mediator

Do you know if this offer works for Delta Amex? My husband checked his account and their is a cruise offer which seems to be directing him to a specific cruise on the Caribbean princess and travel agent for an obc. Anyone?

If you are a Carnival Corp. shareholder, make sure you apply to get the credit for the 20-day cruise and not the two 10-cruises. It's $250 since your cruise is longer than 14 days versus $100 each for the 10-day cruises.

I have the 2 b2b ten day cruise booked in November. In looking at the form for shareholders obc, I have to write down both booking numbers, which will reduce my benefit. Is there a way around this. Clearly I am on the ship for 20 days. Do I make a note on the form?

Are they serious?!?!?!?!

"So Belben says that she and her husband spent the rest of the week just focused on trying to entertain the children — without the benefit of the kids’ programs."

Heaven forbid you have children, are responsible for their well being and entertainment, and actually have to spend quality time with them on your vacation.

Add to that the indignity of having your child face consequences of pushing around other kids, and/or your second child being exposed to other languages/English second language on a vacation that visits foreign countries!!

But this part really takes the cake:

"With high hopes for a relaxing and restorative vacation, Belben, her husband and three children (ages 6, 3 and 1) boarded their Caribbean-bound cruise. "

6, 3, and 1??? Relaxing and resorative????

"Royal Caribbean does have The Royal Babies program, but those are classes and activities with the parent and the baby. So that program wouldn’t provide any kind of respite for a tired mom looking for a break either."

Well maybe Dad could step up and take the kids while Mom took a break?

SMH

I agree with you.

The only relaxing and restorative vacation with kids is to leave them at home with grandma. With that said, I took my 3 grandkids age 5, 9 and 14 on the oasis 2 weeks ago. That was challenging in itself because of the age differences and what they could do due do restrictions etc. My relaxing, recovery and restorative vacation is happening on a b2b 8/17 and 8/25 once they are safely tucked in school and grandma is “off call”.

We are considering a World Cruise. Yikes!!! Just saying those words is daunting.

We cruised on the Grand and Royal class ships but never on a small ship like the Pacific Princess. We do love sea days and our longest cruise was 28 days to the South Pacific which we loved. We are considering the 2020 WC; my question is should we book the PP for a test run (hate the expense of this option) to see if she suits us or should we throw caution to the wind and book it.

I would do a test run if you can. It’s a long commitment. We were considering Oceania WC and did several Caribbean cruises with them to see if the line was a good fit for us. As it turned out, we felt it wasn’t for that long a journey. We did the WC 94 days in 2015 on the pacific princess... booked 2018 WC, and had to cancel one month b4 do to husbands health issue. We are booked on the 111 day WC . I had so many what “ifs”, and it turned out to be extraordinary in every way for us.

I want to book a Royal Caribbean cruise with my grandchild and I was wondering, my ex and I both have custody of the child, do I still need his written permission to cruise with the child or can I just show the custody papers that has both of our names listed as having custody?

My recent experience off the oasis with 3 grandchildren.

One grandchild's father was present...shared custody.

One grandson's mother was present.... Shared custody

One granddaughter no parent present

I had a notorized letter for each grandchild. The only letter was asked for was from the one traveling with no parent. However at disembarking, I was asked to show the permission letter from the parent not traveling for each child, even though two parents parents were identified. You never know. Not sure what would have happened if I did not have them... We were bringing them back into the United States, so no abduction.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I guess I was looking for some first hand experience on some of those hotels that have the parking.

:D

We always stay at the la Quinta by the airport on 26th street Hollywood Fl. It is around the corner from many restaurants and fast food as well as stores for last minute shopping. Parking used to be “free”, but they now have a cruise n park package which is still very reasonable. Shuttle I believe is about $10 to the port. There are lots of choices, but we have found this to be clean and reliable. No variables, you know what you are getting. There is an ok breakfast included. We have left our car for as long as 3 weeks. we are doing a b2b in August and have never had an issue...stuff happens, but we park up towards the front where the car can be seen.

I agree, but let folks drop their bags in the room instead of having to lug them around for 2 hours.

Clearly you have an issue lugging your bag. Back in the old days it was late boarding and everything was ready, but in my opinion I lost use of a good part of the day I paid for. Check your bag with porter and try a small carry on . We so appreciate “early” boarding and are able to eat and use the pool and have a drink before muster.

By the way, you used to be able to drop off your luggage in the room, do but with a lot of things “people” abused” that.

Hopefully someone can help me with a couple of questions. We are treating our 3 adult children, their spouses, and our 3 grandchildren to a cruise on Royal Caribbean (8 day). I have tried twice to get a straight answer from their customer service but… when you read what I have done you may slap yourself on the forehead and realize the problem isn’t customer service but me J.

 

We have a total of 4 cabins. Our big box travel agent booked our cruise a little wonky to take advantage of the 3rd guest discount. So booking wise, we show our cabin with two guests and each of the three other cabins have 3 guests each.The reality is that three cabins will have two guests and the fourth cabin will have 5 guests (2 adults, a 6 yr old, a 4 yr old, and a 8 month old).

 

I am hoping since we are all next to each other we will all have the same cabin steward, if not I don’t want the cabin steward tending the family of 5 to get short changed since the steward(s) tending the other 2 cabins would get the third guests gratuities. I planned on prepaying the gratuities but this is what has stopped me.

 

If I don’t prepay gratuities and pay each staterooms gratuities once on board, it will show as a credit and I can see a certain person in our party justifying reducing the amount of the gratuities for their cabin.This would cause a lot of contention (since that person will announce what they have done to the others) and be a huge issue for me.

 

If I understand correctly, prepaid gratuities do not show up on the stateroom folio.

 

My husband’s idea: We prepay gratuities for all four rooms as booked. Then we get on the ship, we give the room steward tending the family of 5 twenty dollars up front. Then at the end of the cruise we give another twenty.

 

Does this sound stingy? Does anyone have another idea?

We just came off the Oasis. I had two connecting cabins. I swapped rooms taking the 3 grandkids and my son and guest in the other room. I gave the room attendant $50 extra with a note on the bed thanking him for his excellent service and I listed both cabin numbers .If I had different stewards, I would have just look for the one that was attending the guests with 5 people and hand them the envelope.

I have every shape and size of carry off bag and backpack, and I "flip flop" on which one I use based on my activities and ports. What I use when traveling with grandkids to the pool or island is one of those xxl storage bags. I like it because they are heavy, waterproof and big. I can fit the towels in them and pack a smaller zip bag for their wet stuff and it all fits. Mostly I like it because the kids can see exactly what is in there or not (sunscreen , goggles , toys) etc. before pulling everything out.

I just got off the Oasis of the Seas with 3 grandchildren and 2 adults.We have over 400 nights on RCL, so at one time it was our favorite. Of late, Princess has become our favorite. It is much more subdued. The movie and tv programs we love. We like the fact you have access to a washing machine and iron, even though we are elite.

We now go on RCL when we have the kids. They like the “stuff”. They like the merry go round, flow rider, ice skating etc.

-Food is subjective.

-Absent on RCL is decent TV... in room demand movie and tv shows. You are stuck with a couple of channels and infomercials. The kids on downtime had the same cartoons for 7 days. And adults nothing per se.

-Movie rental was $11.99 . Princess is hands down the best in that regard.

-Food is subjective and all lines have good and bad days

-Absent on Princess is the belly flop and hairy leg contest.

- We do enjoy the concierge lounge on RCL, but not enough to book w/o

grandkids.

So, I guess by ourselves we love Princess, with grandchildren we do RCL.

As promised, I am reporting back on my document experience. The two children that had parents cruising we were not asked for anything. The one grandchild w/o parent, I was asked permission letter. Now getting off, the customs agent, while she confirmed who were the parents of what kid, she asked for permission letter for all the three children.

Just as an extra comment.... I chose boardwalk balconies for the children. I thought it would be fun. I expected not to enjoy it, but this wasn’t about me. I had cabin 14311 and 14313 connecting staterooms. It was not noisy for me, who is noise sensitive. Kids loved watching practices in the aqua theater and activities going on. Great location for kids one up to pool. Zip lined right in front of us. Fun, fun fun.

We just love to cruise. Having started in our 30’s and now late 60’s, we have been there, done that. Now we find it relaxing to get on a ship, any ship (luckily from FL now) and just relax. We don’t have to worry about missed ports, though I do sympathize for those whose destination might be canceled for a reason , as we used to be crest fallen when they could not make a port. we now enjoy the loneliness of a ship while in port, and look towards longer cruises while we have our health. Booked for world cruise on 2020. Had to cancel 2018, hubby had health issues. The 2015

World cruise was all new to us. That’s what we do now.

Thanks all... leave Sunday🛳. Will report back on my experience. Hardest part is on and off. Time to pack patience and best behavior.

Update to my original post .... the father finally came through with notarized letter. Looks like a little food spill on it .. the notary stamp expired on June8th, however, it was signed and notarized before expiration date. 😩

We leave Sunday, and it cannot be soon enough. I am responsible for 5 other people two of which are “adults” still asking me surprisingly stupid questions, like I am driving too? No, we are going to strap the kids to the roof.

For the heck of it, I’ll let you know what I had to prove when I return.

We have my son, his daughter 8 yrs. his step-daughter 14 yrs. letter from xwife, mother of both girls, letter from biological father to cover the one child.

Sons girlfriend with her son 5/yrs) and letter notarized from the father.

Only my son and I have passports, rest are birth certificates .

I see a large pina colada in sights.

i just got on the new website... I was not in the mood to deal with getting it "fixed" since it did not recognize me anymore since the change. I wanted to look at the amenity gifts I choose, I leave Sunday for a cruises do I booked a yr ago.

I could not find the upgrade preference or gift choice preference, so I called them back and asked where it was. I was told it no longer exists and I have to call and they will read it to me. Does this sound correct? It's a long list. I am d+, so there are a couple of layers of choices.

Is there a printable list? Does anyone else feel like it's a way to discourage you? Thanks for your help.

We will be a cash acct so not concerned about charges. However, does anyone take their own towel for quality? We are on HOTS & could pick some up in Ft Lauderdale - arriving a day early.

I started to bring towels last summer with the grandkids. I decided that I did not want the worry about “watching ” those stupid towels and not them or nagging for that matter. Quality, I’m not sure... but I know where they have been and the use of them. We leave on the 17th for the oasis with 3 kids in tow this time and I’m bringing each a character towel and a couple of c&a towels still in package I received as my gift which is easy to pack. We sail on Princess a lot and they don’t seem to worry about towels. At one time RCL stopped the charge, I guess too many people like souvenirs.

I am considering the 2020 Pacific Princess world cruise and would very much appreciate input from those who have sailed her very recently as to condition of ship, etc. and also those who have sailed her for a world cruise.

 

This will be my first (and probably only!) world cruise and I understand that on other cruise lines for a world cruise the dining room menu is more extensive, there are more on board activities, and there are multiple gifts given to the passengers.

 

If it matters, I am Elite with Princess, 4 star mariner with Hal, and have also sailed Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. I am also considering the world cruise on Hal and Viking.

 

Thank you.

We did the 94 day world cruise in 2015. We are currently booked for 2020. It was on my husbands bucket list. I was full of apprehensions about everything. It ended up being amazing, educational, enlightening. I guess we were sorry that we could not have done this when we were younger. The components for us to do a trip like this was money, retirement and your health. My bucket list is to take my grandchildren sometime after they turn 18 tand let them view the world first hand. We were so ignorant and we thought we were smart, saavy people. We were booked for 2018, but health issues made us cancel.

Hopefully, we will see you in 2020. We are booked Fll to Fll . 111 days.

We were very apprehensive about the size of the ship ,clicks, enough to do, sea sickness.. you name it. With that said, we loved the pacific, and the staff amazing. Very personal service and attention.

I am considering the 2020 Pacific Princess world cruise and would very much appreciate input from those who have sailed her very recently as to condition of ship, etc. and also those who have sailed her for a world cruise.

 

This will be my first (and probably only!) world cruise and I understand that on other cruise lines for a world cruise the dining room menu is more extensive, there are more on board activities, and there are multiple gifts given to the passengers.

 

If it matters, I am Elite with Princess, 4 star mariner with Hal, and have also sailed Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. I am also considering the world cruise on Hal and Viking.

 

Thank you.

We did the 94 day world cruise in 2015. We are currently booked for 2020. It was on my husbands bucket list. I was full of apprehensions about everything. It ended up being amazing, educational, enlightening. I guess we were sorry that we could not have done this when we were younger. The components for us to do a trip like this was money, retirement and your health. My bucket list is to take my grandchildren sometime after they turn 18 tand let them view the world first hand. We were so ignorant and we thought we were smart, saavy people. We were booked for 2018, but health issues made us cancel.

Hopefully, we will see you in 2020. We are booked Fll to Fll . 111 days.

Thank you, I was wondering about Princess specifically.

We have over 400 nights with RCCL. Once our preferred line. We now prefer Princess. We did one Princess along time ago with them, and that was not the right dynamics back then. We tried them again and moved up to elite and did a 94 day world cruise. We love the absence of the belly flop contest etc. with that said, we are boarding Oasis on Father's Day with 2 grandkids in tow... All diamond kids and cruising since they were 2.... Their preferred ship the merry go round. If you do Princess I would recommend doing Regal or Royal as your first. Nothing wrong with the others ship (love the Pacific Princess with 600 passengers), but like all cruise lines the newer ships have newer offerings.

IN YOUR case only RCI or port authorities can give you the true answer for your situation.

 

Notarization* is not required by Homeland or CBP, as long as the document has the proper verbiage to allow the child to sail without the other joint custody parent. HOWEVER if the cruise line wants (not just recommends) that the document signatures be witnessed by a notary you will need to draw up a new document and tell the land bound parent that the signature MUST be witnessed by a notary (often free at an account holder's bank but most recommend using an appointment).

Another work around will depend on how the child in question's, birth certificate is drawn up. It's possible if the father's name is not on it many states preclude that as the mother having full custody. Other than that use of court records (divorce or paternital right agreement) along with the proper notification (an acknowledged email or text message can serve in lieu receipt of mailing). Either of these options could be used IF the cruise line allows it but be prepared for a long wait in the port terminal's security office for a government official to go over the paperwork to give the OK.

 

* all notarization means is an individual (accept by a state's government) has matched a photo ID and witnessed the addressee's signature on a document. In a sense verifying the identity of the signature as being truly from the individual mentioned in the paerwork.

Thank you.

Fathers name is on it. The child's last name is hers and the fathers.

I.e.: John Thomas Jones Smith!!!

So... Court order reads " either party may travel with the child inside or outside of the United States, during his/her time share. The parent traveling with the child shall give other parent 2 days notice"..

I will bring agreement , certified receipt letter , and hope after doing four check ins they want us to be gone!

Thanks for everyone's response. I'm going to talk to sons girlfriend again and see if she can get the father to go to a notary and mailed back to us b4 Father's Day cruise.

One granddaughter is "through" my sons previous marriage the girls half sisters. With the exception of one time, they have always asked for documentation for the one child who's name does not match ours, and never on the other one. I would rather have things right.

I would hate for my son to see his girlfriend and son not be boarded while the 4 of us sail on. I'll do the standard speech to all parents not traveling to stay by the phone just in case.... I'll keep you posted

I would call the cruise line, they are the ones who will decide if the documents are sufficient.

I have read the boards long enough and learned from everyone on here don’t believe what you are told, and if you don’t like what You are told try someone else.....plus the person giving the information will not be the person at check in.... I guess I’ll keep plugging along here . I’ll let u all know.

I am sailing in 2 weeks on oasis with son and 2 grandchildren (letter from x’s... same mother different fathers.

My son is bringing a girlfriend and son. I prepared for her “the letter” with all the requirements for the child’s father to sign. She said he signed, but it was not notarized when she picked the child up from timeshare holiday ( 4hr) drive. She has a court agreement that says “either parent may take the child out of the country by providing two days notice and providing dates and itinerary. So, I told her to bring that document. I have also typed a letter for her to send registered to him that states the date, itinerary etc., what the agreement says. I want to bring a copy of the letter and the receipt showing he received notice. There is no disagreement just stupidity.

Thoughts.

1986 Premier cruise line (Disney characters) with 2 year old son. 6 months later Song of Norway and 6 months later SS Norway..... we were hooked and have not stopped.

My son had a respite with cruising due to life, pto etc. I took him as an adult on freedom for his “divorce” cruise. You wonder what kids remember. He said mom where are the streamers, where are the table side flambes, don’t they light the cake on their head, where can I go skeet shooting? Great memories, but they don’t do that anymore son.

Now the grandkids...... at 9 and 14 have been on 10 cruises. When we took them on the Jewel, Monarch, Enchantment size ships after the allure/oasis, there was no going back to the other ones. Boarding oasis on Father’s Day with son, two grand girls and a newbie 5 year old who is my sons girlfriends child. Wait til he sees the merry go round. Wait Til grandpa gets the bill, he opted out of this one, said 7 is an odd number.

It started about 3 years ago when a boy drown on the oasis in the little pool with a current. Do I think we should have life guards? No I think parents should have to watch their kids and be responsible instead of drinking all day. Everyone wants to sue and blame others when things go wrong. Own up.

 

I disagree about not needing lifeguards. I agree with parents watching their kids. However, This grandma watches her grandkids and never leaves them unattended. But lifeguards are needed.

The lifeguard is a tremendous help with watching what is going on...like kids jumping, standing on the rails around the hot tub, bigger kids really horsing around, and putting my kids at risk. We were on the oasis last summer a total free for all with kids and are two weeks from another oasis cruise with grand kids.....so thanks RCL for lifeguards blowing your whistle.