Travelgrrl

#Baelor, BND and others - I sometimes (pre Covid) travel on cruises as a guest lecturer or as someone who leads craft classes. The deal is that you get a cabin for free, can bring someone else, and pay a small fee to the booking agency who coordinates between you and the cruise line. You do have to pay for your own transportation, tips as usual, and you cannot play Bingo or gamble in the casino. (No problem, that's the one 'vice' I don't have! 😁) Also, it's an unwritten rule that you should behave onboard, no skinny dipping in the Solarium! 😆 The agency also handles religious leaders. They don't care if you're a priest or a pastor, so there is no guarantee you'll get a priest. They offer a non-denominational service with whatever religious leader they have on that cruise. And no guarantee that someone on the agency's list will opt for your particular cruise - but I'd say in the Good Old Days there was usually one on every sailing. Same process for Gentleman Hosts whose function is to dance with older, single ladies. No foolin' around! I think these might have gone by the wayside in recent years. Sometimes I have been gathered (with my guest) and the entertainers, religious leader, and Gentleman Hosts to do some kind of documentation mid-cruise. It's interesting, the kind of people that, like me, have figured out a way to get an (almost) free cruise! BND, you can PM me if your priest friend would like to contact my booking agency.

It's been quite a few years since I had a cruise stop in Santorini, but we were unsure whether to take the cable car up, or the donkeys. We neared the spot at the bottom of the zigzag hill where the donkeys begin, and before we could ask any questions, one of the men grabbed my (30 year old) nephew and just tossed him on a donkey and off he went. I had no other choice but to quickly pay for both of us (don't remember how much but it was reasonable) and get heaved on one myself. I'll preface by saying that MOST people seemed to be having a jolly time on the somewhat slow ride up the hill, and my nephew had no complaints other than having been manhandled at the beginning. My donkey seemed to have a suicidal (or seriously mischievous!) bent because he would veer waaaaay over towards the very edge of the path, then veer waaaaay over to the opposite edge once he made the turn. I was frightened to death and once we made the top of the hill, my legs were just jelly! At the end of the day, we just took the cablecar down lickety split. Having said that, I don't think you need an RCCL excursion and we had a wonderful time. Honestly one of the most beautiful places I've ever been! We ate at a restaurant that had an amazing view, walked the incredibly picturesque streets, shopped a little, and just had a mellow day. At the end of the day, we just took the cablecar down lickety split. It took very little time from the ship to the tender, and the donkey and funicular rides were also quick. (The latter was quicker than the donkeys.) And the animals seemed well taken care of. If there is a child in your group, the donkey ride might be the highlight of their entire cruise. I wouldn't stress a bit about the tender or funicular time, because as others have noted, your arrival and departure times will not compete with other ships. As a British gentleman on the tender insisted to us: "TAKE THE DONKEY!". My suicidal donkey scared me but it's an experience I'll never forget! Edited to add photos. The first one shows the zig zag path that the donkeys walk up. I would NOT walk down this because there is plenty of donkey doo on the path! The second photo is the typical view of Santorini, with the ocean view. The last photo shows an inner street and they are just gorgeous!

We took one Disney cruise when my kids were M12 and F10, and I definitely think it was worth it. Here are some things I liked (YMMV because this was awhile ago and Before Covid): When the ship departs Port Canaveral, the checkin staff at the port run outside and wave to you with big Mickey hands. Coupled with the ship's whistle that played "When You Wish Upon A Star", it was adorable. Then there was a big Welcome show on the pool deck where Mickey and the gang did a cute performance and the kids got to dance with the classic characters! If you've been to Disney parks, you know that you're not terribly close to Mickey and company in performance. Here you were really close! There were wooden deck chairs that had super comfy cushions on them. Very "Vintage Voyage". I know a lot of people on this thread said the kids club doesn't compare, but I seem to remember that there were more organized activities for kids than on RCCL. When my kids were the age for the kids clubs, oftentimes Royal would have an activity in the Compass but when we stopped by the club there was no one there - no kids OR counselors! These were possibly off season sailings so there was less interest, but our experience with RCCL is that the quality of the activities for kids varies widely from ship to ship and time of year. It has never mattered to us, because both my son and daughter always preferred hanging out with myself or family anyway... Which leads to my next bit, which is that we had some super fun family activities on Disney. One I remember was gingerbread house decorating, where each family was given a pre-assembled (real gingerbread) house and all the fixings to decorate it. Really elaborate candy for trimming, and a free activity. Also, you couldn't head anywhere on the ship without running into Belle or Alice, etc. It was neat to just stumble over characters as if they were also guests on the cruise, rather than the more regimented lining up to meet characters at the Disney Parks. On formal nights Mickey and Minnie were wearing a tuxedo and a gown! When we went to Disney's private island (pristine, lovely) I actually saw Goofy in an old fashioned kind of swimsuit leading kids in games. Yikes, that must have been hot! But cool to see a character in the wild, so to speak. I don't remember any more kids than on RCCL. There was an entire entertainment district that kids aren't allowed to enter at any time, so no Timmys or Sallys at the bar at 10 PM! Which actually meant less kids around in adult venues. The entertainment was terrific, the equal of the shows in the parks. And one was a areal tearjerker, if I recall. The food was also great, and their concept then was that you went to a different restaurant each night (twice if on a 7 day cruise, which we were), and your wait staff followed you from restaurant to restaurant! One night was like a tropical restaurant, one was a stark restaurant with black and white illustrations of Disney characters on the walls and the waiters' vests, which slowly got 'colored in' over the course of the meal. (The waiters ran 'offstage' to flip their vests to a colorful side right about dessert time when the walls had also exploded into color), I can't remember the third restaurant, but there was a fine dining restaurant that you could visit once per cruise that cost nothing extra. (Adults only.)! Speaking of our waiter, he was one of the most engaging we've had on many cruises. A Frenchman, he was saving up to go back to France and open his own restaurant, he was dating Belle (!) and he literally hand fed the kids escargot which they ended up loving. It was a quality cruise and I'm glad we did it. However we never returned because it WAS so much more expensive than Royal. We also have sailed Carnival a couple times and there were some nice touches there, too. For me, Princess was one and done also. All and all, RCCL was and is our overall favorite!

Two stories: We entered a family game on Carnival that was announced on one of the first days of the cruise, and the competition was one of the last days. It was to create a 'seaworthy' vessel. In our off time, the 3 kids in our party had a lot of fun scavenging the ship for items and using the craft things I had brought to make a shoebox 'yellow submarine' complete with wood deck (coffee stirrers), paper coffee cup pontoons, and clay 'Beatles'. When you launched it in the pool, everyone sitting around the edge kicked their legs to churn up the water, and possibly capsize your boat. The two that didn't sink was ours and someone who used an apple (Genius! They float!) and they had carved out a wee deck and stuck some grapes on it to be the people. Since they had two winners, Carnival gave two sets of prizes - a plastic but fancy looking trophy of a cruise ship (one per family), and pretty heavy duty medals on red, white and blue ribbon for everyone else in the two parties. Fancy! On Royal one time, I got chosen on the first formal night to be Queen of the Ship for a Mardi Gras cruise in New Orleans. I was in a big poofy princess type dress, and it was supposedly random who got served the King Cake with a cherry in it - but they chose the King from the second seating and he looked just like Henry VIII, so maybe it wasn't random. Anyway, Royal showered me with prizes: A pretty fancy velvet and gilt crown (think: Imperial Margerine!), a free shore excursion of our choice, free spa treatments including manicure, facial and fancy hairdo (50+ bobby pins!), and on the final night of the cruise, there was a party on the pool deck with a Mardi Gras costume parade. The King and I were the judges, and it was so fun! They gave out amazing swag bags to the two winners we selected - and just when I was looking longingly at them, Royal staff pulled out two more "For the King and Queen!". It was amazing. My takeaway is that prizes have indeed gotten a little chintzier over the years, and that it was super fun for a 40 year old former nerd to get to be Queen for a week.