avgsuperheroine

11 hours ago, Cotswold Eagle said:

I suspect the OP was using 'Normandy' as shorthand for "the World War II sites in Normandy". Even that I find quite sad, not to spend just a few hours in a lifetime paying respects and learning something of those momentous days in summer 1944 which shaped all our lives. You don't need to be a military history buff to get something out of that.

 

Incidentally, to be pedantic, Normandy is one of the administrative regions of France, made up of several departments. 

I don't think it's quite fair to make assumptions about my lack of willingness (or anyone's) to honor those who've served. I grew up in a career military family and I've spent many, many vacations focused on history. We're all here to learn and personal judgements aren't helpful. 

My husband and I are going to the British Isles and it's our first time overseas. We are trying to make decisions about how to spend our time and money while on this trip. 

So the cruise leaves from Southampton. We could do one day pre or post but it's a bit of a stretch for us (time off-wise) but we're already there. There are things in London I'd like to see. Is one day worth doing? If so pre or post? Post is a weekend day, but I think for energy's sake, pre makes more sense (but is another day off work). 
We go to Le Havre, the only port that is outside of Ireland and Scotland. I thought Paris would be fun even if it's one day, but it's so far away and we don't really have the same ideas of what we would want to see. So a closer city? Normandy doesn't interest us. Versailles is interesting but just as far away. 

Try to do both? Do neither and take it easy, plan to come again sometime? Will we regret not taking a day to see one or both? 

Thank you!

I wrote to NCL and they said the only two airports we might land in, using the free at sea airfare, are London or Gatwick. 

We will be on a 7 night cruise to several southern islands, and love to snorkel. I could gladly snorkel at every port stop and this itinerary is excellent for snorkeling.

However, I've noticed the "land and sea" excursion seems to be very popular. It gets excellent reviews in facebook groups and on tour sites, and I'm wondering if this is our first and possibly last time in St. Lucia, which would you recommend I pick?

So far I plan to snorkel in Grenada, Curacao, Aruba, and have one land excursion selected in St. Kitts.

We are on NCL and didn't receive anything from them, no changes to date.

I assume this is like everything else, no matter what they do half the patrons will be upset. If they send an email saying "we don't know anything" half the people will be mad that they sent a superfluous email. If they send nothing the other half will be mad that they didn't communicate enough. Personally, I'll only be upset if there's something important we need to know and aren't told. Otherwise, I'm not concerned.

21 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

You can buy them through My NCL at 60 prior to sailing or at the casino desk once on board. The price is too rich for my blood now, unfortunately.

Wow thank you. I was thinking it's something my boys would really like but it sounds really expensive and like it doesn't cover very many games. That's disappointing.

Where do you purchase these packages?

We realized the same thing from the boards. We have only taken our kids on DCL before and the mid-range ages there are sometimes flexible. We've let the boys know they'll be in different clubs. I like the idea of them meeting friends and then hanging out elsewhere.

DH and I are planning a Cuba cruise in June. I've been doing some initial research and I'm curious what things have you tried in the evening/night that were fun? I've got some ideas for the daytime but if we're going to be there late it seems like a waste to not spend time out at night. The only thing that stands out in the shore excursions list is the Tropicana and I don't think that's for us.

Looking for advice for an Alaska trip with my three boys who are all around middle school age (11-13). DH and I have cruised royal and we all love disney cruises. This would be my first trip without DH, he doesn't get as much vacation time as I do and doesn't have much interest in Alaska so we thought this would be fun for me and the boys.

First, I'm narrowing in on Princess, sounds like they have great kids programs. I'd probably prefer to do a round trip, is there a reason to choose either Seattle or Vancouver?

Also advice on excursions they may enjoy would be great. Other general advice for planning the overall trip would be great--flight recommendations, hotels by the port or other advice. I've never done Alaska, only the Bahamas and Caribbean.

DH and I are going on RCL in October for a short getaway without the kids.

We love to snorkel, but we also like parks, rollercoasters etc. So we thought Atlantis might be fun for just the two of us.

The ship is docked the full day, and the trip is in October. There are four ships docked that day, but do you think the crowds are manageable since it will be the "off season"? What else is there to do? Are the number of fun rides/slides reasonable for the high price?

About a year ago a coworker suggested the "dressing your truth" book and I absolutely love it. I've been using those concepts the last year and I've never felt so comfortable in my wardrobe.

From what I've read there's a trolley that will get you most places. I haven't been yet but am researching. The embassey suites charges $17 per day for parking so that would be an additional cost if you do decide to rent a car.

We will be in San Juan before and after our cruise. When we fly in and when we debark, our hotel check in isn't for 8+ hours following, at 4pm.

Our boys will be 8, 10, 11. We're flying from the midwest so it will be a really long trip.

I'm tempted to schedule things, like the food tour which sounds great, but I'm worried that it may not be wise to plan expensive things to do when I don't know how the long trip will affect the boys.

San Juan is a bucket list destination for me, so I do want to see some of the city. What would be your recommended activities? Both times we're in town from early morning until late morning the following day.

In order to get better flight prices we added a night pre-cruise and a night post-cruise. We'll be there on a Saturday in the evening (full moon) and the following Sunday (marked "best" for viewing).

I would love to see this. It's a bucket list item for me and I don't know when I would get back. I can find tours on Saturday, risking poor visibility, but I'm having a really hard time finding anything on Sunday, most places are closed.

Do you know a tour that runs on Sunday?

Would going on a full moon be probably ok?

As a side note I am going with my DH and three boys, 11, 10, and 8. I was thinking a small boat would be better than kayaking.

I guess what I meant by it being "similar" is not that the flights are $200 (I know they'll be more), but that they're available at a consistent price that is "reasonable" for the location and "likely to find". So by saying a friend used to use 280 as a threshold and now uses 450 as a threshold is an example of having a "trigger price" that you know is good.

I wouldn't want to pay $600 now and find out later that frequent travelers to PR would say "we often can find tickets there for around $400 if we wait till 4-5 months out".

It's good to know sun country does nonstop on Saturdays, we may be able to make that work. With three young kids layovers are really a pain.

We should probably just buy soon--I remember going to Miami once and the tickets jumped $200 ea when we were ready to buy and they never did go back down again. Thanks for all your help!

I guess when I say "good price" I'm assuming that its similar to going to Orlando, and maybe it isn't. We go in the winter and to MCO I can almost always find flights for $200. So if it gets at or near $200 I just purchase.

That is, I guess, what I'm trying to determine. If flights now for what I want are around $550 but someone who goes there often could say something like "we fly MSP to SJU in Jan/Feb and we can usually get flights around $400" then I might wait. If they said "we usually have to pay around $800" I may just buy them now.

A lady in our community said they love going to San Juan, and used to be able to get tickets for around $270-300 pretty regularly but now she rarely finds them under $450.

We are flying from MSP to SJU in March and prices are high. For nonstop flights I am seeing anywhere from $660-1,000pp. To do flights with a connection it is about $580. Sun Country has come in the cheapest nonstop with Delta being the highest.

So Sun Country does nonstop out of MSP? You're going after we are though and I get "no results found" if I try to find nonstop. Maybe it's the time of year.

We fly to DC, Boston and Orlando relatively frequently, but this coming January we're doing a cruise out of San Juan. Usually I pick a price I know is pretty good, and when it's available I jump on it.

I don't know what constitutes a good price for OMA or MSP to SJU. There are 5 of us so a price difference could mean a good deal of money.

Do any of you fly from the midwest to PR, and what price would you consider to be pretty good?

With a cruise this far off, is it better to buy now or wait a little closer?

Definitely a timing thing. We've done five of us for $1800 (IGT 3 night), and are planning a seven night southern for $5200 next jan. We love Disney but as the boys get older we will likely try other lines again.

My main annoyance is youth who are loud talkers and aren't encouraged to speak more softly. We ran into three last week on our trip and they drove me nuts. The younger kids I can usually forgive a little more quickly, but the teens who talk incessantly and loudly tend to annoy me more.

There was one teen on our last Disney trip that was sarcastic through the whole fireworks show "ooooh it's so magical, isn't it special...oooh". I felt badly that he was kind of ruining it for the few small children near us.

We've sailed on Disney and Royal Caribbean before. I really want to do a seven night cruise out of San Juan to the southern Caribbean next winter but don't know what line/ship is the best for us.

Are there certain ports that I should put on my "must-see" list?

Should we pay the extra (about double) for Disney since the kids are with us, or does it not matter as much since both do a good job and the trip is really port-heavy?

How are the Adventure and the Jewel at kids activities? Those seem to be the two ships on RC that go out of San Juan. We'd be going during the school year.

I like spreadsheets so every once in a while I'll look up prices for a set week going out of four different airports to the places we may someday take a cruise from. This gives me an idea of what a normal price is.

We usually do MSP to MCO. I've OFTEN found $200 direct flights and NEVER under $200. If I see it at $200 I grab it immediately. I've been fortunate the last two times to have gotten that price.

We've only done inside rooms, but we've also only had short trips so far. My DH and I love a dark room, and the inside works great when you're only on a 3 or 4 night cruise. For a 7 day, especially if there were a few sea days, a verandah would be nice to get away from all the people.

Thank you so much for the posts!

The more I read up about the resorts the more I think I'd like to try them. When five of us go the savings to not use the bus is really evident, but with just two of us I think the timing might be right to give this a shot.

I've read up on resort-hopping, I think DH and I would enjoy it, we've been to the magic kingdom for 5 hours but other than cruising that's all the disney touring we've done!