SeaThruU

We have sailed on the Celebrity Eclipse and the NCL Getaway with our two teenagers. The Eclipse was hands down our favorite ship of all our cruises. The kids even liked it better. Service was wonderful and the ship's employees all seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs. The Eclipse has a more open (lots of windows) plan than the NCL ship. The sailing from Florida would be my pick, the weather will be cold and windy at sea for the first few days if you chose to depart from NY. The Breakaway, like the Getaway, has no indoor pool. So outside time during the first few days would be cold. Hope this helps a little.

We stayed at the Airport Embassy Suites. The run a shuttle every 30 min from airport and it's a quick trip to the cruise port. They offer bus service to the port the morning of cruise, but we had the concierge call for a minivan taxi for the 4 of us and it was $25 + tip.

Some itineraries have Family Time a couple times a day when they allow kids under 16 with parents in to swim. We sailed the Radiance in Alaska and that was the case.

We have done Alaska cruises twice with kids. We have also done the dog sled excursion twice. Our kids wore tennis shoes for the entire cruise and land tour. On the dog sled excursion they give you snow/ice boots to slip on over your shoes so no worries about appearance.

We have been diving since the late 1980's and now have two teenage children that are PADI certified and have 40+ dives each in their logs. We have dove on both islands and we found that St. Martin reefs on the French side with Octopus Diving were not very colorful and there weren't many fish.

We have dove many times in St. Thomas and there are beautiful reefs and a lot of military wrecks not too far off shore. We always go diving with Blue Island Divers when in St. Thomas. They will pick you up on their boat next to the cruise ships and only take small groups of less than 8 persons.

3 until the Getaway for New Year's Eve!

SeaThruU

We have 2 kids and have done several RCI Caribbean routes. If it were us we would choose the Allure for all of the onboard activities, restaurants, entertainment. Our second choice would be the next class down in size, the Independence. The Adventure is slightly smaller and doesn't have as large of pool deck and activities.

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We had a 10:15am flight on US Air after our cruise in FLL 2 years ago and we did walk off with our luggage at 7am, grabbed a stand by taxi for 5 people and had an hour to wait at gate. No problem and home in WV by 4pm!

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You also get the word Coca-cola printed on your sea pass instead of having a sticker if you prepurchase.

SeaThruU

Aquaventure hours are 9am-5pm. It will be crowed with the basketball tournament , Thanksgiving guests and all of the ships. Also, the winter months can be cold and windy there. Our family has stayed at Atlantis many times and find the best time of the year with school aged kids is early June. It's warm then, but not too warm and there aren't as many ships during the summer months.

SeaThruU

We sailed Radiance last June in Alaska with our extended family and none of the 5 guys wore jackets at dinner on either formal night. They were fine in dress shirt and tie.

SeaThruU

We've been on two Alaskan cruises and you will be fine with the lighter weight jacket. Just take layers like long sleeved shirts and sweat shirts.

SeaThruU

The beach at Atlantis has jet skis, banana boats and parasailing all offered by independent operators and you may use the beach there without paying the resort fee. We have been to Atlantis many times and used the jet skis ... And they were fine. Our kids have done these things since they were 5 years old. We never felt unsafe.

SeaThruU

I just Google Mapped MCO to Port Canaveral and its 47.5 miles. We did this a couple of years ago and booked a private shuttle van for our group of 10 and it took less than an hour when we left the airport.

Ok, LOL. I misunderstood.

SeaThruU

We are on that same sailing and I pre purchased the Soda Package by calling my NCL cruise consultant two days ago.

SeaThruU

The water taxi is $6 round trip or $4 one way per person. It takes you from the cruise ship pier across Great Bay to the beach in Philipsburg.

We were in St. Martin in January and booked the Beach/Snorkeling Boat Tour with Captain Bob at Soualiga Destinations. They came highly recommended on Trip Advisor and we had a great time. If you look at their website, it describes the tour at length. They work with cruise passengers every day and are very contentious of each ship's schedule.

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There is also a water taxi from the pier to the beach and shopping area.

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Just got off Adventure today and muster was at 4:45pm before 1st seating and sail away between seatings.

We did a RCI cruise tour in June this year and they put us at Pike's Waterfront Lodge.

Thanks!

Does Cosol take US dollars as payment at the end of the tour?

Thanks for starting this thread. Just booked on Eclipse 7/5/14 sailing to Iceland & Norway.

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Just off the Radiance today and did week before on land. Spent a totally dry time in the mid 90 degrees in Denali and Talkeetna, So pack some t-shirts and shorts.

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