kat32cruiser

Likely garbage bins. We are in northern Canada and we have large metal blue bins(wooden ones wouldn't keep the bears out). I'm from The Atlantic and if it's what I'm picturing than it's definitely for garbage pickup.

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Darn! I just went to check out upcoming cruise on Harmony in Dec and they've changed all ours to "at your leisure" as well. I just spent about 45 minutes two days ago(and also about 30 mins on the time phone with royal) dealing with times and adding people to our reservations for the dining time - all gone now. Very annoying.

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Hi Buckeyemind. I'm looking for this Fun Times as well. If it's not too much trouble would you mind sending it to me as well at tenet_nosce@hotmail.com thanks so much!

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29.69% in Inuvik Canada. Seems hardly worth it [emoji4]

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Actually the $1200 is just the savings for my family of 4. My parents save no money by switching as it's identical pricing. If it also saved them money I don't think we would have hesitation.

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We will be in Orlando at Disney world prior to our cruise so the drive to Fort Lauderdale is a bit of a hassle but not a deal breaker as we've done it before. Are you aware of any upgrades to the kids club areas on the HOS compared to the Oasis or Allure?

I'm actually very happy to read that we wouldn't have to cancel. That makes any decision much easier since we are also travelling with my parents and are dealing with their reservation as well.

Thanks for the input!

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We are currently booked on a Western itinerary on HOS but I noticed a Western itinerary on Oasis could save us $1200 in a comparable room or we could save $1500-1800 if we downgraded to an ocean view or inside.

I do know that these ships are more similar than not(minus the slides and a few restaurants). My question comes down to personal preference - would you prefer to stay on a brand new ship or would you switch to the oasis to save on cost? I am a big fan of the broadway shows and Cats is probably my least favourite of all the ships but, that aside, is there any other reason to choose one over the other. We do have two kids - ages 10 and 7 who would make use of the slides but I'm not sure the slides would be worth that price difference. They would also be using kids club and I'm not sure if there is a difference in the facilities in that regard.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!!! I'm assuming we would have to cancel then rebook again if we made the switch?

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My husband. myself and our two children (6 and 9) are looking into booking the Vista Journey cruise from New York for Nov. We have a few reservations and I was hoping to hear some feedback from those who have done a Carnival Journey cruise before. My husband is worried that because it's an 11 day cruise that there will be very few kids onboard for our kids to interact with. Also because it's a journey cruise that it will be catered more to adults with the activities onboard and "fun academy" part of the cruise. Do you think this would be a legitimate worry for this type of cruise?

This would be our first time on a Carnival cruise and we are a bit hesitant to book such a long cruise on a line we haven't been on before and also because there is no shortage of criticism on Carnival cruise line itself(not to say it's all truth but sometimes it's hard not to get caught up in the negativity). We have cruised on NCL Escape and also RCCL line and loved them both for different reasons. We have no loyalty to a cruise line, and this cruise fits our holiday plans, and timeline.

Can you help this hesitant family make a decision about this particular cruise?

Oh no, absolutely not the case for us. It wasn't like that but rather you could really feel like you were on a boat/water. I've been on smaller vessels and didn't feel any movement like that. I guess i was expecting to not really feel the motion at all because of the sheer size of the ship. I didn't mind it, but I definitely had some adjusting to do to get my sea legs.

We sailed on the Escape in Dec. There is no denying it - we felt every wave on this cruise. In saying that, I was really concerned about it as my daughter gets motion sickness on cruises. We came prepared with sea bands and motion sickness meds and started her on that the night before and zero issues with her. You could feel the motion but it wasn't "rough" and uncomfortable. My sister in law felt queasy quite a bit but as long as she faced the way the boat was moving while eating, sitting and relaxing etc she was able to really control the sickness.

We came off the Escape in Dec. Absolutely gorgeous ship and loved our time and didn't want to get off. Food was awesome, shows were spectacular and staff was incredible. But man, does that ship ever feel crowded!!!! They said there were 700 children on our cruise(we own two of those kids!) but I swear every single child was at the aquapark/buffet all day long(we tried to steer clear as often as we could). I've never felt like that before on a ship - everyone seemed to be in the same place all day long. I'm hesitant to give Getaway a shot but something is pulling me in. We had an amazing time on the Escape but you really feel those crowds....

We currently have put money on our OBC account and will want to take cash out at the casino(due to getting a great exchange rate earlier this year). The NCL rep talked to her supervisor and confirmed this should be okay but I haven't heard of first hand experiences yet since the Escape has been sailing. We understand that there will be a limit/day on what can be taken out and there will be a 3% fee to take cash out but we were curious if there was firsthand experiences so far with taking cash out at the Escape casino.

Also, are we just to say "I would like to take cash out against our OBC on our account"?

Thanks in advance!

We were in a similar situation as you just last week. We booked an Escape inside room for our Nov. 28th cruise when the 3-8th passengers were free. Our thought process was that we are saving hundreds and hundreds by doing this and that money could be spent elsewhere. Well, fast forward months later and the regret was sinking in in a HUGE way and I called almost daily to see if I could find someone to upsell us to a balcony but still get the kids sail free - they wanted almost $3500 cad or more. No way. So last week I thought what the heck I'll call the upsell department. What do I have to lose, right? Well, we got our upsell for way less than I thought and we kept the kids as free. $600 cad total was well worth the cost of a midship family balcony for us.

If you feel like the balcony room will enhance your vacation, don't fret, it may still be an option to upgrade closer to your date. I had all but given up any hope and I decided to try this last thing to get our balcony room. Glad I did it!

We did this when we stopped in Falmouth with RCCL. We really enjoyed this tour(minus all the selling from the banks and even our guide on the raft - trying to sell us coconuts he had carved on). It was one of our more memorable excursions....

Thanks all for the replies. We've decided to keep Disney. If it was just my husband and I there would be no question that we would be doing two cruises, but one cruise will likely be enough for the kids and if we love NCL(which I fully expect we will) our next trip will be two cruises!

Thanks again!

Thank you for that reply. I'm not sure why I got the sense that there wasn't much "on the go" for kids that age. I guess we need to give it some serious consideration. Both prices are almost identical on both ships so that isn't factoring in at all....

It may be time to get out the old pen and paper and make a pros and cons list. :)

You've got that right! Changing to a hotel for that one night is a pain and definitely factoring into part of my hesitation. It's actually why we looked up Oasis of the seas that leaves the same day Escape comes back into Miami. However, my kids are just too small for the flowrider/zipline and a few other things on the ship so I am hesitating - I think RCCL is catering to tween/teen age group from what I can see.

It's not a crappy predicament to be in at all. We are fortunate to be able to go on these longer trips and away from the piles of snow that are currently on the ground!

First time poster, long time lurker. We are at a crossroads here and would love some input. We are currently booked on a large family vacation(reunion of sorts)on the Escape(sailing out Nov 28th). We then went ahead and booked Disney world and universal afterwards for just our family of 4.

However, my husband and I are anticipating very high crowds at Disney and are having "buyers remorse" so to speak - we've gone 3 times in as many years. If you can be bored of Disney my husband and I are at that stage. My kids are excited to go to Disney but I don't think they would be heart broken over not going again right now. We are debating jumping on the getaway Dec 6th instead of Disney and then heading to universal for the remaining 6 days of our trip. Budgeting is coming into play here - By not doing Disney we can save approx. $1500.

My question is, has anyone ever done two cruises with kids(1 day off the ship then back on to another)? Was there ever a sense of the kids being bored? Was it just too much "sea" time? This will be our first time on NCL but have sailed the smaller class ships on RCCL and the kids absolutely loved it. NCL seems to fit more in line with our personalities and what we are looking for in a vacation. There is the option to jump on the Oasis of the seas to have a full other type of ship experience, but the Getaway seems to cater more to children my kids age.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! If it was only coming down to my husband and I we would GLADLY jump on that second cruise, but our 5 and 8 year olds are making us second guess doing that.