AQW

We arrive between 6:00-6:30pm and never have to wait.

I decorate our door with maps, flags, and info sheets about the ports we're visiting. We homeschool our kids and use every cruising opportunity to teach them about different places we visit.

Once we move on to the next port, I hang the old stuff on the wall in the cabin and put the next port's information on the door. By the end of some cruises our entire cabin wall is taken up! (As with previous posters, I am meticulous about removing all trace of adhesive out of respect for the room stewards.)

I don't care if anyone thinks it's tacky or pointless. :p We love it.

On our first Panama Canal cruise we really went all out - we'd studied the Canal for months leading up to the trip and we compiled a slew of old photos, facts, and a detailed construction timeline. We received countless positive comments and notes from people - someone even started leaving sticky notes on our door late each night with questions about the Canal. My kids RACED to open the door each morning to see the new question and pore through our Canal books to answer it if they didn't already know! Never did find out who was doing it, but I would love to buy him/her a drink. :)

We have 6232 for the Pride's repositioning cruise next March - it's a "bowling alley balcony" and definitely has loungers in addition to regular chairs.

Glad to hear this worked out for you, because I'm having the same problem. Ordered one and used it no problem; bought a second card and keep getting a "zero balance" message when I try to use it. I'll wait another day before contacting guest services; hopefully mine will go through eventually like yours did.

Just to update, all four cards (purchased and promo) eventually went through. I received a total of ten emails over the course of three days, lots of errors trying to redeem, but in the end it all worked out. :)

Bought two egiftcards last night (it wouldn't let me order more than one per transaction). I didn't mind doing two separate transactions, one for $1000 and one for $700. Received both instantly via email, but had a zero balance when I went to check to pay off my cruise. Waited until this morning and had no problem using them. Bonus egiftcards came this morning and had the balance already loaded to them. I plan on using my free $170 to enjoy one or two frozen fruity beverages on board :D

Glad to hear this worked out for you, because I'm having the same problem. Ordered one and used it no problem; bought a second card and keep getting a "zero balance" message when I try to use it. I'll wait another day before contacting guest services; hopefully mine will go through eventually like yours did.

We had Rondell Sheridan on the Imagination last month and I had tears streaming down my face every show - he was HILARIOUS.

Just bought mine this evening and immediately applied it to our cruise balance. No PIN # needed...

Same here... remarkably quick and easy (i.e., so NOT Carnival style!)

Love this promotion & hope to see it repeated often.

I think a cruise, or any vacation, is no different than real life, which is what you're really preparing him for by teaching him healthy eating habits. I would approach the cruise the same way that I'm trying to teach my four kiddos about taking care of their bodies and the way you seem to be trying to teach your son. It's not a "diet" or a "fad" or a way to get "skinny". It's about being healthy, whole humans who understand that you can't suck down crap and expect healthy lives or bodies. (our country is particularly poor at teaching this...I know.)

 

I'm of the opinion that a burger or two on a cruise is fine. The world won't end if you have an ice cream. I would SKIP the diet junk because the chemicals in them have been absolutely proven to be awful for you and, ultimately, make you hungrier through-out the day, causing you to eat way more calories than if you'd just had a small portion of the real deal. (Aspartame is AWFUL...diet drinks are basically death in a can)

 

Make every day about balance. Then, if he wants a burger for lunch one day, enjoy one with him! I never tell my kids it's a "treat", either. They aren't dogs and I don't want them to have the mentality that food is some kind of reward. It's not. It's fuel for the body that allows us to live full lives.

 

Cruises are great places for extra exercise that you don't have to hunt down. Make snorkeling an excursion one day! That is fun AND a great work out. Take the stairs, walk around deck every single day. Say no to the electronics on the ship so he doesn't want to sit in his room playing a game while sitting still for hours.

 

Good luck!!! He can do this! :)

*thunderous applause*

I was gearing up for my reply to this thread when I reached this post, and it left me with nothing else to say. Outstanding advice; I hope the OP takes it to heart.

All three of our gty experiences have been on Fantasy-class ships.

1) Booked inside gty 19 days out, received porthole cabin assignment the next day.

2) Booked inside gty 8 days out, received Empress Deck midship assignment five days before sailing.

3) Just this week, booked inside gty less than 72 hours before sailing; received Upper Deck aft assignment 24 hours later. We sail tomorrow. :)

Crew photo on the bow of the Inspiration in the Panama Canal (Dec 2011)

While the gratuity is described as being for the dining room server, I'll point out that it also covers breakfast & lunch, as those servers pull shifts in those locations, also. I'm figuring that you do plan to eat somewhere onboard?

 

IMO, it wouldn't be "fair" to pull the gratuity from them. I'm not sure you can specifically pull the tip from one position, as I believe, the gratuity is pooled and divided (by percentages) among the tipped positions. Taking away that tip will just decrease the numbers for the other positions.

To the bolded: you can definitely do this. We had a horrible, horrible room steward once who called my young nephew a rude name, started a shouting match in the hallway with the people two doors down from us, and was basically such a snarly and aggressive jerk that the Hotel Manager had him reassigned on the final day of the cruise because so many people had complained.

We were able to remove his tips and his tips alone, leaving the assistant steward's tip in place. We simply asked Guest Services to remove the tips for this one individual and reallocate those funds to our dining room team, who were outstanding. No problem at all. We specifically let Guest Services know that we would handle the single night's tip for the newly assigned steward in cash to make the reallocation of funds as simple as possible.

Should you reduce/remove tips for the scenario in the OP? I wouldn't. I'm just clarifying that it's actually quite simple to remove/reallocate gratuities among your tipping pool by visiting Guest Services.

My hubby just got off the Imagination this morning - said no Superstar Live. :(

Can't wait to have this cabin for 14 nights on the repo cruise next March! :D

The Camp Carnival space on Splendor is far, far superior to the Pride.

If you have waterslide lovers, a ship with WaterWorks (as the Pride will have after her dry dock) makes a big difference.

Here is the "splash pad" on the Splendor mentioned upthread:

...and a view of the lone waterslide:

Of the ships I've sailed, the Pride would be near the bottom. I loved the Splendor and would book her again in a heartbeat. With that said, a post-drydock Pride just might beat her out.

So far we've done two repos:

14-night Inspiration Tampa to Long Beach

15-night Miracle NYC to Long Beach

We live 25 miles from the port in Long Beach, so in both cases it was delightful not to have to "travel home" after a long, relaxing cruise.

I love longer cruises, so repos are a natural fit. We're booked on the Pride's March 2015 Tampa-to-Baltimore repo - not quite as convenient because we have to fly both ways and we'll hit spring break, but the itinerary was too good to pass up.

Ports are exciting, but I love sea days. I don't like too many port days in a row... I like to have a relaxing sea day (or two, or three) in between those eventful port days. One reason I haven't yet pulled the trigger on a Hawaii cruise... five consecutive sea days, five consecutive port days, then five consecutive sea days does not sound relaxing to me. ;)

Whether it's a repo or not, I am always game for a long cruise. I thought I'd be ready to go home after 15 nights on a ship, but I could have easily done another 15!

I've done Riviera deck on Paradise, Elation, and Inspiration. Never a problem with noise coming from below. The only noisy times were when they were loading the ship as SadieN noted, and that wasn't troublesome at all.

In the porthole cabins all the way forward you get noise when docking/dropping anchor, but that's not something you should hear midship.

My one and only guarantee experience was a very positive one. Booked an inside guarantee for a Mommy/Daughter trip last October. We booked about three weeks before sailing - the first time I thought to check my booking was a week or so later, and we'd been assigned a porthole cabin! I was thrilled.

Here's hoping you get great news on your guarantee!

Be prepared to wish it was longer. ;)

The tourist area of Ensenada is about a 10 minute walk from the pier. No need to use a taxi/shuttle unless someone has difficulty walking.

To piggyback on this, if you have someone in your party who cannot make the walk to town (or if you just don't feel like it!) there is a shuttle bus that you can grab for $3 round trip. When you exit the ship you walk through a small market/plaza area; the shuttle bus sits directly outside that. They will drop you off at a convenient intersection; when you are ready to return just come back to that same intersection (very easy to find) and shuttles leave every 10min or so returning to the ship. Very, very simple and straightforward. :)

Paid $329pp for the first two guests; $79 for third guest in an 8D balcony, 7-night "Mexican Riviera" cruise that actually sailed L.A. to Canada on the Splendor in June 2009.

God bless the swine flu. ;)

When the swine flu hit Mexico and the cruiselines re-routed their Mexican sailings up to Canada, people canceled in droves. We were able to book a three-night cruise to Catalina (usually goes to Ensenada) for $79pp, and a 7-night cruise from LA to Astoria, OR; Vancouver, BC; and Victoria, BC for $329pp in a balcony cabin.

Every few months I look back on that time and KICK MYSELF for not booking more cruises! Those prices were good for all of May-July if I remember correctly... if that happened again today, I would live on a ship for a month or more!

When my son was 10yo, we granted sign-in/out privileges but told him he could ONLY use them for the scavenger hunts. He complied, so on the last sea day we told him when he signed out of camp he could go get pizza at the Lido buffet before returning to the room.

The next cruise he almost 11yo, so we gave him sign-in/out privileges with the understanding that he could be one of three places: camp, our cabin, or the Lido buffet just long enough to get food. Never a problem.

He's exactly the opposite of some others mentioned here... he just turned 12yo and he is *devastated* that he has aged out of Camp Carnival. He absolutely loves it there. He's an early-to-bed, early-to-rise guy so the late-night activities with Circle C are of no interest to him. (Direct quote from last cruise when we scoped out the Circle C activities list: "Dodgeball at midnight? Who plays dodgeball at MIDNIGHT? When do these people sleep??") :p

Last cruise my S&S charges were exactly $1.50 for two minutes of internet (forgot to download my highly anticipated Kindle book before leaving home!)

Typical charges are in the $100 range... a few drinks, a candy snack for the kidlets, maybe a photo or a souvenir.

Our largest-ever S&S was around $450 for a 15-night sailing.

Had the pleasure of sailing with Tex on a 15-night voyage; by far the best CD I've ever sailed with. Just a delightful guy; my kids loved him.

Can you get it with just noodles and meat? I would like to try this, but I don't do veggies.

Yep! You can get whatever you put in your bowl. If they don't have rice noodles I just do veggies and meat.

My problem is that I'm not a fan of any of the sauces. Can you have them cook it in soy sauce?

Yep! Although, if you like soy sauce, I would recommend trying the black bean sauce. :)