NewSalt

On 3/14/2023 at 7:16 PM, Ashland said:

We usually have our taxi drop us off at the Walmart before heading back onboard.

We also have a weakness for Walmart and Costco where ever we travel.

May I ask why.  What type of merchandise entices you?

I’m a sucker for foreign grocery stores, and my motto at home is “If Costco doesn’t have it, you don’t need it,” so I’m curious to what I’d be missing if I don’t explore them. 

My problem is not with the food/restaurants on tours, but with finding restaurants that we can trust to prepare safe food safely. We live in the crowded NY/NJ metropolitan area. With the hundreds of restaurants in the area, we know of only two moderate chain restaurants and one upscale one that are fully aware of all the precautions that are required to deal with allergies. There was one we used to frequent because the chef told us his daughter had allergies so they were very careful with allergies. Until DGS’s spaghetti came out sprinkled with cheese, one of his allergens. Fortunately, it was obvious so his mother caught it. He had his first allergic reaction, complete with ambulance and hospital visit, at Disney World  because the server gave him a gluten-free roll instead of an egg-free one. (After telling us it was egg-free.)
 

Travel with allergies is very challenging. My daughter is reluctant to do this trip because finding restaurants where he can eat is difficult, and coupled with the possibility of being a great distance from adequate medical care she’s very fearful. I’m sure it could be done, but I’m not sure how to go about getting the necessary information b

I’m thinking of the land tour of 6-7 days before the cruise. Our package (the trip without grandsons) included dinners on land, so I didn’t have much exposure to the type, number, and variety of restaurants/food options that were available in Denali, Talkeetna, etc. 

I need something to keep my spirits up, so I’m thinking about future cruises. 

My DH and I did an Alaska tyour/cruise a few years ago, and all during it, I kep thinking “I wish my grandsons could see this.  They’d love it.”  I’d like to start thinking about an Alaska trip in 2022, if the stars align. The problem is my DGS has several severe food allergies. Cruises are perfect vacations because the cruise lines do a wonderful at handling food allergies, but we never eat off the ship because the idea of dealing with an allergic reaction in a non-U.S. port is just not worth the stress. 
 

Does anyone have experience with allergies on Alaska land tours? Are the land accommodations the cruise lines use used to handling potentially lethal allergic reactions?  Are the food choices severely limited. 
 

I’d appreciate hearing of anyone’s experiences. Someday we’ll be able to return to traveling. 

I just need to read a post about cruising, not one that deals with cruising in the Era of Covid. 
 

Can anyone explain the differences in the cabanas in Labadee?  There are the over-water and water-front cabanas at Nellie’s beach and beach cabanas and beach bungalows. What are the pros and cons of each location?  We swam at one beach and found it too rocky to walk comfortably.  Was that Nellie’s?

Thank you. That was very helpful. 

We’ve just learned that our day in Bermuda will be the second day of the Somers Day holiday. In the past my DGSs  have enjoyed going to Horseshoe Bay or the aquarium , but I understand that the buses and ferry would be on a holiday schedule and that few taxis will be available. 
 

Does anyone know what the options will be during the holiday?  The ship’s excursion to Horseshoe Bay, expensive as it is, isn’t even available.

Thanks for the recommendations. 

We’ve used the Ellen Drive Park N Go several times in the past, and the rate has always been around $9/day, as PPs have said. When I just tried to book it for our cruise on Sunday, it came up as $13.50. Did the rates increase?  For that price, would it just be easier to park at the pier?

We did a land cruise to Alaska a couple of years ago, and I’ve been dying to go back with our grandsons ever since. I think I have my DD convinced to consider it in 2021, when they’ll be 8 and 11.  

I think the seven-day cruise only would be better; I recall long stretches of land travel that they would find boring.

Any suggestions as to which ship would have the most activities that they would enjoy?  I loved our Princess trip because of all the informative lectures, but I think that two very active boys would find them too reminiscent of school. They’ve been on five or six Caribbean cruises, and love them, but I can’t imagine that on an Alaska cruise they would get much pool time, their favorite ship activity. I know there will be excursions they’d find interesting, but I’d like to choose a ship that would also have other things they’d enjoy

Any suggestions? 

We did a land/cruise package a couple of years ago, and the highlight of the whole trip for me was the whale-watching excursion. It was amazing, and the crew was so excited about the pods we saw that we all got carried away by their enthusiasm. 
 

We just booked a cruise which departs the end of January. Our passports expire in April. We’re visiting St. Martin, which does require that a passport be valid for six months past the date of entry.  Obviously, we’ll have to renew before we leave. Has anyone renews a passport recently.  Is two months enough time or should I spring for expedited processing?  

When we travel with our DD and her family including her DS who has several food allergies, she notifies the Special Needs Department AND obtains the name and email of the person in charge of dining on the ship and contacts him directly. IIRC, she also emails the head of guest relations on the ship. We’ve had very positive experiences on all our cruises.  In fact, it’s probably the main reason we choose cruising for most of our vacations. 

For CPACs and sharps containers, I’d contact the head of housekeeping as well as Special Needs. 

I do a Costco run before our cruise and take pictures of the prices of liquor we might be interested in buying and also put the latest circular from our local liquor store with my cruise documents so I can compare once I’m on board. In general, I found that the only worthwhile deals are on two-or three-bottle packages, especially for liqueurs, which we use for specialty coffees.

6 minutes ago, nelblu said:

 

 

On Symphony before entering the WJ, you must wash your hands with soap & water.  The Purel is a  waste of time.

 

With regards to firing people without notice, don't jump to unverified conclusions. 

There’s a washing station with multiple sinks on Anthem just inside the entrance to the WJ.  A crew member directs everyone to the sinks. Almost every time we’ve been in there I’ve seen people walk through without washing their hands. It takes a great deal of self-control to prevent the mommy in me from scolding them. 

On 3/3/2019 at 3:29 AM, ditmar2007 said:

I would find it reasonable IF YOU DON'T FINISH THE FIRST.

 

I hate to see good food wasted because someone feels entitled to try out a lot of food just to see if they like it.

And this is probably the only reason I would order a second entree—because I found the first unpalatable and wanted something different. 

When we cruise with DD and her family, we routinely check out 6-8 towels when we go to the beach. When we return, we toss the mass of wet towels into the bin. No one has ever counted them, so I can’t imagine the system works very well. 

Allergies are the main reasons we take family cruises. We took our first family cruise a few months after we found out our DGS at ten months had multiple food allergies (peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, eggs, fish, shellfish).  I think it was the first time our DD had taken an easy breath in all those months. We’ve taken five more cruises since then, two on Anthem.

The waiters and maitre d’s are exceedingly knowledgeable and, in our experience, very, very kind. One waiter felt it was cruel that DGS couldn’t eat the bread in the table that the rest of us were enjoying and so HE had the chef make some safe rolls.   I heard a woman in the WJ ask one of the wait staff if a dish contained an allergen and he said that it didn’t but because it was a buffet, there was always the possibility of cross-contamination so he would get her a serving from the kitchen. 

We’ve taken kitchen tours on Royal ships, and there is a special section where they prepare food for those with allergies. 

Eating in in the MDR is a wise decision. We stopped taking DGS to the WJ when he was around you little one’s age. It just seemed so mean to show him all this delicious-looking food he couldn’t eat. Yeah, that’s his life, but we don’t have to remind him of it every day on his vacation. 

If we stayed on the ship on port days, we asked the WJ captain for a simple meal for DGS that he ate at the pool or on our balcony. DD brings a full bag of safe snacks  for the times we’re off the ship; it’s easier and safer than trying to find things to eat in a strange place. 

I hope you have a great cruise. 

Many years ago my aunt and uncle were traveling in the South, and at breakfast one morning my aunt told the waitress she couldn’t decide what to have for breakfast because she liked A, but B came with grits, which she also liked. The waitress replied that she’d be glad to bring her a side of grits with A. She did, and my aunt sprinkled sugar on them. The waitress harrumphed and said, “If I knew you were going to do THAT, I never would have given them to you!”

I had had shrimp and grits at a restaurant here in NJ on Saturday. Now as good as the one at Hominy Grill in Charleston, but still delicious. 

Another silent Cheapo dad’s report fan. Thanks for the many hours of interesting, enjoyable, informative reading. 

I was was excited to see that you and your family visited the Mouse for your last vacation because we’ll be visiting Orlando next summer.  Please tell me that there’s a place where I can read an account of your visit. 

Fungers crossed!

8 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

These are higher than I usually see in January and February on the Anthem.

 

Are you stuck on the easy drive?

 

Grandeur has four 9 night cruises January - March, and three 12 night cruises in the same time frame.

 

 

At your suggestion, I checked the Baltimore cruises. All of the balcony cabins January-March cruises (I didn’t check 1/3 because that date wouldn’t work for us) are sold out. 

Im going to take a look at NCL to see what they have available. This cruise would put us within a couple of days of Diamond on RCI, but for less money on Norwegian we’d get the deluxe beverage package, some specialty dinners, free wifi, and credits for excursions.  With the price increase for the beverage package on Royal, this may be the tipping point for trying Norwegian. 

Thanks, everyone, for the input. I thought this might have been one of those times that the difference was apparent but I just wasn’t getting it. 

My DH may be facing surgery in the not-too-distant future. Because of that, I haven’t booked a cruise for winter of 2019. At this point, it looks like that may not be necessary, so I’ve been looking at cruises from Port Liberty. At this point, there are very few options for longer cruises. There’s a 12-day Anthem Cruise in early February, but there are only two options for balcony cabins. The first option, “We pick your room,” results in an “ Oceanview Cabin with Balcony Guarantee.”  The second option. “ You pick your room,” results in “Oceanview Balcony Guarantee,” at a higher price point. Neither option allows you to choose your cabin.

What is the difference between the two that I’m not seeing?

On Anthem, I wouldn’t book anything lower than Deck 8, and would prefer 9. On our cruise this summer, our “unobstructed” cabin had a huge white stanchion-type thing that supported the life boat below in front of our balcony. While it didn’t actually obstruct the view, the white paint reflected light so we had to close the drapes to darken the room, and it really detracted from that “sea-at-night” feeling. Gave it an industrial zone feeling. 

18 hours ago, twangster said:

 

Great historical information.  This explains the confusion regarding the issue.  While Enchantment did appear to restrict drink coupon access in January, it no longer does in September.

 

This is the current D+ concierge letter from September 17, 2018:

 

 

 

Since it is logical to assume that if drink coupons were not to be shared, they would state that, not assume that it would be inferred. 

AAMF, since they do not expressly forbid sharing, it might be that you MUST share going under the assumption that “ whatever is not forbidden is compulsory.”  😜

13 hours ago, crookedhalo said:

I take it a step further - I have it broken out of each direct deposit automatically. Money hits account, money moves to our vacation account which is an 'out of sight, out of mind' account 🤗

This is what we do too. No discipline required. IIRC, I can specify when I want to access it (like November/December for a holiday club), and I can’t do an on-line transfer to checking before then just in case I’d be tempted to use it for other things. 

What is is the benefit of making payments to RCI over time before final payment?