Parrothead_82

A trick that has grown immensely in popularity in recent years is replacing wine with liquor, using food coloring to disguise it as wine and re-corking/re-sealing the bottle. A few years ago, it was a little-known trick and easy to get away with. They used to glance at your wine bottles and nod, then usher you on through like herded cattle.

However, that was then and things are different. Thanks to folks all over social media sites sharing their booze-concealing products and techniques, pretty much all the tricks are now widely known by C&BP. They aren't stupid and they know how to research social media for tips.

I was on a cruise out of New Orleans a few weeks ago and it seemed as if they are on a warpath to catch people doing this now. Now, they take your wine bottles and shine flashlights through the liquid, tilt the bottle in all directions and shake it up to check the consistency, look for sediment, etc. They take your sodas out of their boxes and examine every single can. They meticulously search every carry-on piece you have with you.

I witnessed it on embarkation day, where it took my party 2 hours to get through security and onto the ship because people were getting so throughly searched. It was 90+ degrees that day and we had small kids with us. You do the math.

Security personnel have been trained to know what wine looks like vs liquor during these tests (I saw some of their training posters in a search area). They will confiscate anything even remotely suspicious in a heartbeat now. It means nothing to them to take your things. It would appear that the days of being able to get away with this are over. They're cracking down hard. I just wouldn't even risk it, TBH.

Also need to be considerate of other passengers who have to wait excessively long times in line while these raids take place.

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I wish I could click "Like" for your comment, as I feel the same. I'm sure there is a lot we could spend our money on--updating our old house, buy a new car, etc---but travel is much more important...

You said it! Same issue my husband and have every time we announce that we are cruising again. Travel is at the top of our list of life goals. People make snide comments and act like it personally offends them that we are vacationing. They say rude things like "How can you afford that on your income?" We have 2 kids that we take with us, always. I never got to go on vacations as a kid, so taking my kids on trips is important to me. Then the haters say we "spoil the kids," and shouldn't take them. I guess a responsible parent should leave their kids behind while they visit a foreign country? Not this mom!

We both work hard. We save for 2-3 years at a time for our cruises and we go without a lot of "extras" because travel matters more to us than a big house, brand name clothes, or a fancy car. We live quite frugally 98% of the time, in a small home that just barely meets our needs. I'm always the one scraping the bottoms of food containers because I don't allow waste in my home. So, I'd say we've earned the right to splurge once every few years! [emoji849]

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While the alleged chef is the Mayor of Douche-ville...

I literally snorted my drink and made it come out of my nose when I read that. I am so stealing that phrase! [emoji23]

The husband and I had the unfortunate experience of meeting him once, at a restaurant opening in our town. We call him Captain of the SS Douche Canoe. [emoji5]

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I agree that it's best to encourage children to behave politely. I also think that people need to realize that children under 3 can be pretty unreasonable. If you insist on carrying them through the hallway, you may have a toddler screaming at the top of their lungs to get down. If you put them down, they like being able to run ahead. Which is worse, the screaming, or the thudding feet? In my opinion, I'd rather the running - they get past my cabin faster.

 

People can be truly awful about expecting perfect behavior from a toddler. They give you the evil eye and make nasty comments about controlling the child. Don't any of them remember what it was like when their own children were 2 and 3? We always tried to go to early dinners when we took the kids out to avoid bothering people - but there was no way we were going to stay home cloistered for 5 years.

 

Feel free to bitch and whine about tweens and teens behaving badly - if you remember being a perfect angel at that age yourself.

Amen! Ever since I first learned about it in college, I've always said a quick Google search on the stages of child development would benefit most people immensely! They are physiologically incapable of self control until the age of 14, and even after that it's minimal until they reach age 20! Expecting them to behave with total self control and 24/7 responsibility will only lead to frustration on your part and you may just get yourself an angry mouthful from a parent who is sick of your unreasonable expectations being placed on their kids all the time!

Also-when's the last time any of us conducted ourselves with complete decorum for an entire day, let alone a week? Glass houses, people! Nobody's perfect.

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1) I wish someone would have told me to bring lanyards for everyone in our party, so that we didn't get stuck paying $10/ea for them on the ship! Purchased a pack of 4 from Amazon for $5 this time around!

2) I wish I had known to bring a battery-operated fan for standing in line to get on and off the ship. I get overheated easily if there's no breeze, and became really sick from it on the first cruise. Bought an 8-in personal fan that has a neck strap and takes 2 "D" batteries. It has saved me on every cruise since then!

3) I wish I hadn't packed so many hair products and styling tools with the intention of fixing my hair everyday. I have very long hair, and so does my daughter. We learned the hard way that ocean wind makes any attempts at styling long hair futile. Also the ship's hairdryers are ancient relics in today's beauty industry, where 2000 watt dryers are the minimum standard. We'd have been better off if we'd just brought a bunch of nice clips and claws and threw our hair up everyday instead.

I've been a nurse practitioner in psych for 38 years. What kind of nursing do you plan to do?

That's wonderful! I just completed psych rotation last semester and it was pretty tough. Labor and delivery for me, no question. Interested in eventually getting my APRN to become a women's health NP. Or maybe a nurse midwife. It can be crazy, but it's my life's passion to help women have babies as safely as possible!

I didn't see where you stated what line you're cruising with...but if it's Carnival, be prepared for the fact that their "Camp Ocean" doesn't accept babies under 2 years old. My husband and I have cruised with our teenage son and younger daughter several times, beginning when our daughter was 19 months old. They do offer set hours where parents can take their babies in the playroom to let them play with the toys and do some special baby-centric activities, but they are quite limited (an hour or two) and usually only offered early in the mornings before the regular kids programming opens.

Have your children call you by your name instead of mom or dad when searching for you or 30 people will turn to see who is calling them.

Thank you for this advice! I am cruising with a teenager and younger child, never would have thought to teach them this! Safety first! It would honestly be smart for any parent to teach their kids to do this in a big crowd. "Mom" may get lost in all the voices, but your full name coming out of the mouth of your child would probably grab your attention!

Also...I see from your tag that you are a nurse. I am graduating nursing school in the fall. Nurses rock!!! ;)

That's a lot of valuable info, thank you for that! :-)

We ultimately decided to go with the Jamaica and Grand Cayman sailing because my mom scared the beejebus out of me with pictures of these things called "botflies" that lay their eggs in your skin, and are apparently rampant in Belize (according to her worry-wart opinion lol). If there's even the slightest chance my family could end up with one of those things in our skin, I have no desire to go to Belize ever! Thanks for reinforcing my decision with your description of their port though. Doesn't sound like our kind of fun at all!

Thanks for the info, I will definitely check out those reviews :-)

Hi everyone! My husband has surprised me with a cruise to celebrate my 10-year cancer free milestone! This will be our 3rd cruise. We are taking our teenager and our first grader with us. We have settled on the Carnival Dream sailing out of NOLA in June. I'm trying to decide on an itinerary-Eastern Caribbean or Western? Eastern goes to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. Western goes to Belize, Roatan, and Cozumel. The only one of these locations I've been to before is Cozumel, so the first two stops will be new to me either way. Which destinations are better for kids? And for parents who prefer to chill out on pretty beaches when in port (as opposed to the more adventurous excursions)?:confused:

I need to book as quickly as possible so we can request dates off work. Any suggestions would be very welcome!