MarinerBride

I missed the notification to check in and ended up with 230pm boarding. We're in a suite, Platinum members. What happens if we show up early? We're sailing Odyssey out of Ft. Lauderdale. Thanks!

I went in and tried to book it, and it won't let me due to age. This apparently is required. Sad!

Ooh, interesting - he is a good swimmer and will be almost 8. I'll have to look into that. Thank you!

We're sailing on Odyssey in December and my kids would like to swim with dolphins. One kid won't quite be 8 yet, so we're limited to the encounter options. Which of the following would you choose, and why? It will be 2 adults and 2 kids (7 and 10). Dolphin Encounter and 7 Mile Beach (currently $89-94/guest) Dolphin Encounter and Turtle Centre (currently $99/guest) Dolphin Encounter and Stingray City (currently $119/guest)

Photo fail - they don't show up for me either now, and I'm not able to edit the posts.

Thank you!! We truly had so much fun, and it really was a great first cruise experience for the kids.

Some random observations: The food isn't quite as good as it was 14 years ago, but we still enjoyed it. The internet is MUCH better. We had service all throughout the ship and on CocoCay, and Atlantis also provided free service, so we never had to pay international fees. Some of the cost of the beverage package is convenience, so even if I didn't drink that much, I still really enjoyed having it. Our stateroom was a great location on the 9th floor, aft/near the back but toward the center - close to the Windjammer/Pool and Adventure Ocean without having to use the elevators. Next time I'll figure out how NOT to let the kids spend so much money in the arcade unrestricted, but they still had a lot of fun. I wish I could figure out how to order photos after the cruise, because I just didn't get a chance to do that while onboard.

Disembarkment on the last day was pretty straightforward. We decided to self carry our luggage, so we had breakfast in the Windjammer and then made our way off the ship around 8. They were taking pictures instead of checking passports, so we were through in no time. Unfortunately our flight home wasn't until 6, so we ended up spending a LOT of time at the airport, but overall it was a great trip, and we all can't wait to do it again soon!

In the evening, our daughter went back to the kids club, and my mom and I went up to the Windjammer bar. I had run into the bartender Michael making some fun drinks the night before, so we went back and had a ton of fun with him.

The next day was Nassau, and we had booked tickets for the Atlantis Aquaventure. The kids had seen it on YouTube, so we thought they'd enjoy it. We waited forever on the port to get on our shuttle bus, and then we had to wait in line for our tickets at Atlantis, but we had fun once we got there. Again, the slide lines were pretty long, so Daughter and I did the Leap of Faith once and then we spent the rest of the day on the Rapids River.

For dinner, we did Hibachi, which was a ton of fun. We missed the dining room, but the kids really enjoyed the food and entertainment. They also celebrated our anniversary again.

Next day we were at sea, so I started my morning off in the spa, which was heavenly. It seemed really crowded when I was leaving, so I was happy I started early. We enjoyed some time in the room, and then made our way to the pool. We ended up getting breakfast from Windjammer and bringing it back to our room - in the best, the room service options seemed better. It started raining later, so we got dressed and decided to go see the ice show again.

The kids had a lot of fun in the arcade, and my daughter spent some time in the kids club before dinner. Also at dinner, the staff surprised us with an anniversary song/dessert.

Our first stop was CocoCay! Husband and I had been there before, 14 years ago, so things have changed since then! We had purchased a Water Park Cabana so that we had a dedicated shaded space. If you have 6 people, it's not that much more expensive to get the cabana compared to just water park entry. Our cabana was at the end of the Twister/Slingshot slides. Lines for the slides were super long, so we only did a few of them, but we still really enjoyed them. Daughter and I did the Twister and Splash Speedway (the latter usually had no line), and later the whole family did the Slingshot (45ish minute wait, but truly fun). We spent a lot of time in the wave pool and the adventure pool too, and then Daughter and I did the Daredevil's Peak (another 30ish minute wait, but again, pretty fun). Our cabana attendant was great with bringing us food and drinks, and overall we had a great time. The weather was starting to look rainy, so we got back on the ship around 2. We were also super excited to see Mariner next to us!

We decided to go to the ice show that evening, and it was fun. Make sure you get there early for seats! This was the only show we ended up seeing (we actually saw it twice), because I wasn't sure how the whole reservation thing worked for the other shows, and we were just tired and the kids weren't up for it.