cadien

Kid's Principal does not hide this, her next sentence tells us she loses funding for each kid absent, even if its the last day of school. :o

I'm curious what her excuse is for pushing PTA attendance. That's not tied to any funding, or mandatory anywhere.

Frontier charges $2 (economy) for can of soda or water.:eek:

So does Allegiant.

The Star doesn't have the Haven. Could that make a difference?

If it's the UBP, it still wouldn't include specialty coffee and smoothies, right? Wouldn't be worth it to us then.

So scoops of ice cream are free elsewhere at certain times.

What about the milkshakes?

We always travel in suites and never had a bad experience. Butlers are not personal to one suite and always do what the can to accommodate if possible but the are not personal servants . There are always room stewards in corridor who can get the ice,for you. Printing boarding passes, are you real, go to Internet cafe and do it yourself or one of your group.

I always treat people as I would like treated myself , did you do that?

In my head you have no right of complaint , if I was the butler would I have the right of complaint against the passenger..........

 

 

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Complaint against the passenger because they didn't know what the butler was and was not responsible for? NCL provides very little information about that on their website. If you don't frequent this specific forum, and certainly no one is morally obligated to, there's no way to know. Unless the butler clarifies. Doing THAT is part of their job. Not performing those extra tasks. Providing the information when asked.

That probably explains why the Gem cruises listed in JohnIreland's signature took place back in 2008 and 2010...that way nobody will think the Gem was recently in Venice.

Those of us on mobile don't see signatures, however, so the clarification is helpful.

However, the butler could have said "Order your ice from ___ instead" rather than "When I have time." And certainly could have let them know there are on-board ways of them printing their own boarding passes instead of just telling them to wait for the airport.

My daughter, who is 24 weeks pregnant, ended up in the emergency room yesterday as she was in so much pain in her stomach and lower back. Baby is fine, but she is full of gall stones and has to be on a bland diet until her son is born. She was told compared to that, labor should be a breeze.

I don't have children yet but someone told me they rather go through child birth again then have another attack!!

I had my attacks, and then my surgery, just ten months after my son was born. It was definitely worse than the labor.

• All suites (except the SG and SJ suites on Deck 12 of the Star and some suites on the Sun) have a portable phone, which can be used throughout the ship.

We'll be on Deck 12 of the Star. And traveling with family in a suite on a different deck. What is the phone used for? Calling another phone in the suite? Calling the butler? Are there randomly placed courtesy phones as an alternative? It doesn't sound like a big deal, but I also don't yet know how long it will regularly take us to get from point to point.

One thing I've discovered is that the best guidebooks for planning a trip are not necessarily the best guidebooks to use once you're there. So I preview everything via the library (if they don't have the most recent edition, they can borrow it from another library) and then just buy the one or two I want to take along.

I use the internet heavily as well, but don't rely on that at my destination. Especially out of the country.

I shot this time lapse video on my HTC One cell phone using the DT Pro app. In looking at the video, you would almost think I shot it in black and white... except for the colorful hull art on the ship and a little bit of green in the hills in the background. No, it was just a really gray and rainy summer day in Juneau! That's exactly how it looked in person.

I grew up there. When I was a toddler and started drawing pictures with crayons, my parents discovered I thought the sky was grey and clouds were blue.

If you're on Disney, you can also use this : http://www.babiestravellite.com/DCL

Some people don't want to meet new people and prefer to dine by themselves where they don't have to make an effort to be friendly. They aren't interested in the lives of anyone else. These people prefer free style dining.

That's needlessly harsh. For some people, the term painfully shy is not just a figure of speech. For those who are uncomfortable making small talk with strangers, and stress the whole time about sounding ridiculous/boring, that's hardly a relaxing vacation.

We've been looking into Disney cruises. Although they're much more expensive than the other middle range cruiselines, they're really not much more than a vacation at Disneyland/World. So it's relative.

If you've narrowed it down to Caribbean, it's worth spending the time reading review threads on the different boards. Not the official reviews but the ones here in the forums, with lots of pictures. If you do a search for kids clubs, you'll find the most relevant ones. That will give you an idea of the most compatible atmosphere. The ones by a poster named Gambee (he's done basically all the lines) take some time but they cover *everything.*

That was really poor service to interrupt your meal with that news, when it was too late to change anything.

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David, I notice you are from Miami... Are you familiar with the bike thing called Critical Mass that happens the last Friday of every month in Miami?

Good grief. Miami too? That's really spread.

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My parents had very different travel interests than me, and I was much happier as a teen when they just left me home. No missing out at all.

Provided you have someone to leave her with, of course.

 

I LOVED THE CARNIVAL BREEZE!!! So now I will come out and say it. I have been purposely delaying traveling in Carnival, why? Well, numerous reasons, bad reviews, bad media, skeptical of the product and other reasons along that train of thought. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by their product. The Breeze is an amazing ship, and one that I want to sail again. Most likely doing the southern Caribbean cruise with my mom, she has always wanted to sail that itinerary.

Carnival definitely comes across around here as the one to avoid. But between this review and the recent one from Lara/Solo Fashionista, their newer ships seem well worth trying. Especially for the price.

We haven't cruised with our toddler yet but he's spent plenty of time on airplanes and in hotel rooms.

I think one of the big things to look at is how important routines are to your child. Some just go with the flow and others need things like meals and naps done at the same time every day. That will make a big difference in your experience.

I worry more about the porters, dishwashers, maintenance men, servers, etc. From any number of countries where there is no way to screen them. Every recent incident between crew and passenger on a ship (the server who hid in the woman's cabin and attempted to murder her, the crew member on DCL that molested the little girl are the two most recent I can think of) has been from a third world nation where even basic background checks are simply not available. Kids club employees are always US, Canadian, Brit, Irish, Aussie, or Kiwi, where complete and thorough background checks are available. Not possible in remote villages in India, Africa, Indonesia, etc. where there sometimes isn't even reliable electricity, let alone a public records database on computer.

I'm fine with my own kid in the club, but I wouldn't over-generalize about the European kids club staff being safe.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9217354/Cunard-cruise-ship-worker-abused-children-in-his-care.html

Has anyone got any information on when the star goes in the drydock in 2015. We will be on the April 12 sailing in 2015 and hope that the star is refurbished by then.

We're on the April 05 so I'm wondering the same.

Would that refurbishment include implementing iConcierge? We're traveling with a group so the texting option would be handy.

The library is open for a few hours each day (usually 2-4pm) for checking out books. Anytime for just sitting and reading and returning books.

 

 

 

I think because there were so few children on the cruise the kid's buffet was not open. Lots of adults were sitting in the area though so the seating is fine for adults and kids. The kids menu seemed to be the usual hot dogs, mac and cheese, pizza etc. Most can be found in the regular buffet area. Fresh veggies can be found at the salad station and fruit in the dessert section.

Thanks!

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Very helpful!

What are the hours like at the library? Is it pretty easy to just drop in? I never would have thought of that.

Did you try the kid-specific buffet? I don't know whether that's on every ship. We'll be on the Star. Wondering how healthy the choices are and how comfortable the seating is for adults.

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Has anyone ever requested a larger table in their suite? Considering the cocktail party and other in-suite entertaining options, I wonder whether that's an option. There will be five of us too.

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