terias

We stayed in the PS on Freedom this summer. Same cabin, different ship. 2 families shouldn't be a problem. We had 4 families (total of 10 people), each with their own bedroom. My family of 4 crammed into one of the interior bedrooms and had no issue. Something I wish I had considered before I unpacked us was that there's a lot of unused drawers in the living room area that I wish I had stuck my kids' clothes in, just so it would have been easier to keep everyone's stuff straight. The interior rooms didn't seem to have a lot of storage, but if you don't mind squirreling stuff in other closets and rooms, it works out ok.

 

As for the view, yes there's a lot of super structure, but you can still see the water and the horizon. You just can't look down. You can also go to either end of the balcony and feel a little closer to the water.

Personally, I would watch a marathon of "Big Bang Theory" before heading to the ship and just have fun with them!

 

Be careful with this one, or you'll be yelling "WHEEEEEAAATOOOONNNNNNN!!!" every time you a) get crowded out of where you want to go, or b) see Wil Wheaton. :D

Try clearing your cookies. Those pesky things hang around and mess things up sometimes ;-)

[quote name='KatPem']Many moons ago (2004) my husband and I were on the Carnival Destiny and took the ferry to St John for the day and fell in love. We are finally going back and taking the kids over Spring break this year. We are a family of 6 and while we are the only ship!! docked that day, we are only docked from 11am to 6pm. We are planning on taking the Red Hook Ferry to St John and we would love to do what my husband and I did....we had them drop us off on Centerline Rd. at the Cinnamon Bay Trail and we hiked down to the Bay and then had a little time on the beach and headed back. The hike is 1.2 miles from what I can tell...it has been so long though that we can't remember our port times to know if this is doable or if we should skip the hike....we have been telling the kids about St John for years so we really hope to have time to do both...but having a family of 6, we can't afford to miss the ship :) ANy thoughts??[/quote]

Kathy, which trail is that? If you're just going to Cinnamon Bay, the taxi can drop you off at the camp ground entrance, and there's usually a cab there to pick you back up. From there you just follow the path through the campground (much less than 1.2 miles) down to the water. I only remember two hiking trails around there. The first is the Cinnamon Bay Loop across the street, which goes through the ruins. This was closed when we were there as they were putting up a wood walkway (over a year ago, it should be open now!). The other is, I think called Cinnamon Bay Trail, but it goes up. And UP. AND UP. It is a hard hike. My sisters and I took it to the America Hill Spur and it is a LOT of up. Ok, looking at [URL]http://www.seestjohn.com/trails_cinnamon_bay.html[/URL], it looks like that trail goes between North Shore Rd (where the campground is) and Centerline. You could conceivably hike down from Centerline just to do it (I also seem to recall a great little place for much needed fruity rum drinks up there, but I could have my spots on Centerline confused), and then catch a taxi from the campground on the way out (did I mention the level of UP on that trail?!)

I'm 300 days and counting, but already looking for ways to make the trip special for my boys as well (5 and 8 by cruise time). For our Disney trip, I did a count down that had bits of trivia or trip details for each day of the countdown. They LOVED that and want to know when I'm doing another. So I guess I'm doing one for the cruise! My boys are big into animals, so I'm going to try to find books on animals they might see on the trip (manatees in Port Canaveral, dolphins, fish, and I guess iguanas would make sense too!). I'll probably start doling these out a month or two before the cruise. They LOVE the build up though. Once on board, I'm sure the ship staff and grandparents are going to do PLENTY of spoiling, so I don't think I'll have to do much else to make it all special. I do think they'll be excited to dress up for formal night with us, which will be fun.