nickykat

A shame Sydney weather was so bad for Australia Day. The cricket is washed out, and they had a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 20 today, not pleasant at all.:D

I know, I was very disappointed about the cricket, ruined my plans to do nothing for the day! The weather was actually quite nice in Melbourne though.

I am a bit confused as to the dining on Carnival. I know there is a choice of early set at 5:30, late set at I think 7:45 or anytime dining in between these times? We will be traveling in a big group- 6 adults and 5 children. When I booked they recommended early set dining because of the size of the group, but I have opted for anytime instead. I can change it if I want to. If it was just my family early would be fine, but my parents are used to eating at 7-7:30, I'm not sure how they would go eating at 5:30.

If I stick with anytime, what time will we be allowed to eat? Do you need to wait until the early set are out? My plan is actually generally to have my 3 kids eat at the kids club, I find dining with them in restaurants to be really stressful at the best of times, they wriggle, don't sit still, I'm constantly telling them to not do something..... I am not sure about my brother and sil and their 2 kids (who are WAY better behaved than my own hellions and capable of sitting still at a dinner table). (I need to add at this point that 2 of my kids have Aspergers- an autism spectrum disorder- they have sensory issues and the noise, lights and large number of people can be really overwhelming for them, they're not just badly behaved for no reason!) The other is 2, with all the unpredictability of that age....

Sometimes though I'm sure we will want to eat together, what are our chances of getting a table for 11? Are you able to book a table in advance? If you don't eat in the main dinning room what are the options? I'm also worried about having to wait for the table, the kids are also sometimes not great with waiting, especially when hungry!

Also if my kids are just not able to eat in the didning room one night because they are tired or not capable of behaving well at that time, are you able to take food back to the cabin?

And finally (I think) what do you do about snacks? The kids are used to being able to go and grab an apple or banana or a carrot when they are hungry, I know there is 24 hour pizza and ice cream but that's not quite the same as fresh fruit! Is the buffet open between meal times and do they have fruit available or is it available anywhere else?

Nickycat, after you have stayed there can you please come back here and tell us what its really like ?, thanks.

Happy to, but it's not until June. We're staying 1 night pre and 3 nights post cruise in a private family room for 5

happy Australia Day. I will be plonking myself in front of the TV to watch the ODI cricket and not moving much ;)

Good idea to change the fly in to day before I think. LuckiePuris I have booked the rocks YHA based on recommendations on this site but have not stayed there yet.

I haven't cruised at all yet, but am booked on a South Pacific cruise with Carnival in June (with 3 kids). I fully expect there to be lots of kids on board but it isn't school holidays, so maybe less? I think Carnival is known to be kid friendly. The only one I discounted was Celebrity as I was travelling with children, there may be less kids on that, and known as being not so much a riff raff crowd from what I hear.

Please add me, 8 June, Carnival spirit, 10 days South Pacific ex Syd

Maybe mention that there might be people from other countries on the cruise that may do things a bit differently and this is not necessarily 'rude' just different. When you mentioned the walking to the right of the hallways I just realised that my children and I would be walking on the left, so your kids may look at us as odd or rude! I would probably adjust pretty quickly and walk on the right if most of the passengers were doing that, while my kids would stay on the left and keep bumping into everyone, having had 'keep to the left' drummed into them their whole lives!!

Other than that I think a general awareness of the people around them and the situation they are in- eg loud voice ok while playing on the waterslides but not ok while sitting at the dinner table.

I just want more ex Melbourne! Anyone know of any new ones starting here or know if Carnival have any plans to do any sailings out of Melb?

Thank you GUT I will absolutely check out the inclusions and exclusions having been caught out this way with home insurance in the past where they refused to pay a claim for damage (apparently a fire needs to have flames, I was not covered for smouldering heat that caused over $1000 worth of damage!) TBH I don't trust any of them much, all about maximizing profits in my opinion!

Thank you all, both same underwriter also underwrites covermore, similar in price pre discount and covers basically the same things.

Has anyone used medibank private travel insurance? Going through old threads I can't see much mention of it, lots about covermore and a few others I can't remember the names of. The only reason I am considering Medibank is that I work for them (not in the insurance side though!) so I get a pretty big discount. Other one I'd be interested in is Australia Post travel insurance as hubby I think gets a discount with that.

Wow bad predictive texts in last post, sorry. Meant to write that I would never buy second hand electrical products on ebay, but there are a lot of vendors who sell new products, very convenient rather than traipsing all over town looking for one.

Not secondhand electrical products from eBay!!!! There are soon many vendors who sell through eBay I've bought lots of electrical still including belkin products.

I just booked with Carnival and it specifically said no surge protection on boards. If your cruise line is okay with it, have you tried ebay?

So glad to hear the cruise was successful. Just thought I would add for people searching for this thread in the future that if you are a frequent traveller/cruiser who finds they have to go onto dialysis, that is definitely something to consider when deciding which type of dialysis to choose (hemo (HD) or peritoneal (PD or CPD or CAPD) ). I know not everyone has a choice, but if you are capable of it and able to, peritoneal means you can have a lot more flexibility. Can pretty much go on any cruise at any time with no added expense if you can do your own dialysis.

Thanks Raina, have just booked 3 days post cruise in Sydney :)

Thank you all. Dashman, do you know if opera house parking ask for evidence of the cruise dates? Planning on arriving day before and staying another 2 nights after in Sydney and leaving car there the whole time. Would this be okay do you think?

I was wondering the same thing- mine will be 6 just 5 days after we finish the cruise, and he gets along way better with his (will be) 10 year old brother than his 3 year old sister. I asked when booking and they said he would be put in the 2-5 age group.

What a shame it was so disappointing. My parents are sailing on Le Boreal to Antarctica next month, I hope their experience is better and it's not a company wide poor service problem.

Maree that is wonderful to hear how accommodating to your children's needs Carnival were :) Yes my 2 eldest have Aspergers (Autism). I think they will be okay, just need staff to understand that there is a reason for their quirky behaviour at times and understand that they may get overwhelmed with a huge crowd sometimes. I think my 2 yo daughter may be more a handfull judging by her spectacular tantrum at the zoo today!!! Did you contact the special needs department before your cruise about your kids? My eldest also has some food intolerances, that although not life threatening like your daughter will make him itchy, snotty and miserable for the cruise if he eats those foods.

Thank you both rkmw and maree. I'm very excitied about the trip. Good to hear that the Grandmas also had fun Maree, it'll be interesting to see if my parents enjoy it- they have cruised on Princess which they enjoyed, NCL which they thought was quite boring with not many activities and they are just about to cruise on Le Boreal to Antarctica which will be interesting as it's a small ship. So they have a bit to compare it to, plus my Mother is not a major fan of cruising!! Hard to please! I, on the other hand am pretty sure I will love it :)

Sorry in advance about all the posts I have been making, a search of threads has answered many of my questions but I'm sure I will have a few more yet to come. I appreciate all the help this community has given me thus far.

So I've finally booked for 8 June 1015 on carnival spirit- YAY!! My first ever cruise :)

As we a family of 5 I've booked 4 of us into an ocean suite quad, and my oldest son in with my parents in another room (extended balcony as all trio suites were booked!) As he will be 10 it is my understanding that he will be able to sign in and out of the kids club (if we let him). I want him to be able to access our family suite during the day for some chill out time if he needs it (we will take some lego etc. for quiet play/ read a book), but I assume that he will not be allowed to access our suite with his card? Wondering about ways around this- do younger children need their cards with them? Could I also give him his 3 yo sisters card to access the room? Do kids cards actually unlock the room at all? Am I able to ask guest services to allow access to our suite on his card? Also am I able to ask them to put his charges onto our account rather than my parents?

Are there any other snags I may encounter by having him not booked into our room? I've already spoken to carnival about boarding and they say he will still get priority boarding if he is with us.

Thanks in advance.

Thank you elsilef. Unfortunately this time we are restricted and have to go on Carnival, though I will certainly remember your comments about RCI for the future.

Your comments about the sleeping made me think of something else- does anyone know if Melatonin is allowed to be taken through Australian customs? Both my sons take it for sleeping, and I don't have a current prescription (one has an out of date one). I buy it online from USA where it is over the counter- and SOOO much cheaper- unlike here in Australia. Should I declare it as a vitamin? Honestly, if this was taken away before boarding it would completely ruin the holiday as they would both be up until midnight and then cranky the next day.

Wainwill- great tips thanks. Lego and magformers at the top of the list! And ipads with known movies on them.

Thank you all. My kids LOVE active things like waterslides etc, just at times need downtime too. Due to time restrictions we are very limited as to the time we are able to travel so our only option is Carnival in June, so am relieved you say they are good Texas. Just waiting on annual leave confirmation from my work then I will book. Then contact them etc. Thank you for the Autism at sea info Sadie.