DukeASUGirl

We did a horseback riding excursion with tequila tasting.

Definitely not walking distance, but it's a cool experience.

This. When we've done the Seuss brunch, I had no idea you could book it ahead of time. Everyone I know booked it onboard.

I'm booked for Firenze. Looking forward to trying the new "Fun Italian style!"

But your server in a land restaurant is expected to tip out the bus staff, dishwashers, hostess, etc. You may think they keep all of their tips, but they can't.

There aren't any reviews yet of Firenze, but you can see what people are saying about Venezia, since it will be very similar. One major difference between these two itineraries is length. Firenze is a 5-day cruise, and Panorama is a 7-day cruise. Panorama goes to Cabo, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. (I did this cruise this past summer on Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas, and hated Mazatlan, so personally would never go back there again.) Panorama has had a bit of issues, and in fact they just canceled 4 weeks worth of sailings, whereas Firenze will be brand new then. FWIW, I'm taking my Girl Scout troop on Firenze in June as their middle school graduation trip.

Thank you for this! We'll be on Firenze in June, which I know isn't the same ship, but same concept so this is super helpful!

We were never even asked about a dining choice though!

Dumb question, but what does "Dining Preference: WAITLIST" mean? They never asked my preference, and if we have cabins, how can we be waitlisted for dining? I can see how we might be waitlisted for one seating or the other, but wouldn't we still be assigned to a seating?

I see that the accessible version is $50/person because it includes video of the places that are inaccessible with mobility devices. Even though none of the people I'll be cruising with have accessibility issues, I still wish there was an option to do a lower-priced tour and just not go to all the places (obviously not taking spots from those who need it). The Girl Scout troop I lead would love to do something like this, but the girls are paying for their entire cruise with cookie money and the $130 tour isn't in the budget although a $50 tour would be. This really does sound great!

I use my Target RedCard to buy cruise line gift cards at 5% off, then immediately apply them to the balance.

I lead my daughter's GS troop. The girls are in 8th grade, and most of them have been in Girl Scouts since kindergarten. Maybe 2 or 3 of them will continue on in high school, but this is the last year for most of them. We will be spending the majority of the troop's bank account on one last hurrah, and have decided it will be a cruise! Planning on Carnival Firenze 5-night to Cabo and Ensenada. They had wanted to do a Bahamas cruise, but that was going to add about $400/person in airfare, so that's a lot of cookies they'd need to sell this year. But roadtripping to LA we can make it work. So proud of these girls for their hard work and budgeting!

After all their complaints of not wanting to go to Mexico... We decided to save the $400+/person on airfare, so roadtrip to LA it is! This means it will be a Baja Mexico cruise. Looking at either Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas (4-night to Catalina and Ensenada) or Carnival Firenze (5-night to Cabo and Ensenada). We're leaning towards the Firenze, because Cabo is definitely a draw. Planning to book it today, so hopefully we come to a consensus soon!

Honestly I'd be okay with Mexico. The girls seem adamently opposed however, but I bet they're more opposed to West Coast Mexico, and less so to Caribbean Mexico. I didn't see any out of New Orleans however, so maybe they don't do the short cruises in May from there.

No, it was actually a good description. And living in Phoenix, I think these girls are tired of those cities because "that's the only place we ever go" according to my daughter. But yeah, we're left with LA departures unless we fly to FL, and they seem to want to avoid those itineraries. So I guess airfare it is. Sigh.

I couldn't find anything 4-day on Orbitz other than FL, LA, or San Diego. (LA or San Diego of course would be "Mexico" Mexico as you called it). I could try other websites, but I suspect every other port are basically 7-day.

Following - I'll be taking my Girl Scout troop on a cruise when school lets out as their end-of-middle-school trip to spend their cookie money, and not every girl will have a parent in attendance.

Unfortunately, no. It has to be a 4-night cruise, and has to leave either in late May or early June. That's literally all that fits in anyone's schedule, so it could only be out of Los Angeles (to Baja/Mexico) or FL. And the girls already said they don't want a West Coast/Mexico cruise. They'd be okay with Caribbean Mexico, but don't want Pacific Mexico.

It will basically need to be a May 27 sailing, because too many girls have their dance recital on June 2 for us to even consider a June 3 sailing, and once it goes really any further into June then we compete with summer travel basketball season and rehearsals for musicals.

Under 17?! That's amazing - I've never heard of kid pricing going up to that old! I'll definitely look into that that.

I'm my daughter's Girl Scout leader. They're in 8th grade now, and it looks like roughly half the troop intends to quit before high school, so we're planning a big blowout end-of-Girl Scouts trip this summer. 7 girls and we haven't decided yet how many adults, but it looks like 4 are interested. So that's 11 people - which would work out to three cabins (4 in two of the cabins, and one will have 3). The intention is for the girls to afford this entirely though cookie sales and whatever other fundraising they can do this year. We've been selling cookies since kindergarten, and while we've spent a lot on badges, activities, and a trip to Camp Surf in San Diego a couple of years ago, they really aren't much interested in badges anymore. They mostly just want to hang out and do community service, which we can do for free. So we really haven't spent much in the last year because they really just want to save for a cruise. We live in Phoenix, and it looks like our budget will be roughly $650-800 per person. We had a big planning meeting last night, and they are really leaning towards a 4-day cruise to the Bahamas, which unfortunately will really add to the costs because we have to fly across the country first. I'd been hoping to steer them to a Baja cruise so we can drive to the port, but my own daughter said "We never go anywhere but Mexico!" and the other girls were totally jazzed about Florida and the Bahamas, so I guess we'll have the girls host some Parents Night Out babysitting events this year to raise extra money. Sorry for the long backstory. Anyway, when they pitched the idea, they looked at Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas. With airfare at its current rate (and I do think we can do better based on what day we book, what kind of sale we hit, etc), it will be about $900/person all-in which is definitely outside our budget unless we REALLY hustle (but the older they get, the busier they get, so I doubt they have time to sell as many cookies as they've done in the past) or families agree to pay the difference in cost. This morning before school, my daughter jumped on a discount site to check all the different brands, and discovered that Celebrity is currently running a really good sale, which would save about $150 per person, bringing us down to roughly $750/person on Celebrity Reflection, which is in our target zone. She also found that Carnival Conquest would be a little over $800/person all-in with airfare. (I do think we can do better on airfare if we book at the right time, so all these prices should go down a bit.) So my question is this...which would you recommend for teens? We will have six 14-yr-old girls, and one who will still be 13 (albeit almost 14), and it will be right when school lets out at the end of May. Choices: - Celebrity Reflection - goes to Key West and CocoCay (right in target budget range and least expensive using current pricing, but looks to have the least amount of amenities that would interest teens) - Carnival Conquest - goes to Nassau and Princess Cays (about the top of our budget range, seems to have a decent amount of amenities interesting to teens) - Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas - goes to Nassau and Cococay (about $100 more per person beyond our budget so would require more fundraising or parental buy-in, but seems to have the most for teens to do)

I'm always amazed that people will pay the upcharge for Johnny Rockets on Royal. It's not even like it's a unique dining experience or anything - there are Johnny Rockets all over the place on land.

I would definitely agree with this. Personally, I thought the production/show entertainment was better on Royal, but felt that the cruise directors worked harder to make sure guests had a great time on Carnival. On Royal, during the day, it was all "sign up for ice skating, etc" but my kids don't consider that to be a vacation (daughter is a figure skater and son is a hockey player, so they needed a break from the ice, and anyway they would have been beyond frustrated to have to wear rental skates and a helmet and just skate in a circle, no jumps, no speed, etc). We loved attending the skating shows, and went multiple times, but didn't really feel like there was much in the way of classes or other organized daytime activities. It was too chilly on the sea days to actually enjoy the waterslides or Flowrider (don't get me wrong - we did go on them, but by the final sea day we were freezing), so most of the time we were left floundering, whereas on Carnival there were always dance classes, games, etc we could join in. All in all, I felt like there were more similarities than differences, and I did love the big production shows of Royal, but I think my next cruise will be back to Carnival.

See, I'm the exact opposite. We loved Cabo, and hated Mazatlan. Never want to go back there.

I know this is a super-old topic, but I'm so glad to have found it because my 8th grade Cadette troop is going to be voting on their end-of-middle-school trip. We have a bunch of cookie money saved up and want to do something big because several of them have decided this will be their last year in Girl Scouts. We have 7 girls going, and one of the options we're leaning towards is a 4-day cruise from Long Beach (going to Catalina and Ensenada). Other choices are National Parks in Utah, a cabin in Colorado, and Disneyland. I've priced it out, and the cruise is actually really doable for them and I think they'd really enjoy it. Lots of great tips in this thread!