amcb

Thank you both! That is very helpful!

This will be our first time with our daughters in a separate cabin so the connecting part was important to us. 

🙂 amcb

Hello all,

We will be sailing on Solstice and have connecting sky suites 2151 and 2153. I have looked at all the pictures and videos I can find and still don't understand how the cabins connect. Can anyone enlighten me?

Thanks very much,

🙂 amcb

Our bartender, Ulises, in the suite lounge on Navigator made our son a couple of the sangrias, but used ginger ale instead of wine.  DS loved it! Also peach and mango daquiris.

🙂 amcb

If some of your family members are minors, they can be on one parent's account. We are a family of 5, mom, dad and 3 minor children.  I set up my account and all three children with me and then DH had a separate account.

Hope this helps,

🙂 amcb

On 1/26/2022 at 2:32 PM, Cigar King said:

FWIW, I did not see an organized event for cigars under the stars on our recent cruises.  Perhaps I missed it.  I also noticed very little cigar smoking in general.

We were on Navigator over the Christmas holidays and there was no organized event, but we had to sit up on the pool deck for my DH to smoke his cigars.  I want to say he was the only one smoking cigars.

🙂 amcb

Thanks for the info!  That's a bummer, but we're learning to get used to cigars under the stars.

🙂 amcb

Hi all.

Does anyone know if this is still a cigar lounge in the evenings? I know they are being phased out but my DH did enjoy using them!

🙂 amcb

We are also booking this cabin and would love to know any info from folks who have sailed in it.

🙂 amcb

5 hours ago, rimmit said:

In the US the first dates kids could grt vaccinated was Nov 3.  2nd shot Nov 24. So last Wed was the first day kids could be considered fully vaccinated, and this Sat./Sun the first wave of ships with fully vaxxed kids except for the rare Thurs/fri departure.

 

Hopefully the parents on the ships right now will start giving some trip reports as to what to expect with fully vaxxed kids.

We will be boarding on Monday and I will definitely report back!

On 12/9/2021 at 10:57 AM, topnole said:

We have also had similar experiences.  Thats why I say it can vary by ship or concierge.  I much prefer the experiences  we had that were like yours.  You can imagine how we felt the time mentioned above. Compare this to a suite lounge concierge who surprised our daughter with a new build a bear (or whatever brand is on Royal) during the cruise among so many other sweet things she did.  

I completely agree. The Concierge and the staff in the suite lounge can completely make or break the experience.  We've had excellent experiences, and then so-so.  But thankfully we've never had a concierge take our drinks away!!

🙂 amcb

1 minute ago, topnole said:

Nowadays that is a small ship.  Not long ago it was a big ship.  
 

I think it varies a lot (or used to) based on the concierge and the ship.  I remember on Navigator (maybe 10 years back) when the concierge would not let anyone leave with a drink.  

We basically had the exact opposite experience, also on Navigator, probably about 9 years ago now. At the time, our children were quite young - 5, 4 and 1. They would be ready to call it a night quite early, long before the cocktail hour would finish. Every night after dinner we would pass through the concierge lounge, and the wonderful concierge would hand us some juice for the children, a bottle of wine with glasses for us, and walk us out the door saying he would see us the next night.  He started this the first evening of the cruise when we tried to come in, but the children were being fussy and so we stood up to leave without having even one drink. He stopped us on the way out the door to hand us the wine and juice. Needless to say, we tipped him extremely well at the end of the week.

29 minutes ago, HicksRA said:

A few years ago suites were able to eat lunch in Giovanni’s off their menu on Liberty. I did it several times before they discontinued it. 

On Navigator as well.  It was in Chops on sea days with a very limited menu and a small buffet. 

8 hours ago, bonsai3s said:

Chops, deck 11.

I suspected as much since there is no longer a Giovannis.  Thank you!

Does anyone know where the suite breakfast is being held on Navigator?

Thanks so much,

🙂 amcb

We had to renew our children's passports and were certain we wouldn't get them in time.  We expedited and ended up getting them in about 2 weeks. 

🙂 amcb

Thanks!  This is very helpful.

If we did decide to do our beach day in Cabo, do you have any recommendations as to the best place to go?

In Mazatlan, would you recommend a private tour? Right now the ship's offerings are minimal at best.  We are sailing on Navigator of the Seas and I do realize they have not yet started any of their sailings yet. I am hopeful that there will be more excursions once they get up and running.

Thanks again!

🙂 amcb

1 hour ago, gsalbato said:

Hank, that was some fantastic information. Thanks!

Ditto!

🙂 amcb

On 10/26/2021 at 6:52 PM, AZ Ocean Lover said:

Or, have a teammate take his stick home with him and pick it up later.

That's a great suggestion as well.  It's a lot of gear!! 🙂 

On 10/21/2021 at 12:56 PM, brillohead said:

FYI, Royal wouldn't let you take the lacrosse stick on board... they consider it a "potential weapon"!  LOL

 

In my son's hands it could definitely be a potential weapon! 🙂 

Hi All.

We will be doing a b2b and hitting these ports over the Christmas holidays.  We are a family of 5, mom, dad, DS-15, DD-13, and DD-10.  Our youngest will be fully vaccinated the day before we board, so I believe we will be able to go out on our own. Our older daughter wants to do a beach day, and at the moment there are no ship sponsored excursions that do that. What port would you recommend for the best beach day?  We would probably prefer a hotel or resort vs. a beach we would just go to on our own.  DH and I are not huge lounge-at-the-beach-all-day people, so even a few hours of beach time would be great. It is our first time visiting the Mexican Riviera, so all advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,

🙂 amcb

Can't schedule in our area yet. 😞

1 minute ago, Bruin Steve said:

Parking at the pier is in a large, surface lot bordered on two sides by the cruise terminals and the third side by Ocean Blvd.  It is fenced in with cyclone fencing, well-lighted, and, IIRC, monitored by security 24/7.  I have left my car there many times for cruises and never worried about security.

Thanks Steve! You are always a source of great information!

Sounds like we can probably leave the gear in the car. Glad to not have to take the long stick onboard. I'm sure we would have gotten some funny looks. 🙂

🙂 amcb

17 hours ago, Bruin Steve said:

I'm not sure which Residence Inn you are talking about...There is one on Willow near LGB Airport and another on the harbor across the street from the Maya Doubletree, near the Carnival teminal.  If it's the one at LGB, it's a rather industrial area with nothing exceptional about the location other than being near the airport...If its the one at the harbor, that's a great location for Carnival cruisers, but still across the channel from all of the retaurants and shopping and Aquarium...but you can always leave your car at the hotel and use the free Passport shuttle to go across the channel.  The first one is about a 13-15 mile trip to the pier in San Pedro (depending on route), the harbor one is about six miles away.

 

Of course, none of that matters much if you have a car.  You can check into either hotel, then load up into your car and drive to dinner anywhere you want...or to any attraction if you have time.  And, in the morning, check out and drive to the pier in San Pedro.  IOW, it will work out just fine for you.

Thanks for the info!  It is the one at the harbor. We are sailing Royal Caribbean so we have to drive to the pier in San Pedro.  Glad to know there is parking at the pier.  I wasn't sure how that would work. Is the parking facility fairly safe? We would ideally leave our son's lacrosse gear in the car while we are gone (don't really want to lug it on board if I don't have to). But if the general consensus is that it's not all that safe, we will indeed take it with us. Lacrosse gear is expensive!!!

Thanks again!

🙂 amcb

Hi All,

We are sailing out of San Pedro in December. We are a family of 5, so many hotels cannot accommodate us as we are over the occupancy limit. There is a Residence Inn with availability in Long Beach. We always have good luck with Residence Inns when we travel domestically. Also, we will likely be driving our own car as our son has a lacrosse tournament in Las Vegas the two days before we sail. Will we be able to park at the hotel and then drive and park at the port? Does this sound like a reasonable option?

Thanks in advance as always for all the great info.

🙂 amcb

57 minutes ago, OSUZorba said:

Back to the original question.

 

On our upcoming cruise a lot of excursions have been added in the month prior. They also lowered the age limits on many. At first there was a single snorkel or beach trip our 5 yo could do, but now there are many.

That's great to know!  Thanks very much.  I was hoping that would be the case.

🙂 amcb