Vyhanek

I'm curious why you quoted the entire post, requiring everyone to scroll and scroll in order to get to your response. I mean, you were the first person to reply, so we already know you're replying to the OP, right?

This is actually a common internet board practice on many sites.

The first to respond cuts and pastes the original post and reposts. It's done so that in the event the original poster deletes or edits the post, the information will still be posted for discussion. There's other reasons too, that I can't remember. It's fairly common practice - but only for the first to repost the entirity.

Any of the taxi's at the pier will take you to Ft. Lauderdale airport. If you debark with self assist right when given OK, you can be off the ship, thru customs and immigration, in your taxi and at the Ft. Lauderdale airport by 9:30-9:45pm.

I've seen people with the knee scooters on ships. They seem to get around really well.

I always try to pick up Retin A and a few Z packs. They are packaged just like in the US.

I sailed out of New England only one time. It was freezing for the first 1.5 days. Then returning, same thing. A snowstorm on land means rough seas. Cold and then rough seas are not fun.

For a Haven type experience, does NCL still have the top spot?

Once, many years ago we went Haven, now as they say it's true, we can't go back! We've cruised with our children in Haven on the Epic last year, the Pearl, the Jade.........Always sticking with NCL for the Haven experience.

But with the other lines newer ships, should I be considering Royal or Princess for a Haven type experience?

The best way to avoid all that nightmare is to be at the very front of the line. As disembarkation progresses there are more issues with people jamming the elevators, the lines get longer and slower with each passing minute!

So to self assist off the ship gets you in the front of that line.

Let everyone who wants to take their own sweet time get in line whenever they want. If they want to stand in line for 45 minutes....you know so they can take their time and leisurely disembark then by all means please do that.

I find nothing leisurely or relaxing or pleasant about that last morning. My goal is to be at the front of the line because I hate the whole process.

That's the timeframe I always get!

You do self walk off at 8am. This puts you in the front of the customs lines. Grab a taxi which will be lined up and waiting. You will get to the airport by 9:15-9:30. You will be all checked in and sitting at the gate no later than 10:15am.

It's plenty of time. I've done it many times.

This is an issue that affects all cruisers. Even those of us who no longer have young children.

The second the kids club turns away families, that means more kids dispersed through the ship for the rest of us to enjoy. As in...more kids in Cagney, more kids for the hot tubs, more kids playing on the elevators.

NCL surely will spin this into a safety issue.,....You know, the room can't accommodate any more than 76 safely. My thoughts on that are, if the childcare room is full, you take groups of kids on excursions to other parts of the ship. You take them to make pizzas, you take them on a tour of the bridge, or on a scavenger hunt, you have them put on a talent show in the theater, etc. Just because there are more than 75 kids doesn't mean you turn them away. It means you get creative.

I have teen daughters. Getting up early on port days to get off the ship for an excursion is a major undertaking. First extracting them from their beds, then dealing with the primping of tired teen girls when they want to be sleeping in on vacation.

You people don't want to see my girls in the buffet on those mornings. I don't want to ruin vacation for you! My dh and I will eat our own breakfast in the dining areas and then bring plates back to the cabin for the cranky daughters.

I want to have the ability to bring food back to my cabin. I think it's going too far to forbid food to the cabins. Even dorm rooms allow students to have food. The reasoning about cleanliness doesn't make sense or they would eliminate room service all together.

We've cruised on every line with our kids at all ages. They are teens now.

I can tell you the major lines run the programming for Kids Club very similar. The activities they do are very similar, the staff is similar, the whole set up is very much the same.

Some smaller differences though.....On Carnival, every night, if your child wants they can eat with the other kids. You just simply walk them to the buffet, you find the kids club group and they eat together. Done.

On NCL, they offer one night only where you can sign up and if you are lucky enough to be in the first 20 or so signed up, you can eat that one night with the kids club. Every other night your kid is with you for dinner. Some people might not care about this but many, many 10 year olds don't want to sit thru a nice sit down dinner but their parents DO! Some people, if given the option on any given night to eat with the kids club, it is a great benefit! It also makes specialty dining easier for parents!

Another difference is that on NCL, for some reason, they close down kids club on the days the ship is in port. You might not care, your 10 year old might do all activities with you in port. But for some kids, they would rather not go off the ship...perhaps they aren't scuba certified and the adults are scuba diving or perhaps they don't weigh enough for the zip lining adventure planned. There are reasons that a kid would want to just stay on the ship. On every other cruise line Kids Club runs during port days. Port days are regular programming days. On NCL, you can hire babysitting service on port days if you need to. If you do this you *might* get lucky and get a great staff member that actively cares for the kids or you might get one that pops in a movie....we've had both types. You pay extra for this babysitting service.

Also, this might not apply to you but NCL is super strict with moving kids from age group to age group to be with friends or family. Say you have a kid that is 3 days too young for the older age group but all her cousins are in the next older age group. NCL will not make an exception for that kid. Not under any circumstances. The other cruise lines will be much more flexible and child focused. One year we went on a cruise with family that live cross country. The kids hardly ever see each other and when they are on this vacation they want to spend their time together, with their family.....guess what, NCL told us that my daughter would make "new" friends and I should be flexible.

Like I said, I've cruised on all lines, I'm a gold member of Latitudes and the equivalent on other cruise lines as well. I can tell you NCL is not all that "freestyle" with their kids club programming.

Maybe these issues won't bother you.

Royal Caribbean doesn't even allow kids in Specialty Restaurants. I have older teens and have to sneak them in like they are doing me a big favor.

Would you rather that?

I like the idea of NCL allowing kids but charging full price. You better really want to have your young child dine with you because you are paying full price for their meal. I think it encourages the best behaved kids in the venues, the kids that want to be eating there. If parents know their kids won't eat a thing and will be difficult to keep contained, they will think twice before paying full price.

The virus will have to make it's rounds thru the crew before it can be contained.

The kitchen staff stacking the dishes are now exposed to noro. No amount of passengers washing their hands will make the crew immune. The crew in the kitchen prepping the food may have washed their hands at the beginning of their shift but a few coughs, hacks and sneezes later and that prepped food is contaminated.

The Epic staff who unload the glasses out of the dishwasher and stack them in the bars, these people may have washed their hands at the beginning of their shift but again, a cough, a sneeze, a wipe of the face.....now they are stacking hundreds of glasses on the lido deck.

Hand washing might be the best option but we are talking about a lot of people on a cruise ship and eating at a buffet line and drinking drinks around the pool. There are not banks of sinks and soap! What is available as people walk into the restaurant is hand sanitizer.

Hand sanitizer does work at killing most of the germs, maybe not all the germs but it will get most.

This will be a bad week for the Epic. The virus can't get under control until it's made it's way thru the crew population.

I love the haven, but I don't mind spending more for it. It's A LOT more money to go Haven, like a couple thousand more for my family....That's a lot of Room Service Fees!

I think people like me that are very happy with the haven aren't worried that they are spending more for it. People happy in the Haven aren't super price conscious because if they were, they'd realize how outrageously more they spend to be there! Like thousands more.

So, if you are someone who really is concerned about the few dollars more in increased gratuity or you are concerned about gratuity for Specialty Dining or you are concerned about paying a few dollars for the 3 times you use Room Service, you are a bit too price conscious for the haven. I think you'd feel ripped off knowing you could probably take 3 cruises in a regular balcony for the same price you pay for one week in the Haven. People happy in the Haven don't think like that.

NCL has it's share of invisible cabin stewards.

I think it's because when they are around they get asked more requests. That obviously means more work. It's not like they are going to necessarily get a bigger tip, especially with auto gratuity.

I imagine also, when you are cleaning the room of another guest, and the guests next door come in and hunt you down for some reason, it interrupts you from the job at hand, cleaning the neighbor cabin.

When they re working, they are cleaning cabins. When they re done working they might want to hang out in the crew areas, relax, whatever. They might not want to stand around and just wait for someone to ask them for a second ice bucket or a second table for the balcony or different pillows.

Like the poster above that couldn't find her cabin steward and she was looking for her because there was mold on the shower curtain. Do you see how this cabin steward avoids the extra work of hunting down a new shower curtain? That potentially could be a hassle and a lot of work.

They make themselves scarce and it's less work. NCL has it's share of them.

^^^You can't always do adjoining rooms or a family suite....but isn't that obvious.

For us, I have girls who wouldn't wander away and would tell me if they ever needed to leave their room. I was comfortable with an across the hall room when my kids were 10 and 12. I don't know that I would have been comfortable with this any earlier because then you deal with things like.....did they make sure the door was closed all the way before they left the room, etc.

I had to book me and my husband in a room with one child and then when we got on board we had our key cards changed. It was no problem.

If you've done 4 people in one room before without much problem, I think you would know if you can do it again.

I've done it only 1 time when my kids were too young to share their own room next door. It was not pleasant. Four people means 4 times the stuff. It's not about showering in shifts. That's stating the obvious. It's mo0re about the clutter, mess and disorganization that comes from 4 people with not enough space to put things.

If you want beach and a book then you don't want Key West.

Key west isn't a beach. It's Tshirt shops and bars.

For what you say you want, it's Grand Caymen.

Good choice. Like pretty much everybody here, I agree that the Brilliance is the better ship. It's beautiful. So many windows, the public areas are nicely done. I think the food is better!

I think with the shorter itinerary on the Enchantment, attracts a more partier crowd and a crowd where this is their first time cruising. There will be more beery bellies, more wife beaters, more tattoos on the 4 day vs. 5 day -but maybe that's your thing. It's not mine.

Then the ports. Nassau is dirty and the peddlers are relentless. You can say "no" to the sellers in Cozumel and they will stop asking you to buy their crap. Not so in Nassau.

I'm wondering about your comment about your daughter being questioned. What do you mean by that?

I ask because I am cruising with my daughter in a few weeks. She's a teenager. Will I have trouble bringing her into the concierge lounge? This will be a problem I hadn't thought about and will be an issue since it's just her and I cruising. I've only enjoyed the suite life on NCL and they don't have age restrictions in the Haven areas.

The Haven.

All cruise lines have great staff. All cruise lines have flexible dining.

Not all cruise lines do the suite life so well. Definitely the Haven.

My daughter also has a nut allergy.

At 6 years old you need to be moving towards...."Personal Responsibility". With your own child you need to be doing a much better job of trusting that she is responsible for her own health. Not in a million years would I trust the college aged Kids Club staff with her epic-pen and think everything is good.

At 6, I would send my allergic dd to the Kids Club and tell her "Not to eat anything". At 6 I should be able to trust that she knows the dangers because I've worked with her for years almost at every single meal and she should know this.

If your child was 3 or 4 years old, this would be a different story. You don't have a toddler. You have a child who should at this point be able to know not to eat things she isn't absolutely sure about. On vacation, she should be able to follow instructions like........."Don't eat in kids club. I will come pick you up and we will go to the buffet together. I will come get you to eat.". This is parenting 101 for an allergic child at 6 years old.

You need to change your strategy.

I think with Royal eliminating the CF, the only logical next step is that they will prohibit all alcohol being brought on board like NCL does. There is no need to charge corkage when all alcohol brought on is prohibited and confiscated.

I think this is where they are headed with this. Otherwise, why would they be eliminating corkage? That makes no sense that they would eliminate a revenue source. That's not what cruise lines do. They look at their competitors and see what things work to GENERATE more money.

The first step is eliminating the CF. The next step is prohibiting all outside alcohol.

^^^Yes, hopefully you have a balcony cabin.

It will be difficult with an inside cabin and a sleeping baby. At least with a balcony cabin you could put the baby to sleep and sit on your balcony in the afternoon or evening.

In an inside cabin you will be tiptoeing around this tiny room with the pack n play taking up all your walking space, in the pitch dark.

Bringing the carseat will be nothing but a major hassle. First, it will take up a lot of space in your cabin. Then you will haul that carseat off the ship in the ports and find a taxi or van but it will have no seatbelts at all! Now you're lugging this huge carseat around the island!!

Honestly, your best bet on the islands is a front carrier. Don't even hassle with a stroller. When you get in the taxi's you strap yourself in with the baby in the front carrier and adopt the...."when in Rome" philosophy. You will be lucky if any of the transportation on the islands have any sort of seatbelt.

As far as the blow up baby pool, you can find really tiny ones. I'd bring it and see what you can do. Maybe you decide on day that you don't want to get off the ship in the ports.....(maybe since you won't be able to lug the carseat all over the island). The pool deck will be almost empty. You could easily blow up a little baby pool out there!

May can be really cold.