Itchy&Scratchy

I just made a final payment on our Thanksgiving cruise to Cozumel/Jamaica/Costa Maya. I am not cancelling even if they get hit by Irma or whichever one is coming next.

Was this a holiday cruise? They must have either waived the limit due to the holidays, not enforce the rule system wide, or we had an exceptionally large number of older teens or kids home from college over the holidays on ours who don't need kids club.

it was a spring break.

I accidently booked R522 on Regal for our upcoming cruise, not knowing what a sideways cabin was. I think I will not like it. Someone on CC was so kind to post a youtube link to that particular cabin's review and I hate the way the closet is split in half with a wall. We won't be able to stash a huge car seat and a large suitcase in it, like we were able in a regular cabin with a regular closet.

The lack of a hallway before you enter the sleeping area doesn't bother me as much.

I think they limit the number of 3/4 per cabin, but not minors.

 

I was on a Thanksgiving or Christmas cruise, don't remember which one, and while talking to a Casino employee on break he said business was really down because there were 1800 minors on this cruise and 1400 last week, or something similar, so if they do limit minors it's not until they're the majority of the ship.

Princess does limit minors. Last years we were unable to cruise with our friends because the 4-8 year old group on Regal has reached the limit. We had a 5 yo kid. They were also placed on a waiting list (they had a 10 yo and an 8 yo), and as soon as someone cancelled their reservation, they got booked. We went with a different ship.

We don't book trips a year ahead - more like 4-5 months. Both times we have booked cruises, TD was no longer an option, presumably because they had reached their capacity for that with other passengers. I'm ok with that, and we enjoyed ATD last time, but making a reservation for our group on a day-by-day basis would be beneficial for sure.

that's so strange. We've been on Regal and Caribbean, and they didn't take reservations for ATD at all.

We had a large group on Regal, and if we showed up at a certain time, there was no waiting. If we showed up a bit later, there was a 30-45 minute wait for a large table. On Caribbean there were only 3 of us, and we never said no to sharing a table, so we were always seated immediately.

We loved Freedom class ships on RC as well. We also loved all the physical activities because we were in our late 30s and either didn't have a kid yet or brought our young kid with us. There is a lot more to do for families and kids. We got tired of the same food though on all three ships we've been on, and took up our friends' offer to try Regal Princess. There are some plusses and minuses to both companies.

I think you should go with Royal or Regal Princess if you like great food and big (but not enormous) ship. The buffet on these two ships is by far better than any RC or smaller Princess ships (Caribbean Princess in particular). Regal and Royal Princesses are newer and cleaner. There are fewer physical activities for people to do, but since you are looking to relax and are in your mid-50s, you'd love the laid back atmosphere.

Out of curiosity - did RC refund all your money or did they keep it?

"Let us be thankful to each other for this good company and let us be grateful to those who grew this food and prepared this meal we are about to share."

But no, a 3 year old isn't going to have any true memories of the trip.

we took our son on his first cruise when he was 3. He absolutely fell in love with cruising and now asks to go cruising every year. He is 6. He is counting days till our next cruise this November. He also remembers Princess Cays as the place where his foot got sliced opened and that happened 1.5 years ago.

I remember some things from when I was 3 and even younger. Kids enjoy life as it's happening, while adults enjoy the memories. Even if the kids don't remember the trip a year or two or twenty later, they do enjoy it very much in the moment.

keep checking. We are going on Thanksgiving 2017, and two weeks ago all of them were sold out on Fri, and back on the market on Monday. Then two-person cabins were "sold out", and now a bunch of them are on the market. During the day I keep checking, and every time it's a different result.

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???

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.

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,

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.