3smithboys

Thanks for that info. I think we will try to avoid the buffet! That seems to be where so many complaints are happening. DH said we need to go into this with 0 expectations and just be happy we found a cruise that fit our tight spring break timeline. Since we hardly ever have SB at the same time, going anywhere will be nice. However, I’m the planner…. So I want it the trip to be the best it can be!

That’s great to hear! I have been reading reviews and to be honest, so many of them are horrible. It’s getting me worried because we’ve already booked the cruise and our flight. I’m certainly not expecting the Mardi Gras; however, reading about sewage smells, horrible lines everywhere, and then the FB post I saw today with the brawl on the Lido… good lord🤣 Also, does anyone know why the Sunshine got a nice Serenity area with a pool but the Sunrise didn’t?

Great! Thanks so much for you help. I really appreciate it.

Thanks for your response. Yes, I agree that we will have to keep our expectations in check. I’m hoping any cruise is a good cruise, and I’m sure we will be happy to get away. It is very rare that DH and I have the same spring break so we want to take advantage of it.

DH and I have a cruise held on the Sunrise for Spring Break, April 3. It’s a 5 day out of Miami going to Ocho Rios and Grand Cayman. We just went on the Mardi Gras this summer and had the best time. We are booked on the Celebration for July! For people who have been on the Sunrise before, how is the ship? Will the weather be pretty warm in the beginning of April? (We picked these ports vs the Bahamas because we thought the weather would be better?!) We are both teachers and are limited to a 1 week window, so we did not have much choice; however, there were a few other cruises we could do. The other ships were the Liberty, Freedom, or the Sunshine. If you think any of these ships might be a better choice, the ports aren’t as important… we are really looking just to get away. Thanks for any help!

DH and I have never gotten the cheers package before because it wasn’t something we ever thought we would want. We just got back from a b2b on the Mardi Gras and while we did not have the cheers package, it was the 1st time we came back and discussed trying it for our next cruise. Here were our thoughts… we are going on a Southern on the Celebration next summer so we are thinking about getting it for this trip. While we are not huge drinkers, we do enjoy a frozen cocktail or two by the pool, possibly a drink with dinner, and drinks at the piano bar (or another bar) in the evening. While on the MG, we did not get drinks by the pool or at dinner and really limited our evening drinking because of the cost… I think it’s just a subconscious thing, if it’s paid for, we feel better/easier about doing it. It’s not really the money, it’s more, do we really need to spend it vs it’s already paid for so go for it! We also think we will venture out to the other bars on the ship more and try different bars/drinks because if we don’t like something we can order something else. We both drink specialty coffees (me more) and would have had many more had they been “included.” The milkshakes, water (that we will use for sure) and soda (DH usually gets bubbles) will be used too. Finally, we are going to buy some AARP cards to offset the cost a bit. we discussed just putting the cards on the sign and sale account and buying what we want as we go. Just knowing our personalities, I think we would subconsciously second guess if se really needed to get that drink/coffee/milkshake. When we buy stuff for our kids, we wouldn’t hesitate, but when it’s for us…well, I’m sure people understand.So, we will see after trying it once if we feel it was “worth it.”

Thank you so much for all of this great information!

That’s great to hear! We’ve booked with them for our Southern cruise on the Celebration next July.

Thanks again for your response. We don’t care about the comedy shows and most entertainment in general. We spent a lot of time in the piano bar. We love good food, so if the food is good and the atmosphere is nice and relaxing, we are happy.

Thanks for your thoughtful response. DH and I have mostly cruised on Carnival. Tried NCL, Disney, and RC too. We loved Disney and did several when our kids were younger. As they got older, they decided Carnival was their favorite. Now they are old enough that they could go on Virgin with us if we wanted to try it. We didn’t feel like the other 2 lines called us back, but never say never. We just went on the Mardi Gras and for us, that was a game changer. We booked the Celebration for a Southern next summer. Sorry you tested positive and are missing your next cruise. We also texted positive after our b2b… we figured it was going to happen even being double vaxxed and double boosted. I’m interested in Virgin because I kind of like the adult only idea. DH and I are teachers and can only travel during school holidays. Oh course, we like kids, it just would be nice to take a break away from them now that ours are older.

Can I ask you about the age demographics you noticed while on your Virgin cruise? I’m intrigued to try one; however, DH and I are afraid we’ve missed the mark being 50. We figured it was geared more to people in their 20’s to 30’s or maybe 40’s.

Awesome! Thanks! We are also from PA… It will just be my husband and me on this trip.

Thanks so much! I will check it out!

Thanks! We have an UTV excursion booked through viator for Aruba that looks great and takes us all around. Since we are in port for so long that day, we think we are going to head to Eagle Beach on our own after. We feel pretty good about that day. We are questioning our day in Curaçao because even though it takes us to the 2 places we want to go (turtles and beach) it’s a 4 hr excursion through Carnival and the travel time is pretty long… Many reviews have said it’s a great excursion but many have said it’s just too rushed. So, that’s why we are thinking about possibly renting our own car and doing it ourselves.

Thanks so much for this information. We are now considering renting a car for our trip next summer. One of our questions is about parking- is it difficult to find it at Playa Piskato and Cas Abao beach? Thanks!

Can I ask who you booked your car rental through? I am thinking that might be a better way to go… it would give us more flexibility and time to see things on the island.

We are going on the Celebration on July 15th. I think we are planning some similar things though! We are planning an UTV tour of the island in Aruba and then heading to Eagle Beach for a bit. In Bonaire, we are going on a snorkeling excursion with Woodwind (I read on here they are great.) We booked a turtle and beach excursion on Curaçao. I’m hoping we actually see turtles!

I was on the Mardi Gras last month and asked about oat milk… it wasn’t an option. Almond milk was available. I’m assuming it’s the same on all of the ships.

Thank you for all of these suggestions! We are thinking now about not doing the snorkeling excursion in Aruba and doing an ATV/UTV excursion that will show us the island and have some beach stops as well. This is a 4 hr excursion, so if we aren’t too tired, we could go to the beach for a couple of hours. If not, we can go back to the ship to shower/rest and head back out for dinner. We will definitely look at your suggestions!

I wanted to jump in here and ask since I’m after the same information and have never been to Aruba before, what is the difference between Eagle and Palm beach and is one “better” than the other?

We are going on an ABC cruise next summer on the Celebration. We have never done o Southern before. We will be in Aruba from 8am-10pm. Right now, we are thinking about doing a snorkeling trip that would be finished around noon. Then possibly going to Palm Beach for the afternoon. The excursion isn’t through Carnival, so we would be taking a taxi and meeting at a location that looks like it is near Palm Beach area. I also saw that beach chairs and umbrellas (I burn very easily) could be reserved ahead of time through a vendor. This vendor has 2 locations farther up the beach. It doesn’t look like we could walk,, so we would need to take another taxi after the excursion. We are planning to snorkel on Bonaire and Curaçao too, so knowing that, would you suggest that we don’t bother snorkeling in Aruba too and just do a beach day? Should we do an all inclusive somewhere? Any other suggestions for Aruba? Places to eat? Thanks so much!

We just did a b2b on the MG. We loved Bonsai Teppanyaki so much that we went twice (once each cruise.) It is a lot of food, but it was so much fun!

DH and I were on your cruise too (2nd part of our b2b.) We loved the MG and both of us also came home with Covid.

The 2 formal nights were Sunday night and Thursday night on both of the sailings we were on. On the 1st cruise - Western Cozumel Plus- both formal nights were sea days. On the 2nd cruise- Eastern, the 2nd formal night was when we were on Grand Turk. This was probably because we had a sea day between 2 port days. Hope this helps!

We loved all of the included food choices, and I would recommend anytime dining. We only ate in the main dining room once during our b2b. Big Chicken is a great addition too! Even though these were extra, we went to the Steakhouse once and Bonsai Teppanyaki twice- I highly recommend Bonsai Teppanyaki! The Serenity adult pool area was very nice. We spent several evenings at the 88 keys piano bar- that was a lot of fun. I am not much of a show person on Carnival ships, but the shows we did see were better than shows on other Carnival ships. The musical talent was top notch! Some people have said they felt the ship to be crowded; however, we felt it was fine. We were able to see and do everything we wanted to. We did have a balcony cabin and our kids are now old enough that we were able to travel without them for the first time, so we did spend some time just relaxing on the balcony with coffee or getting breakfast delivered and that was so nice. We also like the toned down ship decor… Even after 2 weeks, there were still things that we did not do and felt like we could have stayed longer! if you have any questions about the ship, I’m happy to answer!