purplephenom

If he likes the nike/under armour shits, have you considered their polo/golf shirts?  They're pretty comfortable looking, but a little pricey.  It's similar material to what he's already wearing.  And if he is close to graduating high school, wouldn't hurt to have a couple on hand for those dress up events that could possibly come up and you may not find out til the last minute.

You really may want to consider wheel chair assistance. Otherwise, I could see a situation where you’re stressed being off by 8:30 and that stress rubs off on them, and before you know it everyone’s stressed and moving slower. 

If that’s not an option, could you consider taking a cab (or 2) to the airport? It may be more expensive, but at least then you could frame it as “we just need to get off as quickly as possible,” versus “we have to be off by 8:30 for the shuttle.”

Apologies if that’s not the type of help you’re looking for, I’m just drawing on my personal experiences with trying to coordinate getting places with my mom, who isn’t a fast walker. 

6 hours ago, TNcruising02 said:

Another option for water drinkers, if they like bottled water, is to purchase Carnival's amazingly inexpensive bottled water that can be delivered to the room:

Purified Water - 12 Pack

$4.50

12-pk of Purified Bottled Water (16.9 fluid oz. bottle)

Thanks for pointing this out. I may try this on my next cruise since I’ll have a fridge this time. 

If you choose to go the cruise cash way, what I did on my last cruise was buy discounted gift cards and buy cruise cash in small increments.  Worked out to a 20% savings.  Between that and our OBC from a couple different sources, we had about $300 in our onboard account, and I added a credit card to cover any overage.  We're really not big drinkers- I like the tropical drinks but then the sugar leaves me wired for hours. And I knew whatever we didn't use on drinks, we'd end up spending on a photo or 2, so it worked out nicely for us- I think at the end of the cruise a whopping 10 cents went on my credit card.  Using this method, you could share drinks, no problem.   With cruise cash, you want to pick the general cruise cash.  There's a bar version and a photo version, that can only be used at bars and on photos.  So if you pick the general version, you can divide it up as you see fit, if you're interested in a family picture or anything like that. 

As for Cheers, you may not even need to drink 5 alcoholic drinks to break even.  Because non-alcoholic drinks are included too.  You said your kids aren't soda drinkers but are you a soda drinker?  Would you like bottled waters to take back to your cabin at night or to take on an excursion (I think that's allowed but not 100% sure).  If you're used to drinking a lot of water, you may want to add that part in to your cheers calculations.  If you're not the tropical fruity drink person, and you choose to go to the alchemy bar at night, those drinks are a little more expensive, so that could bring down your number of drinks to break even as well.  

It sounds to me like Cheers may be good value for you since you drink a lot of water and could have several drinks a day.  You could also do the discounted cruise cash thing to give your kids some money to spend on their drinks, and photos if that's your thing.  

Just did this route in February. We book the cheapest inside cabin, so I’m no help if you want something nicer.  With all the port days, I really didn’t care about the ship, and this is why. Normally, if I wanted to lay out after a port day, we had to either hurry back or walk around looking for chairs. Not on this cruise, we could get back later, eat something, and then I could take my kindle and go find a chair. This really made up for the lack of sea days for me. 

Also, we definitely looked at each other a few times, and wondered where all the people were. The ship is smaller but certain areas seemed proportionally larger so people were doing things and that made the ship feel less busy. 

We we don’t care about the movies, but we did feel there were fewer activities offered on this ship. I don’t know if that was because of the itinerary or the ship, but we definitely made our own fun a lot of the time. 

Casino was smokey but seemed less so than other ships I’ve been on. 

I noticed far less motion on this ship than the sunshine

Serinity is really small so I never tried to go there but could always find a quiet spot. 

I thought id hate this cruise and ended up loving it. But there are other routes out of San Juan on other lines- personally I’m intrigued by Royal’s ABC + St Maarten cruise. Check out all your options, Hopefully you find something you like and you have a great time. 

Vista and Horizon are good for ship stuff.

If those are Caribbean ports, you may also want to look at reviews that go to the ports you'll be visiting.  Even if they're not new to you, maybe you'll get an idea of something new to do, or something has changed since your last visit.  

When i want to get in the cruising mood, i read any and all reviews, even if I'm not planning that ship or itinerary anytime soon.  But some people are just good storytellers 

I like sperry flip flops.  I really do not slip and slide around, and they're sturdy enough with a little arch support so walking is comfortable.  

If there is a DSW or Shoe Depot Encore near you, it's a nice place to go try on a bunch in different price ranges/styles.

i'm also reading every review i can find on the Horizon so I appreciate all those who posted- I have my next 2 cruises booked on this ship- and it is by far the biggest ship I've been on.  So I go back and forth between super excited and nervous about the issues that pop up repeatedly...but mostly I'm excited for Havana! 

For people on upcoming sailings- you may not even notice the things that bother others, and you may hate some things that they enjoyed.  For example, before I went on the Splendor, I'm pretty sure every review I read mentioned how awful the pink was (not every review in general, just the ones I happened to read).  I'm pretty sure it took me til day 4 or 5 to even notice the pink...i was exhausted and hanging out before dinner, and sort of spacing out- I looked around and was thinking "wow it's really pink in here."

I haven't been on the Glory, but I think there was a thread on here recently where getting off the Horizon was awful- but then others chimed in and said their experience was very different.  So  experiences can be different week to week, or even person to person.

Hopefully all you future Glory cruisers have great trips! 

This isn't mine, and it is from 2018, but this person always does great reviews.

I've never tried that particular excursion but I have tried one that (at the time) was listed as starting from somewhere besides the cruise terminal.  I've heard its truly dependent on who is doing the review, but I put a note in nicely saying a taxi wasn't $30something a person- i don't remember the exact amount, the independent excursion has since changed.  I ended up getting $24 and change a person for OBC, so I assumed they took out what they felt was fair value for the taxi, I don't really know.  I didn't push it further because that seemed fair to me for an excursion that didn't match up directly.

But, for your excursion, have you considered booking directly?  I've seen some sales where you can get the photo package included, and that would be a big savings and no way you'd get that with the Carnival excursion.  Also, the one time I was at Chaankanaab there were taxis lined up waiting to take people back to the ship- I don't know if that happens all day long or just towards the end of the day, but you wouldn't have to coordinate with a driver or anyone to come back for you, I don't think. 

This is an awesome review.  And your kids are adorable- they're both so expressive, and I love your son's "we could be doing allll this fun stuff but my mom's making me take another picture" face.  I think my mom probably has a ton of pictures with me making that same face...oops sorry mom. And happy birthday to your daughter, she looks so happy in one of the first pics you posted with her drink that she ordered herself.

The snorkeling pictures are awesome- makes me want to go jump in some warm tropical water right now. 

I would be ok with this- we ask for a table for 2 at fixed dining, so us eating quickly doesn't help/hurt anyone else.  In all honesty, last cruise, my day 3, our wait staff knew we didn't need dessert menus.  Warm chocolate melting cake for each of us please.  

It did speed up dining considerably to not look at a dessert menu- the first couple nights we were in the dining room a little over an hour, after that it was down to 45 minutes.  I think one reason was we didn't have to wait until the larger tables around us were ready for dessert.  Also, we were out of the dining room before the dancing started.  

It may not work for everyone, but we were kind of already doing this anyways, so this is a change that wouldn't matter to me.  

I hate the smell of smoke to the point that if I hang out with smokers for a day, I'll end up with a cold/sinus infection/whatever every single time.  So obviously I'm very sensitive to the smell of smoke.  I also don't gamble, so I never go in the casino to play- I tried once, couldn't figure out how to set up an account, and left.  

But, since the casinos are in important areas of the ship, I tend to walk past them.  I could go up/down a level and around, but I also have the worlds worst sense of direction and would likely get all twisted around. So that's really all my interaction with the casinos.

What I found interesting, was that in 2018, we sailed on the sunshine.  And I could smell the smoke all over whatever deck the casino was on (5?).  But this year, we sailed on the Fascination, which is an older ship, but the smoke smell definitely didn't go all thru the deck.  I could smell it where the band played, but definitely not all the way down.  Older ship, smaller decks, and the smoke didn't seem to go as far.  I really wonder if that's just due to the smaller casino, or if there are other reasons for it.  

21 minutes ago, Tracey.kinney425 said:

Will there be any issues later with this obc if the price drops later? Sorry new to all this.

If the price drops again, just call them and see what happens.  I've always understood it that if the price drops again, you would want it to drop more than $25 per person for it to be worth it, because your current rate would be wiped out.  But on my last cruise, I had the same setup you did, and I called because someone on one of my online groups said I wasn't understanding the price drop correctly.  The price drop was $4 something a person (so nothing major), but they just added that on to the $25 per person I already had.  

49 minutes ago, Sabalon said:

🙂

The 27 waterfall hike sounds like fun, but my wife thinks it may be too much for her.   She loves snorkeling but I'm so over doing that as an excursion.  We may compromise and do snuba or something instead.  Just found a video that shows Margarittaville at Grand Turk, and the beach right off the pier.  NICE!!!!    I just imagine in real life there being 500% more people!

 

 

You mentioned snuba- just wanted to say, it's awesome.  i understand the feeling of being "over" snorkeling excursions.  I love snorkeling but I was a little disappointed 2 years ago when i got home, and all my pictures were underwater.  Individually, all of the snorkeling was awesome, but together, it got to be too much. That's obviously not snorkeling's fault, or anyone's fault but mine, but that's how I felt.

This year, we went out of San Juan so we had 5 port days- we definitely mixed it up a bit more, and I was much happier.   Our ports were different from yours, except St Thomas, but we did snuba in 1 port.  I really liked the learning curve associated with Snuba- it wasn't hard, but I had to focus, and it felt like I was doing something different.  I was a little worried about being able to handle it, but it didn't require any more effort than snorkeling.  

We did a sea lion excursion in St thomas, but they also had snuba there.  The people who did it said it was great and they had fun. 

I have this cruise booked for next year, and I'm SO excited about the Havana area.  Glad to hear it didn't disappoint.

Did you ever have trouble finding a lounge chair? On previous cruises I've felt like I had to choose between fun stuff to do or lounging in the sun- because if I gave up my chair it would take awhile to find another one.  So i'd try to do all my sun time at one time- were you able to come and go and find a chair?

Did you notice how often karaoke was offered on this ship?  

Did you notice gelato offered at lunch time?

Great review, thanks for doing it. 

2 minutes ago, HeyNowMama1315 said:

I’m the original poster here. In our case this was an excursion an hour from the port. The company I was using to price match, was the exact same company that carnival uses. There was just such a disparity in prices that I thought it was worth making a claim. And it turns out it was a good choice. 

 

I understand your point here. But in this case specifically there is only one company who does this tour. You can’t even book through them privately. You have to book through carnival. They just had prices listed on their site while i was researching the excursion so it surprised me when I saw the difference. 

I do the same thing- book thru Carnival and try to find the provider to match to

37 minutes ago, jbethel11 said:

But there is a guarantee that you will make sure you will get back to the ship on time. 

I book thru carnival a lot, for a couple different reasons, so don’t take what I’m going to say as bashing Carnival or anything like that. The guarantee is nice to have when you are doing tours that are far away from the port- say some things in Belize or on the mainland in Cozumel. But other than that, private operators are going to do everything in their power to get you back- one review online saying someone missed the ship could sink their business. 

Also, if you book a private tour that ends at 1 or 2, and your ship doesn’t sail til 5, something would have to go very very wrong for you to not make it back on time. 

And finally, Carnival will wait...to a point. If you’re in the hospital or going to be delayed til the next day, they’re not waiting. Yes, these are extreme examples. 

You may want to evaluate each port individually and decide if you want to venture out on your own or with Carnival. I choose Carnival a lot, but I pretty much always look into several private tour operators as well. And if I book Carnival, I start looking for price matches. 

Go South.  Watching the planes at Maho beach is cool, but I wouldn't call it a great beach.  Its small, wavy, and crowded by the afternoons which is when the bigger planes start coming in.  If you're in it for the planes you'd want to see the bigger ones.  

For $300 more, do the south now (that's a really good deal).  You'll find beautiful beaches there.  

I don't know how often you cruise, but if you're doing Maho for you, the older the kids are the less you can worry about them and the more you can focus on the planes. 

Used this to book De Palm Island in Aruba- i think this is one where the price is similar going through the ship, or on your own.  Will be putting the money saved towards booking Snuba once we get there, so I'm a happy cruiser today.  

I’ve used it successfully multiple times. In my experience if you find the same operator it is usually approved. Also, once, I pointed out how the independent excursion was better, and that was approved too

Would they like to get nails/hair done before formal nights? Or gift card to get nails done before you leave?

Wander around shops in ports and go back and get something she had her eye on. 

New sunglasses?

tshirts announcing its her graduation cruise if you think she’d like a bit of extra attention- I always say happy birthday or congrats to anyone wearing a special occasion shirt. 

This is awesome.  Great photos, and i particularly loved the pizza line watch :-) 

34 minutes ago, richbum said:

Is the snorkeling at Mohogany Beach any good...or should we go to West Bay? Also, can someone tell me about the cabana rentals? How much, how big, etc? We will be doing the sloth/monkey tour beforehand...so not sure if that will affect the answer as to what we should do!

Go to West Bay.  It was one of the best days of my (snorkeling) life.  Very very awesome