Manatee Mom

We are planning a wedding cruise for next April and our girls will be 7 and 8 by that time so this thread is extremely helpful. I was a bit worried there wouldn't be enough to keep them occupied but my hopes are renewed! After a Disney cruise we aren't sure how they'll feel about Carnival but it sounds like it will be just as fun(minus all the characters everywhere)

Breeze has all the cat in the hat characters

watched the Youtube video from the Breeze, i love it!

Adopt me!

Thanks! the older breeze video is even funnier and shows my kids a little younger. My husband does not believe in standard vacation videos:D

You're husband is awesome. You should get a shirt that says "My Husband is Awesome". :D:D:D

 

I noticed that they some of the Vista cove balconies near the back appear bigger. Going to have to look into that.

 

Finally, I ended up buying a GoPro Hero4 Silver partially based on your husband's videos, etc. so tell him I said thanks.

I don't want it to go to his head but I'm sure it will anyways.....

Thanks for your great feedback!

Go on the 1st night to the Family Dance Party, this is where the young ones can meet each other with parents still around.

Look through the camp funtimes to see what activities he will/won't like, just to get a heads up.

Bring Walkie Talkies so if he does want to leave camp early he can call you or tell you he wants to stay a little longer.

My boys love cruising and now have friends around the world that they keep in touch with. If you want to see what the breeze is like for kids check out my video links, I do have to warn you they are not your normal family videos.

Another suggestion to look at if you have 4 people but only rooms for 2 are available. Have them give you 2 rooms the balcony the you paid for and an inside nearby

My husband got a gopro for our last cruise check out what he did with it.:D

We were on the Breeze for New Years and the cruise director was picking women out of the audience for the show. He picked a young and old. Then asked who they were on the cruise with, when the younger women said her boyfriend he then asked her if they were staying in the same cabin? He then called her boyfriend up to better understand why they were living in sin and that is when he got down on 1 knee with the ring. It might sound a little strange but how the cruise director did it everyone was laughing the entire time. When she said yes the entire theater cheered!

my sons are 13 & 15, when they were younger we brought walkie talkies and they do work great. My younger son does not like steak but he is independent enough that the night we went to the steak house (he was younger and could have eaten with camp) decided he loved our dining room waiters so much he went by himself and they bent over backwards to serve him. He felt like a king!

We went down to check on him (without him knowing) He had the biggest smile on his face.

We always let them know where we are going and if they want to join us they can, but usually they are off with their new friends.

I absolutely loved this video!

 

I just bought a GoPro this week for my cruise in May. How many SD cards did you bring a long to capture as much as you did? I am very new to this GoPro thing!

 

 

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DH said he only brought 1 64gb card and only filled around 15-20GB. However he did bring two batteries and kept one charged and ready to swap.

Ok - so have been on about 9 cruises. Kids have been on 4. Both Carnival and RCCL. Went on Allure a few years back. It was fun but kids decided they liked Carnival better (Allure was too big for them).

 

Looking at March 2016 during their spring break. At the time kids will be 17 and 14. Here are the cruises I am looking at: These are all inside cabins for 4 and the Carnival Cruises are on the Lido deck.

 

Carnival Breeze - 8 Day to Grand Turk, Dominican Republic, Curacao, Aruba with 3 Sea Days ($2847) Flys out of Miami

 

Carnival Liberty - 7 Day to St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St.Kitts, St. Maarten with 1 Sea Day ($1872) Flys out of San Juan

 

Carnival Splendor - 7 Day to Nassau, St. Thomas San Juan, Grand Turk with 2 Sea Days ($2216) Flys out of Miami

 

RCCL Jewel - 7 Day to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba, Curacao with 2 Sea Days ($2142) Flys out of San Juan

 

RCCL Adventure - 7 Day to St. Croix, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Martinique, Barbados with 1 Sea Day. ($2068) Flys out of San Juan

 

Leaning towards the Breeze as it is the newest and has lots of great options on the ship though it is the most expensive and airfare is cheaper into Miami. Liberty looks good but generally like having more than 1 sea day. RCCL's seem good too. But can't book a cabin on Lido deck. Was on the Adventure about 10 years ago without kids.

 

Any input or suggestions would be great. Thanks.

I'm writing this from my 13 and 16 yo boys point of view:

As for ships we haven't been on RCCL in a long time so can't comment. We did the NCL Jewel a few years ago, They loved their buffet so much better but food was basically the same every day there. They loved being able to get the free wings in the 24 hr restaurant. They were only 12 and 9 at the time but they did not like the camp reason being they like to pick and choose activities and not spend all day there. Even at 12 when they could check themselves in/out NCL rule is you have to say for min 2 hours. So they stopped going. They also found the karaoke rooms to have very limited hours and half weren't even working. Only 1 little water slide

my kids love CCL and their favorite CCL Ship is the Breeze. It has the water park, ropes course, out door workout area (other CCL ships don't have) and great activities for teenagers. Plus CCL has the free ice cream machine and pizza 24 hours a day.

As for ports your looking at alot of the same. so I go over the different ones

-Grand Turk - love - get off and free beautiful beach right there and nice shopping town to walk around right there

-Dominican Republic - did a boat ride to beach & sandbar. The water is so crystal clear. Kids loved sand bar because you could look down and see the starfish and pick them up and play with them

-Curacao did open bus island tour it was fun went to beach It was ok and curacao factory tour Kids liked because no drinking age and they got to sample (very small sample)

-Aruba - we did an island tour that dropped us off at a beach where all the hotels are - Kids felt like it was any beach in FL no big deal, they were not impressed with the island

-St. Thomas, Barbados, St. Lucia, St.Kitts, can;t remember except we did taxi tours or water activities maybe a pirate ship they were younger

St. Maarten cool island just beware of which beach are clothing optional they like MaHo beach right off the airport (not a beach to lay out and relax) when a plane takes off it blows you into the water!!!!

Nassau, St. Thomas San Juan, Grand Turk - only Island my kids would want is Grand Turk we don't even get off at Nassau

St. Croix, Martinique, my kids were little so wouldn't help you sorry

Hope this helps

What do you and your teens like to do? I have kids the same ages they haven't been on RCCL but they have been on the CCL ships and to all the Islands.

The reason I'm asking is if your kids are adventurous and like snorkeling, zip-lines & jungles things like that or just sitting at a beach or just sightseeing this will determine what Islands you and your family might like better than others

It's been a few years but we were on during Easter 1 year and yes they did do something with the camp kids. I think they did a hunt if I remember correctly

For anyone interested, my DH just put together a comparison deck by deck of the Breeze vs. Vista. Shows what's changing side by side. Here's the link.

Deck plans side by side (well stacked :-) ) Breeze vs. Vista..

See it here.. One deck at a time

My DH took a few hours of down time to pull together this helpful comparison video of each deck of the Carnival Vista's deck plans stacked below the Carnival Breeze.

Click the link below.... He left time in between each deck but you can always pause for further difference spotting!

Ok, I was wrong. Just found this

Carnival Vista will offer a wide variety of well-appointed, beautifully designed staterooms and suites including two new accommodation classes. Tropics-inspired Havana Cabanas feature suites with private outdoor patios – complete with lounge chairs and hammock – that face the expanded Lanai ocean-air outdoor promenade and offer magnificent sea views in addition to easy access to the Havana Bar and Pool. The new Havana Pool is located aft and offers stunning views of the ocean, whirlpools and a relaxation area, complete with colorful umbrellas, faux palm trees, thatched patio huts and comfy seating. This pool is for the exclusive use of Havana Cabana guests through 5 p.m. each day and guests using this pool must be 12 or older.

No adult only pool by the looks of it...unless they announce one of the two themed ones are.

 

The Havana pool might be pretty much adults as I am sure the Havana cabins only are 2 occupancy (therefore all couples). Not sure if they are worth it though!

Just looked Havana some Havana cabins are 3 and 4 occupancy, so families could also be there. There is no where stated it's adult only, sorry

I was going to do this but older family members were not going to be able to go. We ended up doing a Havadalah service on the beach. From a Chabad we got a Havadalah Bar Mitzvah Service and did it ourselves.

We have had people say why even bother or you can't do that and many other comments....But it is what you and your family want and feel comfortable with. Technically by Jewish law when a boy turns 13 he is a Bar Mitzvah.

Just an FYI we have close relatives that are Hasidic and they loved the way we did it, because it brought family and friends together in a low key situation. Not one of today's $100,000 parties but again it is what your family feels comfortable doing.

Thanks for sharing, we sail the breeze in 46 days.

No problem! The Breeze is a great boat and the crew was great as well!

Originally posted in the Carnival boards... A comprehensive but fun video of my DH's "first" cruise.....

Just got back from Jamaica we did the tubing thru the ship because it was same price and was thru chukkah. There are a couple places to do zip linning 1 is up by bobsledding and if a lot of ships are in I don't recommend it, because it gets crazy up there and we heard people saying they never got to go because it was over booked.

If your husband is interested in seeing what the tubing is like we had a gopro on the river. We enjoyed it.

Just an FYI if you book your trip thru carnival and your tour is late coming back they will hold the ship. If not a CCL tour they will not hold the ship, just something to think about

and I was thinking it had something to with farms and corn :)

 

 

 

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.

 

Is he able to grab stills from the footage that are of respectable quality?

Yes,he is able to capture the stills and are decent quality

Oops. I saw that one too. :)

 

So it would be:

 

1. Flat Daddy

2. Green Screen

3. Flat Stanley

4. La Cheapo

 

Although 1 & 2 are pretty close and could go either way.

Don't forget "slightly twisted carnival glory!" 😀

Showed the wife the video linked here on the TV last night and she enjoyed it as well. I then proceeded to watch all the older ones on TV and definitely noticed a progression in the video. Overall, glad the "flat" people are history but would rank them as follows:

 

1. Flat Daddy

2. Flat Stanley

3. La Cheapo

 

More "Boy complains" videos in the future. :)

 

He should have got OBC for having to pick those pepperoni pieces off. :D:D:D

Don't forget about his "fun with green screen video" from prior trip on the breeze

Can't tell from your pic, did we we meet at the Meet and Greet?

I went to the 1st and met a couple, by the pizza place and i never made it to the 2nd one. But we could of

Very awesome video. We leave on the breeze on January 17th. Was fun to watch all the stuff we will get to enjoy on the ship

 

 

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Enjoy your "five guys" burgers on the ship😄