Vyhanek

Above all else I would go to a private beach where an entry fee is required. For safety. And this is if you absolutely must get off the ship! Ocho Rios is one scary, crazy place. Dangerous and full of drugs!!

I've been many times. The past time I went in February. We went to Margaritaville very close to the port. I thought this would be plenty safe, the beach is fenced off and it appeared that the beach patrons were mainly cruise passengers and others who were customers of the restaurant. My goal was close to the ship and SAFE!

So I'm on the beach at Margaritaville with my two teenage daughters. The beach is not very big, maybe 200 yards, I know not to take my eyes off my daughters. A guy comes up to them out of nowhere and offered them drugs right there 10 feet in front of me on the private beach! I reported this to the manager who seemed to act like it was a regular occurrence and shoo'ed these guys off.

It's just a ridiculously scary place. One time about 5 years ago we were on another cruise visiting Dunns River. Our tour guide steps off the bus to talk to someone and leaves the tourists on the bus. Another 2 Jamaican men come on our bus and walk up and down the aisle yelling....."Give me money". They asked for a woman's sunglasses and she gave them to him! A couple seconds later our tour guide comes back on the bus and chases these guys off! Thank god.

We get back to our ship and compare stories with other passengers. One teen boy had his sunglasses ripped right off his head in the main shopping area. These are personal, first hand experiences. Not made up stories.

Heed the warnings. It is dangerous. We are prey.

You can't compare a 4 night cruise on one cruise line to a 7 night cruise on another line.

Cruises on all lines that are less than 7 days attract a whole different crowd of people. The cruise lines sail their older/tired ships on the shorter runs. The best crew members get promoted to the ships with longer itineraries. Everything is different, the entertainment, the way they run things, the energy level of the crew. You can't compare a 4 day on RCL with a 7 day on any other line.

I thought the food for the Cirque show was really good. Trust me, I am a critic of food and when most other posters still were NCL food cheerleaders I was the lone poster insisting that the food really does suck. I call bad food when I eat it!!

The food at the Cirque show is not bad at all. It's on par with the NCL main dining room food if not a bit better. It's maybe on par with an Applebee's steak. You won't be doing any better food wise by eating in the main NCL dining rooms, that's for sure.

As far as when the show is over, it really wasn't that long of an event. I'm guessing we were completely done by 7:30-8pm. I also don;'t think seating for this show is that big of a deal. Posters were going on and on about the perfect place to sit for this show and I was thinking it was going to be a big deal. It wasn't. The venue is really small and the show takes place in the very center of the room. It's designed so everyone in there can see the show. Then again, it is a very small venue. I was sort of expecting a big show production sort of on par with something in the theater. After seeing Cirque in Vegas several times, that is just more of what I was expecting. This Cirque show is in a restaurant type venue.

Given that there are no mechanical issues and no weather related issues like fog, this should be no problem! ^^^^You can be escorted off the ship with the first group. The concierge will arrange this and will have a group that will want to be the first off with you. The concierge will take the group down the freight elevator that goes right to the very front of the line. You will cut in front of everyone else waiting in line for a couple hours and you will be the first thru customs and immigration.

The FLL airport really is not that far. There will be waiting taxi's. You can be at the FLL airport by 9 or 9:15am. For me, by 9:30am I was at the FLL airport, thru security and sitting at my gate.

Nothing ends faster than a cruise....maybe Christmas, but when it's over it's over and I think the priority disembarkation is one of the best perks. You will have no problem at all being at the airport for those flights.

Unless there is a weather issue, I think you can count on being at work by 8:30.

I've taken this cruise many times, before Brilliance the Serenade and the Jewel did this cruise. I've been at the airport, thru security and waiting at the gate by 8:45am.

I have a daughter that was freaked out by the stingrays and couldn't get in the water. It was no big deal at all to anyone on the boat. I think it must happen all the time.

The stingrays are sort of like cuddly puppy dogs. It's the only way I can describe them. They would come out of the water and right up your back, big and cuddly!! I know sounds freakish. My daughter saw that and was not going to get in the water no matter what! There was no pressure.

If you are sailing in March, you will have more than enough children and teens. But, the 5 day cruises out of Tampa do tend to attract a huge senior crowd. I've been on this itinerary many times over the past 5-10 years on the Jewel, Brilliance, Serenade I think. They all seem to have a crazy amount of seniors, and yes lots of walkers and wheelchairs. But let me tell you the nice thing about being a family and cruising with a large chunk of that senior population......the older people aren't at the pool, they aren't waiting in line to go down the water slide, they aren't in the nightclubs, they aren't in the teen lounge or the kids club, they aren't waiting for soft serve ice cream cones. During the day when the family wants to be outside on deck and in the blazing sun, the seniors want to be indoors listening to a lecture or at the casino or other indoor activity. This is great news for a family because the pool decks are small. There are usually never enough loungers to go around......unless you are cruising with a population of people that don't need a sun lounger mid day!!

My family cruises a lot. There are always children/teens on any cruise. There will always be a kids club doing activities. We've cruised when there are 800 kids on the ship! You don't want that, trust me. You don't want everybody to be a family with young kids. You don't want the buffet to resemble a daycare center with a bunch of kids that need a nap. You don't want there to be so many kids trying to make soft serve ice cream that the machines run out.

You want to cruise with a population of people that aren't necessarily doing exactly what you want to do. You want people spread out on the ship and interested in different things. This keeps the lines short to do things. This makes it feel like the ship isn't so crowded.

But, I am pretty sure that the cruise out of Tampa will have a shocking number of seniors. Every cruise I've done with this itinerary is like that. Embrace it.

The food is really good in the Haven but the selection doesn't change....except for the daily special thing. It encourages you to not eat in the Haven for every diner.

I get it, it's by design. Imagine if the menu changed every night. No one from the Haven would think of going to specialty dining. Most Haven guests frequent the specialty dining so it would be a big money loss.

I loved the Epic Haven. I got the small, intimate feel from the Haven staff in the Epic that you are describing from the Sky.

I loved Posh, I loved the Haven bars and the Epic Club all things you don't get on the smaller ships. The concierge most definitely knew me and my whole family and called us by our first names. It definitely felt small enough with the Haven. But then it was large enough, the courtyard area with the pool and hot tubs was actually big enough to accommodate everyone. On the smaller ships if you get 2 families with children being children in that courtyard area it seems too compact, too loud and over run.

It really is the perfect blend of large ship amenities and small ship service.

If you eat in the NCL main dining rooms you definitely wait an hour to eat lobster! You wait that that long to eat any dinner. Count on a 2 hour meal, always.

You are simply renewing your child's passport. If you sent it in 6 weeks ago, it should be arriving any day now. It doesn't usually even take a month, usually when I renew our passports we get them back in 2 or 3 weeks.

I have faith that your passports will be coming in the mail any day now.

Otherwise, do you live anywhere near Boston? There is an expediting office in downtown Boston that I have had the pleasure of experiencing. It really is same day service but you do pay a premium and it is a hassle. If you plan to do this, go online and get an appointment and have all your documents.

February Vacation will be the 3rd and 4th week in February. Then early March is when colleges start Spring Break.

I've cruised on February Break for the past 10 years. Honestly there are not that many kids and you won't be too disrupted with children and teens. Either of those weeks in February aren't bad at all. I would choose late February before ever cruising anytime in March or April if it's tons of kids and college students you want to avoid.

You're not going to get organic anything. It will be easy to get whole milk though.

As far as the mini fridge, they don't get cold enough or stay cold enough to keep milk safely cold. The refrigerators in the rooms keep things just barely cold. More like cool.

They are salaried employees and I have been told they make about as much as a first year school teacher plus then room and board and an exotic locale. Most have college degrees in early childhood, physical education type programs.

Tips are pooled. I think $100 is extremely generous and on the high end of tips they get.

The 2 bedroom, no question. The SIZE of the balcony becomes way less important when you have access to the Haven. The Haven has lots of outdoor space just steps from your cabin making the balcony size not so important. The 2 bedroom will still have a balcony so you can get that fix. But there is no substitute for having separate space from children and all the mess and crap that they collect.

Any excursion you book thru NCL will be very crowded. Just count on that.

November is a total crap shoot.

I've been in south florida in November and it was in the 50's during the day and the low 40's at night. I've also been there many times when it was in the upper 70's during the day and 50's at night.

Dress in layers. Plan for all weather.

Thanks for the update. I was interested in what they would do for you!

Something other than the law of supply and demand is going on with the suite prices right now. I've never seen these prices before for non peak sailing. It's not normal.

October will be beautiful in Bermuda! It's the sailing there that could be an issue. Not necessarily the cold weather because October is still fairly nice. But there is always a lot of rain in October. The chances of you hitting rainy days for sea days is going to be high.

I'd choose the Breakaway for every reason one would choose a newer ship. I think the Dawn is getting tired. NYC traffic is not that much worse than Boston and as pp have said, it leaves on a Sunday from NYC - perfect.

I think there are some reading comprehension problems!! The OP is not trying to get anyone suite perks that isn't paying for suite perks. Just the opposite!

And, this particular issue doesn't come up very often on this board. I've been on this board at least 12 years and I know of only 2 or 3 times this particular issue has come up.

The OP has all 6 in her party booked in a Haven Suite. The problem is that is going to be a really tight squeeze. Even though the Haven Suite cabins can technically accommodate 6 people, it will be a really tight squeeze.

So she wants to book yet another room, a regular cabin somewhere, so that her parents have a nice quiet place to sleep.....but this is in addition to their being manifested in the Haven Suite! She wants to book the seniors in 2 cabins at the same time so that they can enjoy the suite perks.

You aren't going to need a gallon of sunscreen. I don't care how pale you are. Just go to the drug store and buy 3 or 4 small bottles under the 3 oz. limit.

Very good to know! Thank you.

I am disgusted by what NCL calls a walking/jogging track. I find it unsafe to have people running on the pool deck with other passengers adjusting their lounge chairs and relaxing. NCL made some very bad design decisions at the expense of a proper walking/jogging track on the newer ships.

I know some people are perfectly happy to run/walk on a treadmill but that's what I do all winter. If I'm able to get out in the sunshine I want a proper place to walk/jog. With the size of these ships, compromising on that and forcing the runners to run on the pool deck is unacceptable. Almost as bad as removing the laundry facilities!

If they got in a car right now they could drive to the cruise port and make it! I've driven to Miami for a cruise from Chicago. It's a long drive but if the option is no cruise, you do what you gotta do.

I don't feel that sorry for them. I'd make it work.

One time I got an up-sell call to move from the 2bedroom Haven suite to the Garden villa.........for only another $6400.:roll eyes: geesh!!

I've cruised NCL 15 times, mostly in suites and this is the one and only up-sell call I've ever gotten.