Justicedog

why wouldn't you want to go back on the water taxi?  Because of the time it takes? 

3 hours ago, TerpsBball said:

Question...When we go to CoCo Cay, our son will be 19 and our daughter will be 17.  Will he be able to escort her in or do either my wife or I still have to go with her?

I would think the 19 year old could escort her into the park.

The rules say:  All guests under 18 years of age must be accompanied by an adult.

An adult is someone over 18, though that was not actually defined.

On 7/23/2019 at 11:57 AM, jbethel11 said:

That's what is so messed up with companies, and quite frankly, this world. Stereotyping.

There's really no way to have a "maturity" test.  The only way is to put a numerical age on the requirement.  I think 18 is too high.  I would think 14 or 16 is more appropriate.

Hi,

I was wondering about the schedule for this cruise.  It leaves Miami on Monday, goes to perfect day/coco cay and Nassau and then back in port Friday morning.  Is there a formal night?  What's the show schedule like?  How about the escape room?    We're scheduled for My time dining.  (I forgot what that actually means, will have to go look, we had it last cruise, but then it seemed like ended up always having to go at 5:30.)  Is there a best time to have the dining to get to performances?  Our first stop, Nassau, we don't depart until 9.  Do they still do shows? And dinner? or is that not done on the late departures?

I'm acting like a first time cruiser.  Though I may as well be as only was on one a few years ago.

Any suggestions, tips or don't miss this advice would be appreciated.

Janelle

Asking for a friend --- 🙂  I was wondering what the cost was for an alcoholic drink on board a ship - I'm talking a strawberry daiquiri or something like that.  And what the virgin versions of a drink would be.

We were on a cruise and I think only had one or two alcohol drinks and two to three non-alcohol versions each night and my husband said that the bill for that was in the $400s - it was a seven day cruise.

The friend is going on a 4 night cruise - similar situation as ours.   The deluxe beverage package is $52/day.  2 rooms and it will be a parent and teenager in each room. (so no requirement to purchase deluxe package for the 2nd cabin mate).  Friend Dad's thought was to purchase the plan and then share with the others.  Is that feasible?  I'd always thought it wouldn't be and people would be caught doing that and it's against the rules. 

14 hours ago, capriccio said:

Just a caution:  the Everglades are a winter destination.  That is the dry - and cool -season with many fewer bugs when wildlife are easy to see at watering holes.  During the summer they are more disbursed and the weather is hot, humid and prone to drenching thunderstorms.

I hadn’t even thought of that.  Biting bugs love me.  That’s making the water taxi, shooters, las olas option seem much better.  🙂

I

On 4/1/2019 at 8:47 AM, tgibson13 said:

Oh ok.. I have a chill Island cabana for this June.  They must be booked up for your cruise.

If you don’t mind, could you share your experience with this?  We have one booked for August 2019. We’ve never done a cabana (or bungalow, or bed) and had just found a chair on the beach the other cruise at Labadee.  Basic info and tips would be appreciated as I’m clueless on this. 

Janelle. 

I am so confused about the options.  I had planned on getting a beach bungalow for the 8/2019 cruise as it was cheaper and would hold my family of 4. I tried to book it online but it was charging me per person rather than per bungalow. I was going to call. Then didn’t get around to it and then the option went away and it seemed like Maybe that part wasn’t going to be finished until 11/2019.   

I need shade and was concerned about making sure I had shade as when we were at Labadee it wasn’t easy to find. 

As the bungalow and beach bed bed were no longer options, my husband booked a chill beach cabana. (You don’t pick all your guests when buying it online like I had been trying.).  Now, we aren’t really Cabana people, it seems a bit extravagant. 🙂. It holds double the people we have in our group, so maybe we should plan on making some friends. 

How are the cabanas on chill beach?   It seems we would order food when we get there?  What is the menu like?  It is complimentary right?   

Do you get to pick the specific cabana?  If so, when and how?

Are we going to turn into cabana people?  🙂🙂 

Janelle 

4 hours ago, Ilove6dogs said:

We have a 7:55pm flight home and I too was wondering what we were going to do all day long. I think renting a car and maybe heading to do an everglades tour and then who knows what. Following along to see if anyone else tosses out some ideas.

Do you (or anyone) know how long an Everglades tour would be?  We have a similar issue. Our port is Miami and we fly out of Ft Lauderdale at 6, so not quite as much time. 

Hi.  We planned a cruise to/from the Port of Miami.  We are flying into Tampa and visiting friends up there, then renting a car and driving to and dropping the car off in Miami and staying in a hotel in Miami then going to the port.  When we return, we had planned on having lunch or something with another friend, but that has fallen through.  We fly out at 6pm from Fort Lauderdale, but have time to kill between when we get off the ship and when we have to be at the airport.  Any suggestions of things to do in the area?  I believe we are planning on renting a car from the Miami airport for the day and returning it to the Ft. Lauderdale airport as we don't know what we would do with our luggage and it seems the easiest thing to do.  We are 4 basically adults. 

Any suggestions on things to do?

We stayed at Country Inn and Suites and it was nice.  I don't think you can see the ships from there.  They have a nice pool.  They have free breakfast and a shuttle, park and stay deal that was easy.

We did 3-4 years ago.  It worked fine.  I'd suggest sun visors for your car as it's sitting out in a lot with no shade.  I think you sign up for a time to be shuttled to the port.  You gather with your luggage in a conference room.  They call your name or time and then you load up and go and get dropped off.  I think we then called them from the port to come pick us up.  It was easy peasy. 

What kind of Insurance/Is there such an insurance that would cover missing a trip because of the death or serious illness of a parent/grandparent who is not on the trip?

In January, we'd booked a trip for August, put a down payment down for my husband, me, and my two kids.  My husband's mother is going into a nursing home today, we are now wondering if we should just cancel the cruise and lose the $400 deposit or is there some sort of trip insurance that would cover us cancelling the trip if something should happen to her (or another of our parents).

What Royal Caribbean ships have water slides?

So far I've figured out that Liberty of the Seas, Adventure of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas and Symphony (though this is coming too late for when we are planning on cruising.) Any others?

We've only cruised once -summer of 2016 on Freedom. I'm concerned about the mega ships. How big of a difference is it?

Janelle

Hi,

We are cruising for the first time in a week on Freedom of the Seas. We've never been out of the country and I'm trying to figure out what's the best option for dealing with our phones.

We've got Verizon.

According to their website they have Cruise Ship Rates where Voice is $1.79/minute, test is .50/message sent and $.05 message received and data is $2.05/MB or $0.002/KB.

What happens when one is in port? Will it take from the ship or go to an international plan?

Then there's a pay as you go international plan or one that you pay $25 extra and get 100MB data. Both have sms text at .50 or .25 for MMS sent or .05 SMS/.25 MMS received and $.99/min or $1.79/min for voice calls.

I'm assuming this data is cellular data, so if that's turned off on the phone, we should be safe.

I think it would be nice to have text messaging on board. It may be worth .55 cents to me to locate a teen kid.

There are too many choices.

What do you guys do for cellular service while cruising the Caribbean?

My teen kids would love unlimited everything. They use snap chat mostly. Husband and I would be ok with nothing, except an emergency or check in on a few things at home by text.

How difficult is it to do Dunns River Falls?

I'm not athletic and not in shape at all (read fat) and I can be very clutzy. The linking hands and climbing up frightens me as I would be concerned of falling and taking out everyone in my group and below. I can walk up stairs and along paths, but not for miles and miles or particularly fast. There seems to be stairs there. Is there a way to peel off and hit the stairs if it gets too difficult? or is there somewhere that there'd be a place for me to wait at the bottom or some observation area where they'd get to climb and have fun if I'm not able to keep up. I do not want to break a leg and take out innocent tourists.

I've got 2 teenagers and a husband I'd be with and hate holding them back on things.

This is our first cruise, so I'm planning on doing a Royal Caribbean excursion. I understand it's more expensive and crowded, but I don't have the nerve or time to research other options.

I'm looking at excursions through RC. If we're wandering around the area after the teen kids and dh has gone on the zip line and we want something like a floating beach mat or the kids want to go to Arawak Water Park. Can we sign up while we're there, or do we have to have preplanned/committed to this?

I was comparing the hotel - Park and Cruise offers for

Residence Inn, Radisson @ the Port, Hampton Inn, La Quinta and Country Inn and Suites.

La Quinta was booked for my date. Residence Inn, Radisson and Hampton Inn only offered shuttle for 2 people. We are 4 - 2 adults and 2 teen children.

Hampton Inn mentioned that additional shuttle people are and extra $10/Round Trip, but the others didn't.

Country Inn and Suites didn't mention how many, so I assumed it was just however many in your room.

Do people drive and drop off half their group, then come back and take the shuttle themselves? That doesn't seem efficient.

Are there long lines at the port to check in? Could the kids and I get dropped off, stand in line and then DH can catch up with us after going back, parking and taking the shuttle?

Does Radisson @ the Port have it's own parking deal, or does it use Park Port Canaveral? Park Port Canaveral says Radisson is their friend. :D

Is the Shipside Parking Garage the Cruise Terminal 8 Parking Garage? If you stay at a partner hotel and get the 40% discount, it doesn't seem like you can prebook online. Does this garage fill up?

Thanks for the responses. I've not gone over to the ports/excursions section yet. Overwhelmed on the First Time Cruisers Thread of What I Wish I knew ... and it's over 100 pages. :eek: Finished that. I'm now moving onto the excursions. Sometimes much information is not a good thing. Also, this work thing really gets in the way. :)

Do the Stingrays have barbs? Isn't that how Steve Irwin died?

The pictures look great! I love them.

Is the beach at Labadee walkable from where the tender lands? It looks like it from the map.

I really appreciate all the tips.

Someone mentioned that one may never see their cabin steward. If I wanted to tip extra, how would I do that? Where would I leave it?

Also, regarding the photos. Do they actually print all the photos? Or is it digital and you look at it on a computer to pick?

I'm a newbie, have never been on a cruise. Where are the muster drills? Is each cabin assigned to a different spot? When are the muster drills in relation to sail off?

I managed to book my husband and son on the 7th floor and my daughter and me on the 6th floor. (not sure of my logic at the time - I think it involved being closer to the middle and lower on one should one of us have a sea sickness issue.) However, now that we're about 5 weeks away from the cruise, I'm worried this was a stupid plan - I want us all in the same lifeboat. :eek::rolleyes::) But more realistically, it would be good to be together for the muster drill and then be able to go to a sail off deck.

Where's a good place to go for sail off?

Janelle

People recommend room service and say it takes about as long as a hotel. For those of us who have never experienced room service in a hotel, how long is this? 15 minutes? 30 minutes? 1 hour?

Janelle:confused:

That people all over the world are friendly and a lot of US citizens are snobs who look down on the rest of the world.

That sounds kinda mean. Sorry you feel that way.

Hi,

My family of 4 (2 - 40 somethings and a 16 and 14 year old) is going on a Royal Caribbean cruise the end of July. We're going to Cozumel, Labadee, Haiti, Falmouth Jamaica, and Georgetown, Grand Cayman.

I've not figured out our excursions yet but have browsed them. I am planning on just sticking to the ones sponsored through the ship - otherwise, it would be more stressful to me and overwhelming to figure out and research private excursions.

My husband and kids would like to do the zipline in Haiti, but I don't think I can. Also, the kids would like to do a swim with the dolphin thing somewhere, but my Husband wouldn't want to do that, he'd watch our stuff and take photos though. Those are the two specific ones I can think of, not sure the others.

Is there a way for one in the party to tag along but not participate in the excursion without paying the full price for it?

Janelle

Hi,

First time cruiser planning trip the end of July. I'm wondering if it'll be worth it to get a Beverage Package.

What beverages are served free in the dining rooms and windjammer cafe?

If one wants a lemonade or fountain soda, can one get it at the cafe for free and the package just gives one more options to get it throughout the ship?

Thanks in advance for the information.

janelle