Athankfulheart

Thanks for the post. We have booked a SPA OV on the Dream for Halloween. It looks like it will be a great cruise!

 

Joe

The spa on the Dream is one of our favorite places in the whole world :)

For something as Special as your 25th, I would definately recommend Calabaza. I would go back to the Valor and Babados in a heartbeat to do it again.

I made reservations with these guys for our day in Barbados :D Thanks !

I don't have the schedule but my 10yo is here with me. She said that the leaders from January are Jason , who asked to be called " Mr. Awesome" and Miss Jenna.

Some of the things that she remembers are :

Dancing contests

Carnival type games

A fun game where you have a balloon tied to your ankle and the object is to step on other kids balloons. Last balloon standing wins. They had rules to keep it tame and safe.

"Wax museum" a type of freeze/don't freeze game

A mummy wrap game ( a team game) They even had a game using the TP after the game was over.

Several what I would call " gym class" type games

Tshirt coloring

On days when they were up at camp they had video games.

They made some various crafts

Free time for using board games

There were lots of prizes ( candy and medals)

They gave a bunch of freebies during Night Owls

Definitely try the pasta place on the first day. I would also recommend that the pizza is pretty yummy and I am born & raised in NY.

I would highly recommend spending some time in a serenity hammock with your hubby while everyone else is at late dinner and the shows.

My kids were in the 6-8, 9-11,12-14 and teen groups and the only ones who didn't love the activities were the teens. They went the first night and decided it was too much "hanging out" and not enough " fun activities" for them. They thought that the parties were "annoying" with kids sitting around with blaring music. They really prefer organized activities. They did some activities during the day but did not enjoy the night scene at all. My daughter in Circle C did enjoy the nights because they had more activities. The younger kids loved Miss Jazzy. My 18yo ( high school senior) informed me that the staff person (female) at O2 has a nasty sailor mouth while with the kids. I wish I had known that while we were still aboard. I know that kids have mouths at times, but in my opinion it is not acceptable as a professional staff person who works with kids of any age ( while on duty).

Congratulations!

 

We booked our trip for April 27th -14 waaay back in January of 2013 and have the same exact cabin booked. 6483 with first aft wrap ever and only 50+ days left to go :)

Have a wonderful time !! We loved our wrap on the Dream. The next time on Dream we went with a spa balcony, which we loved too. We just really loved the aft deck so much more. I figure we chose this ship for the itinerary and since there is no Cloud 9 Spa, we may appreciate the escape to the private deck even moreso :p There is a video of 6483 on You Tube if you haven't already seen it.

If we (DH and I) were not having any luck finding a seat. I would have no trouble parking myself at their table.

I might ask "Are you alone"? If they answer yes. We're sharing, like it or not.

Bingo ! LOL :D

Congrats on the 25th. I am waiting for Carnival to open up 2015 so I can plan my 25th Anniversary Cruise and my DH 50th.

 

I was just on the Valor in January and in Barbados I did Calabaza to swim with the Turtles. #1 on TripAdvisor and I can see why. From swimming with the turtles. Sailing around the beautiful ocean. All you can drink and food from the minute you step on the catamaran. Gina and her crew are there to make you day the best and they do a great job. She only books 12 people per day (so book early, she books out fast). Her rum punch is the best (believe me, I know first hand :)). It was the best excursion of the cruise for me and actually the #1 excursion of all time.

 

For something as Special as your 25th, I would definately recommend Calabaza. I would go back to the Valor and Babados in a heartbeat to do it again.

I have Calabaza on my list ! Thanks :)

We just booked our 25th wedding anniversary cruise for 1/4/15 on the Valor with a week in PR beforehand. I'm so excited ! We have been on a bunch of cruises, but it has occurred to me today that they were all :

- With kids

- With friends

- With new cruisers

- "Mandatory fun" workplace charter

- Conferences

- Family reunion

but never JUST US with no agenda other than spending time together !

We picked cabin #6483 because we enjoyed the same on a Dream sailing in '12. We are booking a VRBO condo in PR that's pretty nice, right on the beach and really affordable compared to a lot of the area hotels/resorts. Because we went affordable on the lodging and we used a 25% voucher on the cabin we can budget in several excursions. We like some adventure, some relaxation but I wouldn't say we are thrill seekers. We just love being together without distractions.... Swimming with sea turtles in on my bucket list and my hubby likes to snorkel. What are your " Do not miss this!" excursions, restaurants etc... in PR and on the Valors southern itinerary ?

PR

St Kitts

St Thomas

Barbados

St Lucia

St Maarten

We "took" a group of 21 on a cruise this past January. Our immediate family and a bunch of friends. I think we were 8 cabins total in the end and only 3 of those were not new to cruising. We had a lot of fun planning together on a facebook group. A week before departure we had a party. I planned games and gave prizes and goody bags. Because it was a few days after Christmas, I undecorated my tree and redecorated it with the prizes. Some of those prizes were an assortment of sunglasses from Ebay. I figured those were better chose than gotten in a goody bag.

The goody bags were mostly for teens and adults but I made a few changes for a few younger ones. For the most part they contained :

A basic lanyard

A Cheap spiral wrist lanyard (these were definitely the more popular choice)http://www.amazon.com/Coil-Bracelet-Keychains-different-colors/dp/B00443T6RC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1393879793&sr=8-3&keywords=spiral+keychain

Packets of EmergenC

Individually wrapped hand sanitizer packets ( Dollar Tree)

Small metal LED flashlight ( Dollar Tree)

Individual pack facial ( under $1 at Walmart) - for the ladies

Listerine strips

Sunscreen for lips (bulk on Ebay)

Mini highlighter

Post-its ( Bought Dollar store packs, opened each and divided one per pers)

One adult in each cabin got a small box of $ store brand : Immodium, Tylenol, Seasick pills, small first aid kit.

Kids got some of the above plus $1 play packs ( coloring etc), glow stick jewelry,

I wish my memory would work better today, or that I hadn't deleted the list off my computer.

Prizes on the tree included sunglasses, cruise themed sticker sheets, wrinkle release spray, dollar store laundry bags, lint rollers, travel toothbrushes, and I forget :o

With zone 2 off the Dream on 1/11/14, we basically never stopped walking except for the brief stop with the customs official. We were a group of 10 on the zone 2 sailing. We grabbed a porter to handle luggage and he took us to a special customs line however, there was no waiting at any of the lanes at this point. Same cruise 20 months prior we had much later tags ( didn't have fttf) and we waited for what seemed like an eternity on the pool deck and then shuffled off in a slow herd :(

If I was in a hurry and could more easily handle super early after a late night, then I would do self assist. I have heard talk of self assist becoming very popular and more crowded, but perhaps someone with experience will chime in on that.

I think the main problem is that they are trying to provide two different types of comedy from the same comedian. I am not sure that its possible for one guy to be the best at both ( adult and family). We have seen some amazing comedy from totally "clean" comedians. Would be neat if they had even ONE good quality "family" comedian on a 7 day. In the main theatre would be ideal. Then have your typical adult fare as usual.

The excursions wont even load in on my Jan sailing :( Something must be amiss.

We've seen them use the FWD elevators for luggage as well. They didn't keep passengers from using them though. They had the wall protectors hanging but were not disallowing people from using them.

Bottom line, deck 6 has the biggest afts, but beware, stay starboard and you won't hear anything from the lounge below. People on port side (either aft-facing or aft-wrap) heard thumping all night.

This is very helpful info that I hadn't seen before. I assumed that because the stage was so far fwd from the cabins that it wouldn't be an issue.

7 day western Caribbean sailing with 4 ports. We had excursions booked at all 4 and had first time cruisers as well as cruisers who hadn't been to these ports before. After a year of planning we had 21 very disappointed people.

We missed 2 ports and had high winds, rain and rough seas for almost the entire week. Of the 2 ports that we did make, we got rained out of one excursion and did the other (ruins) in the rain. I think the sun only came out on the last sea day for a while and as a result the topside decks were so crowded by people trying to get to the sunshine.

Bonus : I now know which of my children don't handle rough seas very well.

We never saw or stood on a beach the entire vacation :( We all made the best of it, but all those sea days in the rain really stunk. We didn't get comedians because of the missed ports and the staff seemed to struggle to find enough for the passengers to stay busy. It was a super bummer for our immediate family of 10 because this was our long planned for, last vacation together because the kids are growing up, cruise. First world problems I know, but it does make me a little sad.

Someone else on our sailing had a worse week because of a drunk woman using their baby's stroller to keep from falling off the gangway and into the water below. The stroller was occupied at the time and she was grasping it as she was falling, pulling the stroller nearly into the water as well. Passengers were all screaming at her as she continues to pull the stroller and throw around some colorful language.

I don't know the answer to your question but agree with those who suggest filling the form with the exact info from the birth certificate in this case.

When we applied for my oldest daughter's passport, we noticed that my birthdate on HER birth certificate was incorrect. We didn't have enough time to fix that before applying for the passport as she had a trip to Europe in 6 weeks time ( short notice). We filled in my correct birthdate on the passport form and she showed her BC with the incorrect date. We filed at a regional passport office just incase we would need to explain or further prove my information. They never noticed ( or never said) the discrepancy. So either they don't look that closely at that particular info OR they don't care.

We are taking our 25th anniversary cruise on the Valor because we really like the itinerary and want to spend a week in PR ahead of the cruise. We have had an aft wrap on the Dream and loved it and figure we will splurge for a wrap again given the special occasion.

I have searched and searched and still can't decide which deck to choose .... and now my brain hurts. :( Anyone have any input on the wraps ? Considering size of cabin, size/privacy of deck, possible noise, and even furniture placement. I am partial to the bed NOT being under the windows because you can't lay in bed and see outside :p . But I may need to weigh that against some of the other factors.

Got any info/input that would help me to make a choice ?

All are available ( minus deck 7/port) for the week we will sail.

Family of 10 here. We own a lot of luggage :o

More often than not we are only using a few pieces, but for the times we do travel altogether.... we rely on the rest.

On our last cruise ( Jan on the Carnival Dream) my 10yo did not have sign in/out priv. She is smart and responsible but she is just a little thing. Anyways, she did enjoy the kids club but preferred to go later afternoon and evenings because that was when the kids she knew best would be there. I think that organized activities were her favorite and there were more of them during those times. She made a wonderful friend who she has been writing to since she got home.

We would highly recommend a deck 11 spa balcony. We were so close to everything, yet it was always so quiet around that area. It was nice to have use of the spa while the kids were at camp, which was also crazy close ! We are a family of 10 so we had a balcony and 2 insides up there. Friends were down on deck 1 and 2 and it sure was a long way to anything. We have also been on a deck 6 aft wrap on the Dream. We loved it, but not ideal with the kids. Next time we take them (only 7 of us) on the Dream we plan on an deluxe OV and an inside because we want to go cheap cheap on that trip. I am not looking fwd to tons of walking. The other thing that I loved about being on deck 11 was that my kids were almost always in public areas while traveling back and forth. That will change if we move to the lower decks. The rules will have to change a bit as well.

On Carnival ships if you don't see milk sitting out on the buffet just ask someone. We were able to get milk at ANY time, even when the buffet was completely closed, simply by asking someone who we saw cleaning etc...

We bring a very small amount of snacks for ashore ( indiv packages of goldfish, granola, trail mix) and then also grab a few boxes of cereal from the buffet. I don't have toddlers anymore, so milk just isn't a huge deal. The times we asked for milk was to go with late night snacks =)

On our January sailing from PC we were not asked about health at all. Family of 10.

I should ask the 11 others we traveled with if they were asked. One our previous sailing ( same port/ship) we were asked verbally about stomach symptoms.

We haven't stayed on Lido, but on Panorama right fwd of the elevators. We loved this location for many reasons. It was just a scoot to the spa or serenity, or back to the pool deck for people watching. Down the pool stairs for pizza, drinks or ice cream etc... We had previously been on the same ship on deck 6 aft. We didn't realize how much time we spent "traveling" until we didn't have to ! It was sooooo quiet and we saw other passengers in the hall only 3 times? during the week. Twice it was our sailing companions !

Belize - would suggest that everyone do cave tubing at least once in their lives :) We all loved it the first time. Had planned to take kids in January and got stormed out of Belize :(

Roatan - Victor Bodden private tour. Loved this ! We don't love traveling in groups of 50 or more, so this was perfect. Went to Pirates of Caribbean Extreme Zipline, Half Moon Bay beach, The grocery store, sight seeing. Had Little French Key scheduled for this last trip in Jan and was also stormed out of Roatan :( Boy were we disappointed.

Costa Maya - Booked Maya Chan the first time and missed the port. Booked it the second time and then felt guilty not taking kids to ruins, so changed to Natives Choice to Chacchoben ruins. SO glad we did this after it pouring in Cozumel ( cancelled our Mr Sanchos day) and missing Belize and Roatan. It would up our ONLY excursion on this Jan sailing. We still want to get back to Maya Chan when we sail without the kids next time. The ruins were awesome and we liked the tour company. We were able to climb the ruins and there were very few people there when we went since it was early.

Cozumel - We stayed on the ship the first trip through and the second trip we got poured on . We cancelled Mr Sanchos rather than blow $350 on a pouring rainy day.

Lifeguard or not, if my children are in the pool, I am watching. The only exception would be my older teens and grown kids who are also strong swimmers.