably get there a bit faster taking a taxi ($5 pp). If you do it through the cruise ship, ditch the group when you arrive at Atlantis and go grab a lounger by the big “lazy” River that goes to the slides, and rent a locker.

It was several years ago, but we had a day pass there and enjoyed it very much, food was great (we ate at the buffet, breakfast and lunch) drinks were good, beach beautiful with crystal clear water.

No non packaged food, especially no fruit. We bring packaged food from home (have one with celiac).

Actually 14 days is $400, since you pay when you enter I believe 32 nights would only be $400.

I think I booked through resort for a day.

It’s called the unlimited beverage package on NCL.

But is free at sea only for the first 2 passengers? That would be $40 a day, drinks averaging around $12 each, throw in some virgin drinks and it’s worth it.

Not really, 3 cocktails will cost more oop per day than the unpaid gratuity.

It depends on when it was booked, my daughter used to take Amtrak from Delaware to Newark, and now Boston to Newark, fares booked well in advance were much cheaper than booking closer to the travel date.

We had a great day at RIU on cabbage beach, all inclusive, it was beautiful.

But not a refund of your excursion.

I don’t think that’s it, you can purchase drinks in NY on NCL even if you don’t have the package, and everyone who drinks gets charged tax, package or OOP. I’m guessing it’s more of a pain to charge taxes vs. just not selling alcohol.

I’d much rather pay an extra $300 plus $20 a day for the UBP than save $300 but pay $130 a day for the UBP. It’s a math problem.

Didn’t they get the free at sea package? Even if one person of the two who get the UBP doesn’t drink, it’s still a deal at only $20 a day for gratuities. Isn’t the UBP $100+ a day if you purchase it?

I know on NCL you can buy drinks while in port in nyc and get drinks from the package, but sales tax is charged on those drinks. This isn’t the case in Bayonne since laws are different in NJ.