RARcruise

We had that room in February and it was awesome having all the extra space. Plus the Room Steward Elmer was the best!

We have Elmer wih the interior family suite and he is WONDERFUL! !!! My kids miss him so much.

:D:o Well the time is here, My DH ( 52)and I (47) leave tomorrow on Carnival Fascination to the Bahamas..Freeport and Nassau! This is our first cruise and to the Bahamas! Thank You for all the tips and hints! I will give you a review when we get back! Say a little prayer please!

I remember my first cruise. I was so nervous. My stomach was in knots. I will say a little prayer for you to have a great trip. Enjoy!

Nominal fee.

 

Are you sure you know what that word means??

Yea I can't remember exactly what I paid for a can of Pringles but I can tell you it was probably the most expensive can I have ever had. I blame it on the intense pain from sunburn which sent me looking for aloe.

I have three kids 13 and under so even though the rates might be higher for the first two it always works out better for us sailing as a party of 5. I have done an interior family room and next we will be trying an oceanview family room.

I never thought of carrying the US Embassy 's phone number with me. Here is a link to the Embassy where you can get the phone numbers to the Embassy in the country in which you are traveling to.

 

http://www.usembassy.gov/index.html

Thanks good ok info to have for any reason you are in another country.

 

"IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY WHILE IN ANY WORLDWIDE PORT, CALL OUR EMERGENCY TRAVEL TEAM IN THE U.S. COLLECT AT +1-305-962-2700"

I didn't know that. I guess I have never really looked at the back of our cards. Great tip..:)

I bet someone even called Nassau to see if the can locate Alfred.

 

Some people seemed to have a little to much time on their hands.......

I have tears in my eyes because of this line.......too funny.

Even if the story is false I have learned a lot of valuable information that I didn't know before so it is totally worth my time in reading it.

Can anyone tell me if it does in fact include starbucks? We are sailing on Quantium if that matters...may she doesn't have a starbucks? ...ummmm just thought of that.

 

Does everyone in the room have to buy it like the alcohol packages or just the ones that plan on using it?

We were on the Enchantment in May and my husband was the only ine who got the RR the rest of us just got the soda package. He was able to get drinks from the Starbucks. It just had to be in 15 min intervals. That was never a problem for him. Can't promise what company policy is but that was our experience.

Annette

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My setsail pass for Explorer in Nov says terminal #10. If that info helps you any.

Annette

Honey stung chicken with sweet potato fries is not bad, also like the raspberry cheesecake.

I don't remember seeing the cheesecake but I will definitely be looking for that next month:D

I love getting the pastries for breakfast and enjoying them while everyone else sleeps late. We also get the spinach and cheese dip to share at night and talk abut what we enjoyed that day and what we want to do the next. :D

When we were on the Enchantment of the Seas in May the kids loved the freestyle machines. We considered a Disney Cruise and one of my kids voted no unless they had a freestyle machine. :p We never had a problem with the 15 minute time between refills and only a couple times did we have to wait in line and that was usually during the busy hours in the windjammer.

Just call them when you get off work. Make sure to mention the exact sale. I have had to do it a few times and only once was it harder to get them to fix. They usually ask if you want them to send you another invoice but just in case they don't ask for one and print it out.

Lazy is way better than rude in my opinion.

The fabulous CC member, Radio, has these photos of 6500 on Explorer:

 

http://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/Main/contributor-album.php?c=Mark%20Chatfield%20(Radio)&ship=Explorer%20of%20the%20Seas

Thank you!!! I have searched around for days trying to find this information. This is exactly how I was hoping the windows will be so that I don't have to worry about bothering my dh or ds (on the couch) when I get up early and watch out the window.

5 in one small cabin?

We have stayed in a family interior and now we are going to be in a family oceanview. My kids are 8, 10, and 13. Both rooms are more than 260sq ft and give us plenty of space. Of course we all have to share a bathroom which can be a tad bit of a problem but until both the girls really start getting into the hair and make up thing it is not that bad.

I did pull up a Youtube video of a cabin for 5 on carnival and it was extremely small. It would never work for us. We did take a video that we plan to put on Youtube because I could not find anything that showed me a true feeling of the room. You would be surprised how nice the setup is.

We are in 6500.

5 night cruise

$15.12 per hour with five people = $3.02 per person per hour.

Seems like cheap entertainment to me :D

I know this is really not that big of a deal but I would love to know if anyone knows the answer. We have booked a family oceanview state room on the Explorer of the Seas and I have seen two entirely different setups. One is showing the bed and couch placed directly under the windows while the other shows the bed parallel to the windows with some space in between. If anyone knows the exact setup of the room please share the details with me.

Thanks!!

We travel with our 4 kids, ages 3-16, and have always had either connecting (interior, oceanview, and promenade) or the family oceanview (FO). The FO's have always been cheaper than 2 oceanviews, but sometimes two interiors would have been slightly (a couple of hundred dollars) cheaper. I do use a price drop website so that I can grab pricedrops as soon as they become available (and they are more rare for FO's). For our TA cruise it dropped significantly.

 

Both arrangements are nice and have their pros and cons. I prefer the FO's because of the large living space. With two connecting there really isn't a nice spot for everyone to just hang out together. It's especially nice for my youngest to have a large area to just putter around and play (makes it feel more like home). We put my youngest on a folding cot (one that we bring) in the bunk room so that my oldest can have the sleeper sofa to himself.

 

I think all of the RCI classes have rooms that sleep 6. We've booked ones on freedom (they have a ton of great options), Voyager, Radiance, and Vision (these are called family jr. suites but the price isn't too bad bc of the 3-6 passenger rate.).

 

We booked our next cruise during the kids sail free promo and to my surprise all 4 kids were free because we were all in one room! We still have to pay taxes and fees, but it was a tremendous deal.

 

The two cons that you will often hear about the FO's are the motion because on most ships (not freedom class) they are at the very front and because of the single bathroom. We definitely felt motion on our transatlantic crossing, but the room was very worth it because of all of the space for such a long cruise. The single bathroom doesn't bother us (and we have 3 bathrooms in our home), but I think that will vary greatly by family. Some use the fitness center showers as backups, but we didn't find that necessary.

 

I hope this information helps other families looking for larger cabins!

We are going to be on the Explorer of the Seas in the family oceanview and I would love if you could tell me where the furniture is placed compared to the window. On one photo is shows a bed and couch and in another the bed is facing a different direction and there is also a chair under the other window. I know it is not a big deal but I am an early riser and would love to be able to just look out the window without bother others.

Thanks

 

Of course, everyone has to be on the same page. It's like eating at counter service places at Disney. Some families take everyone in line and then find a table when they have the food. Others want to split up and have the kids sit at a table while an adult gets the food. If both things are happening in the same area, it's not good; you get people with food wandering around tables filled with people without food. So disney has started to disallow no-food people from sitting. You have to have people all doing the same thing, for it to run smoothly.

We recently took a trip to Disney and I was not a fan of the changes they made in the restaurants. I have 3 kids and 2 which like to wander and have a hard time staying still. I have always enjoyed the fact that I could leave them at the table with another adult and go grab our food. Thankfully this is the first year I did not have a stroller because I felt horrible for the people trying to handle babies and tote food and diaper bags etc... It was just way to many people crammed into such a tight amount of space.

I hope the ksf becomes a regular thing for RCI. For a family of five it has been a great help. We have booked 2 cruises because of it.

Port Canaveral had signs that say that tipping is not required as they are on salary. I found out they are union and make 35-40 per hour there and almost are full time.

 

 

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I saw that same sign so I was shocked when my hubby told me that when he gave the guy his tip that he told him he normally gets $20-$30 for a tip. We gave him $10 for 6 bags with three of them being small kid bags. I normally try to do $2 per bag but didn't have time to go through my bag because of bad news we received as soon as we departed the ship.

I wish we wouldn't have gave him anything. He was not friendly at all. The guy who moved our bags after watching me take them out the back of the car and brought them to him acted rude as well when we first arrived.

When we cruise in November I will only tip those that don't act rude. I believe in tipping but I also believe in being kind.

We sailed the Enchantment last month and were told you had to wait 15 minutes before the machine would give you a refill. We all loved the freestyle machines......:)