FLSteve11

I am booked on the Getaway next year and the Epic in 2019.

I've done the Epic and Breakaway (sister ship to Getaway) as well as the Escape (basically expanded Getaway). I think NCL has the best water slides out there, then Carnival. Sometime will try an RCL ship with the newer slides to see what they're like.

And conversely, I wonder why the other cruise lines don't require that you carry your life vest to become familiar with it. There is no substitute for "hands on" training. None. I have flown well over a million miles in my life and have heard "your life vest is located underneath your seat" a thousand times. But in a panic situation, how many people on board the plane would actually be able to remove and don the life vest without ever seeing or touching it before? If carrying a life vest for a drill is the biggest inconvenience in one's life, then that person is leading a very charmed life.

Well, the main reason is it's been determined it's not needed, and not required anymore of course. The lines found they were having far too many people getting injured tripping and falling on the loose straps people left dangling behind.

An airline and a cruise ship are different. In an airline you may only have seconds after a plane has hit the water to get your life vest and get it on and out of the plane. (Of course, I've also never had a drill on an airline to put on a life vest, so not even sure that matters here. They don't even do it either). Large cruise ships don't sink that fast, even the Titanic took a couple of hours to go down. It's still not difficult anyway. If you get your hands on the life vest, it only takes a few seconds to put it on. Even if you don't know how (meaning you paid no attention to what they were doing in the demonstration), it's pretty obvious. Put it over your head, wrap the strap around your waist, tighten it. Done. If you're that panic'd that you cannot handle that, then seeing it ahead of time isn't going to change that.

Most notable item of tangential interest to Princess fans: the first two of the largest ever builds for Carnival Corp (183,000 tons, 5.000+ passengers) are being allocated to Costa and P&O Australia--in the latter's case that lines very first non-hand me down ship. Initial plans reportedly were that one of those ships would go to Carnival Cruise Line and be based in either Miami or Ft Lauderdale but capacity issues could not be resolved at those ports (even though PortMiami has no issue with larger and larger RCI ships :confused:). In the case of Port Everglades preliminary surveying was done to have the ship fit into Berth 2 which the new ship would share with Princess, presumably getting first priority and bumping Royal, Regal and their future twins to a different berth. But it is all moot now. (Nicely tied back to Princess, yes :rolleyes:)

It's even more interesting in Miami as they're building 2 brand new terminals in Miami (One for RCL, and one for NCL) to handle two more mega-class ships in the port (the RCL one to handle an Oasis class ship), which will be in addition to the terminals they already have (building them in what was unused land).

TBH, I am not sure. My 4 year old was excited to go. We left her for about an hour and when we picked her up, the Camp Counselors said she had been asking for us for 30 minutes. She was fine, just not engaged in the activity they were playing (a version of duck-duck-goose) which looked really fun to me! When we asked her why she didn't like it, she said "it just wasn't fun." We asked a few times during the cruise if she would like to go back and give it another shot and she declined. Which is odd, because she is usually the one that will try something "just one more time."

 

My 9 year old only went because it was nap/rest time and he didn't want to rest. He didn't get to partake in the scavenger hunts because we didn't allow him to check himself out. He liked it more than his sister but could take it or leave it. I think he was hoping for more sports activities instead of crafts. He only went 2 or 3 times the entire 8 days.

My DD has been on a bunch of cruises, and she is hit or miss in regards to the kids clubs. Sometimes she loves them, sometimes she wants nothing to do with them. Most of the time I think it's the other kids in there rather then the actual program. If she goes in and meets some kids she really clicks with, then she enjoys it. If she doesn't, then she is not interested. I think that's more particular with girls as well, rather then boys.

I'm not going to push this. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Speaking of which, I prefer Splash Away Bay to the H2O Zone. :D

True, it's really all semantics anyway. And I don't blame you, not a lot in H2O Zone if you're a teen or older. There's only a few slides on there so far, looking forward to trying the newer ones soon. They were fun on the Breeze (the ones on the older ships just don't cut it after you do those or the NCL mega ships) :)

AMEN... I would never, in a million years, consider sailing Princess with kids. What do they say about 'idle time'.

Not every kid needs constant things to do, and not every kids needs to be center of the world. Our DD (now 13) has sailed on many cruises. She likes going to dinner, the shows, the movies, reading on a lounge chair, and general activities (kids club, dance classes, chef presentations, game shows, etc). In other words, everything most adults like to do outside of drinking alcohol and the casino.

Problem is there will be a few who need to be the center of attention and can't sit still. Those parents should be prepared for that. Not all of them are though

Hello all.

 

I'm on the Celebrity Equinox with my sister on her first cruise, and my first Celebrity cruise. I'm planning to blog it starting tomorrow and will figure out where to put it on CruiseCritic, probably in the Celebrity forum, starting tomorrow. (They still offer unlimited internet.) In the meantime I'll post here describing what I see as the differences.

 

If you have any questions on what they do different, please feel free to ask. I'm on until next Sunday and will be checking this regularly.

 

Embarkation was similar, with two big differences. The good - they give you a glass of champagne or mimosa when you board. The not so good - the rooms aren't ready and you have to schlep your carry on bags with you.

 

Muster drill was very different. First, your muster station, is more divided. We are in the front and our station was the theater - but we were in a specific section of the theatre - top level, starboard side. No life jackets required.

 

Coming in they checked your room number on a list with a pencil. Once it started, the station leader only demonstrated how to put on the life jacket. Then they showed a video that showed a secret agent trying to get something from a spy on the ship, pointing out the rules. It was sort of Monty Python ish. Then, the station leader read out the cabin numbers that weren't checked in, and that took about 10 minutes. They then announced the important stuff for a third time and we were free to go. They didn't tell you how to enter the water.

 

Also, your dining assignment is in a card in the room. We had late traditional and we had to go around all the people who didn't have their cards, so had to be looked up.

 

And they have sommeliers in the dining room - so table has a waiter, assistant waiter and a sommelier.

 

Drinks are way more expensive, and a greater variety I think.

 

That's it for now. More tomorrow.

Is Princess the only mainstream line that still makes people take their life vests to the muster drill? I don't have to on any of the other lines I've sailed in the last few years (which is pretty much all the main ones in the US outside of HAL) I wonder why they continue to make people do that? I know someone is going to say safety, but it's not rocket science to put on a life vest and walk to your muster station (sadly, not that half the people will do it even with specific directions in a disaster anyway).

Do they not put your dining table on your room key anymore? That's definitely different.

Thanks for the info.

Wish they'd build a couple of "small" ships, like the Pacific.:')

Not sure we're going to see new small ships in the non-luxury category anymore, just not cost effective.

I'm 22, and wrote a review on the Allure. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2440483

 

Personally, we realized we much prefer Carnival in almost every aspect (buffet is 100x better on RCI). To each their own.

Exactly. Different people are looking for different things in a cruise. I generally prefer RCCL, but I like Carnival as well. I would say they're more the same then different (not surprising as they share the same space in the cruising world, being family mass market lines). Each ship does some things better then the others. I think Carnival is a bit livelier (sometimes a bit too lively for my DW), generally has more interactive activities (a bit more trivia, for example), and does a better job of getting the crowd involved at parties. Royal has better ships on the large side, and better production shows on those. I find food subjective, and honestly I've had both good and bad meals on both ships. I think the chef on a ship has a lot more to do with how good the food is then what's on the menu.

Good that you are Platinum and board early so you'll be ahead of the crowds lining up. I saw that lines can form from both sides, and invariably someone complains of cutting in when the 2nd line forms.

 

By 2PM there can be 30 -50 people on each line.

I find the lines get long as well. But they generally move fairly quickly there. If it's really long it's better to just wait for another day and try something else. There are enough choices in the lido area at lunch to wait for a burger on day 1, when it will be easier on another day.

I'm going to have to disagree. Guys, Blue Iguana, and Pizza Pirate are separate specialty "restaurants" and not just a simple extension of the buffet. Would you consider Johnny Rockets an extension of the Windjammer?

I find they're just extensions of the buffet as well, much like the Mongolian Wok. They're separate stations of the lido deck area to me. They're not "restaurants". They basically took their poolside grill buffet and put 2 new names on it and called them something separate. Johnny Rockets is a sit-down place where someone comes and waits on you, serves you food and delivers it to your table. I like Guys, and Blue Iguana, there's nothing wrong with them. I liked my burger and burrito, and they do a good job with them (certainly the burgers are better then most ships poolside lido buffet grills). But they're not restaurants. Is every station in a buffet area a "restaurant" if they put a name above it? Putting "Italian" or "pizza station" or "pasta station" make it a new restaurant in the buffet area? That's what they do in a number of Lido buffet areas, I don't consider them specialty restaurants either (but maybe I'm wrong on that and there are dozens of free choices on most cruise ships).

Funny thing is, with those Carnival has a rather good lido area. You have a good amount of choices of food, with some good tasting ones, and isn't that what matters anyway, rather then if they're separate things or not. It's all marketing otherwise.

I agree that it is no ones business relating to health of the individual but to post about a ship's deviation isn't the end of the world. It has happened to us twice out of PE and the one time I was in bed and didn't know we were in back in port until someone asked on my live review. That was the first time that I had two sailaways in one day. Obviously we wished the best for their health but there isn't much more than that you can do.

There is nothing wrong with questioning the reason for a deviation in a ships travels. I would want to know if it was for a mechanical issue certainly. Usually it's for a medical reason, but the OP just had heard it was from some other source. Whether that source is accurate or not is a different story, and I'd want confirmation. Now asking whether the reason was for a medical emergency, and details of the medical issue are different things. No reason to know the details.

Whenever you feel comfortable doing so.

 

For my parents, they allowed me out on my own when I was 11 or 12 which is also when I started cruising. Each child is different, there's no one size fits all answer.

11 is pretty much when we let our DD go off on her own as well (she's 13 now) She's done plenty of cruises so knows her way around and what's appropriate. But it is definitely up to the parents and their comfort level as you say.

My extended family will be cruising on the Magic over spring break. This will be the first cruise for several in our group including my nephew (15)' date=' niece (12) and grandson (6). It has been awhile since my daughter was in that age range and I honestly can't remember what we set for her spending limit. I was thinking about getting $100 gift cards for the older two as either Christmas or birthday gifts prior to the cruise to pad their onboard account. Does this seem realistic? I know they could purchase bottomless bubbles and something(s) from the gift shop....[/quote']

 

My DD will spend probably about $50-$100 on a cruise. She doesn't play in the arcade, but will hit up cherry-on-top for a few bucks. Most of it is on virgin drinks and souvenirs. If she wants anything else or substantial she'll come and ask us.

On FB, someone from ship posted that it was a grandma and that the young child got away from her faster than she could move.

It's interesting, in the news article in the link the Op put, I would assume the balcony is shown in the photo during the anchor talking. Can't tell if the chair is near the balcony, but even still that would be a pretty nimble kid to get over the balcony that quickly. Just hope the kid ends up fine.

In looking at the first article, I found it interesting that there was a picture taken of the Helicopter. Every time I have been on a ship where a helicopter was going to lift someone off the ship at night, there were massive announcements made that passengers should not take pictures of the helicopter using a flash. It was dangerous for the pilot's vision when flying at night. But there's the picture that looks like it was taken from a cabin balcony.

You can take pictures without using the flash. (Of course, most people leave it on auto and don't think to turn the flash off).

Seward?

They didn't say they sailed Princess. Some of the lines (like RCL) sail out of Seward instead of Whittier

I think it is so cool that you can easily pop over the big pond! :) Someday, we are looking forward to doing the TA cruises, visiting a lot more of Europe, doing the European cruises, down under, TP cruises etc. Right now we have a fur baby that is keeping our traveling and cruises as more local, but she does join us (as now) when we travel in the motor home. Once our sweet girl passes into kitty cat heaven...we will be doing a lot longer cruises.

I'm with you. We have a DD who is 13, and finally able to do some longer cruises with her to more exotic places, where she won't mind doing an all-day siteseeing type tour. We do go without her sometimes, but when with her in the past it was usually Caribbean (of course, living near Ft Lauderdale, that was a lot easier as well). We're still a few years from retirement, but 5 years when she goes into college, we'll be looking at doing more cruises off-season (ie non-summer/spring break) to better places.

We do pop up to DW though. Haven't been there as much lately, but her school does "field trips" there, and will probably get the seasonal pass for 2018 to go again.

I forget which is which, so didn't bother since I knew someone would remember.

 

I never realized some cruise lines have different color sea passes depending on whether you have cruised or not on that line. I just sailed NCL for the first time and my card was orange. Everyone I sailed with had sailed NCL before and had blue cards.

Quite a few cruise lines have the color of their card tied to their loyalty level, outside of Royal Caribbean's company.

If you have a boot and can at least put some weight on it, it won't be that bad. I broke my fibula and ankle about a month before sailing on the Splendor last year. Since it wasn't weight bearing bones, I had the big boot and could hobble around on it. It was slow going, and stairs were out, but I could at least manage (and take it off for showers/sleeping).

I found most people are good about giving you time to get onto elevators, and just timed things so I wasn't standing on big lines. My wife and daughter would help with drinks and food in the buffet. You can try calling Carnival, they might be able to get you a better room (depending on what you have), our ship was booked solid already by that point, but worth a call.

Beyond what has already been mentioned on here, ask about the special muster drill station. They had the people with disabilities in the library and had someone do it for us in there. No standing or fighting for room, and they let you out a little early to catch the elevators before the mobs of people are released.

Otherwise just try to get to things early. You'll miss the crowds trying to get in, and get yourself a seat. Take your time going places.

You haven't had a mustard station drill near the Sea Dogs on the Magic or Breeze apparently. So convenient :)

 

I did do a muster station drill up on the lido deck on the Fantasy though. That's as close to a mustard safety drill as I've gotten at that time. :)

Bucky wears his tux for every formal night also, he loves it since he never got a chance to dress up much in his career. But this last time on MJ, I just packed one suitcase for the two of us and just took one of his sports coats to wear at formal and at Chef's Table.

 

Are you taking your tux on MJ?

I find I still bring my tux if it's a trip out of Florida (where I can drive). If I fly, I don't bother anymore (I didn't bring it to Alaska this summer on Princess, for example). It just takes up too much space, especially with the extra pair of shoes. I won't bother on NCL as it's not needed (or Celebrity anymore as well).

He actually likes the hot chocolate. Only my wife uses the cappucino machine.

 

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Mine uses the hot chocolate too, I'm the cappuccino user :)

Same here. Our 11 year old son is d with his own cruise points. He will be d+ after our cruise in oct, but will be 20 points shy by his own cruise history. Told him he is lucky to have 175 cruise points at the ripe old age of 11!

 

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Yes, they don't really understand that yet. :) I think she still thinks it's normal to go on cruises and go to Disney regularly. :)

I can attest that this is a dangerous thing to do. I got landed on by a kid who jumped from a high diving board at my grandma's cottage back in the mid sixties. They had a set of diving boards at the community dock with a high diving board about as high as where this kid jumped from. We had a blast jumping off that board! :D One time a kid next in line didn't wait until I cleared the jump zone and, you guessed it, landed right on top of me. He didn't break my neck but he knocked me silly enough so that my brothers had to drag me out of the water before I drowned.

 

For anyone who thinks this type of activity is not dangerous have a friend drop an 80 lb. Labrador Retriever off your garage roof onto your head. You can skip the pool part if you don't have one. If you are an animal lover, substitute an 80 lb. bag of cement mix for the Lab. Just have a bag of ice ready for your noggin.:eek:

Of course it's dangerous. There should absolutely be some kind of punishment for the kid. You HOPE the parents will come down on the kid, but that really depends on the parents. It will be interesting to know if Princess actually does anything, but I suspect even if they did we won't hear about it.