sk8rmomof3

We got everyone in the family a lanyard. Our kids are 13, 9, and 6. It was all in the fun of planning the cruise. Everyone picked a lanyard (Pokemon, Shopkins, etc).....I figured that even though they don't have to wear them all the time, it'll be easier to keep track of the cards if they are on a lanyard.

We choose the Conquest for our first Carnival cruise coming up in 20 days. Although it doesn't have all the bells and whistles I know the kids would LOVE, they've never been on a cruise, or any boat bigger than a ferry boat, so basically for them, anything is better than nothing. My only requirement over a pool was a water slide and I wanted the Build A Bear option. I figured we'd do this ship first because without ever experiencing a ship at all, they will be in awe no matter what. Then, we can move up from there. I think if we would have done a ship like Vista first, Conquest would be a disappointment because they'd be wanting all those amenities they knew the other ship had an this one didn't. Although, kids are kids, and as long as there is a pool they are usually happy!

We got ours on Etsy. Kids are getting them today in their Easter baskets. Well, actually, I had their "baskets" made as well....they are cinch sacks made for the cruise, and I filled them with all the essentials for the cruise. Watershoes, goggles, new beach towels, the shirts, etc.....

Oh I would be so sad!!!!! I mean, I wouldn't be mad and yelling at guest services, but I would be sad because although it would still be a vacation, and half price, I choose cruises to experience new places.

Another thread on here says they are having propulsion issues

 

 

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So just curious....what happens then? If they can't get it fixed? They can't just get another boat to come get everyone....do they just send everyone home?

If you self-debark, can you technically get off the boat when you want? I don't want to get off at 6:45 with 3 kids and not having eaten breakfast.

I'm not a very experienced cruiser, so I'm not sure my experience matters too much, and it wasn't even Carnival, but I can say that on our cruise last year on RC, there was an adult pool and I can only remember one time where there was one adult in it. The rest of the time it was empty. There were two family pools and a splash pads for the kids, which were packed. With this upcoming cruise, I only see one pool, and if there are a lot of kids, I can only imagine how crowded that one pool will be. It would be nice to have another area to go to.

We've only done one cruise so far and we had an interior room because my husband's work booked it for us. I wasn't upset seeing as though I didn't know what we were missing, and we didn't barely spend time in the room. For this upcoming cruise, we booked an inner room on purpose to save money and I'm not worried. We really aren't planning on being in the room much, and I'd rather save the money for something else. But again, we don't know what we are missing, so I'm sure that if we've had balcony rooms before and tried to do an interior room, it wouldn't be fun.

I'm curious as well. We have a time of 11:30. When we cruised with RC last year, there wasn't scheduled times. Just curious as to how this will work!

I personally think it just depends on your priorities. We always stay Marriott. I wanted a hotel on the beach, but the ones on the beach didn't offer free airport shuttle and the shuttle to the port was $30/person. We found a Fairfield Inn that has free airport shuttle and only $10/person shuttle to the port and that works out perfect for us! It also will shuttle us to a restaurant called Rustic Inn that looks amazing!!!!!!!

I was planning on putting my son in plaid shorts with a matching polo shirt. He's 9 and I'm not dressing him up too much. I doubt he'll even do the MDR more than once as he doesn't sit too long! We shall see!

I don't understand, why would they deliberately disable elevators?

Royal Caribbean told us last year that if you self assist, you may do so, but you must be able to climb the stairs with luggage because the elevators would be off. No clue why.

We are doing Ocho Rios and Cayman in November. My son will turn 7 on that cruise. Please post what you find to do in Cayman. I need ideas

 

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Just YouTube the turtle farm! We are doing that next month. It looks amazing! There is water slides, snorkeling with the turtles, you can hold them, and see different stages from hatchling up to the older ones! Plus, theres a bird area and other animals too! We booked an excursion that has a lunch included, but there were a variety of excursions that included the turtle farm. One was a submarine ride to the farm, then doing the farm, then getting on a bus and doing a historical tour. THen there was an excursion with just the farm no lunch included. Just read all the descriptions and it'll tell you what's included. I am POSITIVE this will be the highlight of the trip for the kids! I can't wait.

I have the app but from what I heard, the person has to basically be staring at their phone logged in waiting for the message. I thought it was more like a text where I could message my husband and say "Where are you" or "meet me in the buffet" and he would get a notification. From my understanding, this is not the case. He'd have to have it open and looking at it to receive the message. Now, I haven't tried it yet, this is just what I have heard, so I could totally be wrong! For me, it sounded like doing FB messenger would be easier and pay for the internet package for $5 a day. Then I could upload pictures as well. I guess we'll see!

Thanks all! Puts my mind at ease! I am glad I don't have to worry then! And you are right, I'm sure that as long as we get off eventually, they won't care. Ha ha. They aren't going to make us stay on. Although, darn if they do ;)

Every company is different of course, but on our RCCL cruise we just went down and got in line when we were ready. The policy they had sounded very similar to Carnival but it seemed to me that everyone just went when they were ready. I would suppose it depends on how much luggage you have also, we only have one large suitcase in addition to the carry-on styels that we'll travel with and it is a spinner style so it really doesn't take up any space in line.

We have 5 people and 3 suitcases, all on spinner wheels. Plus we each have a carry on, but not heavy and backpack style. It's really not much to move around. We're light packers. I really don't mind taking care of our own baggage. I just didn't want to be the first ones off the ship and then have to worry about hungry kids AND have to pay for a breakfast off the ship when it's free on the ship!

Very interesting! I didn't realize they switch ships (new cruiser here). Ours is a John Waltzman according to that chart. What does the cruise director do exactly?

When you get the social package, it is per device, or per room? If I pay the $25 for the week, can both my husband and I use it to post pictures, etc? Could I use my laptop to upload things? Or do you pay $25 per device?

Carnival has an option to have your flight boarding passes printed and delivered to your cabin. They take your luggage the night before and the next time you see it is at your destination airport. We paid $20 a person for this option and it was the best $20 I spent on the cruise. We got to skip getting our luggage at the port and lugging it around. We skipped printing boarding passes/check in at the airport. With TSA we breezed through security. Ft. Lauderdale airport is a nightmare of lines so any you can skip is worth $20

That's interesting! We will only have 3 bags to check. But that sounds really nice to not have to worry about lines at the airport! I was thinking about trying to find a place for lunch before going to the airport. It would be nice not to have to lug our suitcases with us! I wasn't even figuring out how to get to the airport yet, I figured there will be plenty of taxi cabs ready for us!

Why do you have to get up at 6am to "self assist"? If you get up later are they going to not let you off the boat?

Ha ha...I guess that was kind of my question. I wasn't sure if we did self-assist, would they let us just stay in at our leisure and get off the ship towards the end? I knew there was a certain order in which they have people get off, and I wasn't sure if when they call self-assist you HAD to get off, or if that's really just for the people that are in a hurry to get to the airport.

When we cruised last year, without children, we hated the way Royal Caribbean would smash us in like sardines and make us sit in a room for an hour waiting to leave. We said we would always choose self-assist from that moment on. I've had that thought in my head this whole planning process. HOWEVER, I just realized that self-assist means waking up at 6am and not really leaving time for breakfast. On RC last year, we didn't show up to port til 9am so we sat in the buffet area and ate breakfast while watching the ship dock. It was a little more leisurely (Except for having to then go stand in a room for an hour and be frustrated).....

I'm just curious.......with Carnival, would it better better for us to not self-assist so we can actually eat breakfast? I'm not worried about myself eating, but I'm just thinking that the kids would NOT be happy with lines and going back through customs and stuff on an empty stomach. We have no hurry to get off the boat because our flight isn't until 3pm, so we have no where to go between disembarkation and the flight......

This was exactly my same question. Other than just telling the kids "I'll come back in an hour to check on you", I have no clue how to know when to pick them up! I hate to keep checking every hour, because what if we get busy in an activity or something? My thoughts were that when we get there we'll work something out. I'm sure they are used to these questions on board! I also was curious about the HUB app if they can message through there.

Last year was our first cruise. 36 years old, and 36 years too late! I wish we would have done this all along! We were lucky that our first cruise was set up and paid for by my husband's work. Yes, we had to attend some meetings while on the ship, but it was a free trip and the meetings were only about an hour each day! They had everything planned, we just had to have fun! We booked our own excursions, but it was nice to be just us with no kids and figure out what cruising was all about. Now this year, we did all the planning, bringing the kids, and I feel ready for it because we did the trial run last year!

Yes, this is because of USPH food safety regulations. Any carton of milk that has been placed on the buffet line (in an ice bed or however) is now on time control, and must be discarded after 4 hours, and cannot be returned to temperature control in the refrigerators. So, at other meals, where milk usage is less, they will keep the milk in temperature control (in a refrigerator) until requested.

Thank you for the information!

Here is a link to the current kids menu for ships that have the American Table menu: http://www.zydecocruiser.net/menus/AT_AF/kids/ATKids.htm

 

That site also has most of the other menus as well.

 

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Sounds like a perfect kids menu to me! My little one is super picky and although she is even picky with mac and cheese and pasta, I know that she'll eat something! Pasta no sauce, no butter, no oil, no parsley....just plain noodles. She'll be happy. I'm sure they are used to picky eaters! Thank you for posting that menu!