powelweb

We did the same 12 night sailing on Vision last summer, and loved, loved, loved it.

Have an awesome time!

Does she like the "siesta "? 12 should be the age when they stop protesting and start to enjoy the naps (teens nap a lot).

She never really protested even when she was little, but there are some days when she'll sleep for 30 minutes and other days when we have to wake her or we'll be late for dinner, lol.

In the Caribbean or warm climate cruises- I highly recommend a nap for the whole family- not just the kids. Call it "rest" time. Close the drapes and everyone rests for a couple hours. The kids do need it.

We've done this on all our cruises since our DD was little, calling it family siesta time, and she's now 12. Helps all of us enjoy the later evening activities if we bunk down for an hour or so before dinner, and then we're recharged for the night....

I went through tampa in april and carried on a 12 pack of diet cherry pepsi- they wouldn't take it curbside as they have at other ports, but no issue with me carrying through security and onboard at all.

Wow! These comments are almost 50-50 good to great or just OK to bad. I guess we'll try it as we get the BOGO and DH loves rib eye and I like lamb if it's not cooked to death. Just strange to me that the salads and apps are so limited.

Be careful if DH has his heart set on a ribeye. We pre-booked Jamie's for Quantum last May before she was released, and by the time our Christmas sailing came around, the steak that was on the posted menu online had disappeared once we were actually onboard- apparently, Jamie wasn't pleased with the quality of beef he was receiving so he took it off the menu.

The steak was the whole reason we had booked Jamie's for our family- I don't like Italian myself and really struggled to find something else. The rest of our group did like their meals though, so it was good for the Italian specialties- just didn't have the ribeye, so tell DH to have a back-up in mind.

If you can manage late May into early June, it looks like the Brilliance has similar 12 night itinerary departing on May25 to the 12 night cruise we did last year on Vision that was a wonderful cruise.

Weather was heating up, but not at the peak temps just yet, just as the crowds weren't at the overcrowded insanity level of August either.

good luck with your choice

Last year we used traveler's checks on our med cruise because we had to pay several private tours in euros, and we were able to cash the check in at guest services onboard- very easy.

We purchased them at our local AAA office along with some euros to have on hand upon arrival for taxis, etc,.

As AAA members, there was no fee to purchase either the checks or the euros- we just had to pay the currency exchange rate when they placed the order and order a minimum amount (I think $100 usd).

We did a combination of travelers checks (purchased for no fee in advance at our local AAA office) as well as pre-purchasing some euros to have upon landing when we did 5 days in Ireland and 12 night Med cruise last year.

We then cashed the travelers checks at guest services onboard (check RCCL website for max per day/ per cruise) and obtained euros to pay for tours, and could still supplement that if needed with local ATMs, but I think we even came home with some checks that we just deposited back into our bank account.

Interesting... 'quiet' is how they describe themselves on the website. They were playing music at the remote bar-hut when were were there 2 weeks ago. However, it was quite enough that it couldn't be heard more than ~20-30 feet away, and wasn't even 'load' when walking directly past the bar. At the time, it was 90s rock and pop, which I found quite enjoyable.

 

I don't recall any music at the main pool/bar/restaurant area.

 

One of the things we loved was the quiet of the place, and we booked in September based on that. We'll be sorely disappointed if it has become loud.

W were there on April 14 and had a similar experience, seated on the beach near the bar area and could hear only a light 90s type radio music which I actually enjoyed after being away from my radio for the length of my cruise. There were many other chair options that I'm sure we could have asked to move to which would not likely be in range for the sound, but we chose to stay and enjoy it.

Had a great day with wonderful service, so we will return.

We just had a great Quest with Mike Hunnerup on Vision last week- they were over 30 teams participating.

And I totally agree with the previous posters- there are places I will take my DD onboard, such as to a specialty restaurant, but she has yet to experience Quest, so she can either hang in the teen club or our cabin.

We were also on the 4/9 Vision of the Seas sailing and took the Fun in the Sun excursion with Victor's folks. Had a Great time- Annie was our tour guide and she was very knowledgable as we went around the island, answering many questions from our group. Benjamin drove us carefully throughout the day, and we had a great group of guests together on this tour.

We thought this was the perfect blend of seeing the local island, having a little fun with the monkeys and other birds at the farm and then kicking back for a few hours at the most gorgeous beach resort.

I didn't venture into the water, but my aunt did, and she stayed in it for almost the entire 2 hours. I grabbed a quick snack at the little restaurant in the shade and kept an eye on her in the water. She said the water was the perfect temperature and very clear.

All in all- this was our favorite port stop on the whole cruise- thank you Annie and Ben for a wonderful day!

Wendy and Alice

Am I understanding Global Entry requirements correct that it is not available for minors?

I'd love to do it, but since we have a minor, it wouldn't make sense to sign up the adults as we wouldn't leave DD to fend for herself in the regular line.

But if I misread the instructions and it is available for minors.....it would be great...

It's a lot of work to check out all the separate boards for each location, but you find the best recommendations for guides and sites to visit that way.

In the Nice area, we used Sylvie di Cristo and had a wonderful day touring the area including a local shopping market where we picked up a picnic lunch and then ate at a winery overlooking the vineyards before going in for a tasting. I also had my 11 yr old with me so we simply wondered the vineyards while the rest of our party enjoyed the tasting.

For our 3 Italian ports, we choose to use Rome in Limo, and had great drivers/guides for each stop as well. We also added a guide in Pompeii which really made a difference in our experience and understanding of what life must have been life back in the day.

Good luck with your planning and have a great cruise.

Or you can skip the formal evenings in the MDR, and book in specialty restaurants on the formal evenings where the dress recommendation is semi formal- that what's we decided to do for our 12 night med cruise last may when we also spent 5 days in Ireland pre cruise.

they might also combine the age groups in the evening party zones, too, so keep that in mind, as you might want to try the evenings.

In Nassau in 2009, there was a building right in the port area where you could get your passport stamped because we took our DD there when our Disney cruise had a port stop on her 6th birthday and got her passport stamped, but I'm sorry I don't remember exactly which building it was.

Hopefully someone else will post with the details, if they are still doing it.

We've solved this problem by requesting MTD and then requesting to be seated with others who arrive at the same time we do who also request to dine with others.

This has worked well for us (family of 3) on our last cruise as we were seated with several different groups each evening, so no issue with the empty seats of traditional dining when folks enjoyed the specialty restaurants for a night or 2, and we met some really great people- probably more than if we had traditional with just a single table assignment!

I will typically carry my seapass card in either my sunglass case or in a pocket in my swimsuit cover-up when I'm on deck and around the ship during the day.

Kids under 12 will be given a wristband that indicates their muster station in case of an emergency. This is so that crew members in the youth programs can take the kids directly to the muster station if needed, thus saving precious time in a true emergency. The wristband only has the muster station info on it, not your child's name or cabin number (another safety feature).

 

Kids 12 and over can check themselves out of Adventure Ocean themselves, so they don't get the wristband.

 

Just to clarify- in Adventure Ocean, kids can have sign in/ sign out permission granted by their parents at something like age 9, and they would still get the wristband indicating their assigned muster station. At least that was our experience with our DD.

It's when the kids turn 12 and transition out of Adventure Ocean and into the Teen Club that they no longer are required to have the wristbands.

We photocopy the passport id pages and send them to our email account before we travel, knowing that in an emergency situation when we got to a place where they would be useful, we would likely have internet access to retrieve them, and so would focus on grabbing our go-bag of medications, cash/credit cards, cell phone and camera equipment.

Not sure when your cruise is, but we when during Christmas week, and it was mobbed- crazy long lines for all the IMAX shows, and all the exhibits were packed.

Except for that, we really enjoyed the excursion itself and would have stayed longer (DH & I), but DD (11) was antsy after like 6 hours, so we grabbed a cab and headed back to the ship.

We used to love traditional early, but have more recently selected MTD with reservations around 6, 6:30 or 7, and asked to be seated with others, so that ends up giving us the best of both worlds- flexibility to join tables and make new friends if we want, or change on a particular night when we're dining in other venues or the ability to cancel our reservation and just hit WJ if we decide that fits our plans better.

DH & i bring some cash for smaller on shore purchases, any casino play we'd expect to do and for tips during the trip, but then we also bring 3 credit cards- 1 that is our primary card that we both carry and then we each carry a different card as back-up, all properly notified for travel plans.

That way, if heaven forbid, something happens and one of us loses a wallet or gets mugged, or if someone in the family gets sick/evacuated and we have a much higher than expected onboard account that maxes out the first card, we still have the means to settle the onboard account and then submit to the insurance company for the claim reimbursement.

We were on Quantum for the Christmas cruise last year and wanted to decorate too, so we brought some of the holiday window stickers to put up on our balcony window to get into the holiday spirit.

Not that same effect os blinking lights, but still enough to make us remember that it was Christmas time, and DD had a blast the first afternoon putting them up.

When we sailed on Quantum for Christmas week last year, my 11 year old received her own Wow band in addition to her required adventure ocean bracelet with her muster station info.

We didn't use them because they didn't seem to work well for us, but there were many other kids onboard we saw who did.