CruzinMel

Ok, I have just found the theme of my life - I'm a Compulsive Planner (as in, I plan years out, not months, and my family thinks I am nuts - specifically, DH says I "worry too much" and I constantly tell him, "I plan so I don't HAVE to worry.") Planning is therapeutic for me - I control what I can, and when the crazy stuff happens (as it so often does), at least I've got the easy stuff handled. And it's FUN!!! Why not plan and learn and strategize and optimize a cruise? They go by so fast! Anyway, thank you for the Eisenhower quote - I shall put it in my Book of Quotes.

OH - Jr's cabin at double occupancy would have been about 800 bucks more than what I paid in total after adding on the beverage package and 1 specialty meal. That single supplement is ouchy. If we hadn't been past final payment, I'd have asked if we could pull the Percussionist out of the Haven room entirely, and book those 2 together in the inside, but since I got a 3rd and 4th person sail free promo, it's actually ending up about the same for those 2 options. Weird, huh? If Jr gets a roomie, we will pay the difference between single and double occupancy, and you can bet your bippy that I will be watching out for a price drop. This sailing is pricing out higher (because: NYE), but who knows? There are still Haven rooms open, although the 2 BR Family Villas and up are showing sold out. Escape is still in the Med, and does the TA the first 2 weeks of November; her first Caribbean itinerary of this season starts on the 19th. After that, I will be on the hunt for dailies!

Time is slow like syrup when you're waiting for your cruise, isn't it? Drip, drip, driiiiiiiiiiiiip. OTOH, good things happen - our Marine wasn't able to change his plans, but our other son was able to finagle some time away, so we've added one more to the party! (This is DS26; I've decided the kids are going to need nicknames, so say hello to Junior Mint (so named because he is a carbon copy of his father). We've got him (DS26), our Marine (DS22), and the Percussionist (DS25.) DD will now be Indiana Jones, as a nod to her history major.) All our beds are full in the Haven, so we've booked him out in the Real World in an inside cabin. Jr Mint's reclusive, possibly imaginary, long-time, on/off girlfriend said she had to work, which doesn't make me sad - Jr Mint having bed space in his cabin means that if he and the Percussionist want to create a Man Cave, there's more room in the other cabin. Today is the last day of the most recent 40% off promo, so I booked Jr Mint's cabin with just him in it. Apparently, after final payment (120 days out), you hit cancellation penalty time; you can always add to a reservation, but you would incur penalties in various percentages for cancellations. If Jr Mint gets himself a roomie up to 3 days before embarkation, we can add them to the reservation, but if I had booked him into a Studio and then wanted to put him into a different cabin, I'd have incurred a penalty on the change. I was able to book Jr Mint's cabin myself (I was worried about how that would work) and our PCC is going to link the new one to our existing reservation. (I lurve our PCC - if I could lure her away from her husband and marry her off to one of my sons, I would.) The only downside is that Jr will have to embark by himself while we get on with the Haven folks, but he's a big boy - he'll manage without his step-monster. Our PCC also dug up Mom's Latitudes number and linked it - I didn't realize this will be Mom's 5th cruise, and she's silver - she will put her Spa discount to good use! (A word on Haven embarkation - I miss the pictures. The last 2 times we were in the Haven, we never saw the pre-cruise picture people, and I miss that picture, when everyone is SO EXCITED to be going on vacation that they just glow. It's worth it to get on the ship faster and earlier, but still. . . oh well. The sacrifices we make!) Once aboard, we will be able to bring Jr Mint to our cabin, and we are told that we can bring him to dinner in the Haven as our guest - we shall see. In a fit of fancy, I bid on an upgrade to the Owner's Suite. It won't sleep more people, but it's a lot larger and the balcony is TO DIE FOR. The website says that suite is already sold out on our sailing, but as my favorite preacher said, "A closed mouth don't get fed." I'm hoping the same fairy will offer me an upgrade bid opportunity on Jr Mint's cabin. I'm going to have to rebook all my dining reservations for 6 people (I did most of them for 4). I'm going to add Jr Mint to the kids' excursion in Puerto Plata, but there's plenty of room in the villa, so GSC is settled. Jr Mint, like DH, prefers a bar to a beach, and hey - one more set of muscles to manhandle Mom around is helpful. Meanwhile, I got my flu shot and Mom got her 2nd Covid booster; Mom has been so excited about the cruise that she's like a kid and if I'd known she'd react like this, I'd have booked one 2 years. . . oh. Well. Freakin' Covid. Sigh. Indiana Jones announced that she will spend the day in GSC reading in a lounger, and no one is to bother her. I may change her name to Grumpy.

Movement on the Special Needs front: In my email, there were 2 different replies from the Special Needs desk, indicating that they had received my request and saying what they could provide - very nice! (Also interesting - NCL reissued our cruise confirmation, adding the special needs items on the page.) For my gluten free needs, they don't recommend eating at the buffet, and theoretically, if I wanted to bring on some Kind bars (my go to when traveling, because they are GF, individually packaged, tasty and filling), it's ok - on an excursion that offered a meal, this is something I would definitely need to do, so it's comforting. Now, we all know that I will eat at the buffet, because DH is a buffet fan - fast, easy and tasty. On prior cruises, I've seen GF things and on Dad's last cruise, he made friends with the Chef, who always came out to meet him and bring him safe, tasty things. So, I'm still not worrying too much about food on the ship. From the email: On the mobility accommodations front, also good news - the wheelchair request is in, and we are to contact a porter at the pier when we arrive. There's some additional language that's a wee bit confusing - the email says to contact a porter, but then the very next sentence says you have to go through security first. So. . . a little confusing, but we shall see. We will have the rollator with us, so whichever way it goes, we will be ok. Mom insists she can walk anywhere and everywhere, as long as she can rest when she needs to; I remind her that yes, she can, but let's save your energy and not make the rest of the party (or ship) absolutely mental with the snail's pace and frequent, long stops, especially in a crowd. She's GOING in that wheelchair. Just because you can, doesn't mean you must. Since we are not in an accessible room, I requested a shower stool and a toilet seat riser, and the letter says they will be in the stateroom. All in all, so far, so good. The letter also has the name of the Accessibility Coordinator who took our requests, and our case #'s, so that is very good for documentation. All in all, I feel better! Plus, the water shoes and snorkel gear and Mom's new swim bottoms came in . . . Mom wants to start packing and we're explaining that 76 days out is really a wee bit soon. I must admit, however, that all my beach gear is packed. . . is that awful? IDC! 🙂

I am DONE worrying about excursions! Basically, because it's too frustrating, and I have mostly arrived at a solution, 78 days out. Here's a funny for you: DD needs to do 2 Independent Study classes so she can graduate from college in the spring, and she thinks she's going to do one over winter break. My jaw dropped and she said yes, she expects to work on it while she's on the cruise. When I scraped my jaw back up, I threw my head back and lauuuuuughed. Yeah. That's going to work. Anybody want to guess how much actual studying she does? GSC: By now I have practically memorized the layout of GSC, and have rented an ocean-view villa in Silver Cove (did it this morning.) There is what looks to be a hike to get from the tender area to the place in the shopping area where the golf cart thing will pick you up, drive you halfway to Silver Cove, where you get out and get back on another shuttle to go the rest of the way (??), but a beach wheelchair will save us. Once there, the villa will have a bedroom of its own, a private bath, living room with movies, air conditioning, its own patio with table and loungers, dedicated loungers on the beach, food/beverages, and walking access to everything else on the island. I told Mom she was going to get hauled off the ship with the first tender, and she could go right back to sleep once we got settled, then wake up and have herself lunch and a massage. Based on the videos I saw, the ocean villas are actually closer to the water than the lagoon villas and it looked doable with a cane for Mom's balance. Many thanks to folks who posted excellent GSC videos, especially the Well Aged Cruisers, who did a fabulous walking tour of GSC, starting with getting to the villas and then showing how to access the rest of the island on foot. Puerta Plata: I already got DD and DS the Damajagua excursion, and booked DH and myself for a Puerta Plata tour and beach time. I think I'm going to cancel ours, though, if I can nail down which dock Escape will use for Puerta Plata. It's well documented that Taino Bay is where Escape went aground back in March, and up until December she's scheduled to go back to good old Amber Cove. The fine folks in the DR, however, have yet to update the January port schedules for either site. If it's Amber Cove, I'm going to cancel the excursion for me and DH; that is a long, long pier, but we're going to throw Mom in a wheelchair or find a bike taxi and spend the afternoon hanging out at their pool/bar/shopping area. Gosh, we'll just have to go back to the DR another day! St Thomas: Still up in the air, but trying to figure out a Mom-amenable excursion was making me nuts, so I backed it up a day. Finding out that 7000 other people will dock there an hour after we arrive quickly put the kibosh on any thoughts I had about renting a car (I cannot handle DH when he stresses about time, and it would ruin the day for him.) So it's either a ship's tour, or hopping off and hanging around the dock area. If DD is determined to study (:D), we'll take her up the tram to Paradise Point, and then she gets to spend the day with Mom on the ship. Sunset is going to be between 5 and 5:30 that day, which means that although that port time sounds deliciously long (11 - 7, oh my!), we'd really have about 4 good hours if DIY. (But is a perfect evening to book an early dinner at La Cucina and watch the sun set over a glass of wine.) Sadly, Senor Frog's is no more, but I'm fairly sure there are plenty of other options. If nothing else we'll cab it to Magen's Bay or perhaps Secret Harbor. Tortola: Every single tour leaves between 7 and 8:30. Do I REALLY want to get up that early? Depends on how much I want to see the Soggy Dollar Bar. And that, happily, gets me settled enough that I can quit obsessing. All the passports are processing, and I'm still working on that concierge letter, and the Braves and Phillies are tied 1-all, which means I need to quit thinking cruises and focus on BASEBALL!

That sounds a lot better, temp wise, than what I was afraid of! We think she's mobile enough for the tender, if we are careful with her - she's not wheelchair-bound, but just can't do the long distances and her balance stinks. Between DH and DS, they can get her on or off the tender, and from there I think it'll be ok as long as I can grab a beach wheelchair. Thanks!

Well. . . that's one way to go swimming, right? SPLASH!

Oh, Amazon Prime, or, Christmas is DONE: Thanks to Amazon, I have sewn up most of someone's Christmas presents - since we are cruising the week after the holiday, we are resolved to buy minimal, cruise-themed presents for those traveling. It might get awkward when the cruisers see the other kids with a 5 foot high stack of guilt-ridden presents ("We're sorry you have to work and can't come with us, so here's the equivalent of your cabin in boxes!"), and they've just opened waterproof phone cases, snorkeling gear, water shoes, and a t shirt. I have texted our Marine (DS22) and suggested he change his Christmas leave plans and cruise with us instead. I'm his step-monster, so his mama may have something to say about it, but . . . he's a grown man Marine. Surely he can put his foot down with Mommy, when Daddy wants to take him on a cruise? 😜 I wouldn't be able to get him into the Haven - it appears to be sold out and all my beds are spoken for - I'm not even bothering to bid on an upgrade, especially since the only upgrade is the Owner's Suite. If he's out in the main ship, that would get us out of the Haven more, and we can still invite him to our cabin for family fun. So, win-win. . . we shall see. That would only leave the oldest, DS26, who can't take off during the holidays - and he'd rather have cash than boxes anyway. Christmas is looking pretty easy, as long as I hide Mom's credit cards. She is an inveterate catalog shopper, she loves us all very much, and consequently we often end up with things you never would have bought yourself, occasionally in sizes you don't wear, and frequently with slogans or sayings you would not wear out in public. Last year, I hoarded all the return slips from the boxes, and sent the really outrageous stuff back; she never questioned the refunds on her card. There are only so many size 3x, faux-cashmere, bedazzled, reindeer sweaters I can stomach (I'm a 1x), and it's the thought that counts.

Do you have any advice for me? The last time we traveled with her, she was more sprightly, but not much. I read my 2016 review, and realized that she spent a large amount of time in the room, sleeping - basically, if we were active one day, she spent most of the next day resting except for dinner. I'm worried that I am putting too much pressure on this trip to be an "experience". The last time we traveled together as a family (aka with the children) was a weekend on St Simon's Island sometime around 2013 - everybody was just too busy and I'm at the point where I'm just bribing people to go on vacation with me, and I don't care. "Here's a cruise cabin and an unlimited beverage plan, and I bought you an excursion - now GET IN THE CAR!"

I think you very kindly mentioned Secret Harbour in another thread on the STT ports board - I've been looking at it, too. I'm going to natter tomorrow probably about the great excursion debate. . . ugh.

Yes - NYE! We've been having discussions about water temps, too - trying to figure out how cold is too cold. Being from Georgia, we don't have the cold-water endurance of our fellow travelers from the more northern areas. Temps are supposed to be low 80's/upper 70's, which feels like heaven to me but I'm not sure about water. More research!

Oh, wow - that is not something I had considered - thank you! I've been all over the GSC videos and maps, but the steepness of the walk didn't register. OTOH, if we have the beach wheelchair, it might be ok?

I will check him out - thanks! I like a little bit of snark, but too much is too much. . .

I've been toying with that, actually - great minds think alike! I'm thinking about the villa - the one that would work out best is expensive, but it would have a bed if she wants to take a nap, and a bathroom, and a TV for DH if/when he gets beach bored and wants to check out a movie. And definitely on the weather - I do NOT want her to spend a week at sea and never touch sand once.

PostScript - Guest Special Needs: NCL puts a hyperlink in your cruise confirmation and other documents that will take you to the Guest Special Needs form, which covers everything from a riser on your toilet seat, to a sharps container for diabetics with injectable insulin, to sign language interpreters, service animals, DIY dialysis, allergies, special diets, and anything else you can think of. The form is an online, fillable PDF and If you are wise, you will not be like me and forget to take a snip of your case # when you are done filling it out (although I did print it.) Theoretically, we should hear something within 30 days, but I have their phone # if I don't. I also did not mention that the Haven not only has fabulous bedding and pillows, but also will wheel you on and off the ship and to shows and (I have read but not confirmed) off the ship when they dock. I am putting an email together for the concierge desk to make sure. We shall see what happens.

Good thing I type fast, or, Cruise Critic ate my post! Well, more like, I probably hit the x rather than posting it, but I wrote a lengthy, considered, erudite, award-winning rumination on cruising with issues, and poof! She is gone. The Cliff's Notes version of the novella (do folks even know what those are these days? must google) is this: Mom may have Requirements, but she and I between us have Issues, and these Issues are giving me heartburn. The easy issue is mine: I have celiac disease, and must eat gluten free. And no, it's not like I *want* to eat GF (no matter how much they try to make it taste good, GF bread and pasta do NOT taste right, so I don't understand anybody choosing this lifestyle, but whatever.) I MUST eat GF, and I have the lab results and damaged intestinal villi to prove it. As I would prefer to spend my vacation in a lounger rather than that fabulous bathroom, I'm being careful. From past experience with Dad and stories I'm reading on CC, NCL does a fantastic job with gluten free eating. Mom is trickier. Mom's got neuropathy, which means that sometimes, she doesn't feel her feet and sometimes she feels some of them, but not enough to have the perfect balance of her youth. Aging being a "use it or lose it" proposition, if you don't have good balance and you decide to walk as little as possible because you're afraid of falling down, despite what everybody else on the planet encourages you to do . . . one day you won't be able to walk long distances, and your family will be trying to figure out the best way to get you places on a cruise ship so you have fun and don't feel trapped in your cabin. Mom's got a cane and a rollator, both of which we are bringing, but wobbly Mom + ocean waves = uneasy Mel. Fortunately, NCL partners with a company called Scootaround that will let you rent a wheelchair (or a scooter, motorized wheelchair, rollator. . . all the wheeled things!) and will deliver it to your cabin so you don't have to wrangle it on or off. I'm told you can also take the conveyance with you when you go off the ship - so I think that one is solved. I noodled around on their website over the weekend, and am just about ready to reserve. But excursions . . . ugh! Here's the complaint for the day - there are lots and lots of resources, both here on CC, on NCL's site, and on the internets at large, for discussing traveling with mobility issues. Know what there's not? VIDEOS. I can go on YouThing and look at every excursion, I can google maps of the ports, I can find pictures of everything that somebody ate or drank for 7 days and I can even get recipes for my beloved muesli . . . but I have yet to find a video of somebody in a wheelchair getting off a cruise ship and going on an excursion. I've been reduced to watching excursion videos, estimating the length of the walk to the taxi or bus, and then squinting at the screen looking for wheels in the background. Our itinerary has a private island day, and between DH and DD, we will manhandle her onto the tender and get a beach wheelchair if I have to stake one out at 9 in the morning. But I want to get her to a beach on at least one stop - just one! Puerta Plata is a no - I'm sending the kids on a waterfall and zip lining excursion while DH and I tour the island. Tortola is a big no - the stop is ridiculously early and short (6 am to 1 pm, and we practically are across the street from the stop of the day before?) So that left St Thomas . . . and Havensight is a long walk. (Although we are scheduled to dock at the closest berth, so that's a thought.) St Thomas also, unfortunately, is where the 4300-odd passengers on our sailing will be joined by the nearly-7000 pax on Wonder of the Seas, so St Thomas is going to be a hot mess. (I may rethink Tortola.) I got desperate enough that I very nearly booked us into a condo on STT, if only to have a place for the day, but the checkins are all at 3 and 4 in the afternoon and that's too late. I'mma keep thinking on this. Y'all got any ideas?

Thanks so much for this - it's exactly what I needed. I'd already started wondering how DH and I were going to manage getting in and out of the second bed - we are at that stage of midlife where one's bladder does not sleep nearly as well as one would wish, so we're tag-teaming bathroom trips at least once a night. Also, we are. . . well, I am Voluptuous and he is Very Manly. He already sleeps so lightly that he could hear a mouse break wind behind the wall at 3 in the morning, so me climbing over him probably wouldn't work. Hmm. I might make the small bedroom a Man Cave and take that couch bed FOR MAHSELF! At least until Mom decides that's the one she wants, and then DH and I will just have to sacrifice and room together. Sigh. The sacrifices I make for my family. . . 😉

Oh, holy cow, this was the best review ever!!! Thank you for sharing because a), I want to cruise with her, and b) she's such a good daughter, and c), I don't think Mom is looking for a boyfriend but if she were and the poster's Dad were available, they'd either drive each other insane or get along like peas and carrots. I laughed so hard at her Dad circling the typos in the Dailies that DH thought I was nuts. (And then he also said that I always tell him about typos, so that's really just me in about 30 years.)

Also, many thanks to Candy, because I have read my last review and realized 3 things: I hated Escape the last time, mainly because nobody in my group but me wanted to leave the Haven and I didn't enjoy the food; We are staying in almost the same room but not quite; Mom didn't do a whole lot on that cruise, 6 years ago; I think all the things I'm worrying over might not be issues after all. (Now watch me be wrong.)

Candy, you are my hero - that worked!!!! Thank you so much! 🥰

That sounds absolutely wonderful. . . evenings in the spa!!! I can't think of anything more relaxing.

Oh, that's a bummer for him - I'm glad you guys can still go! We're leaving on Dec 31 - maybe we have the same cruise? I was thinking about spa passes, but every time I get them or have a spa cabin, I never go enough to justify it. I want DD to have the whole experience, though, so I'm planning on a day pass for us. Mom insists she MUST have a massage, so I will book her on one of the days that the rest of us are away on an excursion.

Housekeeping, or, Where's my Passport?? I won't cruise without a passport, period. I won't leave the country without a passport. Sure, I know, on a closed loop cruise you don't have to get one, sure a passport card is an option, sure. But Life is Strange, and you never know what is going to come at you, and one day your husband might have a heart attack on the Norwegian Getaway before it pulls into port in Nassau - you might go from waffles in the MDR to calling 911 on the ship's phone and the next thing you know, you and your husband will be off the ship, in a Bahamian hospital, where he's getting critical care. And you will thank God that your child made you get passports for the cruise, because you REALLY want to get on that medical flight home to Atlanta and Emory. True story. So the minute I got done booking this cruise, I went hunting passports. Of all the crazy things, Mom's was fine - she hasn't traveled anywhere but the Biltmore since our last cruise, but she's got a good passport. DS was fine - he was in Luxembourg this summer for a music competition. That left DH and myself (expired) and DD (none.) Now, Covid has changed a lot of things, but some of them are improvements. I was nervous, because at the height of Covid passports took forever (which is why I didn't renew mine sooner - I got hesitant because of the wait time, and then I just forgot.) Turns out, the wait times are back to more normal for new passports - DD has already gotten hers in the works and processing. I was paranoid and paid for expedited processing *and* priority mail return; $208 plus a $15 passport photo later, hers should come the first week in November. I sent DD to the Post Office rather than a Fedex or other processing facility, but I filled out the forms online in a PDF and printed them here. The USPS has a Very Nice link to the passport website, and along with being very informative, the website has questions that will help you select the proper form and fees, and then direct you to the form itself. The website also has instructions to renew your passport without appearing in person - even though our passports are expired, there is a new thing that lets you renew if your passport was originally issued less than x # of years ago (I forget the #, but it's very clear on the website, and we qualified.) You can even take your own passport photo (there are rules and requirements for backgrounds, poses, etc), and then you print it all, package it up with your old passport and the photo and a check, and mail it off. I'm not that lucky, and I'd have to go to the post office anyway to mail it off, so I'm paying the $15 to get my picture taken on Wednesday and then I will send mine and DH's off together, with correct postage, a good photo, legible forms, proper payment, and expedited return shipping. DH, bless his heart, thought he could just waltz into the post office and get it all done; you have to schedule your appointments, but the kind folks at the USPS told him that even without expediting he'd have the passport before the cruise. But I'm expediting anyway. Sure, we can still cruise without it. . . but nah.

You are NOT wrong. Passport discussion is coming up. 🙂

How weird!!! Maybe I didn't look the right way? I was looking under my profile for my comments. I would LOVE to get my old review back! Thanks.