kctwinmommy

Just making sure, you know it's cheaper for young kids, correct? The AI price for ages 4-11 is only $35. And even the 12-17 is $40. I'm just thinking if you're there for 5-6 hours, and ordered 2 things off the menu, with a couple of sodas for each person, you'd easily be right at the $35. I just wasn't sure if you knew it was cheaper for the young ones. For us, and I'm not a drinker that much, we still did the AI so we didn't have to worry about it. We each had a couple of cocktails, and if they got watered down and warm, I just ordered a fresh one. Plus our son (who was 18, so he also had a few cocktails), ordered probably 4 orders of chips and guac. LOL! We also each ordered one entree, plus several snack things throughout or stay.

OMG! Yes! We had been planning on driving to FL for our cruise this past April. The airfare for the 3 of us was going to be more than our entire cruise. I kept checking though, and eventually got a decent price so we were able to fly down there. As far as the OP's concerns, this was our first time cruising over spring break, we've almost always done early/mid-November. The ship was pretty busy, especially around the pool on sea days, but that's always an issue. A lot of the tours were pretty full, although we never felt cramped or pushed through anything. We had a great time. I can't really think of any major complaints that we had. There were quite a few kids, not many older ones though (we went the week before Easter). Keep in mind, as others have said, spring break varies from area to area, so some have it early March, and others later in April, so you're talking almost a good 2 months with the potential of spring breakers being on your ship. I say just keep it, if it's what you want and it works for you, and don't worry. Let's be real, you never know exactly what you're going to get no matter when your cruise. So just go with the flow! 😃

I feel like this is one cruise that you can plan and hope for the best, but you never know what you'll get. We went in July and had very moderate weather. It wasn't cold, but it was chilly on the water, I ended up buying a Carnival jacket for an extra layer. But I get cold more than others. But we had no rain either. We had cloudy days for sure, but they were still decent weather wise. We did have one day that was pretty sunny and nice when we came back from our excursion, so we could enjoy the sunshine. We didn't have any problems with mosquitoes on our cruise. My parents did theirs in May and I know the posted pics of them in their bathing suits sitting on the top deck eating in the middle of the day. There is a reason their season is short though, they try to keep them during the best times for people. Good luck with your decision and hope it's great!

This! When it was rolling out, we all had older phones and didn't want any more apps (plus couldn't fit much more anyway). And I'm never a fan of uploading personal information over my phone. I don't use banking apps on my phone either. We didn't use it in April, we won't use it the next time either.

Woohoo! You and me both! When it was Coke products, I actually would get root beer all the time. And yes, I know we can bring cases on board, but we fly in and don't have a car, so it's a pain trying to get to a grocery store before boarding. It's just more convenient (although more expensive) to just have the bottomless bubbles for me.

I was among those that were thrilled they switched to Pepsi! But again, we all know everyone has their own opinion, and no matter what, people won't be happy.

That's kind of funny! My daughter was given one of those, it was curled up, in a sleeping position. You put batteries in it, and it would "breath" up and down. It sort of freaked people out. LOL!

Haha! Read my story I just posted too! Same kind of thing! I would think that someone with a real service dog most likely will not be put off by questions, people are curious. They may not answer all your personal, invasive questions, but they have to realize people may want to know more, because it is interesting (IMO). And the dog will be with THAT person!

On one cruise about 5-6 years ago, a guy had his dog with that he said was a service dog. Now, the dog seemed well behaved when we saw it. However, he was somewhat flamboyant about it (that's about the best word I can think of right now). He had no problem with people buying him drinks, taking pictures with the dog, just a little too much IMO. My husband started talking with him one night, turned out he said he was a veteran. My husband at the time was still in the Air Force Reserves (having served a total of 34 years between active, Guard & Reserves). My husband didn't initially say he was in the reserves, but the man started telling him about the issues he had, how he had been in 1 branch, but was recruited to another branch, talking about specialty units he'd been in, and basically none of it made sense if you know the military. My husband then started talking about the places he'd served and his AF job, and then commented about in 30 years, he'd never heard of someone making the changes this guy was claiming. And my husband's job in the Air Force had to do with backgrounds, security clearances, etc... so he had a better understanding of certain security things. Anyway, once my husband started asking a few questions, this guy got up suddenly and left. He would avoid my husband any time we saw him in the bar after that. He also was telling people that his dog was "famous" and had been on various talk shows. I looked him up when we got home and there was nothing about this guy, or his dog, anywhere. In other words, it was all BS! But you can spin those stories on a 7 day cruise because you'll never see these people again and most won't question it!

This is good to know! I was used to them being there, and on our cruise this spring, they weren't. I guess I never thought to ask! I'll remember on the next one for sure.

I agree with the others. When we were a little bit out from our cruise this past spring, I kept reading posts about people having problems, documents not uploading, paperwork not matching, etc... So people were spending a LOT of time getting it done At the time, we had cell phones that were out of room, and I didn't want another app, nor that info on my phone. So I just made sure we each had our passport, vax card, and test results all organized each in our hands. The agent looked at mine, confirmed it, our sons, then husbands and that was it. There was no line at all, so us taking 45 seconds had no impact on people waiting.

Just skip the Verifly. It seems to be causing way more hassle and time than it's worth. Just have her put her passport, paperwork, and such all together to show them. That's all we did a few months ago and it took us about 20 seconds.

Sounds like our Freedom cruise for November, this itinerary. We've been to both ports before, so we kind of know what to expect. Although Amber Cove was not 100% open when we went before (we were detoured there due to bad weather). We already booked a poolside cabana for there, so nothing that we're worried about. At Grand Turk, we'll probably just find a spot on the beach or near the pool and hang out again. We're not overly concerned about the ports (just happy to be going with some friends for a little getaway). We've been on some crowded cruises before, so that's always something we know we have to deal with. Sorry you had some hiccups on yours though. It does suck when the service gets rushed, and it's so unfortunate.

We did a N. European one on RCL 5 years ago and loved it! As you said, it's more for the ports anyway. We did 4 stops, each one being long days in each port. It was a really good cruise, loved our stops, and had no real major complaints about the cruise. Some differences from Carnival, but we're not super loyal. We only cruise Carnival mostly because we're used to them and they often have good prices for a cruise for us.

We got a room at Country Inn & Suites for $160 including taxes, that's in November.

We've done Radisson before, but we're trying Country Inn & Suites this time, it's a newer hotel.

We've always done the fixed dining for our cruises, because we've almost always cruised with at least 1 other couple, sometimes up to 3 other couples. However, when we were in Alaska, we did the YTD and in Europe (on RCL) we also did it. But those were both cruises where we knew that our days would be quite packed with activities and often not coming back on the ship until early evening, meaning we'd actually miss our dining time. In fact, on our European one, there were a few times when just our son and I went, or just hubby and I, because we were so tired or not hungry. In the Caribbean cruises though, most of them are more standard with a port day until maybe 3 or 4, so plenty of time to get back and showered for 6 p.m. dining (the time we've always chosen).

Yes, we did the all inclusive pass, there were 5 of us. My husband, teenage son, and I, then another couple. We just like to tip up front at something like this, so our attendant had it and basically didn't feel the need to go crazy trying to "earn" it, if that makes sense. Then we tipped a little extra when we left because he still was so great. I know most people just tip at the end of their day.

You already have answers to the first two, and for the third, we did have some cash with us. Not a ton, but enough to tip in cash. We didn't buy anything else, all we needed was included - drinks & food. We tipped when we got there and when we left.

I wonder if your ship will add any more excursions. We did an amazing one to Caye Caulker on our Carnival cruise in April. It was definitely an all day trip. We took a boat over there, it's a pretty good clip from the dock. Then we did 2 snorkeling stops, one was with the sharks, it was super cool. Then we had lunch on Caye Caulker, they organized all of it. It was probably our favorite trip of our cruise! Our first stop for snorkeling The sharks! Our son with one of the sharks Heading back into Caye Caulker The Lazy Lizard, where we had lunch

Like it was already said, they will make sure all of the Carnival excursions are done first. They have everyone gather in the theater, organized by groups based on your excursion, then call them each off. I just looked at my pics and we were on our tender at 8:02, and then lining up to get on our bus around 9:00. I think it took about 20 minutes or so to get onto the island. Coming back, the line was super long! I want to say the last tender was at like 4 or 4:30 and we were walking up right around then. However, so were 100 other people. LOL! We were all on Carnival excursions though, so we weren't worried. But there's no guarantee they'll be waiting like that.

Exactly! With WiFi being sketchy at times, or like some of us, having an older phone where I couldn't even download more apps, we skipped it. Everyone says it's fast going through, although there were a lot of people saying it took a long time to get things to upload and be accepted. We walked through in less than 1 minute for the 3 of us with paper documents, and no we didn't hold up any line as there wasn't one.

I don't think it was up and running until maybe February or even March. So you probably didn't have a chance to use it.

I think you've got enough answers, but we're also in the camp of "not using it." On our last cruise, I had an older phone (we all did) and didn't want to try uploaded another app and info. I've since upgraded my phone, but still don't want another app on it that I don't really need. We had all our paperwork in order, we each showed it, and it took them still less than a minute to look at our stuff. And honestly, there was no line of people waiting, they had plenty of people working, so it didn't slow anything down for our cruise. I know plenty use it and love it, but I really try to avoid having personal information on my phone. I know, there's still things on there, but I try my best to keep things secure. That's just what works for me.

Yeah, when we cruised them in 2002, it was on the Melody. She was a small ship for sure! I don't remember a lot about the food, although it was a lot of different things for sure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Melody