Garn

You don't say what ages your kids are, but a great option is to book a balcony (or MS) for you, and an inside for them. It gives you an extra bathroom, and a little more privacy, and usually isn't much more expensive than the extra people in one room (plus if they are offering OBCs, they apply per cabin).

You'd have to officially book an adult in each cabin, but you can get duplicate keys.

Finally, on the Emerald for sure, and I assume the Regal, the partitions between adjoining balconies can be unlocked by the stewards, so that can work as well.

Thanks everyone!

Thanks for your ideas (and sympathy). Fortunately, it looks like Major Tom came through and that we'll be able to cave tube after all, and he can provide an extra guide for my in-laws. So, it looks like everything is ending well after all. (Of course, knowing my luck, we'll end up missing Belize!)

Thanks again!

First, let me say that I've done many private excursions and they have been wonderful experiences, with the opportunity to meet awesome guides and help the locals. Second, I'm not normally a complainer - I understand that "stuff happens" - weather makes you miss a port, vans break down, people get sick and it's silly to get upset about that sort of thing.

But this, I think, is different, and extremely disappointing considering the reviews I've seen for .bz

Ok, so there were 5 of us planning to go to cave tubing in Belize - my wife, daughter and my in-laws. My father-in-law is a cancer survivor who ended up with lymphodema in his legs, which means that, particularly in humid climates, his legs swell up and it's hard for him to walk distances. I know that there is a 30 minute walk to get there, so I asked Vitalino at cavetubing.bz if there was any way my in-laws could join us. Now, if he had said no, I would have been fine with it - I don't expect special accommodations, but it can't hurt to ask. (DW, DD and I were going to zipline after)

Here is his response:

Since you are asking for Private cave tubing we will assigned 2 guides for your group one of them will assist your in laws when they get tired the guide will take them Upstream way up to the entrance of the caves where you will meet them there. Meanwhile you are Ziplining your in laws can watch you all, take you pictures and enjoy the nature of the surrounding.

I agreed, and received this email on February 16th, 6 weeks before we would be going.

I will consider the last email as a confirmation for the tour and thank you for supporting my True Family business. You have been added to our list of bookings for Private Cave tubing and Zipline on April 1st. I really appreciate your preference; I will provide you with the best service in Belize by using the World's most prestigious Brand of Equipment. So your total for 2 Private Cave tubing and 3 Private Cave tubing and Zipline is $450 USD.

Great. We were all set, I told my in-laws, everyone was excited.

Now, being the anal-retentive guy that I am, I sent out emails to confirm all of the tours and rides I'd set up on Sunday, a week before we're departing. All my of others confirmed, but this is what I got from Vitalino:

Hi Mark, Please accept my apologies for not being able to provide an upstream cavetubing since that day there will be a lot of people and definitely short of guides, I am afraid of not accomplish my promised so please note that we will use vans of 12 to 14people but only can do the regular cavetubing. Sorry

Note that he never reached out to me - if I hadn't emailed, we'd have arrived at the dock ready to go - but not have a tour.

I emailed back, asking if there was any way he could meet his obligation, and he said no.

Now, if this were a free offer, that would have been one thing, but we were going to pay more for it. So, he decided that it's better to squeeze more customers onto an existing tour than honor his written reservation.

At this point, I don't really know what to do. The ship tours are all full. I've tried emailing the other providers, but I haven't heard back yet.

I don't know how I can tell my father-in-law that none of us will end up going anywhere because of his limited mobility.

I'm just stunned that such a highly rated tour provider would act like this.

If anyone has any suggestions for what we can do, I'd love to hear them. And if there's anything I should have done differently, please let me know as well.

When we cruise, we go with a big group (in-laws, parents, wife and kids).

It might be because I enable it, but, between mobility issues, anxiety problems, and some anti-social tendencies, not to mention kids club schedules, someone needs to coordinate if we want to do some things together. If I've read the patters (and, better still, recent "live" reports) from recent cruises on the same ship, I have a lot more insight into which events which people might like to join.

Sorry- that last comment was meant for a different thread!

While I agree with those saying that it's not cool to use Anytime if you are signed up for Traditional, I was just looking at the Princess web site, and there's nothing that I could find that says at if you select TD, you are banned from AD.

Considering how unevenly actual rules like chair saving are enforced, I can't say I'm surprised that they don't enforce this non-rule.

A big family group is the perfect reason to sign up for traditional. Otherwise the OP will be trying to "herd cats" getting a diverse group to dinner at one time & place. With 7 you will have your own table.

Ahh, if only it were that simple.

Some of our group get squirrelly (and it's more my 80-year old father than my 14 year old daughter) sitting through more than a few long dinners. (And don't even get me started on the Great Formal Night Attire debate).

I figure for sure we will do the first formal night (dressed appropriately), and maybe a couple more MDR nights, the Crab Shack, and the rest in the buffet (with maybe one night in Sabatini's with my wife if we just can't deal with the whole group that many nights).

Honestly, I love traveling with all of them, and it's made for some wonderful memories, but it can be challenging to keep everyone happy.

I envy "real" travel agents - not only do they get paid for all of their work, but once the ship casts off, they are done. Still it is all worth it in the long run... (just have to keep reminding myself of that). :)

Can anyone veryfy that Duck L'Orange is even on the dining room menu one evening?

Yup - it was on one of the menus posted on the Live from the Emerald Thread from the March 1st sailing.

Thanks for all of the feedback - I'd use the "take a peek and compare" method if it were just me and my wife, but since I'm going with my wife, parents, in-laws and daughter, I'm trying to avoid the endless discussions about where to eat each night. (Yes, I know we could split up, but our parents would feel abandoned... ahh, family dynamics).

Thanks again. I can see I'll just have to wing it.

Honest, I tried searching, but wasn't able to find what I was looking for - I'm sure it's there, but just used the wrong terms.

We're leaving on the Emerald in a couple of weeks with a diverse crowd of 7. I'm trying to plan ahead with some recommendations for where to eat when.

The question is that, for instance, if they are serving Duck L'Orange (one of my Mother-in-Law's favorites) in the dining room, will it also be available in the buffet, or are those menus completely separate?

[And, yes, I understand that when they serve lobster not to expect a tray full of them in the buffet]

Thanks!

I don't know if this adds clarity or confusion, but cruisett.com lists the times in port.

I would think that these would be local times, but maybe they just pull it from what the cruise lines say for arrival and departure times. Anyone know for sure? (If you had a specific case of when ship time and port time were different, we could easily check to see what it said).

Thanks!

I'm sorry you had a bad time.

Can you be more specific?

Which entertainment did you see? What made it terrible?

What made the food in the MDR terrible?

It looks like you thought the internet was bad back in December '13 - has it gotten worse, or just still slow and unreliable?

Same thing with the casino - do you think the machines used to be looser, or it just bothered you more this time?

Out of curiosity, did you alert your CC company that you'd be travelling? It's a shame that it messed things up.

I can see how the wine tasting would be annoying. At least it's different people bugging you - if it were the same ones doing it over and over it would be even worse.

I hope you find better luck on another line.

Let me add my thanks as well for the reports. We'll be boarding in just under 3 weeks (!), and the postings were very helpful.

For goodness sakes - the OP just asked a question about Princess policy. From what I've seen on the other boards, the other lines all have different perks and different policies on whether those traveling with the suite guests can share them.

The OP was not saying that they were "entitled" to them, or that they expected them, they just wanted to understand Princess's policy on tender tickets.

It's a reasonable question for someone who isn't used to knowing how suite benefits work.

Right - I should have clarified, that assuming she's getting the package anyhow, would this work? And it sounds like the answer is "kinda sorta". Trust me, my wife's not usually one to try to save a buck ;), I think it was more of an interesting "what if" scenario.

Thanks for your input.

A shot of liquor is the same price as with a common mixer. i.e. a shot of Bombay Sapphire is $6.95 whether you get it with tonic water or not.

 

Mike:)

Sure, but I'm assuming a shot of a house pour is cheaper than a Pina Colada or Mojito

Apparently my wife is more devious than I'd realized. I'd told her about the Soda & More, and how it included virgin drinks.

So, she asked if you can just get one of those and a shot of booze for a cheaper DIY version.

I didn't know but I figured someone out there would have tried it.

Also, does anyone know how much a shot costs?

Thanks!

We'll be leaving in just a few weeks so it looks like we might get to meet Mario.

But on my previous cruises, I never really noticed the MD (except when we did the Chef's Table). What makes Mario great?

And the purpose of this tirade????

I was merely responding to some of the posts (here, and on other threads), that imply (or state outright) that those who fly the same day are fools who deserve what they get. But it's often not as simple as that, which I was trying to explain.

Sorry if it came off as a tirade to you - the purpose was quite the opposite.

I'm not a fan.

I'll second the comments about cleanliness. I tend to not care, but the women I was traveling with were appalled. The tons of "required" upcharges also really add up.

The one thing I'll say is that if you can get the Exit row, it becomes a good deal. Otherwise, I'd have to be pretty desperate to go with them again.

Congratulations! From your attitude, I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time!

Bon Voyage!

I don't think anyone would counter that, all things being equal, it's better not to fly the same day. But to read Cruise Critic, it's as risky as just showing up at the airport without a ticket and hoping that there's a flight available that gets in when you need it to. The vast majority of cruisers fly the same day, especially when booking through the cruise line or with a package deal (unless, of course, there's a trans-ocean flight involved), and it works out fine in the vast majority of cases.

And of course, even if you book flights for the day before, things can happen - such as the huge snowstorms the US has been getting this winter - that can still leave you stranded. I saw another story here a couple of years ago about someone who got out the same day, but those who were scheduled for the day before were stranded because their flights had been cancelled. Less likely, but nothing is certain.

But what is frustrating is those who assume that just because *they* can fly in the night before, everyone can as well.

I travel in a group including my wife, our kids and both sets of grandparents. We've gone down the night before, but that involved getting transportation for 8 to the hotel (two taxis of course), the hotel itself, meals in Miami, transportation from the hotel to the ship (at a time when the hotel lobby was swamped with cruisers). Add in another day of dogsitting for each of us. And the fire alarm in the hotel had gone off 3 times during the night, freaking out the kids and leaving us all exhausted.

That's a lot of guaranteed stress to add to the mix, plus hundreds of extra dollars, versus the smaller chance (but greater stress) of missing the flight.

If my wife an I were traveling solo, I'd almost certainly fly in the night before. But please, don't judge those whose circumstances make the right choice for them different than what's the right choice for you.

Unlike most of the folks responding, I'm apparently pretty "loose", having been on a different line each cruise. Our cruise in a month (!!!) will be the first "repeat" for us, and it will be Princess. I've never done Carnival, since I know the "Spring Break party" atmosphere would be a bad fit for us, but here's my thoughts on the other lines:

Disney - it's Disney. Like you, we love Disney, and they do a fantastic job. If we didn't have to go at Spring break (when fares are insane) to match our kids vacation schedule, we'd go back in a second - although I'd think that the character-themed shows would get old). It's the line that got us hooked on cruising.

NCL - so, this might not be fair because it was the first cruise after Disney and on an older ship, but everyone's impression was "meh". It was a cruise, and there are no bad cruises (well, unless the engines die), but there wasn't anything great about it. Also, their pricing structure is very ala carte - which is nice, because you only pay for what you use, but for me, it made me think about money and whether everything was worth it - I'd rather pay more up front and be done with it.

RCCL - Royal is impressive. Their ships can have wonderful amenities and features. The shows were good. The ice show was amazing. The service was excellent and the food was good. For a tagline, I'd say "best for active families". Of course, you're also paying more.

Princess - Well, we're coming back. I'd agree with the others that there is a classier vibe. It's not luxury, but just a little more subdued elegance. The tea is a nice touch. Some of the shows were excellent, some were ok. The good was quite good.

I would say, though, that except for Disney, all of the lines were more similar than different with different strengths and weaknesses. I'd avoid NCL and Carnival since they weren't a great fit, but would gladly sail Princess or RCCL (and give HAL and Celebrity a try) if they had the best price/itinerary/ship.

That said, if there were identical routes, ships and prices, if it were just my wife and I, I'd choose Princess. If my teens were with us, I might choose RCCL.

Thanks again for all of your insights!

Thanks for all of the information!

I'm so excited for this. My mom has had a tough year (including surgery and chemo) so she deserves to be pampered. This should be a great treat for her.

As for the butler (and I should have known Carson, not Bates!), the person who called me back was a fill-in for the person who normally handles upsells. We were getting close to the end of their working day and I still hadn't heard back after I said that yes, we want it, so she said that she was calling on behalf of Andrea who as on another call. I'm not sure what her normal job was, but I can't imagine what it could have been if she thought that there were butlers...