olemissreb

Thank you @luv_crusing. This sounds great. How long was the excursion? Did I read correctly that you booked this thru the cruiseline? If so, which cruiseline? Still thinking this could be fun for my boyfriend and I.

The advantages of living in the town of my college alma mater...baseball! Some parks have the Tool Race (Atlanta), President Race (DC) or Sausage Race (Milwaukee)...we have the Solo Cup Race and Yellow has never won. 20240303_131626.mp4

Thanks for your review! I'm actually excited about getting on the Viva next year. Did you do NCL excursions? Or did you do your own? I'm having trouble figuring out what to do in Tortola and St. Lucia and looking for ideas.

Is the Southern Caribbean you are considering on the Norwegian Viva? I'll be sailing on the Viva next March (52 weeks from today). I love sailing out of San Juan...March '25 will be my 3rd time sailing from there and the itinerary has 4 islands I haven't visited yet. We've got a regular balcony room because I can't sail in anything less. 😁 It will be my first time on NCL. I've sailed on the Connie (my first Southern Caribbean actually) and I loved Celebrity. We were originally booked to be on the Summit till Celebrity cancelled that itinerary. Since we really liked the idea of sailing from San Juan, we switched to Viva. Yes, itinerary is most important to me, but you may decide differently.

Down to 365!

If you look at my signature, you can see that I regularly go a year or more without cruising. I'll be back on a ship in March '25 and can't wait. Much as I love cruising, I also like variety so this year is a land based vacay in Key West. I haven't been there before, so I'm looking forward to it (almost as much as the cruise).

LOVE the fruit and cheese plate idea. I'll need to bring wine from the bar though and my BF can bring his beer or bourbon from the bar too. I do like to have some champagne as I board the ship, but now I think I'll have to have some as I stand on my balcony and cry as we pull away from our last port on our last night (I love sleep too much to drink it as we arrive back in San Juan. 😁).

I was like you (and it took a miracle just to get me to try it fried and I grew up outside NOLA!!!), then a co-worker of mine brought in homemade pickled okra. YUMOH!

It worked out great for us. My inlaws did cruise excursions every port day (except St. Thomas and they went sailing with us...I did give them the option in the other ports too, but they did their own thing) and when they hears about our excursions, they'd wished they'd gone with us. 😂

I, too, would suggest RCL. I would also suggest that each different family do their own excursions. Don't try to plan something for everyone. I did this when I cruised with my kids and now ex and his parents. 4 of us did one thing and his parents did soemthing else. Then we would meet up together for dinner and discuss our day. My boys were 10 and 14 (24 and 28 now) at the time and they still remember their first cruise ever with their grandparents.

I think my March '25 cruise is up double digit % since I booked. I truly haven't checked in a while. That cruise is Southern Caribbean out of Puerto Rico. I just love sailing from PR...it'll be my 3rd time doing that. Cruise is a different port every day that includes 4 that I haven't been to yet.

Always looking for price drops. Sadly I've never gotten one. Guess the times and itineraries I pick are just too popular. 😀

Just because it's hard as heck to find...and I actually got it on sale. 😂

I'm disciplined enough to make monthly payments, but not disciplined enough to keep myself from spending it if it's there.

My Alaska cruise was booked the day the itineraries were released which was probably close to 2 years out. I booked my Viva cruise this past August for March '25. I tend to book my cruises way far out so I can pay it off over time as well as the drink packages, tips, and excursions.

Have had some really great sunsets lately.

On my first cruise, I got a little queasy and so took some dramamine, but it knocked me out. Since I didn't want to sleep thru my cruise, I got the wrist bands and they helped. I've since tried bonine and even though it's "non-drowsy", I still got sleepy so...I read somewhere (probably here on CC) to start taking dramamine or bonine at night a few nights before you sail. It helps me sleep well and it's already in my system by the time I board the ship. I keep taking it the whole time I'm on board, but again only at night. As for the anxiety, talk to your doctor. He/she should be able to help you with either medications or other mental exercises that you can use. I pray you find the answers that will work best for you to work thru your anxieties.

Do you have to book the entire boat or can you book 4 spots and then Phil will fill in the remaining spots with others?

OK this wasn't planned at all, but on my first cruise, we were doing a walking tour of Old San Juan (cruise sponsored excursion) and somewhere along the way, me, my ex and another couple we met were taking pictures or something and the group just left us! Oh well - it was a pretty boring tour anyway and we all made the best of it and got back to the ship on our own. Of course I think that is easier to do in OSJ since it's not a tender port like Grand Cayman (if Grand Cayman is still a tender port - it was the last time I was there 25 years ago or so).

Not sure how much time you'd have as a layover in Seward, but you could look at doing a Kenai Fjords tour with Major Marine. We did it the day before our cruise and saw all kinds of wildlife. We even got so close to a glacier we could hear it calving and the crew pulled in a piece of that glacier and made "glacier margaritas"!. The day of the cruise, we went to the Alaska SeaLife Center and did a behind the scenes tour...we got kisses from a sea lion! I love another posters idea of a side-by-side. If you can arrive in Seward in a Saturday and then leave again on Sunday, you'd have plenty of time to do both of the things I mentioned (and probably many others).

Already upgraded our FAS since BF is a Blantons drinker! Since he's never cruised before, I figure if I can get some Blantons in him (lots of it), maybe he'll fall in love with cruising as much as I have.🤪

Thank you for this review! My group will be in the Viva in March '25...and we can't wait for a week of relaxation, adventures, and laughter. My BF is a bourbon drinker, so we'll probably hang out there...A LOT!

With the Bar Tab, do both people im a cabin have to have it? My sister is almost 20 years sober and while her boyfriend does drink, it "stinks" that she has to buy a drink package even if she'll only be drinking water and Dr. Pepper. I've been thinking about doing a VV cruise with my boyfriend, but was a little concerned about age differences since we are both in our 60s. Thanks to you for putting my concerns to rest. Maybe we'll go in a couple years.

@schmoopie17 I want to sail with you sometime. You have a sense of humor I can relate to AND you're a Packer Backer. Yes my screenname may be all about Ole Miss, but I was born a Green Bay Packer fan. I've said for years..."I bleed Red & Blue om Saturdays and Greenand Gold on Sundays".

I've done both. I would go back to Alaska in a heartbeat. I loved my NE/Canada cruise and would do it again (with a much different itinerary), but there was so much more I wanted to see & do in Alaska. Plus I'm more of a mountain person than a leaf person.