Mistyhon

Thanks for posting this, may take our first little ship cruise in Jan!

We REALLY want to do a 7 day but flight prices are just killing us so unfortunately I think we'll end up having to do a shorter cruise. :mad:

We're in MN as well. We've made the drive to Galveston 2 times now (Mankato) and once just to DFW. Our kids were 3 and 6 the first time we made the trip. Honestly, they travel better to Texas than they do the 1 hour to my hometown, lol. We're thinking about adding another galveston cruise on for next year (as their Christmas gift.)

That being said, WE LOVE CARNIVAL and cruising. The kids would much rather go on a cruise than to Disney. However, if the ship didn't have a waterworks it would be a dealbreaker for us. It's a must have with the kids!

Lido balcony is our preferred locale. We've never had a noise issue. We'll be doing lido balcony on the vista repo next year as well.

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We'll be in 9272 in September. 9282 should be super quiet as the rooms above it are at the end of the dead end so there isn't a lot of traffic. (we typically stay on Lido around that space but did a guarantee this time.)

Is the Blue hole/river tubing available for porting in Montego Bay or only in Ocho Rios?

We've cruised 3 times with our kids during the school year and there is ALWAYS plenty of children.

Ahh but all good things must come to an end,

 

 

 

So to conclude my review of LFK: I highly recommend visiting this gorgeous place. My pictures do not do it justice. The staff went out of their way to make sure we had a great experience. It wasn't too crowded, and there was plenty to do (I didn't mention this earlier, but you can also swim with a jaguar, or ride horses in the water--both for a fee, and you can use snorkel equipment for free I think).

Any idea how much it cost to hang with the Jaguar? I saw photos from our FB group after our stop there and we put it on the short list for next time. The photos were gorgeous!!!

The confirmation email I received from LFK said specifically what Larry and/or David would be wearing, and that their names would be on their shirts. The letter said to not get lured away with anyone else. I can see how it would be easy to be duped though. There was a big crowd of drivers all wanting you to go with them. I'm usually a super laid back person, but I admit the experience of finding Larry made me very nervous. I do highly recommend LFK though!!

We were recently in ROATAN and I can't encourage you enough to just pay the $2/person fee for the cab to take you to the meetup point. We had our kids with us and it was so hot and a REALLY long walk (our meetup for Bodden tours was the VERY LAST and I swear it was probably about a mile total walk even though they say it isn't.) Also, when you're in the cab they're still trying to hound you from outside to go with them (even though we already had a tour booked, its ridiculous there!!) So I can only imagine the stress of fending them off with children while walking. Plus, the cab drivers know exactly where each groups meetup point is so they will take you directly there. That $8 was well worth the peace of mind!!

Anyhow, sorry for my tangent and thanks for the review. I'm going on the Dream for the first time in September so I'm excited to follow along.

I just bought it this evening for our May 21 (7 day) at 49.95 so I'm really thinking it's the June 1st cut off for the new more expensive price. It's completely worth it to us when traveling with our kids to cut down on line time and be able to plant our junk in our room immediately. I also really appreciate getting priority luggage delivery so I can unpack immediately and begin the relaxing!

Excited for the rest of your review (and happy to read that you drove as well.) We're going to make our 3rd drive down to TX from MN and it was surprisingly easy to do with the kids (7 & 4 now.)

We've done both magic (7day) and sunshine (8day) with our kids. That being said, we're booked again for magic, so I'd say you made the right choice. While a day on vacation is better than one at home, if given the choice between sunshine and home, I'm telling you it would be tough call.

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We did in nov 2013. My kids and hubby enjoyed it. The drinks were plentiful and the jerk chicken delicious. They didn't pitch a fit when we rode double down the waterslide with our 3 year old. Overall it was a win and I'd be happy to partake again.

The only bummer was both dh and dd met the business end of a jellyfish tentacle (broken off) near the paddle boat area. It hurt badly but they suggested pouring booze on it and that helped. Booze=the answer.

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Too cute. I have no interest in this ship but I can't stop reading. :)

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No, but I'd love it if you could post yours when you return back!!!

Do you know what beach it was?

I think it was morningstar beach. There was a havana style restaurant there too I believe.

We loved CArnival Magic more than Sunshine (with the kids.) I think it may have been due to layout convenience versus options though. They're both pretty comparable.

In St. Thomas, we just took a cab to the nearest beach. Our friends had been there before and it was super cheap to get there and not at all crowded. We were there from 2-6 and that was plenty of time for the 4, 6, 7, and 9 year olds (plus us 4 oldies!) The only bummer was that the rental people had left for the day so we could rent jetskis like we wanted to. Either way, we had fun exploring the rocks and were really close to port as we got to watch another ship leave and felt like we could have swam to it.

I like to be more than prepared:

THERMOMETER (we use infrared)

Children's ibuprofen

child tylenol

child pepto

benadryl

cough meds

pink eye drops

ear ache drops

previous scrip my son had for zofran (never know!)

sunscreen

bug spray

sun burn ointment/aloe (usually only needed for us careless adults)

Plus all of our adult random meds (anti-gas meds, anti nausea, anti diarhhea, etc etc,)

THanks so much for posting this review. We're heading out on the 8 day in about 2.5 weeks. :)

They're pretty strict on the 42" and shoes aren't allowed on the slide so that trick doesn't work (you have to take them off your feet and carry them down in your hands.)

That's weird that they allowed that. I've received a message before that it wouldn't result in us saving any money, therefore it was denied.

I hear ya. The same thing happened to us (and boy was I cheesed.) However, we've received several hundred in OBC since then so I'm less irritated. In all, our taxes and fees went up about $100 with all of the price reductions we've received.

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one of our formal nights

Yep, same thing here. I posted a thread about it a week or so ago. Not happy, but overall I'm paying less so I can't complain (much!) HA! Happy sailing.