JennCandi

That's cutting it really close. The airport is about 30 minutes away. The boat has to clear customs before they start debarkation. The cruises into that port are often delayed due to fog. If I were you, I would book a later flight.

We have never brought the car seats on vacation. If we are going on a private tour, I request car seats and they usually can supply them for us.

Never put a seat belt around yourself and your child. You will smash the child upon impact. One thing that may work and at least be safer is wear the baby in a front carrier, like a baby bjorn. Strap yourself into the seat belt, with the baby on the outside of the seat belt. That way if there is an accident, the seat belt will stop you from going forward and not hurt the baby.

Have you tried looking at the carnival website with your reservation number? Most of the time we haven't found out until we checked in at the dock.

I've been on the Victory and loved it. Also those ports are great!

We have been on 12 cruises and have never been called about an upgrade. That being said, we have been upgraded a few times when booking a guarantee cabin. Once we got bumped from an inside guarantee (only thing available when we booked 2 days before the cruise) to a balcony. That was on NCL though.

Due to work schedules, we always fly in the morning of the cruise. We have had some extremely close calls though. Flight to England was delayed 8 hours (while we were sitting in the plane on the runway). Very luckily all the planes out of JFK were delayed and so many passengers were on the those flights, they didn't leave the port until we got there 2 hours late. I believe that was because the flights booked by the cruise line would have been too expensive to fly them all to the next port.

Second time, sat in traffic for 3 hours on the way to airport and missed flight to Venice. Ended up getting a flight to Paris and paying another $1000 to fly from Paris to Venice to get on the ship.

I haven't really learned my lesson, but we do get the earliest flight possible the morning of to Florida. I think if we went to Europe again, we would arrive the day before.

Definitely an umbrella stroller. We use them all the time on the cruise and it's very convenient. Usually it gets us taken to the handicap line at check in too, so we don't have to stand in line. (Hasn't always worked though!)

Leaving next Sunday on the Glory!

We went last year and didn't book ahead. The place was nearly empty and they let us in for a cheaper price, because it was only two hours before they were closing for the day. They even convinced my husband and son to do the Dolphin Encounter and only charged them for one person. They were the only ones in with the dolphin. My daughter and I swam in the pool and then went to the small beach area. I thought it was a nice day.

You can take the Ferry over to Playa Del Carmen and spend some time over there. We went there a while ago and I remember it being nice. Cute little restaurants and shops, as well as beach areas. Not sure where to get the ferry, because we were actually staying nearby there.

I booked with Dion for last week. We never heard the announcement that we could get off the ship, so by the time we did get off and find him, his boat was full. He sent us with someone else from D&D Tours. We had to wait about 40 minutes for them to get enough other people to fill the boat going over. I was annoyed. Besides that, the trip was good. A little chopping going there and back, but fine.

My problem was that we were traveling with a 5 y.o. and 3 y.o. We were left on the beach and weren't able to get through the caves and rocks to the bath or were the restaurant and facilities were. We ended up being "trapped" on the beach for 4 hours. Luckily we had water and a few boxes of cheerios from the ship. I wouldn't recommend this tour for families with small kids.

Just back from our cruise last week and had a great tour with Lawrence of Antigua. Got to see everything I asked for, for only $40 for person and didn't charge for my two kids (5 & 3).

I just emailed him and am waiting to see if I get a response. Hoping he doesn't charge the full amount for little kids.