illiniwahoo

I've received a mini pack and play on Allure 2019 in a balcony room. I asked for a regular sized one, and they didn't have any left. It was also for a three year old, so it was literally impossible for them to lay down.  They were so tired they slept on the sofa folded out just fine. 

Usually I'm a super planner planning cruises 6-12 month out.  But I just found an interesting itinerary on the Mariner of the Seas that visits both Labadee and CoCo Cay at the end of this month.  It's perfect for our family with small kids that appreciates easy, low key beach days, and pretty inexpensive with Kids Sail Free.  We haven't cruised since covid so am desperately researching what's changed in the past two years.  Can the drink packages still be used on the private islands? 

Not from personal experience, but another thread has people reporting varied experiences. Some were allowed to take the bottle and some were not.  

My family (me, hubby, 6 year old twins) are considering a cruise on the Gataway. The cabin squre footage is larger on the club balcony suites than the regular Balcony rooms - but where is this extra square footage? I think the bathrooms have a tub.  Is the extra sqaure footage is all in the bathroom?  Then, I don't think the cost increase is worth it to me. If the room itself is actually larger, I think the extra $200 would be worth it.  Thoughts?

I've sailed Celebrity, Carnival, NCL, Royal Caribbean, and Princess.  We love the food and elegance of Celebrity.  Their drink and wine menus are amazing, but a large variety of nightlife is lacking. We have sailed many different Celebrity ships.  When we cruise with our children, Royal is our preference. The oasis class ships are wonderful.  Royal is a nice balance.  Carnival can be so hit or miss.  Our first cruise ever was on a new carnival ship, and it was great and hooked us on cruising. Our last carnival cruise ever was a 4 night cruise on an old ship.  Never again. The ship was medicore, and the clientele was scary (a fist fight broke out in the dining room).  Our only princess cruise was on an older ship (and I was pregnant).  I'd happily cruise Princess again, but don't think that experience was totally representative.   NCL had terrible food in the main dining rooms, but the breakaway was a FUN ship.  I'd say best entertainment of any cruise. We loved the dueling piano bar and comedy club the most.  I'd cruise NCL again, but budget for many specialty restaurants.  

Overall, I think the ship is more important than the cruise line in many instances. For example, I wouldn't cruise an old NCL ship without the great entertainment options of the breakaway class. But in a very port intensive cruise like Europe, I'd pay much more attention to itinerary and ports and time in port rather than cruise line. 

Thanks for the personal experience!

We were there in October with our 3 year old twins. We got off the ship within the first half hour. Walked to nell's beach, first public beach on the right (suite beach is the very first beach).  Beach attendant showed us to chair is the shade, as requested, near the shoreline. We brought sand toys for the kids from the dollar store, and their puddle jumpers.  We played in the sand, in the water, and at the very small water fountain park. We had the free on shore, one kid literally fell asleep at the table, and was so tired that we carried her back to our shady beach chair, and daddy and daughter had a great nap together. My son played in the sand at my feet while I relaxed and read my book for 20 mins. (This was amazing).  Then we repeated sand and water play until about 40 mins before all aboard. The island emptied fast.  Best day!

No, I'm staying longer for business so need to get the car at MCO.

It's totally unreasonable that the OP expects to be compensated for other people in a public place!  Frankly, I expect mediocre food on excursions and have never batted an eye at paying for beverages (bring your own water!) 

In my opinion, the bus situation is what I would complain about. Yes, "things happen", but if i ordered a cake from a bakery, their oven broke, and they didn't bake the cake, I wouldn't pay them for it!  A less than 2 hour advertised ride taking over double the time due to a broken bus does deserve some compensation in my opinion (25% maybe).

I've been researching shuttle companies. We are taking Cortrans to the port since the pick up directly from our hotel, and the pictures online show smaller vehicles than GoPort so I'm hoping there will be less stops.  (I know this is an assumption).

On the way back, however, I'm having trouble deciding what service to use. We are picking up a rental car, so no strict time deadline to be at MCO. GoPort seems to just put you on the next available bus, and when it's full, it leaves. Cortrans give you a shuttle time. This seems a little more stressful - trying to guess how much time it takes to get through customs and immigration so we won't miss the shuttle.  But I have heard other posting referencing long lines for GoPort (although they all refer to "hearing" goport had long lines, not a first hand experience).

Anybody use either of these services that can share their experiences on the transport to MCO? (or have a better shared ride shuttle to recommend?)

We were on the Allure in October. We also had a later flight so were in no hurry to get off the ship. I remember breakfast being the most limiting. Everywhere closed by 8:30 or 9 at the very latest. I didn't save the daily flyer, but I'm sure you can find some online for your exact ship.  I'd estimate we were off the ship the first time they told everyone to exit. that was probably about 9:15 or 9:30. I'd do the adventure the day before. Our flight was at about 2pm, and we still had plenty of time to kill in the airport.  FLL is not the worlds most exciting airport for kids. (We have 3 year old twins) I couldn't imagine having to entertain them from 1:30 to 6:30, and then on the plane as well!

After getting off a cruise in port Canaveral, we are picking up a rental car at the orlando airport, the have the day free until a 8:30 PM flight. What are some unique things to do on orlando geared to adults? We are kid free this trip and want to spend the day celebrating my husbands birthday doing things we can't do with our preschool kids.  So far I've found a cool go cart track, but that won't fill the whole day.  Ideas? I thought about universal, but can't justify the cost for a short day. 

We have done 10 cruises and have been on most of the major lines. Some cruises are better than others, but we have liked all the lines for different reasons.  our first cruise was on carnival in 2009 (7 nights) when we were in our mid 20s and we loved it. We've recently started doing a 3 or 4 night cruise once a year becuase now we have kids and we don't want to leave them any longer than that. We did a 4 night carnival cruise last year. It was by far our worst cruise ever!  Our inside cabin smelled like pot every day when we were getting ready for dinner. There was a fistfight in the dining room on the first night. My husband interfered when a 20 something man pulled his mother's hair so violently she almost fell over. The ship was also one of the oldest ships we have been on, and it definitely showed its age.  

That being said, we still had a acceptable time, but not nearly a good as every other cruise. We just booked a 3 nighter on the Mariner of the Seas. I was tempted by carnival, which was half the price. My  husband, who usually lets me make all the travel decisions, swiftly said "no way. Spend the extra money.  Don't you remember last year?"

What places can you drop your luggage off?

We were in a balcony on deck 6 of the allure.  The sofa bed was the lay down type. In my opinion,  it is much more narrow that a regular bed.  My 3 year olds slept on it fine the opposite direction as normal. But for two young adults, I think it would be very uncomfortable.  

I'm looking at cruising when my kids are 3 or 4 on NCL.  They are fully potty trained.  We were on the Allure of the Seas last month and loved the splash park on it.  Which NCL ships have the best splash pad for smaller kids?  I'm sure my kids will be too short to ride any slides, so I'm just looking for the water cannons, spray fountains etc.  

I agree that the staff were so sweet to the kids. Making flowers out of napkins, hearts out of straw paper, etc.  They really did try to make them happy. 

We were on allure, so it should be very similar. We registered them the first full day. They also had registration the first night, but we missed it. You do check them in each time you drop them off, but it's not the full registration like the first time. There are maximums at each level. About 50 kids.  It seemed to be based on staff (more staff in the 3-5 room, but the maintained lower ratios), so I don't know if they staff up during busier times. 

Feel free to ask any specific questions! 

We LOVE labadee. Especially with young kids; it is such a great free day.  We got off at 1000, the projected arrival time. They actually started letting people off at 0930. We got chairs in the shade on Nellie's beach. I brought sand toys from home. We already broke one bucket playing in st. Marteen so I'm really glad we got that wine bottle bag. It held sand and water quite nicely. When we needed a change or scenery they played at the splash pad, much smaller than the ship, but still fun.  Lunch, then a lawn chair nap for daddy and daughter while my awake son played in the sand at my feet in the shade. Swam and swam until about 445.  Got back to the ship at about 5 for a 530 all aboard. Almost no one was left at that point. On Nellie's beach you could also rent an umbrella.  But we were early enough for tree shade so didn't.  The grilled chicken at lunch was great!  Hot dogs and hamburgers were nothing special.   

Let's talk about is 3 a good age to take kids on a cruise? We have patiently waited until they are three to make sure they were potty trained and could go to the kids club. There is a very small diaper splash area on Allure. It was crowded with babies most of the time I saw it. We started potty training in March to support the October cruise. Happily it was pretty easy and we were potty trained in plenty of time.  Do note they they need to be completely independent in the bathroom for the kids club. Staff are not allowed to enter as there are no cameras. So no help wiping or pulling up pants allowed. My daughter didn't want to go to the kids club, so I didn't make her. My son went once and enjoyed it, but didn't beg to go again.  They love swimming so we swam and went to the splash pad a lot.  

Would I recommend taking 3 year olds?  Not really. You still have to deal with naps and the bed situation. My kids were kind of fussy the first few days, but settled into it by mid cruise. Dinners are long, but the staff tried to make it fun and bring their food fast. Allure is a great ship for kids, but 4 or 5 seems like it might be a little bit better for a cruise to me. 

Both the boardwalk and central park are lovely, but it gets hot. There's little breeze in either area. Central park was usually fine before dinner as the sun was angled so it was all shade, but it was still a little muggy. Park cafe is open until 6pm and makes a good place to grad a pre dinner snack for the kiddos. Chips and fruit cups were usually there, unless they ran out which did happen (and then we had cake for a pre dinner snack- hey its vacation, right?)

We definately heard children crying from the connecting room. I usually look for this, but we needed a room for 4 ppl as close as possible to my parents handicapped room, so there were little choices. (It turns out they were twins too!)

We didn't try any specialty restaurants.  They all looked so good, but I was happy with the MDR food, so why waste the extra money?  But overall the restaurants seemed EMPTY. I had made 6:30 my time dining reservations each night. We passed the ones in central park every night on our way to dinner at 6:30, and saw sabor as we rode the carousel after dinner at 8 or 8:30. None of the restaurants were even 30% full when we say them. They did not offer any specials that I saw.  I was looking a little, but not that hard, and I didn't ask either. 

Several nights we had a drink at the wine bar before dinner. It was very empty, so I didn't feel badly taking the kids in there. We stayed in a corner out of the way of other people. Of the three times we were there, there was maybe 10 people max in there besides us.  And yet the service was sooo slow. I have no idea what they were doing!  But if you get a bottle of white to bring to dinner, they bag it up in a reusable ice bucket (really heavy duty bag).  This bag also doubles nicely as a sand toy - FYI.  They did run out mid cruise, so do this early if you want one.  The wine bar has a separate wine list than the MDR. It had some great wines (I love Michael David's Petite petite).  The mark-up is a little higher than I expected. $65 bottle on Rccl, $18 at local wine store at home.  Vintages did have many of the wines that are only listed as by the bottle by the glass. Just ask. I had several glasses that were not listed as available by the glass. We had the beverage package and many of the wine by the glass had a few dollar surcharge. 

Our room steward was average. On celebrity, I once called guest services becuase our toilet was broken. The room steward appeared immediately out of thin air and asked that we always call him first. Now that we have many occasions to call the room steward on celebrity, but someone always answered the phone. The first night, when we still had not met the steward, I had to call to get the pack and plays.  They were delivered while we were at dinner. When we got back to the room after dinner and found out that they were mini, I called to get him to come make up the bed, no one answered.   I waited 5 mins and called again.  No answer. I finally flagged down a guy in the hallway who told us that he didn't have our room,  but he would call our guy. He tried. No answer. So that guy made the bed for use and we tipped him for his help. Our room steward all week was mediocre. There was a problem with our reservation.  Even though we have checked in on line and had the sail pass or whatever it's called, my daughter disappeared off the reservation. It took a long time to sort out at the port (grr).  He left us only 3 towels until he remembered to ask us what room "she really belonged in becuase his supervisor needs to know".  Once was assured him that she really was booked in this room there was some problem With the reservation, he started leaving 4 towels. 

Expedited arrival would have been amazing if it had worked. I believe you have to check in with the app to.get it. Everyone else seemed to be sailing through.  Somehow even though I had booked dinner and show reservations for all 4 of us, had checked all of us in the week before, and has all 4 sail passes, my daughters reservation was gone at the port. It took about 45 mins and two levels of supervisors to get it fixed. Without that, we would have been on the ship in under 20 mins easily. 

I had checked in with the app earlier I. the week.  Everyone but me was listed as expedited arrival. I called to ask how I could get it as well and they told me that if one person on the reservation has it, everyone could use it. It made me laugh that on our sail pass (or whatever its called) each of us had a different check in time. Really RCCL?  You want me to check in at 1pm, my one 3 year old at 2pm, the other one at 2:30, and my husband at 3?  How bad are your IT people to not give everyone the same time?  Not that it mattered. No one ever seemed to look at the check in time. We arrived at the port about 1230.  We stayed at the crowne plaza the night before. It was fine.

Rather than a full review, I'll just cover the highlights and what I feel was unique to our party as it might help others. Eight of us traveled together- me, the hubby, our twin 3 year olds, my mom and dad, who is in a wheelchair due to a stroke, and my aunt and uncle. We had a great time and can't wait to do it again when the kids are a little bit older. 

We are experienced cruisers (11th cruise and have hit most of the major lines).  Celebrity is our favorite, but with the kiddos, we tried RC again. Our only other RC cruise was about a decade ago on the Splendour in Europe.

Loved the food!  I remember last time being unimpressed by the food. This time I though the MDR food was almost equivalent to celebrity.  Beef tenderloin was especially tasty.

The cribs included are NOT full pack and plays!!!!! I highlight this as a critical piece of info for parents of toddlers on cruises. I knew they would be pack and plays, and I was hoping two would fit in our balcony room. The good news - two do fit for those that need to know in the future. The bad news is - these are the MINI pack and plays. It would fit a baby to 1 year old.  Maybe 18 months if your kid is small.  My three year olds that sleep in cribs at home and pack and plays for travel, definately did NOT fit. And I wasn't really planning to transition to beds on vacation. But we had no other choice!  They slept parallel to the balcony door. Arms of the couch kept them from falling out. We made it work.

Where were the people? For so many people the ship hardly ever felt crowded - except the buffet. Wow.  One breakfast and we never ate there again! My dad in his scooter had NO chance of braving that mess at peak hours. We found MRD does a breakfast buffet too (and a la carte but that always had a line).  All the same food it seemed. no chaos. Johnny rockets was also good for breakfast if the sun wasn't beating down on you. We have kids, so wipe out cafe usually sufficed for lunch. 

We cruised the week before halloween. No decorating or anything special that week. 

I have lots more comments.  I'll post more later today. 

There are 4 of us in my family, including two 3 year old children.  Each of us have a different boarding time!  So I really hope they aren't enforced!

We go next week! Thanks for the info. i think we will at least get him off the ship for a while.