hachieashley

Check in will start at midnight in whatever time zone your departure port is, Just an FYI.

We had decent luck with walkie talkies on Allure. I think it helped that we mainly used them to communicate between central park view room, and pool deck. But I do know that it was also working between the room and deck 5 play makers. I am sure it is YMMV, but might be worth a try if you have the walkie talkies.

I have actually done both of these beaches with my kids (12 and 9). I will give you my thoughts on both Playa Mia- we booked this one through RCCL. The kids enjoyed the inflatables/ trampolines. The beach drops off into the water quickly, so not much shallow area, if that matters. There is a water slide, that the kids did a couple of times, but nothing to write home about. We had to pay for food separately and ordered a sampler that had fajitas, quesadillas, beans and rice, and it was fantastic. Chankanaab- Booked this one through shore excursioneer. We had no problem getting a taxi from the port to the resort. The sealion show, was okay, but I only understood half of what the announcer said. The package we bought had snorkeling and lunch included. Most of the beach is stair access, except for the lagoon area, which got really busy later in the day. The food that came with our package was pork fajitas, and was awesome. The snorkeling was fun, they have statues sunk that you can checkout. Both are decent choices

I sailed Grandeur in September, it was a fun relaxing ship for my girls trip. The staff was friendly, but the ship was no where near as "active" as the larger ships. If you are looking for a laid back cruise with less glitz and polish than the bigger ships you will have a great time. I really liked hanging out in the Viking Crown Lounge at night before it became a nightclub. We got to know one of the bartenders, Darrel, and he was amazing. The only slightly annoying thing about VCL is there is a broken light fixture that vibrates and makes a rattling noise.

Loving all these photos and info, can’t wait until our June cruise. One random question, are the Coca-Cola Freestyle machines working? I watched a video (back from Singapore) and they were shut down.