Itchy&Scratchy

Why make us feel inferior and that there is something fundamentally wrong with us because we choose to spend 90-120 minutes to ourselves, going back over what we did for the day???

to each his own. My hubs, kid and I spend every waking moment on the ship together, so we don't mind some new company at the table in MDR.

 

We only had one bad experience, with an elderly lady that dominated the conversation at the table at a very high sound volume. She kept talking and talking and talking and talking only about herself and her past life, and didn't let anybody else utter a word. The next day everyone else obviously asked to be transferred to a different table, because she and her boyfriend were the only ones at the table.

Why be confrontational? While offering grace isn't considered good social etiquette by many, the person offering had everyone's best interest in mind. There are many ways to politely decline the offer. A positive response will set the tone for the rest of the meal.

 

Burt

not everyone's, but only their own, indeed.

The person offering grace wouldn't have my family's interests in mind at all. We can have a very positive meal without participating in any grace offering.

If someone wants to say grace at the table, more power to them. Go nuts. But it is absolutely rude and inappropriate to expect a stranger at the dinner table to participate in your religious rituals. And I suspect that if someone asked you to hold hands and "partake" while they prayed to Satan, or Xenu, or Zorp the Surveyor, you might not feel the same way.

 

Your religion belongs inside your own personal bubble. You are welcome to chant over your food at the beginning of the meal, I am equally welcome to exercise my deliberate lack of religion by not joining in.

very well said, thank you.

I am blissfully unaware of the club class. :)

we usually get the flu vaccination for all of us, but my hubby skips it sometimes. I definitely get the kid and myself vaccinated for flu. Kiddo is current on all US vaccinations required for his age.

No, they don't. The longer they must go between tidying up and spot cleaning, the longer it takes to clean the cabin on turnaround day or other days.

 

Saving them 10 minutes on Monday and Tuesday just means they are working an extra hour on Wednesday to catch up.

 

oh, please. The cabin we stayed at on Caribbean princess this year was not deep or spot cleaned in forever. We brought Lysol wipes and wiped everything (and I mean - every surface!), and all the wipes were simply black with dirt. And we are not even clean freaks, far from it.

"Compassion?" Compassion and common courtesy aren't the same thing.

These types of threads are not about compassion. It seems as if it's more like feeling sorry for someone because you consider their employment a "demeaning job."

I don't think these jobs are demeaning at all. I used to work in service myself when I was young and at school and before I hurt my back, and my mother-in-law has been a housekeeper till she retired this year at 66. However, I do believe these jobs are hard and physically taxing, so I think people who have to clean, say, 30 rooms in day, would appreciate not having to clean one or two of them.

 

OP, we always put the do not disturb sign on. If we need something cleaned, emptied, replaced or made up, we take the sign out and let the steward know. We definitely don't need turn down service at night, so we always put the sign up in the afternoon. We also don't need our kid's bunk bed made up every day.

We also don't cancel autotips even if we don't need the room cleaned every day.

my 6 yo wasn't even permitted to play in the jungle gym in the 8-12 yo group - with a parent present. He won't stay without one of us present anyway, and we simply wanted him to get some exercise, because all of our sea days were stormy.

Whoever put a jungle gym into the 8-12 yo room is an idiot. Caribbean Princess didn't have anything like that for 5-6 yo kids to play on. They had no equipment to burn the energy off.

I honestly haven't seen life vests available for kids on the pool deck. We bring our own.

Depends on what kind of port vacations you are looking for. Are you an active vacationer or are you a beach buddy?

 

We've been to Cozumel, Costa Maya, Belize, Princess Cays, St Maarten, St Thomas, ABC islands, Labadee (Haiti), Ocho Rios and Falmouth in Jamajca, and whatever RCI has for a private island.

 

We found Cozumel and Costa Maya to be rather boring or underwhelming in terms of beach vacations. But not bad.

ABC were fanstastic - Aruba (butterfly farm was cute and then we cross the road to use the beach in front of some hotel - it was free and great). Bonaire's Luc Bay was a dream spot (not much of a beach, but we spent probably about 5 hours in the water, just lounging or walking). I picked a bad beach to go in Curacao (it was boring - Pirate Bay beach) - pick something different.

 

Belize had a fantastic excursion (tubing through underground caves). Loved it!!! Not through the cruise, though, so it was smaller and more enjoyable.

 

We did ziplining through the jungle and looked at Dunns Falls in Ocho Rios. We didn't have any energy after ziplining to actually climb the Dunns Falls. Looked like fun. Falmouth is very boring and a long drive from everything. I'd skip it, but darn it, that's where Regal Princess keeps sailing to.

 

Labadee was very picturesque - I did beach, and hubs did ziplining. We both loved it. The following cruise was with a kid, so we just did a beach thing. Still loved it.

 

St Thomas and St Maarten were beachy and ok. They were crowded and, while pretty, nothing super special.

 

Our friends love Dominica above all.

you don't have to lug a 20# car seat. Get a $40 Cosco Scenera NEXT for your 16 month old. Super light, easy to install with a seatbelt (not latch), easy to use, rear facing seat only. If your child is not rear facing (she should till a minimum of 2 years of age), Evenflo Maestro ($50-70) is a super light, great to travel with seat, reasonably lasting even for large kids. Put either of those seats on a stroller or a folding luggage cart and use bungee cords to secure it. Both of them are easy to travel with.

Also check out Traveling with Children board on babycenter.com for additional travel tips.

 

Does she need a car seat in a taxi?

yes, laws of physics apply even to taxis. Your kid must be in a car seat.

If you've booked through a TA, the TA receives all notifications. It's their responsibility to notify you. Sounds like your TA dropped the ball. Nice upgrade, though.

 

Princess can change anyone's booking at any time even if you're linked to another booking or changed your booking to "No upgrade." The default for all bookings is "Will accept an upgrade" so Princess really doesn't need to notify you. Your chances of being changed are reduced if you have it as "No upgrade" but Princess retains the right to move you.

 

is the "no upgrade" option visible on princess site? I always book through princess site, but I don't remember every checking or unchecking the "no upgrade" box.

ETA: I just searched the entire princess site and I can't find it.

 

I am on a different cruise, but accidently booked a sideways room not knowing what it is. Princess will not change me to a non-sideways inside room without me paying $200 more per person (there are 3 of us).

don't know about the big inflatable rings, but inflatable arm bands, vests and floaties (puddle jumpers) are allowed. My kid's been using them for years.

it shouldn't be. we brought one like this: https://smile.amazon.com/Cablelera-Power-Extension-Splitter-ZWACPQAG-14/dp/B00FRODUR4/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1504442422&sr=8-5&keywords=splitter+electric

 

 

and it was not confiscated in April 2017.

At 3.5 years old, she won't nap as much anymore,

every kid is different. Mine was almost 4 on his first cruise, and he definitely napped every day. He had no problem sleeping at night either.

yes, there are only 3 of us. Upon further consideration, I think we'll go with two twin bottoms. I forgot that it makes it more convenient to check on our 6 yo at night.

make sure to have a driver's license too (if you are in the US and are flying domestically).

The most unfortunate thing happened to use after our last cruise: we were checking in for our flight at FLL airport, and the airline clerk lost my husband's driver's license right there in front of us. We handed her 2 driver's licenses and she handed back only one of them with 2 boarding passes. That was it. She never found the other driver's license and was visibly annoyed by our repeated requests to look for it some more.

Thank goodness, we both had passports with us and were able to pass through TSA checkpoint with them.

Princess insists that if you are using the upper berth(s) that the lowers be configured as twins

(to allow access to the uppers)

 

Stewards are responsive to passengers, and will configure the beds as you wish.

I will try when we board. :) We don't need our kid's bed made up every day, so the steward won't need access to it. Most nights we put a "do not disturb" sign on anyway.

 

There was another room I selected while "pretend booking" today for 3 people, and it allowed me to choose twin or queen. That was weird. Another weird thing is that Princess let me choose that room for 3 people, but another site with detailed cabin descriptions showed it as a double occupancy only cabin.

If you keep the autocharge on and hand them $40, they turn it in and get it back in their account in the next cruise.

I guess I was still confused about that. So, they do keep it if I don't cancel the autocharge?

We never cancel the autocharged tips. I guess one day I might, if the service is truly horrendous, but we've never experienced truly bad service before. Less than stellar? Yes. Underwhelming? Yes. Annoyingly slow? Yes. Truly bad? Nope.

 

But then - we've never tipped additionally... Somebody above said that some cruiser left a $500 tip to the waiter. That's more than some cruises cost us per person... We've been on $258pp 7 night Royal Caribbean cruises...

 

If they take money without noting cabin number and turning it in, their contract is terminated.

what if the envelope was blank? Can they just make up a cabin number as long as they turn it in? My friend left cash tips for the waiters in plain blank envelopes. Boy, I hope their contracts didn't get terminated. She thought she was doing a good thing.

That's not actually what their contract says, it says all cash tips must be handed in, (it doesn't say if any is returned after checking on auto tips or whatever so that becomes speculation) but it is clear that all cash tips must be handed in.

the waiters don't get to keep their personally earned additional cash tips???????? :o

 

 

With anytime and often having different waitstaff every evening there was no way at the end of the cruise to track down who served you and give a tip.

yes, there is. We always do AD, and we got the same waitress twice in one week. She was fabulous! We kept requesting her table, but it was always full because everyone wanted her. On our last night on the ship, I went over to her table and thanked her in person (now I wish I gave her extra tip) and filled out a card singing her praise. Anna (it's been a year, and I still remember her name) went above and beyond, especially considering our kid who was being a little picky with his choices.

I mainly eat seafood dishes on the cruise. There is at least one or two seafood dishes in the MDR every evening. Plus, a salmon dish that is always available.

my friends did a quantum class cruise last year with 2 kids (7 and 9 yo), and they hated it. Long lines to get to a buffet, long lines for everything, too many people, and the food (compared to Regal/Royal Princess) wasn't all that good.

 

We did a Liberty of the Seas with our then 3 yo and loved it. I don't remember having a splash area for diapered kids (probably isn't one), but ours was potty trained by then. It's the same ship as Independence of the Seas our friends went on with us with their 3 yo and loved it. Same as Liberty of the Seas.

 

I'd do a smaller ship, I guess, but not old and small. At least, RCI has a lot more to do on the ship with/for kids than Princess, but a 2 yo can't do a lot of those things anyway (ice skating, rock climbing wall, mini golf, etc.)

latch is just a convenience feature and it has a weight limit, whereas a regular seat belt is designed to keep a 300# person in place. They are equally safe up until that weight limit, but latch is no longer safe to use once the kid + car seat combination exceeds the allowed lower anchor weight limit (usually 65# total).

how old, tall and heavy is the child? what seat do you use at home? if the kid is younger than 2, will you have a separate seat for him on the plane?

 

There is a sign by the taxi stand at FLL airport that says that by FL law, kids younger than 5 need to be in car seats. Yet, taxi drivers don't usually give a crap (excuse my language). One had the seatbelts tucked into the seat, so we spent some time untucking them so we could buckle up. The other one started driving, while I was putting the kid into the car seat (I was still standing outside the taxi). They drive like crazy in FLL.

 

P.S. We traveled on a cruise once with a Britax Frontier CT, and it was easier than I thought. It fit into a closet very nicely. We are about to bring it again on a cruise in November, because we have to fly to FLL, but drive back for 10 hours. I strap it to a folding luggage cart with bungee cords and wheel it through the airport and port. Check out Travel With Children board on www.babycenter.com for additional tips.

This was a LATCH system hook up, and I could not get the buckle to release enough slack to get the belt out. I almost got to the point of cutting it out, but then we wouldn't have had a car seat to get home from the airport.

even if you cut the latch belt, you can still install the car seat with a seat belt in any car.

 

Another tangent: many people do not realize that latch anchors have a weight limit. It's car and seat dependent, but in most cars the rule is - once your kid reaches 40# (or the weight of the car seat + child's weight reaches 65#), you must switch to a seat belt install.