vtroper

Have a good flight and enjoy your trip. If you get a chance to snap a pic of a few dailies this week, myself and everyone else on the Aug 14th 6 day sailing would be very appreciative.

TIA

Going on the NYE Getaway cruise, put me down for another person anxiously awaiting the posting of the Dailes. TIA.

Hope you guys have a great trip. We're on the next Western cruise after you (Dec 28th) so I'll be curious to hear what time the Silhouette is actually getting into ports with her current speed issues.

Bon voyage

My wife and I just returned from the Brilliance's Dec 30th sailing and we have two boys ages 6 and 4. We took our then 4 year old on the Oasis of the Seas two years ago, took both boys (then 5 and 2 1/2) on the Disney Fantasy 18 months ago and both again (5 1/2 and 3) on the Norwegian Epic this past March. They loved all three of those trips and we never felt like there was a shortage of things for them to do. This cruise however was just my wife and I and we said over and over again how bored our kids would be on the Brilliance. Perhaps we're just spoiled by how kid friendly the other three ships we sailed were, but we felt in comparison to our previous three cruises that this ship had significantly less that would interest our boys. They don't enjoy being dropped off in the kids area, so they spend most of the time doing stuff with us and on the other ships there were always lots of things we could do together. On the Brilliance, while it was a lovely ship and my wife and I had a great time, the swimming options are very limited, the evening shows would have bored them out of their minds and there were very very few activities we saw in the Cruise Compass that we think they would have enjoyed.

I would second the recommendation of another to see if you have any Grandparents that would be interested in watching them while you and your husband go by yourselves. I think as first time cruisers you would love the Brilliance, but I personally would not recommend it for young kids.

Wondering what time you reached port on RCL to get to the race on time. Freedom is scheduled to dock at 10 and the race starts at 10:30. Can we make it there on time?

Cozumel is an hour behind ship time (Central time) so their 10:30 is 11:30 boat time. You'll have more than enough time to get off the Freedom and get to Margaritaville for the starting point.

Have a great time...

My wife and I just returned from the Brilliance of the Seas Dec 30th sailing and after consulting Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor for what we should do while in Cozumel, settled on The Amazing Race Cozumel on Thursday Jan 2nd. I'll share my entire trip advisor post below as well, but would be happy to answer any questions for anyone on the fence about whether they should do this or not.

After attempting to do the Amazing Race Cozumel back in the summer of 2012 when we were visiting Cozumel on the Disney Fantasy but having it canceled because there weren't enough other racers signed up that day to race, we were cautiously optimistic that we would be able to race this time. While The Amazing Race: Cozumel is an excursion currently offered to cruisers directly thru Carnival cruise lines, it is not offered through the other cruise lines so if you're interested in doing it and not sailing with Carnival you'll need to book directly through their LARF website.

While I won't give too many details of the actual race away since the surprise was a big part of the fun, The Amazing Race Cozumel was without question the best thing we did on this cruise and one of our favorite excursions we've done at any port. It is very well organized and as many of the other reviews have suggested, allows you to see parts of Cozumel that are off the beaten path. For those that are fans of the CBS Reality show of the same name, many of the puzzles and challenges you have to solve in order to figure out where you're supposed to go next will look familiar. While we were in it to win it, some of the teams approached it with a more leisurely pace and enjoyed it equally as a scavenger hunt. It is an excursion I highly recommend whether or not you're looking for an active couple hours or just something memorable to do with friends and family.

Any idea what movies were playing in the 3D theatre? We'll be sailing a week from today and My 4yo was hoping to see Kung Fu Panda 2.

Also, who was your headliner this week?

Thanks,