woostergirl

@Onessa How wonderful for her and your whole family! I will keep this in mind for the future. Traveling is so good for kids. My daughter has a few more years in middle school so maybe I can squeeze a long cruise in!

Thanks @BIG_Steve We are there on Christmas Day from noon to 6p...so I'm guessing not much will be open! I wish our port time was earlier in the day so we could attend an Anglican church service. That would've been memorable for us.

Thanks for your post! Excited to hear that! We are on the Beyond Xmas cruise in the Caribbean. My kids are 7 and 11.

Ship: Beyond Length of Cruise: 8 Night, Eastern Caribbean Holiday Cruise Cruise Sail Date: 12/18/2022 Date email offer received: 10/4/2022 Captain’s Club Tier [“PREVIEW” = first Celebrity Cruise]: Preview Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: TA Current Cabin: S2 - Sky Suite Bid? Yes/No: Yes General Comments (offer details, etc.) Min bid amounts, per guest, as follows: Iconic Suite: $7,000 pp Penthouse Suite: $2,000 pp Edge Villa: $3,000 pp Royal Suite: $2,000 pp Celebrity Suite: $1,500 pp AquaClass SkySuite: $400 pp I bid $2,525/pp for the PS and $600/pp for the AquaClass SS. Fingers crossed!

Thanks everyone! The Pirate Museum is on the list!!

I'm sailing on Beyond's Holiday/Christmas sailing (Dec 18-26) in a Sky Suite. I saw on another thread that mentioned special holiday menus at the specialty dining restaurants and some people recommended Fine Cut. So my newbie questions are: Are there special holiday meals at Luminae for Xmas Eve and Xmas Day? Would you recommend booking a specialty dining dinner on Xmas Eve/Xmas Day over dining at Luminae (or the main dining rooms)? We already have reservations for Le Voyage and LPC on two of the other non-Xmas nights. I've read great things about Luminae and am leaning towards just experiencing Luminae for the holiday meals but we have some OBC to use. Thanks!

I'm looking to hire a charter for our visit to Tortola in December. We're interested in going to Virgin Gorda and then some inshore fishing. I''m having a hard time finding a day charter company for this. And then I noticed that Tortola is part of the BVI and that BVI is closed to US flagged day charter boats which narrows the number of charter companies available. Here's an example of the notice: https://seasthedayusvi.com/destinations/ Does anyone know if this has changed? Or does anyone have a day charter they can recommend for Tortola? Many thanks!

@ScanTheHorizon I have a similar quandary...My kids will be 12 and 8 next summer and we are considering a 14 night Norway or Norway/Iceland cruise. Rotterdam looks amazing (for me and my DH at least haha!) but was also wondering about the kids. We went on a 9 night Alaska cruise this summer on Princess and it was fun and the kids like it. Princess is supposed to have slightly younger passengers. Princess also has Norway/Land of the Midnight Sun cruises in the summer so I'm also considering that as well. But I like trying new things so I'm interested in Rotterdam as well as a new ship. (And the "enrichment" on our Princess cruise was a joke.) Rotterdam also has family oceanview cabins which have a nice price point for these longer cruises. Curious, did you make a decision?

I will be going to Nassau in December this year and it will be my family's first time. Our ship is only docked in Nassau for 6 hours from 12p-6p. We are a relatively active family of four with my DH and two kids ages 11 and 7. Should we go to the pirate museum? Then what? Should we splurge for Margaritaville? Our kids love lazy rivers but I'm worried about spending so much money for 4 hours (if that) by the pool... Or just walk around and eat local foods? We love animals but aren't really snorkellers. Thanks for your suggestions!

@blue_water Thank you for all your helpful advice and suggestions here! I'm on Celebrity Beyond Xmas week as well and contacted Capt Malcolm as you recommended. I only have a group of 4, so fingers crossed he has availability on one of his smaller boats. Also, my 7 year old son loves fishing, do you know if it would be possible to do the baths at Virgin Gorda and some fishing? We are docked from 7a-3p. Thanks again!

Thank you! Love hearing about all the experiences of longer cruises with kids! Yes, missing school would be my main concern as the cruise I'm interested in is in February...But maybe they can keep up online.

What is the longest cruise you've done with your kids? How old were your kids at the time? What cruise line? Did everyone enjoy the cruise? What were your considerations when booking the longer cruise? We went on a 9 night cruise this summer with my kids ages 7 and 11 which was really fun. I'm considering a cruise that is 15 days in 2024. The kids will be 9 and 13 by that time. I appreciate hearing about your experiences with long cruises with kids! Thanks!

We were on Ruby Princess in June and Navigator OTS in August. Princess gives you a pager at the kids club while RC does not. The RC ship had more family activities like putt-putt/mini golf and poolside activities and parties that we all liked. As someone previously said, the experience really depends on the kids club team regarding how conflicts with kids are handled. On the Princess cruise, there was one disruptive child in the kids club, but the kids club team didn't do anything about it so my kids went less often. So perhaps also consider how your child would react to a disruptive child at the kids club. I heard RC kids club team members let parents know that their kids are disruptive and potential consequences. RC kids club uses an iPad for sign-in/sign out which probably makes it easier to monitor disruptive kids.

Thanks all! Good to keep in mind that the ship is the main attraction on DCL.

Great to know! Thank you!

Thanks @SuiteLiving! Yes, not too much about the South Pacific cruises yet...Apologies my question wasn't clear. I'm aware that ABD are multi-day experiences, but I was wondering if DCL offers any Disney exclusive shore excursions generally, not just for the South Pacific sailing.

I'm considering a South Pacific Disney cruise with my family and was wondering if DCL offers any special or exclusive Adventures by Disney shore excursions on their cruises. Or are the excursions pretty similar to other cruise lines. We've been on Princess and Royal Caribbean. Here's the link to the South Pacific cruises: https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/featured/hawaii-south-pacific-cruises/?CMP=EMC-1662718404|346040158&cid=PDM574172&bid=1434968276 Thanks!

Thanks for sharing @Stu UK! Any chance you've tried using VPN/Citrix on Beyond? I'm on the Beyond in December and was wondering if I might be able to do some work while onboard. Thanks!

Disney Cruises just announced that they will be headed to the South Pacific in 2023-2024. Here's the website announcement: https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/featured/hawaii-south-pacific-cruises/?CMP=EMC-1662718404|346040158&cid=PDM574172&bid=1434968276 I'm considering putting a deposit down for the 15-night South Pacific cruise from Sydney to Honolulu on February 16, 2024 Ports of call: Noumea, New Caledonia; Lautoka, Fiji; Pago Pago, American Samoa; Kahului, Maui Number of days at sea: 9 The prices are good, but lots of sea days. Going to American Samoa and the national park there is on my bucket list! Is this a good itinerary for those of you who have sailed in the South Pacific? Or should I consider a Paul Gaugin cruise instead? My kids will be 9 and 13 in 2024. Thanks in advance!

My son gets abdominal migraines from time-to-time, throws up on long car rides some times and has had vague general nausea issues for the past four years. He's now 7. We use a prescription anti-nausea medication called Zofran. It is a small white tablet that you put under their tongue and it dissolves. No active chewing or swallowing required. He was a little sea sick on the first day of our summer Alaska trip as the ship was zooming out of San Francisco bay and into the open ocean and I gave him a Zofran and then he was fine. If you are planning to speak with the pediatrician, it might be worth asking for some Zofran. We also use Hyland's Tummy Ache for his nausea. It's over-the-counter and is also a small white tablet that dissolves under the the tongue. It helps with general tummy issues including nausea. This is our first line of defense and it usully works. It's easy to find on Amazon, Walgreens, etc. If the Hyland's medicine is not working after 30 minutes, then I give him a Zofran. Zofran really works wonders for nausea. Good luck!

We were just on Navigator in a panorama oceanview room (1864) and our kids used the sofabed. It is quite low when they make it into a double. Not sure if the sofa beds on the Wonder are like the ones on Navigator, but the sofa bed is a trundle-style and the trundle does pop up to the seat cushion, but it is pretty low. I don't think a rail would be possible. In our cabin when the sofabed was made it was also very close to the partition you see in the pic attached. However, the idea of extra pillows or a chair would work!

Yes!! Next time for sure!!

Thanks for sharing! Yes, truffles are not to everyone's palate.

We only brought on two bottles with us. Good to know for next time. Thanks for clearing that up!

I hemmed and hawed about both the UDP and deluxe beverage package up until my cruise on Navigator on August 15th. On July 18 my RC trip planner offered me: UDP for two adults at $431.80 (30% off) and the Deluxe Bev Package (DBP) for 2 at $670.08 (at $70.99/guest/day) (The breakdown is $567.92 + $102.16 gratuities = $670.08) On Aug 2, I was offered UDP for two adults at $408.20 (40% off) and the DBP was the same price. $670 is a lot of money...especially since the 4 night cruise for our family of 4 was only $1,300 for a panorama oceanview room. So I signed up with the UDP for me and my DH but we decided to buy all our beverages a la cart. Some observations and tips for first time cruisers and those who don't have the drinks package but want to imbibe now and again: Protip #1: Bring two bottles of wine on board per adult. We only brought two and wished we brought four. Protip #2: Bring wine that have a screw top. The bartenders at the Lime and Coconut gave us a hard time and told us they did not have a wine bottle opener or wine glasses. You have to get the bottle opener and wine glasses from your room steward or room service. Protip #3: Bring whites and roses to drink poolside. (Why not reds for dinner? Read on!) Protip #4: You can buy a bucket of beer! One can of Red Stripe is $10 but you can get a bucket of 5 cans at the Lime and Coconut for $41 (this includes gratuities). And they give you a bucket with ice. Nice part about this is that you can bring your beer back to the mini-fridge in your cabin if you don't need all 5 in one sitting! 🙂 Protip #5: Get the UDP...This was much more reasonable package and the food at the specialty restaurants were much better than the MDR. Also, which I didn't know, is that you receive 40% off on bottles of wine at the restaurants. So $40 only cost $24...a great idea as a bottle wine is about four wine glasses (I like large pours!) So buy reds to go with dinner at Chops at Chops. Protip #6: You can only buy bottles of wine at specialty restaurants. We tried to get one at Lime and Coconut to no avail. Protip #7: Buy another bottle of wine before you leave the restaurant. They will open it for you and then you can take it with out to finish in your cabin or elsewhere. Protip #8: Sometimes I just wanted a cocktail by the pool, so what's a girl to do? Just get a regular cocktail. 🙂 My go-to is Jameson & ginger ale or it could be a vodka tonic or a rum & coke...whatever you fancy. Traditional/classic cocktails are only $10 a glass whereas all the specialty/fancy cocktails are around $15 a glass. Also, there is more alcohol in the classic cocktails IMHO (if you care about stuff like that!) Most of the specialty cocktails I had on board (including the Bamboo Room) were pretty weak. Protip #9: Buy a pitcher of beer at Playmakers. It's only $18!! And Playmaker's is the best location to experience the dance parties in the promenade. Go early during the pre-party. Get the high top table "outside" in the promenade and a pitcher of beer and you are all set! Oh and you have UDP so order more wings!! Protip #10: RC has free beverages everywhere. Before I went on board, one of my concerns was that it would be hard to find iced tea and lemonade during the cruise. But they have big containers set up by the taco area on the pool deck and it was no problem getting ice tea or lemonade at Windjammer. Protip #11: Juices are free at Windjammer for breakfast. Not the "fresh squeezed" juices which have an upcharge, but orance, apple, and cranberry juice was plentiful. Protip #12: Coffee is free and widely available at all meals and at any time at the Cafe Promenade. If you really want a Starbucks, buy a cup of Starbucks! Just like you would do at home or anywhere else. We had an amazing time on our cruise and didn't feel like we were missing out on anything. I hope these tips are helpful and let me know if you have your own tips!