mom says

Um, no thanks.

We try to book our cabin at least a year in advance. Overseas flights can wait til 6 months out. Flights to North American embarkations can wait til 3 months. Once the cabin is booked we research ports of call for excursion possibilities, booking as we find them. If you are brand new to cruising, and going solo, I'd really recommend finding a cruise specialist TA who can help you understand the solo supplement charged by most lines, or can steer you to ships with solo cabins. They can also help you find a cruise within your budget with an itinerary you want.

And your company would be fine with this? I'd clear that with either your boss or HR first. Every state has its own requirements that can be found by a Web search.

You will enter Canada, so you will need a passport. Or a passport card. Or a NEXUS card.

Look to the luxury lines.

I believe you are hunting unicorns. Most cruise lines (aside from the frequent Cunard run from Southampton to New York) only do their transatlantic cruises to reposition in the fall for the winter Caribbean season. You could certainly book your mother on one of those, and then the next sailing in the Caribbean (a back to back booking.) And then book yourself on that second cruise. You will have to research which lines have fly and sail packages. I believe P&O does to and from Barbados. You might find more info that is tailored to UK fly/sail packages on the UK cruising forum: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/543-uk-cruising/

The Carnival forum is here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/133-carnival-cruise-lines/

The Princess cruises forum is here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/119-princess-cruises/

Other sources classify it as temperate, subtropical.

I suggest asking your question on the NCL board if you are asking about ship excursions.

No idea about Norwegian ships, but Churchill's cigar lounge will have cigarette smokers there as well.

Or at least it isn't ALWAYS the best type of vacation. It depends on what you want from your vacation. Cruising is Travel the lazy way. Relax. Make few decisions each day of any importance. Spend a few hours ashore and kid yourself that you have "seen" or experienced that place in any meaningful way. If that is all you want out of your vacation, then a cruise is likely your ideal vacation. We relegate cruises a ways down our preference list, to those cruises sailing itineraries to various ports difficult to do by other means, or in lieu of a resort vacation if it's cheaper.

How were the gate agents negligent? The woman had gate checked the bag. Meaning it had been tagged with the proper flight number and destination and sent to the aircraft. You can't retrieve a bag that has already been checked. The flight delay was entirely the fault of the noncompliant passenger, which necessitated the aircraft's return to the terminal and her removal, and that of her luggage from the hold. Need i point out that since her luggage was in the hold, it obviously hadn't been left at the original gate.

According to Google Images, there does appear to be a helipad on the bow of the Beyond. How any medivac is handled depends on many factors. Most important, the severity of the patient's condition. Distance and time to sail to to port. Availability of Coast Guard ship or helicopter. Size and type of available helicopter. Time of day. Sea conditions. Weather conditions. If by helicopter, final decision is the helicopter captain's.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. Without knowing the type of excursions you might find interesting or enjoyable, how could anyone give meaningful advice? I suggest looking at the relevant ports in the Ports of Call forum: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/456-caribbean/

Love it when an OP gives little details like what kind of plantation experience he's looking for, and in what part of the world. Saw an awesome mixed fruit plantation near Goa from theConnie a few years ago. Also saw a sugar cane/rum plantation in Barbados from either Eclipse or Equinox. Can't remember which. No idea if any of those ships currently have those places on their itinerary. OP can easily find out by a quick web search.

If you want answers from someone who has done this EXACT excursion, then I suggest you ask (with full details given) on the Carnival forum. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/133-carnival-cruise-lines/

How can you leave feedback? Perhaps the same way you've managed to read and reply to these posts? Or get your grandkids to do it for you.

I had to go to the website to see what the fuss was about too. I thought perhaps the page was limited to just the video. But nope; I was able to scroll or click right past it. So I'm not sure why anyone would stay with it if it bothered them.

Not sure why anyone would fly all the way across country for that particular Caribbean cruise. If you want a 7 day cruise, at least the Mexican one wouldn't involve long flights to get there and back. I don't think that either cruise would affect your wife's ability to conceive.

Yes, they will sell cabins to child free passengers. There actually are grown ups who are fans of all things Disney. And there are adults only areas of the ship in the evening. But you have to accept the presence of other people's rug rats for most of the day. Schedule a dental check up on your return home- the overwhelming level of sugary sweetness in all the character and staff interactions is something else. We did one Disney cruise as a couple (after a WDW vacation). It was fine, but it was one and done for us.

I'm not particular as to age, but much prefer ships with fewer than 3,000 pax. Refuse to sail on the mega ships. If I wanted an amusement park I'd go to Disney World.

Well yes. There are routine scheduled dry docks. And then there are unscheduled ones for unanticipated problems that may crop up. By definition you can't predict those.

Well, weather happens every day. Hurricanes happen, but cruise ships don't sail through them. They sail around them. They don't sail to a port where a hurricane is forecast while they are there. They go to another port, or you get an extra sea day. The ABCs are so far south, they usually avoid most Hurricanes. You can look up their individual average monthly weather online.

Except they are too big to stop in Bora Bora. I don't think many of the existing west coast cruise lines have ships small enough for that port. And Celebrity has shown no interest in any long cruises, any more, other than some repositioning cruises.