Fianl payment due Sun and suddenly not as excited - HELP!

[IMNiles]

The quality of the trip will be remembered long after the price is forgotten.

 

Assuming you aren't buying the trip on credit or "robbing Peter to pay Paul" you won't be reminiscing over the bill - you'll be looking at the pictures and fondly remembering your trip. And the money? Well you weren't planning on being buried with it, were you?

 

Recently, as we were in the process of paying for our upcoming med cruise, we too were suffering from a little sticker shock.. Until I went back and looked at what we paid for our LAST med cruise. I was frankly amazed at how expensive it was, because I had remembered that trip so fondly that I totally forgot what we paid. In my mind that is a textbook definition of "value."

[kymbakitty]

Well.... the Freedom is wonderful.....there is not doubt and really no need to talk you into enjoying that ship...you will.

 

However, if you feel this bad about the $$$$ perhaps you should wait until you can afford the cruise without such distress.

No sense in spending $3,000 plus thousands of $$$$ on something distressing.....In reality....if you cant afford it, the week on the Freedomn will pass in a flash and you'll be paying off the trip for years...That will not feel good either.....it will not have mattered how great that one week on the FOS was.... if your paying for for years to come.

Cruise vacations are not for every budget.

 

It doesn't seem like these "fretters" are charging their vacations. That's why I sent kudos through my initial response.

 

I think the days are long gone where people are charging for vacations. It seems like people finally got it through their heads that if you can't pay up for it in cash (not that you can't use charge cards...but just don't carry a balance), you CANNOT AFFORD IT...no matter what it is....want a pair of $200 boots? If you can't pay cash for it, right then are there, you CAN'T AFFORD THEM.

 

It seems that the fretting over the cost is just normal thoughts about where the money could be better spent (if I am reading it right). And I know my best friend (mother of four) always thinks that way because when you have kids, there are always a zillion other things the money could go toward (college perhaps....your own retirement fund so your kids don't have to care for you because you don't have anything for yourself except SS)....but it does not sound like these folks are charging any of their vacations and that they saved long and hard to pay for it up front.

 

Finally though, huh? If we listened to our parents and our parent's parents...we wouldn't be in the trouble that so many people have gotten themselves into in the last 5-10 years. But we are all finally getting it and paying for it in CASHOLA!!!!

 

Enjoy!!!!

[M4bushy]

What has the Liberty done to upset you? :):):)[/quote

 

The short cruises on the liberty turned me off. We did the liberty 4/2008 and 4/2009 it is an awesome ship but I won't spend the money for a 5 night cruise.

[sn2792]

We just came back from Walt Disney World. Boy did we realize what a value a cruise is after a 5 night stay at Disney. We all said we wished we would have taken a cruise instead. So much more value for the money and not nearly as expensive. Food options are so much better on a cruise since I could get a salad or fruit anytime I want on a cruise without paying extral. Not so at WDW even on their dining plan.

 

We won't make that mistake again.

[patattack]

I feel the same way about my Hawaii cruise. This is the most expensive cruise I have taken and although I have the money saved in a separate account, sometimes I sit back and think what I could do with that money. I have been planning a cruise to Hawaii for some time and I know I will have an awesome time.

 

pat

[TheKevinShow]

Discovering (really stumbling) into cruising was the best decision I've ever made... Other than committing to my spouse... (Had to throw that in case they read this...) I found it very difficult to unwind the first cruise... After a few days, I relaxed and never looked back. It beats any other vacation I've ever had... As a Hotel General Manager, I only wish I found employees as generous and kind for my hotel staff. The food is superb. Trust me... I never miss a meal. Ok... Once in 1989. But I've spent my adult life making up for it... Even if you never eat outside of the Main Dining Room, you'll still amazed at the quality. Cold food is cold and hot food arrived hot. Most domestic restaurants struggle with that! The shows are on par with broadway, with less of the crowded feel, and certainly more comfortable seats! The public areas are always being cleaned. The fitness facilities are on par or better than your local Bally's or Planet Fitness. I've never had a domestic or foreign vacation where I didn't wish it was over by day 4. On the ship I wanted to stay another week. I found myself booking cruise after cruise before I even left the first one. The teen and tot facilities are top notch and in many cases are staffed by real educators. Of course the night life is phenomenal... Just a note... Find a bartender, tip them well and stay with them the entire cruise. You'll never want for anything... I cannot recommend Royal Caribbean or cruising in general. You'll not be disappointed. My family and I talk about cruising to the point of driving my other family members crazy... One last note...You'll find yourself making fast friends with other ship-mates! I have friends from all over the world thanks to cruising that I still speak with years later! Let us know what you decide. :)

[Loralie]

Loralie unless the teen club is very important to you like it is us you will have a great time. :)

 

The teen club on the Explorer was terrible compared to the Freedom one, please keep in mind that we were on the Freedom 2 years ago. Two of our kids were in the teen club on the Freedom, on the Explorer we had 3 in the teen clubs. The teen clubs run from 12-14 and 15-17. On the Explorer, both of the teen clubs were run by the same people. I forget if the Freedom was run the same way. :(

 

There were A LOT of kids onboard when we cruised (almost 1200). The games were properly run on the Freedom, not so on the Explorer. The various games didn't accomodate the number of kids onboard. Most of the games were for only 25 kids. You do the math. Even if your kids were lucky enough to get in a game, no rules were followed. They let the teens play whatever way they wanted, even if it wasn't the correct way to play. The games became a joke. Our kids rarely went to any of the activities because of this. :mad:

 

The Freedom had the "Flowrider" which is a big deal for teens. It is a big deal because if there is nothing fun going on in the teen club, there is something else to do. The Explorer has the rock wall, but that doesn't keep the teens that busy. We also had of a lot of sea days, which in my opinion is not a great match when you have teens. If we would have been on the Freedom it would have been fine, but we weren't. We also find the Western Itinerary a lot more fun for kids/teens unless you are big beach people which we are not.

 

Our kids felt the kids on the Explorer were very rude. Most were from NJ/NY. They felt when we had cruised out of Port Cananeral the kids were much nicer. There were as many kids on the Freedom as there were on the Explorer. They have always made a lot of friends on previous cruises, not one this time around. Most of the teen girls were more interested in walking in packs trying to find boys that they don't know to "make out with". My girls certainly didn't fit in this crowd and even got made fun of because they didn't want to explore the ship to look for the "hotties". My 2 older girls are 15 and 14 to give you a perspective. If this makes them weird, oh well. They certainly have a lot of friends in school where we live and never get made fun of. Most of the nice kids just hung out with the parents most of the time. This is what our 3 older kids did. Our youngest (8) loved her club.

 

We were amazed at how many kids hung out in elevators all day just to press various buttons. Why is this so much fun??:confused: We also saw a bunch of kids run past an elderly man and almost knocked him over. One of our daughters helped him pick up all of his papers that were knocked out of his hands.

 

Other than the above statements, we found the Explorer to be a beautiful ship with pretty good entertainment. We loved our waiter and the food was fine. The Explorer certainly didn't turn us off to cruising. We did learn some important rules.....

1. Try not to cruise during Spring Break

2. Try to cruise out of Florida

3. Only a lot of sea days with the Freedom class ship/Oasis/Allure.

4. Try to stick to the Freedom class, Oasis or Allure where there are more things for kids to do just in case the kid clubs are not good.

 

Our kids still had a great time, we just go to spend a lot more time with them which was a nice treat. We shared many laughs and virgin strawberry daquiris together. The poorly run teen club didn't prevent us from having a wonderful time. :D

 

Thanks for the comments. The teen club will be important to us because we are traveling with my 2 boys who will be 16 and 14 at the time of the cruise. Plus my cousin's daughter will be with us and she will be 13 at the time of the cruise. I think the difference for us is that this will be their first RCCL cruise. We did go on a Carnival cruise (Victory) back in 2007 so I think compared to that the boys will be very happy with the Explorer.

 

I was hoping a Freedom Class ship would be in Bayone NJ but as we all know they were just rumors. I kept looking at the differences and getting a little depressed (no big screen by the pool, no flowrider, etc.) but since we do not want to fly, we have to make the best of the Explorer. I am sure it will be awesome but I can see going on the Explorer AFTER going on a Freedom class a little bit of a let down.

 

I get a little nervous about spending all that money too but like someone else posted, you are making memories. You wont remember the bills. I wish we had the funds to travel every year but we save up for it and we go every few years. It works for us.

 

Loralie

[thomasale]

Once the cruise is paid for, as the upcoming one is, I just begin to fret about the looming bar bill!!! Actually a couple of cruises ago my wife and I went on a trip just ourselves on Westerdam and got off with practically tips alone...maybe thats the key travel by ourselves and it will be inexpensive...but then look at all the family fun that will be missed!

 

You will enjoy your cruise and the memories will linger long after the expense is forgotten. Enjoy!

[dwardlaw]

(we also have an interior/balcony connecting room) what deck are this staterooms located? I can't find any info about them

[alcie]

Thanks everyone for your comments, I'm feeling much better now that I finally paid for the remainder of the trip this weekend. We've saved for this and we know we'll have fun, it was just seeing that money leave the account all at once :rolleyes:

 

For those asking about the interior/balcony rooms - look at deck plans for 9696/9701 and 9396/9401. They're the two sets of aft most rooms (before the aft cabins) on deck 9. The balcony rooms are a cat D1 and the interiors are cat L. I've seen a few pictures are reviews on here about them, search by room number. Surprisingly it was only about $200 more total to get these rooms vs. all of us staying in a D1 because of the price difference with a cat L.

[lrn2cruise]

My DH laments about $$$$$$ all the time. It was the way he was raised. Buying my DS a Happy Meal is tragic for him. My MIL tryies to apologize all the time.