rdevine10

Was just looking for your week and I think the Conquest & the Glory are now cheaper for an oceanview than inside for 3 people. Love the oceanview cabins- they are roughly 220 sq feet.

Of those 2 I would pick the Conquest for where it goes BUT I do like the pride more (its a smaller spirit class ship), which I really love the space ratio. That being said we were on the Freedom which is sister ships to the Glory and Conquest and thought it was a great size.

I know you want to go back to Carnival but it did look like the NCL Epic had some decent rates (eps with the sale) for your week too.... I dont recall the route though

Hi everyone

Trying to decide what to do. Right now we are booked deck 1 midship oceanview. We are very happy with our cabin location as we ARE sensitive to motion so low and midship is always good for us. We like that the oceanview cabins offer more interior space.

However, we are toying with the idea of upgrading to a balcony cabin. Right now Deck 6 aft close to the rear elevators is available (6310). This cabin has cabins underneath it so I am not too concerned about noise (which I know can be an issue with some of the deck 6 cabins).

What I am mostly concerned about is the motion. Anyone stay in this area before? Do you feel the motion here?

We stayed on a forward deck 9 extended balcony on the Legend and while we loved the balcony the movement really impacted our vacation (rougher seas). Having less movement is MUCH more of a priority than the balcony. But, I dont know how much movement is actually felt in this area of the ship!

Help!! thanks!

im actually in the process of reading your getaway review right now. Its taken me hours and Im not done yet!!!! ;)

I havent been on the Magic but I have sailed a conquest class ship. We liked it just fine. I did prefer our Legend cruise (love that spirit class ship size) to our Freedom cruise though.

We are giving the Sunshine a try this time. I let my kids pick this time.

PS: cant wait for your next review. Dont let Kendra make you miss your flight next time!

PPS: I pick the Valor for the stops! LOVE aruba!

subscribing! We sail in April!

We did a gty on our Legend cruise. We ended up with an awesome extended balcony however we discovered that trip we do not like the motion being so far forward and high. Now we pay for mid ship lower.

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Looking for our upcoming cruise in April. We have 2 kids who will be 9 and 12 at time of travel.

Rose Hall is a resort/beach day. Seems fun but VERY pricey. We just went to the Atlantis last August- and this seems nice but not nearly worth the cost.

Thrill Seekers Pass at the Good Hope Estate- ziplining and River tubing on the Martha Brae. I have searched and searched but cannot find a review of this excursion. Anyone zip line there before? How mild or thrilling is the zip lining? We would prefer something more on the mild side for the 9 year old.

Help! Any input appreciated!

The best part about a disney cruise... hands down:

CASTAWAY CAY!

That would be the one reason I would sail Disney again. My family has enjoyed all of our cruises, but, I cannot justify the cost of Disney. We are really looking forward to our upcoming Freedom of the Seas cruise!

I posted on the family board a couple days ago but recieved no response and also on the carnival board. To be fair to each brand I have reposted it here. Anyone been on BOTH ships? thanks!

Trying to figure out what would be a better fit for our family. We have 2 kids who will be 12 & 9 at time of travel. They typically enjoy waterslides and the pools a great deal on our trips (they do not care for the kids clubs on any line).

FOS has the h20 zone (which i am worried might be too young for the 12 year old), flow rider, mini golf, ice skating (which they enjoy but we live on a lake and they do it all winter at home) & a few other things

Sunshine has the waterworks, pools (but I have read they can be more crowded), ropes course, mini golf & several family comedy shows (which we are a huge fan of) a few other things too.

Both are very similar in cost with both being a western route.

FOS goes to Labedee, Falmouth, Grand Cayman & Cozumel

Sunshine goes to Cozumel, Roatan, Belize & Costa Maya.

We like the ports on both routes.

Trying to figure out what would be the best fit for our family. help!!!!

I posted on the family board a couple days ago but recieved no response. Anyone been on BOTH ships? thanks!

Trying to figure out what would be a better fit for our family. We have 2 kids who will be 12 & 9 at time of travel. They typically enjoy waterslides and the pools a great deal on our trips (they do not care for the kids clubs on any line).

FOS has the h20 zone (which i am worried might be too young for the 12 year old), flow rider, mini golf, ice skating (which they enjoy but we live on a lake and they do it all winter at home) & a few other things

Sunshine has the waterworks, pools (but I have read they can be more crowded), ropes course, mini golf & several family comedy shows (which we are a huge fan of) a few other things too.

Both are very similar in cost with both being a western route.

FOS goes to Labedee, Falmouth, Grand Cayman & Cozumel

Sunshine goes to Cozumel, Roatan, Belize & Costa Maya.

We like the ports on both routes.

Trying to figure out what would be the best fit for our family. help!!!!

Trying to figure out what would be a better fit for our family. We have 2 kids who will be 12 & 9 at time of travel. They typically enjoy waterslides and the pools a great deal on our trips (they do not care for the kids clubs on any line).

FOS has the h20 zone (which i am worried might be too young for the 12 year old), flow rider, mini golf, ice skating (which they enjoy but we live on a lake and they do it all winter at home) & a few other things

Sunshine has the waterworks, pools (but I have read they can be more crowded), ropes course, mini golf & several family comedy shows (which we are a huge fan of) a few other things too.

Both are very similar in cost with both being a western route.

FOS goes to Labedee, Falmouth, Grand Cayman & Cozumel

Sunshine goes to Cozumel, Roatan, Belize & Costa Maya.

We like the ports on both routes.

Trying to figure out what would be the best fit for our famiy. help!!!!

There's always race your sibling up/down the stairs and hallways. That seem popular on most cruise ships ;)

 

All kidding aside, there's a ton to do. H20 park is awesome.

Thanks! Is the H20 water park still appropriate for a 12 year old? Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I booked the FOS for our school spring break (& my 40th)! But I have a few questions. In the past my kids have not enjoyed the kids clubs on any cruise line (Disney included!) and we have used our cruising time to reconnect as a family. On sea days they love swimming & going on waterslides. For our next cruise they will be 9 and 12.

I am trying to figure out what kinds of activities are available to those who are NOT in the kids clubs. I have tried searching but most things I read keep saying info regarding the kids clubs.

Any info would be helpful. While I have wanted to try FOS for quite some time, I am concerned as there are no waterslides.

Thanks in advance!

update:

called. No additional amount due till final payment. It is apparently a glitch on the website asking for payment.

Thank you for all of the help!

So sorry - misunderstood your post. You wrote you booked during wow sale at reduced deposit. Gruarantee became available and you jumped on it. Thought it sounded like you changed your res. So you now have 2 reservations for same ship?

No- 1 reservation. The guarantee appeared as a booking choice that co-coincided with the day I happened to check the rates for the cruise again- which was during the wow sale with reduced deposit. I booked 1 reservation with an agent on the phone- my emailed receipt confirms reduced deposit, 100 OBC and a guarantee room.

Yikes- I think I need more coffee now!

Im not sure what people are reading that even implies the OP changed their reservation? :confused:

 

The OP booked a cruise during the WOW sale. In My Cruises a "Payment is Due" tab is showing up. Those tabs are always there. That is only a reminder and no further money is due until his/her final payment date.

thank you!

Ok- Im so confused. 1st- I never switched to the guarantee booking. The guarentee showed up on my search for the cruise- in fact I called in and booked it over the phone as I was having trouble online. It showed up under the WOW sale with reduced deposit. It was one heck of a deal. Exactly why booked it. :)

So I guess I am confused why people are saying I switched to a guarantee. No switching done here. Sorry, somewhat of a RCCL newbie- only one cruise on them so far.

I believe when you changed your WOW sale reservation you lost those benefits of the reduced deposit and possibly the OBC associated with the WOW sales - What they are probably looking for is full deposit. You probably should call and inquire because if full deposit is required and you don't make it you could loose your booking. There should be nothing else due until final after that.

I did not change my ressie- I had no reservation prior. I had only been "watching" a cruise myself every few weeks. It was a completely new reservation booked during the wow sale with OBC and reduced deposit.

Last week I booked a cruise during the WOW sale with the reduced deposit. I had been watching the cruise and a guarantee became available for a significant amount less than the current prices (prior and post sale).

We decided to jump on it even though I am not 100% sure we can go those dates (waiting on my vacation approval through work still).

My question is, with the reduced deposit I owe nothing until final payment? I logged onto the RCCL website yesterday and saw my payments tab and it says payment due for Oct 4 (I only booked Sept 29!). My feeling at this point is I am not paying anything else until I know for sure we are going.

So when you pay a reduced deposit do you generally owe anything else until final payment (excluding making changes to the ressie?).

Thanks for any insight! Hopefully I can call RCCL soon- just have not had time when my kids are not around (as they have no idea!).

Thank you! I'm thinking sunshine will probably win our vote for departure port too (it's more convenient for us). Just worried about crowding- however I know my kids would love the waterworks and ropes course, although we have never done the eastern route before.

Decisions, decisions!

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We are in the beginning stages of planning my 40th birthday cruise. I thought I had it figured out but the breeze is now charter cruise for our week in April. We are 2 adults 2 kids (who will be 12 and 9 at sailing). Sunshine us a western and splendor is an eastern. Which would you choose? Glory is also a westerner that week but she doesn't excite me and I'm not very interested in the conquest either.

Any votes or reasoning appreciated!

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I too was on this cruise and had a wonderful time. We were on deck 8 and could walk from one end of the ship to the other, no problem going where we wanted to go. We also had FTTF great experience. We used the parking service right outside the port for 50.00 on line, this too was great. We too walked to Higgs Beach but caught a cab back for $12.00 to Jimmy Buffets. Just shopped in Ocho Rios and back to Buffets place, nice beach and pool. In Cayman we did the turtle farm, fantastic! We left our room at 9 but left our docs in the cabin. Carnival retrieved them for us in 30 minutes.

We did the turtle farm in our last visit to Grand Cayman and it was great! Next time I would definetly opt for the cab :) And good tip with the parking. We thought it would be easier to park at port (although I knew it was expensive). Although Im not so sure now!

Review Carnival Freedom April 13 Cruise

6 day cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Key West, Grand Cayman & Ocho Rios

Here is my short review of our spring break cruise:

We ended up booking this cruise an impromptu change from another when the Freedom’s dry dock dates had changed. We got a GREAT rate for the cabin type we wanted (oceanview). We booked within 2 days of this sail date re-opening up. I would also like to note, as much as some people were scaring me pre-cruise on here, it did not appear anything we wanted to use was closed in preparation for the dry dock. All pools. waterslides, etc were open. YEAH!

Embarkation: We had Faster to the Fun for the 1st time and boy did we LOVE it! We got to the port around 10:45 and had to wait just a bit after a very quick check in process. We were onboard in no time, with an announcement that we would not be setting sail until 7pm for Key West (so they could load some materials they needed for the dry dock). It would not impact our time in Key West. It was a bit rainy/overcast anyways. We loved being able to put all of our stuff in the room as soon as we boarded. AMAZING! Yes, it takes little to make me happy! We headed out to eat something and explore.

Cabin: We were on the Main Deck (deck 2) in a midship oceanview cabin. We wanted to be low and midship for motion reasons (and enjoy the oceanview rooms more than the balcony- I know strange to some). And, we were pleasantly surprised that the room did feel nice a big compared to past rooms- I believe it was 220 sq ft. We had cabin 2351. Very quiet and we were very happy with the room. Our steward was nice. Met him once, but other than that he was scarce- but the room was always taken care of and we had no complaints!

Overall ship: Well, despite having a great vacation, I will be honest, I was not in love with the ship. Here are my reasons: I think I just don’t care for the conquest class of ship. By day 6 we were still getting lost trying to get from one side of the ship to the other- especially when we didn’t want to be near the casino (hate smoke). And, we were not a fan of the tiered sundeck area. It made it much more challenging to see your kids- and the hot tub placement on the lido blocked everything. I am also a shade girl and finding it was a bit more challenging on this ship than on the other Carnival cruise we went on (Legend). We like to be near the pools for our kids, but in the shade, as I am a paste white irish princess who burns quite easily in that Caribbean sun, even with spf 1000 on :) Another disappointment was to get to the mini golf you had to walk through the basketball court up to the mini golf. And, its over the steakhouse- so apparently it closes from 5 or 5:30 till 11 pm. Not knowing this, I had one very upset 8 year old who was promised a last game of mini golf after dinner the last night of the cruise, only to be denied (no worries- instead of being “free” we spent $55 on a mini golf game in Disney World to make up for it- which I will admit was a way better course anyways). Despite all of that, we loved the waterslide, pools were decent- there were a lot of kids on our sailing and my kids still got to swim. We really enjoyed the shows- we had a comedy hypnotist and a juggler/comedy act. We also liked the family comedy and saw one of the stage shows (which was ok, just not my thing). We tried to watch a movie under the stars, but the kids begged to go in the pool/hot tub, so it was a loss on watching the movie, as we were watching our kids!

Dinner: We did the early seating and were the restaurant in the aft of the ship (upper level). Food was good. Our wait staff was very friendly, however, they had very poor timing all week. Example: we would order a side of fries for youngest DD (who would order off adult menu, but perhaps not like the side) and they would come out 10-15 min late. Drinks were hard to order and would take forever to arrive; sometimes we would have to ask 2 or 3 times for them (after waiting 40 min). I am gluten free and I was thrilled by the items the chefs made for me. I ate some things I would never cook for myself at home gluten free. All of the food was great. My kids were very happy to order off the adult menu and not be stuck with chicken nuggets, pizza, hot dogs, etc. Our team was also very slow. Once we had to skip dessert to make it to the 7:30 family comedy, and a couple other nights we barely made it to entertainment as they were so slow. But, other teams were much quicker, as we saw several leaving quite a bit earlier than us.

Key West: Our 1st time there. We walked to see mile marker 0 of AIA, Southern Most Point, part of Duval Street (wow, some things here were so not kid appropriate) and then to Fort Zachary Taylor Park and Beach. Ill be honest- my family didn’t love Key West. I am certain its because we walked about 5 miles and got blisters! Hindsight, opt for some kind of transportation next time! The sights were interesting- although not super interesting for an 8 and 11 year old. The beach was very rocky (we had our water shoes). We were too tired and hungry to explore the fort and tried to take a short cut back to the ship, which made us walk a LOT longer than needed. We arrived back starving with blistered feet. It wasn’t the best start. BUT, things greatly improved from there!

Sea Day # 1: We found a spot on the Lido under the shade. It wasn’t close to the pool, but at least we had a main place to hang in the shade. We spent the day relaxing, using the pools, waterslide, playing mini golf, and playing cards. And, more importantly recuperating from the day before’s adventure!

Grand Cayman: We woke up to find out there had been 3 inches of snow at home. I was feeling sorry for my friends at home, but super excited to start our day out in Grand Cayman! This was our 2nd time here and this time we opted to go to the 7 mile beach. We got priority tender with FTF and were off! We took a taxi (aka van) for $5 pp. He was dropping off at 2 places- one cost 2.50 pp to get in and the other was free. I had done my homework and we wanted to go to Calico Jacks (aka Public Beach). So we walked from stop #2 about ¼ mile on the beach back to where we wanted to go. We found a slice of heaven and rented 2 chairs and an umbrella- I think we paid $20? We were right up front and the beach was not too crowded. A few hours of pure bliss on the beach. We did get 4 drinks from Calico Jacks- 2 virgin (for the kids) and 2 non for the parents. It cost $40. And, the 2 non might as well been virgin too- BUT- it was delightful and tasty none the less. Taxi back to the port for another $5pp and back to the ship. Excellent day in Grand Cayman!

Ocho Rios: This port was the whole reason we booked this cruise. And, we were most apprehensive about it, as we had heard such horror stories! Based on all the horror we decided to book an excursion through Carnival. We opted for the Bobsled & Dunns River. We headed over to Mystic Mountain 1st for the bobsled. We took the chair lift to the top (It was sprinkling the whole way up- but what a view and we will never forget it!). Up top we did the bobsled- wait was maybe 15 to 20 min. We did 2 and 2 (no solo riders). OMG- it was SO fun! The kids LOVED it, and so did Mom and Dad! Bought the pictures and headed to the pool with waterslide. Spent 45 min there (it was beautiful!!!!!) and then decided to head back to go to Dunns River Falls. Skyride back down and we waited maybe 10min for the bus to Dunns River, which was about 1 mile away. Dunns River was very fun as well. We got our watershoes out started the climbing. I was a bit concerned at first as the human link chain we were on was moving a BIT faster than our pace with kids, but it slowed quite a bit after the initial walk. Ok- here is where I need to add this: my youngest is 8 ½. She is very athletic, but she is on the small, and very light side. This was a challenge at times for her. She was a trooper though. I did skip one small section of the falls with her and then we hopped right back in with our group and finished it out. LOVED it! After the Falls, we did have to go through the market with the aggressive vendors to get back to our bus. We went quick and did not buy anything as they were too pushy. Back to the ship we went. We had the BEST day and it was the true highlight of the vacation for us!

Sea Day # 2: more relaxation and downtime- not to mention it was my birthday! Pools, waterslide, reading, etc. A great way to recharge after 2 busy but very nice days.

Debarkation: We did self assist. We were off the boat early (could have been earlier with FTF, but we chose to not get up quite that early). Only downside was the parking garage at Port everglades seemed to just have 1 elevator with a huge line. So, yes, we carried all of our luggage up 4 flights of stairs. I called it our extra calorie burning from eating so much junk on the ship! And then we headed off to Orlando and part 2 of our vacation (which I am not reviewing).

Overall: We had a FANTASTIC vacation. We got some much needed down time and family time. We lead very busy lives at home (hubby travels for work and kids are in multiple sports, and I work too!). My kids did not want to do camp Carnival- so no reviews on that. We spent our time on the ship together as a family and my kids did make a couple friends on their own by the pools. I would not hesitate to book another carnival cruise again, although I do not think it would be on the conquest class of ship. Pretty sure we would try for the spirit class again or spend some time looking at the dream class to see if it works better for us. Hubby on the other hand had indicated he did prefer Royal Caribbean. (sssshshhhhhh). So, we will see what next time brings us. I think he will like the price tag from Carnival better!

Depends on your cruising style. If you are a hang at the beach person I would def choose the half moon, grand turk one. If you are a more action adventure person I would choose the Ocho Rio/Cayman one.

If you like to mix it up and do both, we just got off the Ocho Rios/Grand Cayman one. We did sightseeing & Fort Zachary taylor in key west. Grand Cayman was our beach day (awesome) and in Ocho Rios we did bobsledding & dunns river falls (this was the highlight of the trip).

Freedom was fun, but we prefer the spirit style ships. :)

We were on this cruise too! We had a great time as well! Our only issue was with our service at dinner every night. While the team was super nice, they had timing issues all 6 nights.

I also wanted to mention nothing seemed to be closed in prep for the dry dock. We had a great time but did also discover we don't love the layout IV the conquest class ships as much as othes we have been on.

Not trying to sound negative- I too will be doing a review- still on vacation. We had a really fun time, enjoyed the ship, loved the shows. And, although we were a bit apprehensive we LOVED Ocho rios. We did the bobsled and dunns combo- so much fun- the true highlight of the cruise!!!! Can't wait to read your review!

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Got off the freedom this morning. And I have no idea!!!

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