circuitrider

Glad you enjoyed yourselves but with all aussie ships once you embark thats it you stay onboard

Which Aussie ships? I guess you mean P&O and Carnival Australia? Same port last year (Sydney) on Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas, we were allowed to embark, have lunch, disembark, walk around Circular Quay, then re-embark before sail-away. Anyways, we weren't upset, just disappointed. I'll know to double-check next time.

We just got off the 9-night cruise that ended this past Monday. I'd say the ship exceeded my expectations. Mind you, I went in with fairly low expectations.

The food was so-so. Breakfast buffet is better on Royal Caribbean, though not significantly so. Could be stressful trying to find a table during peak times, often we'd have to sit at a table that was missing 2-3 of its chairs (we were a group of six, btw). Eggs seemed a bit icky, omelets were slightly better. I liked the bacon, wife did not. No chocolate donuts :( . Dinner was more than acceptable, I'd say along the lines of Applebee's or Hog's Breath Cafe (whichever you're more familiar with). Service was a bit hit or miss; never bad, but in certain sections it seemed to be lagging.

Decor seemed a bit, um, unusual. I thought it was interesting, but was surprised by the picture of a child-like cupid holding a grown woman's naked bosom that was in our room (it was covered up by the pull-down bed). We weren't offended, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear if someone else was.

Kids' Club was ok, kids enjoyed it. I didn't like the long lines for the 2-5 year olds, and how the 6-8 year olds kept moving all over the ship (seemed that most days they were in Club O2 on Deck 10 FWD, occasionally in the Dance Lounge Deck 2 AFT, on sea days they were Deck 5 FWD next to the 2-5 year old group, except when they weren't). They had a sheet that listed all the times and locations, but if you lost it you were out of luck. I saw multiple kids screaming that they didn't want to leave their parent, that had to be stressful to be around (to be fair, I did see one crying saying he wanted to stay in Kids' Club forever). I may not have thought they handled everything in the best manner, but our kids had fun.

Loved the port days. Wife thought snorkeling in the Natural Aquarium at Isle of Pines was better than at the Great Barrier Reef. She also thought highly of Mystery Island. Lifou Island and Noumea were just days we got off, walked around a bit, then back on the ship. Weather was pleasant, with a bit of rain in Noumea.

Embarkation and debarkation were a breeze. Was glad to see a full breakfast offered (sometimes it seems the breakfast is a scaled back affair on debarkation day; but on the Spirit it was just like any other day). Oh...were a bit disappointed that once we embarked, we couldn't get back off the ship to do some more sightseeing. Guess I should have checked first; thought it was port-dependent, and Royal Caribbean had let us get back off last year, just didn't cross my mind to ask.

It certainly wasn't perfect, but we had a great time. Wouldn't hesitate to book again.

My wife somehow left her passport at home (she wanted to keep up with hers, I had everyone else's). But I also had birth certificates for everyone and we both had driver's licenses, and it was a closed-loop cruise. We were told several times that it'd be a good idea to get a passport (I just nodded) and we were asked for our marriage certificate to show her name change (that we did NOT have with us), but they let us on anyways. I did have a copy of her passport with us, just in case (I try to be SUPER prepared with stuff like that, I even emailed them to myself in case our electronic devices were stolen), so I wasn't overly concerned.

My wife did lose a contact on a land vacation once and had no backup; that took a day to resolve. Now we always take an extra pack, just in case.

Lots of good deals for Carnival Spirit during the off season. Just booked the 27th July 2013 9-night South Pacific. Cost for two adults and two kids in the cheapest inside quad-room (category 44) was $2,263.09 plus a $100 onboard credit. I guess you could say I am quite the "cruise sale finder".

It's my first experience with an Aussie travel agent, bit of a learning curve but I think we'll be alright.

Walking to school is completely different than wandering around a cruise ship.

 

Children are children and need to be supervised when in a public place no matter how "safe" it might be.

Why would walking to school be completely different than wandering around a cruise ship? What if we're talking about walking to school in NYC vs wandering around a 500 passenger ship? Both are public places.

Now, I can tell that many people just assume a cruise ship is 100% safe and don't worry about their kids roaming by themselves at a young age. I think that's woefully irresponsible. BUT...I don't think a cruise ship would be any more dangerous than a small city with a similar population. Perhaps less so. Yes, bad things can happen to your kids (or anyone, really)...but what are the odds that someone will kidnap your kids and be thousands of miles away by the end of the week? Um...you're on a ship...there's only so many places you can go. And...if you're a bad-doer, there's only so many places you can hide (basically, you can't). My guess, is that the semi-bad people who are actually scared of being caught, may be behaving themselves a bit better than they would on land.

Anyways...my kids are too young to let them go anywhere unattended...but when they get older, I'm not going to freak out just because we're on a ship with people who may not be the best society has to offer. I'll give them some free reign and have certain rules that are 100% set in stone (probably along the lines of, not going into someone else's cabin without our permission, we have to know within 2-3 areas of the ship where you'll be at all times, etc.). I mean...yes, I want to protect them from every conceivable bad thing that can happen to them; but if I make them live in a bubble, they'll never learn how to live in the real world.

I may be being picky' date=' but I don't know of any cruiseline that would allow an infant less than six months of age to be on a cruise.

 

And here's an answer to your wondering: many of us adults will have plenty of adult time while our kids are enjoying spending time in the kids' program.[/quote']

 

Our son's first cruise was on Disney, and he was 12 weeks old at the time (had his 3mo birthday on the ship). Maybe rules have changed, I dunno.

We love longer cruises (haven't been on one less than 7 days). Can't imagine leaving our kids behind for that long. If we waited until every child was at least 12...we'd have quite a long wait.

I do often get asked "why not wait to do (insert big trip here) until your kids are old enough to remember it?" To which I reply "because we'll be too busy doing (insert another big trip here)."

Ok...cameras aren't allowed, sunglasses are. Now, are cameras not allowed mainly because they want you to buy their pictures, or only because of the potential danger of them falling and hitting traffic below? Because...I was just thinking...they make sunglasses with a camera built-in....

We stopped drinking Tim Hortons coffee :eek: (if you are Canadian or have ever been to a Timmies you know the addiciton!!)

Never tried their coffee, but LOVE the maple donuts!

This means we don't have to budget or save for a cruise and can travel when we choose. We bank a fair amount of money every month because we are not paying for ongoing credit card debt, mortgage, loans, etc.

 

This also means we choose to live without many of the newest "things" so we can have a lot more new experiences via travel. However, the bigger important things we have - our home and 2 cars - are paid for so we are saving a huge amount in mortgage and car loan interest.

Same here. Not paying a dime in interest to anyone. Keep a decent bit in our cheque/checking accounts, so we can take advantage of any travel deals we come across. I still wait until about a week before final payment before paying off the cruise, so I have a bit more leverage if prices drop.

In '05 we did an 11 night on Celebrity Zenith, bit under $600pp for an inside (due to three people in the room). I can't find the original booking, there may have been an obc involved. In '07 we did a 15-night trans-atlantic on the Norwegian Dream for just over $1,000pp for an oceanview, though the docs say there was an onboard credit (but doesn't list the amount, and I can't remember). So I guess I wasn't getting as good a deal as I thought :)

I'll often compare costs like this. And no, I don't compare like-for-like. If the alternative doesn't include broadway shows, then I'm not going to figure in the cost for those shows.

Most recent cruise we took was on Freedom of the Seas. There was another, cheaper cruise we were considering at the time (I forget what it was exactly). We were also going to be doing some Disney before and after the cruise. Well...Freedom has a character breakfast multiple mornings (3 or 4, yes I forget that too). I figured that'd be about equal to character dining at Disney (yes, different characters, but characters nevertheless). So I figured the cost for a few character dining experiences at Disney, subtracted that from the Freedom cruise, and used that figure to compare prices with the cheaper cruise. Very close...and I hadn't been on a Freedom class ship, so that's the one we booked. Had a blast.

For any american ports (Key West, St. Thomas, maybe Puerto Rico) just bring a smartphone that can tether to your laptop. Make sure you have plenty of data available. Worked great for me.

There used to be a way to get very cheap internet on board, think it was about $40 total for all you can use (did this on a transatlantic a few years back). You need T-Mobile, have a data plan, AND add international data to it. Technically, it says it's for email only. We were able to use it for web browsing too, though most of the usage was for email. No additional charge. Now, just because it worked for us years ago doesn't mean it'd work for you now. But if you already have T-Mobile, might be worth looking into (note, I was able to add the Blackberry international data even though I was using an iphone at the time). Now, this is slow cellular data, speed is Edge or slower (i.e., dialup). However, data on the ship's wifi is about the same speed, so...