Conquest Review - March 30 - April 8 2019

[Julie0317]

Hi!  This is a quick review of our Carnival Conquest Cruise from 3/30 through 4/8.  8 day cruise to Princess Cay, Grand Turk, Curacao and Aruba.  I have never done a review, but I read them here all the time and appreciate the information they give so wanted to do a quick one.  It is super unorganized compared to others.  I did not take any pictures of our food and did not save the Fun Times. 

There were 7 of us.  Me, my husband and kids (Boy 18 and Girl 15) and my Mother in law, Sister in law and Brother in law.  I am one of the lucky ones who actually gets along with my in-laws so this was a non-issue for those of you out there thinking ‘holy sh%$...here we go a juicy review….get my popcorn’.  Sorry to disappoint – no sister in law drama or mother in law fighting here!

We flew from Minneapolis to FLL the DAY OF the cruise.  Gasp!  I know, I know……frowned upon.  I was pretty nervous, but clung to the few reviews I read here of people who did it and survived.  I did look up the flights the days prior to ours to make sure they were always landing on time and they were.  Part of me wanted one to be delayed by hours or cancelled just so that flight was the ‘statistic’ and not our flight! We did get trip insurance so we knew if we missed the ship it would be an adventure catching up but we could do it!   We were a direct flight, arriving at 11:40 a.m. into FLL.  My in-laws though were on a connecting flight through Atlanta so I did worry more about them since there were 2 planes to worry about!  But – we all arrived early!  Yay!  We arrived at 11:30 and them around noon.  We booked Carnival transportation from the airport to the cruise terminal for the ONLY reason that if we were late and we got the latest bus, once upon the bus we were guaranteed to get on the ship.  If hind sight were……you know the saying……we would have cabbed or ubered.  The one thing I have to say is I did like how the carnival bus got us right where we needed to be and they told us exactly where to go and what to do.  We have cruised before, but never out of FLL so it was nice to have clear directions.  We checked in for the cruise at the airport and that was very easy to do.  We boarded the bus and it took about 30 minutes from boarding time to when were at the cruise terminal.  We arrive at the cruise terminal around 1:20.  We breezed through everything and boarded in about 6 minutes.  No lines and if there were I did not notice because we got to go to the ‘checked in at the airport’ line which nobody was in. 

We had a balcony room, our kids had an inside room right across the hall.  We booked one adult in each room with one kid so we knew we would have to go to guest services to switch it around once on board.  We did call prior to the cruise to do it ahead of time, but because my husband was on one fare offer and I was on another they could not switch it without rebooking us all (I booked all 3 of our rooms on-line) Sounds dumb to me, but I am sure there are reasons  – just a lay person here.  In laws had a balcony room for 3 on the other side of the ship.  Don’t ask me if we were port or starboard because after 6 cruises I still don’t know and don’t care about the difference.  We were AFT though (pat on the back to myself for finally getting that down).  We were all on deck 8.

Muster drill was excruciating.  I am one of those people who follows rules and if I am on time I am late.  We were on Lido enjoying a Guys burger and some cocktails (all of the adults got the CHEERS package) and they made the announcement that the muster drill would be starting and to make your way to your muster station.  We knew our muster station letter since it was on our sail and sign, but had no idea where it was.  In past cruises (3 with Carnival and 1 with NCL) we knew ahead of time where to go.  After the 2^nd announcement I was starting to panic that we would be late, but there were still a lot of people milling about so I was not too nervous.  We started following the crowds down to deck 4 (I think).  I saw one carnival employee go up to another employee and in mock panic, imitating the guests saying ‘help, help…where is my muster station!” and they laughed and laughed and I thought “well….it is not very clear to anyone where the muster stations are so you should probably just shut it and help people instead of make fun of them, literally in front of them”.  That left a bad taste in my mouth for sure.

We were told to go into the hallways by the life rafts and wait.  And we waited, and waited and waited and it got hotter and hotter and hotter.  We, of course, were first there so in the back row.  At one point I thought I was going to puke or pass out.  On my in-laws side (they were not at the same station as us) their group was chanting and doing the wave and my Mother in Law was disgusted by all of the shenanigans.  After about 40 minutes of waiting and people lining up and squishing us further and further back they did the muster drill information which lasted 5 minutes.  Then let us go which took another 10.  I understand the need for the muster drill and actually liked that we were where we would actually have to be in case of a real emergency. Look people I am one of those on the airplane that actually still listens and pays attention to the flight attendants and finds my closest exits on every flight!  I just feel like there could be a better way to do this to ensure the guest gets the information they need, but not having to crowd into a hot space together.  But again – just a lay person here.  I feel like you should all be handed a shirt on the way out saying “I survived the muster drill of 2019”.   We made it!  My brother and sister in law who have never cruised before were about to jump ship and go home since they wanted no part of the cruise any more if that was an indication of things to come.  We assured them it was just the one time and from now on, although crowded, it would not be mandatory any more.  They settled down and got more drinks (liquor always is a good answer to stressJ).  Sail away started immediately and by the time we went to our rooms to see if our bags were there (they were), changed and went back up to Lido we were already well on our way. 

We eventually made our way down to our rooms and unpacked, dressed and met for dinner.  They did not have our rooms with the correct configuration of beds in our room and my in-laws room – they must have gotten those mixed up.  We did see the room steward and we went through how we wanted the beds, that we would love to have ice every day, we wanted the room serviced twice a day in our room, once in the kids and twice in the in-laws.  My kids loved Faruk (sp?) right away and he knew most of our names by day 2.  We always had ice in the room and the services was great.

We had any time dining.  We never had to wait for a table and there was always 7 of us.  I don’t remember what we all had, but it was all pretty good - give or take a meal here and there.  At one point we went to guest services and the excursions desk.  Guest services where we had to switch our sail and sign cards around to the correct rooms so we would have the right keys.  That was no problem at all!  Excursions because we rented a cabana on Princess Cay which was our first port of call and we had to choose the cabana number.  There is not a lot of information out there about the Cabanas, but I had read to get a higher number.  We chose our cabana with Max, the very friendly excursion desk rep and he went through the map of the island with us and we felt super great about it all when we left and very excited!  You can only rent the cabana for 4 people and cannot add any additional people.  Max did tell us they don’t like splitting groups up though so the 7 of us could get off with the priority tender for excursions but asked that just 4 go to the cabana and the other 3 make their way there after a bit.  That was fine with us as part of the reason we even wanted the cabana was for the priority tender.  We went to bed early (10:30) since we had a long day of travel and Princess Cays was the next day and we were excited to get off first and get to our cabana and get settled in for a day of sun and beach!

Embarkation Pic attached - I am the one in the white jacket (Hubs in the blue shirt behind me) and you can probably figure the rest out from there. 

[Julie0317]

Princess Cay:

We woke up, had some breakfast at the buffet and were at our meeting place for our excursion (Cabana) at 8:30.  We got right off onto the tender with no problems at all – all 7 of us.  We got to the island and 4 of us went to check in for our cabana and me and my kids went to find the beach and planned to meet up with the cabana folks in a bit.  I was not sure which way to go that was the same direction as the cabanas would be but took a stab at going to the right while facing the water.  We first settled at the 2^nd beach (there are several ‘bays’ of beaches), but then kept moving to the last soft sand beach.  We were right and the cabanas were all on that side of the island.  Before long I saw my husband coming to find us.  We made our way to the cabana to be with everyone.  We did not plan to be in the cabana much, but wanted it for a place to drop our stuff, eat in the shade and get some cold drinks/fruit etc.   The cabana is a small house with one round table with 4 chairs.  There was 2 lounge chairs out front.  You get 2 float mats and 4 pairs of snorkel gear (we had to choose sizes at the excursion desk the night before).  Later they are to bring fruit and we had pre-chosen the types of soda we wanted.  We would never get to enjoy these though……more to come on that!  I had read that the beach is not in front of the cabanas and it is a 3 minute walk.  That was not true.  Although they are not right on the beach they are right across the walking path.  Ours was towards the end of the beach so I suppose if you got one further down you would have to walk.  We got some regular lounge chairs by the bar and up from the beach and it was all pretty perfect.  The swimming area we were by was small with lots of rocks, but there were several more beach/swimming areas to choose from that were larger and not as rocky.  We chose this area because it was by the cabana. 

Floating in the water was so nice.  It is just beautiful there.  At one point I was floating and my husband was to join us, but was taking forever.  I went back up to our chairs and I saw him animatedly talking to 2 women at the bar and a few workers and could tell something was wrong.  Turns out our cabana was double booked and these ladies were the other occupants.  The carnival people acted like this had never happened before.  At first they said that, although when we checked in they confirmed we were in cabana 12, we are actually supposed to be in cabana 4.  The very nice other ladies, for logistical reasons needed to be by a bathroom said they would happily move to cabana 4 and we also said that we would move.  But- cabana 4 was booked too and the people were already in there and very happy and very settled in.  Something came up about cabana 18 too, but again it was being used.  So after an hour of my husband dealing with this we gave up our cabana as we were perfectly happy with our regular chairs on the beach and the buffet would be fine for food and we were not using the snorkel gear and had brought our own blow up floats as long as we got our money back (which was what was taking so long to get figured out – how to prove we did not get to use it so we could get refunded once on -board).  But it was very disappointing to have to spend an hour out of our day on this beautiful island.   So – that is that – we moved on and had a great day.  The food was your basic Carnival island barbeque food.  The burgers were almost inedible they were so over cooked, but everything else was good – desserts were amazing.  The one thing I can’t stand on these private islands is that the CHEERS program is not honored.  There were 2 things on this cruise that made me feel like they were slimy sales people looking to screw someone and this was one of them and the Pixels pictures was the other (more later on that).  There is no reason for CHEERS to not be honored.  You have to use your sail and sign for all drinks at the bar so it is not an issue with the technology.  It just does not make any sense.  It did not stop us from having a great time though- just an annoying observation.  We were here from 9-4 and started to get in line for the tender at 3:15.  People were still coming to the island – I did not understand that at all.  Anyway – tender was fine and we got back on the ship around 3:45.

We went to the excursion desk right away to get reimbursed for the cabana issue, but they were not open.  My husband went back later and Max, who was so nice and friendly and helpful the night before was not so much this time.  He indicated that on the top of the paper where we chose cabana 12 it was crossed out and 4 was written on it and that was where the confusion came in.  It was like he was not understanding that it really did not matter what cabana number it said – they were all full and overbooked by one group and no matter what ‘group’ was the actual overbooked party we were the ones who did not get the cabana and spent an hour sorting it out on the island and now another 45 minutes in line at the excursion desk and talking with him.  He said he could refund the $200 but it would be a credit on our account, not back to the credit card – which we were fine with.  They did not compensate us in any other way, which, working in Public Relations and customer service I would never have allowed – would have given more credit than that due to the trouble we had to go to.  We did not ask for though or expect it and did not get anything but the $199.99 credit to our sail and sign.  We had booked the cabana on August 27^th so 7 months in advance so we were pretty disappointed (if I have not mentioned that before J)

Dinner that night was formal night.  We sat in a different section from the first night and we met  Virgel and his staff and they were awesome. 

We were set to hit Grand Turk tomorrow from 12-7.  We have been before and we planned to go to Jacks Shack and get chairs and just chill which is exactly what we did.

[Julie0317]

Grand Turk:

We were in Grand Turk from 12-7.  We got in early and were able to start to debark at 11:45.  We knew we wanted to bolt to Jacks Shack and get some chairs so we took off past all of the vendors by Margaretville trying to sell us their chairs.  We got to Jacks and the chairs were free and the umbrellas were $15 I want to say?  We just wanted 7 chairs by the water, no umbrella.  The nice man at the chair stand helped us get the 7 chairs and it was perfect.  There was no charge sine we did not get any umbrellas – so we made sure to tip him well for all of his help.  We went to the bar to get drinks throughout the day and went up to Jacks to eat lunch which was amazing.  We stayed there until around 5:30 and then headed back to do some shopping before we got back on the ship.  There are a lot of places to shop there so give yourself time if that is what you are all about. 

I think we just ate at the buffet this night since we were not back on the ship until 6 and wanted to go to the early show tonight.

We went to the 80’s pop to the Max show at the theater.  It was a good show and kept us entertained for an hour or so. 

Day at Sea:

Not much to report here.  We were up every morning before sunrise in order to see the sunrise so we had no problem getting sun chairs up on deck 10 where we wanted them.  We were parked there pretty much all day.  My sister in law got a manicure and loved it.  She did buy some product and they were kind of pressury, but not too bad she said. 

We had a long dinner in the dining room and loved Virgel and his team again.  We all hit the casino bar to just chat and hang out after and went to bed around midnight. 

[Julie0317]

Day at Sea:

Not much to report here.  We were up every morning before sunrise in order to see the sunrise so we had no problem getting sun chairs up on deck 10 where we wanted them.  We were parked there pretty much all day.  My sister in law got a manicure and loved it.  She did buy some product and they were kind of pressury, but not too bad she said. 

We had a long dinner in the dining room and loved Virgel and his team again.  We all hit the casino bar to just chat and hang out after and went to bed around midnight. 

[Julie0317]

Curacao:

I had researched where to go and what beach to go to.  We settled on Blue Bay which is a resort.  I had contacted them via Facebook Messenger and they got back to me right away and were very helpful and kind.  We got off of the ship and went to the taxi stand.  We told them 7 people and were told $8 per person and we were all in 1 van.  It took about 15 minutes to get there. We asked the drive to be back to get us at 3:15 as we wanted to shop and knew the stores closed around 6.  He said no problem.  Blue bay was great.  There is an excursion that goes here, but it was $60 per person and I read that it takes a while to get there and you are only there for a few hours.  This worked out great.  It was I want to say $7 per chair.  You just walk up to the beach area and there was someone at a podium taking money for the chairs.  We picked a great spot and our server introduced herself and we ordered cocktails.  It was a little rocky to get into the water, but so clear and beautiful.  I heard a lot of people who were snorkeling talking about all of the fish.  I tried to tune them out as I floated around hoping a piranha was not going to nibble my toes (dramatic much?).  We ate fish tacos in our beach chairs and they were amazing. 

Our driver was there before 3:15 and we were so impressed and happy.  We asked him to drop us off at the bridge that you walk over to get into town where there is more shopping.  The bridge is beautiful and the shops look so cute and colorful when you arrive.  Tons of shopping here too.  We got a few shirts and things then walked back to the ship.  The plan was to clean up, eat at the buffet and then get back off to see the town at night and walk across the bridge when it was all lit up.  It is a floating bridge and very cool.  They have to close it when boats come through and I have heard that people get ‘stuck’ on the bridge or on the island waiting and have almost missed the ship!  So we were very aware of this as we walked across it at night.  We stopped just across the bridge to sit and have a drink.  It was lovely right by the water.  They kept teasing me about getting stuck over there and we had talked about how if the bridge was going to close we would miss the ship.  I was saying how I am sure there would be some sort of warning if they were going to close it.  Not 5 minutes later we hear a loud buzz and see an orange light on the bridge and we all literally looked like that emoji with the big surprised eyes and each other and my kids started running.  It was like every man for himself.  I stuck my hand out and demanded me and my kids passports as my snarky husband still had to pay the bill.  He handed them to me and I ran.  It was pretty heart pounding!  My sister in law, thankfully….well,,,it is her mother…..helped my 72 year old Mother in Law ‘jump’ onto the bridge.  It started to move – no warning.  Just the buzzer and a light and 2 minutes later it was moving!  The server was so quick with the credit card my husband and brother in law made it onto the bridge.  We got to the other end where it was starting to separate from the wall there and had to jump (more like large step…..but that does not sound quite as daring) onto the sidewalk.  There was a local girl there at the sidewalk as they lock the gate too so nobody can get through to get onto the bridge until it goes back and she was all cool, calm and collected and I am sure laughing on the inside at us all.  She said that it would be unlocked soon and counted down to the exact time it opened and we escaped with our lives (dramatic much?)  I guess it was just a little boat and they just had to open it a little.  But we did not know that!!  We would have been fine, not leaping, screaming and running across the bridge but again……tourists – who knew?

With our hearts still pounding and me muttering how ‘it is all fun and games to make fun of Mom until it really happens….’ We walked back to the ship and boarded with plenty of time to spare!

We went to bed early as Aruba was next from 8-4.

[Julie0317]

Aruba:

I did some research on this board for beaches to go to in Aruba.  We decided not to venture too far and to walk down to Surfside Beach – take a right when you get outside of the terminal.  We asked at the information desk at the cruise terminal and they indicated it was an easy walk, but about 20 minutes.  I had already mapped it so did know that.  Everyone wanted to walk so we did.  It was a good 20-30 minute walk.  After a while we could see the inflatable water park that we did intend to use so it was nice to know we were going in the right direction.  We arrived at surfside beach and we were the first ones there at the little restaurant that you could rent chairs and umbrellas from.  It was $7 for the umbrellas and chairs.  We told him we wanted 7 chairs and 2 umbrellas.  He set them up (with my husband and sons help) and actually gave us 3 or 4 umbrellas and again – we tipped him well.  My kids walked to the splash park next door.  It is $18 for 1 hour on the water inflatables which was plenty of time.  They are ages 18 and 15 and had a blast.  There were only 2 other kids on there at the time so they had the run of it.

The water here has a lot of seaweed on the bottom and we saw a crab and a puffer fish by the water’s edge so I did not want to walk in the water since I am a baby when it comes to sea creatures that can sting/bite/cause harm and I know it is their house and all……There were a few clear paths you could wade into the water to cool off and it was gorgeous.  We had drinks at our chairs and when we wanted to eat we wandered up to the restaurant.  It had a lot of dutch food.  It was all very tasty.  We asked our beach attendant to call us a cab for 2:45 and he did and a van came.  As I was getting in the driver said “how many are there?”  I said “7 – is that ok?” and he said “Actually no it is not, it will cost more” I was like “whatevs”  I forget how much it was = $17 maybe.  He dropped us off near the port in some rando parking lot and said to walk ‘that way’ to get on the ship.  We walked the opposite direction because we saw some shops we wanted to go into and he came darting out of his van “No, No! Wrong way!”  We told him we wanted to shop and he nodded and went on his way.  There is a lot of shopping here too.  We bought several things and then boarded the ship.  We had 2 days at sea ahead of us and our island hopping was over and we were oh so sad. 

Ate and early dinner in the dining room and was wonderful. 

We then hit the piano bar.  We did not sit at the piano at first, but we did end up going up there and it was a ton of fun.  Scott was the pianist and he was amazing.  I wanted to go to the casino, but every night it seemed we were too tired and did not get there until the very end of the trip!  This was my son’s 18^th bday trip and he was excited to gamble with us!  We did end up finally making it there, but not until the 2^nd to last night.  Oh well. 

[Julie0317]

Days at Sea:

We had our chairs all picked out for our day at sea and we were up at 6:15 a.m. to watch the sun rise.  Most all of the chairs in the area we wanted were already saved with towels or books or flip flops – not one person was sitting in them – just saved.  So we saved our 7 chairs in the general area we wanted and we sat down and had some coffee and watched the ship wake up.  Spent the day on the Lido having drinks and just soaking up the sun and fun!

We had dinner in the dining room and then went to the piano bar again. Then I went to the casino with my son and we played the poker machines for a while.  We lost our $20 but it took a while and we had a great time.  

Oh!  My husband did hit the limit on his cheers on this day.  I know there is debate over what happens and I do think it varies by server.  They never did ‘warn’ him he was getting close.  They just told him after he hit it that they could not serve him anymore.  He asked if he could buy the drink and they said no – that they cannot serve him anymore.  I know for some 15 drinks a day seems like a lot, but for us it was easily reached or almost reached on our days at sea.  Starting the day at 9:00 with a bloody mary or two (mimosa maybe?), then having a few beers and a few fruity drinks over the next 6-8 hours (sweating out most of the drink before the next one comes) on the lido deck, then 2 glasses of wine with dinner, then drinks at the show and piano bar and casino……we are drinkers though and the drinks on the ship are measured pours (1 ½  ounces each I think?) so really for us was like ½ a drink in comparison to how we make them at home.  I drank every day between 6 and 14 drinks and can say I was only ‘buzzed’ once.  So yes for us Cheers was worth it, but I wish there was no limit.  No problem though when we did reach or almost reach it as we were not looking to get drunk so it was not a big deal if we had to stop. 

Our second day at sea and last day on the ship we just soaked up the Lido deck all day long.  It is always hopping.  They did the groove for St. Jude and the generosity of people brought tears to my eyes.  There was a bidding war for the ‘signed by the captain’ build a bear stuff animal and I believe it got up to 2 or 3 thousand dollars that someone bid for the bear.  It was just amazing.  We watched the sunset and went to a late dinner.  My son and husband then hit up the casino later after we all went to bed. 

Debarkation:

We were staying one more night in Hollywood beach and my in-laws flight was not until 5 p.m. so we took our time in the morning.  We decided to do self-assist debarkation and kept all of our things with us.  We left our room around 8:15 a.m. (you have to be out by 8:30) and went up to Lido for breakfast and to wait for the final call for people to leave the ship.  We left around 9:40 as they said we all had to.  There were several, like many that were still just hanging around (as you recall though from the muster drill I am one that listens……so we left when they told us to).  We walked right off the ship with minimal lines and no lines at customs.  There is no paper work to fill out for customs and they asked us no questions.  We had 3 bottles of liquor, but nobody seemed to care.  The customs guy was super nice and very friendly which was nice. 

We then got into the taxi line and that was a hoot.  The woman working the taxi line was amazing.  She was cut throat and knew exactly what she wanted, how many people in each party and which cabs they would fit in.  She gave clear directions to everyone in line to cut out the BS and be ready when you get to the front.  We decided to split up and as per the woman’s direction we were clear with who was going to be in each taxi PRIOR to getting to the front of the line (I pity the fool who did not have this sorted out before they got to the front).  We got in our 2 cabs and were whisked away from Port Everglades to Hollywood Beach. 

[Julie0317]

Notes:

You can get vitamin water and powerade at the specialty coffee station located inside the buffet area.  These are included on cheers and we made sure to get a few here and there. 

We all downloaded the HUB app in order to message each other on the ship.  It is $5 per person for the whole cruise (not per day).  It worked well for those of our group that used it.  It took a day or so to get used to it.  The HUB app itself is super helpful and free (only $5 if you want to use the messaging part) was very nice to view all or your pictures, look at your account at any time, find the fun times schedule.  We all downloaded it prior to the cruise.

Pixels – Ugh. I always feel ripped off when I get pictures on a cruise.  This was no different.  We saw on the HUB app the picture packages and had decided we could whittle it down to 20 pictures.  Oh – first we wanted to get all of the pictures onto one of our accounts – mine or my in-laws.  We asked if they could merge the two accounts and they could!  They made sure one of our accounts had all of the pictures.  Then we asked about the pricing.  They said that yes the prices is $300 IF you buy 2 poster sized prints and they are buy one get one so we would get 4.  Then the price would be $300 total.  We said OK.  Then we narrowed it down to 20.  We went and spoke to someone else at Pixels.  He helped us order the 20 pictures and we picked the one we wanted for the 4 posters (we could have chosen 4 different poses, but we just went with one and then every group would get one) – even though we really did not want the posters it was clear that they HAD to print them and we had to get them…..so odd.  We JUST wanted the digital pictures – no printed ones – but there was NO way to do that unless you paid double the price – yes $680 for 20 pictures or something like that.  We placed our order and immediately had the 20 downloaded pics on our HUB app.  It was slick.  We were to come back later to get the posters.  A while later my sister in law checked her account and we were charged something like $375.  Argh.  So we went back to Pixels and spoke to the original person.  He said - yes you have to buy the posters in order to get the $300 price for the 20 pictures.  I said but we don’t want the posters we just want the digital pictures.  Well, no you can’t do that you have to purchase something from us – we can’t just give you them for free…… I said it is not for free it is $300!  He showed me some crazy price list that was all color coded and confusing.  We finally just said fine whatever and walked away.  Later we picked up our 4 posters that nobody wanted, but we had to get and our USB drive with the 20 pictures.  We went to Disney World recently and they have got the picture thing down and it is so seamless and you get every single picture they take of you AND stock photos of the parks all for around the same price we paid for 20 digital photos and 4 unwanted posters.  J

Cruising with 15 and 18 year olds:  One reason my son picked a cruise verses an all-inclusive resort (we have taken them to Beaches Negril and we frequent Couples Negril) was he has loved loved loved the kids club on every cruise we have been on.  He is super chill and pretty outgoing though and would go the first day and make friends and then we would not see him a lot the rest of the cruise as he would hang with his friend group.  My daughter is not as outgoing as him and honestly girls are just not as nice as boys it seems when it comes to this type of thing.  So she has always gone on the first day and then usually talked to one other person or something, but then she ends up just hanging with us the whole cruise- which we LOVE because we hardly see her at home with school and sports etc.  This time though our son was 18 – so the kids club was not an option for him.  He was bummed.  We did think he would still find a group of kids to hang with, but he never did.  He did play basketball almost every day and met some guys up there, but nobody he hung with.  We loved having both of the kids with us most of the time though – so no complaints here.  My daughter did go to the kids club the first night.  We walked by when it was supposed to open and nobody was inside yet, but there were a few girls who were there together sitting on a couch outside waiting to go in and their mom was sitting nearby.  They were so sweet and asked my daughter if she wanted to sit with them and she said Yes and went to sit with them and I left.  Then like 45 minutes later my daughter came to find us.  She said it was boring and the leader did not really do much with them as far as ice breakers AND the two girls who she sat with could not get in because they were not pre-registered so she went in alone.  She and my son did go back there a few times throughout the cruise and they never did question him and his age or if he was registered.  They just went to play video games though and kept to themselves.  So – just wanted to give you my thoughts on that!

That is it!  Sorry for the all over the place review, but I just wanted to get it down and posted. It was a great time all in all.  There were a few hiccups and annoyances, but we loved all of the islands and it was super relaxing and a great time!

[LuvCruiSun]

Thank you so much for your review! We're going on the same cruise Saturday. I really love all your family pictures!

[emdia43]

Just wondering if you sawTopher (Jack's famous dog)  when you went to Jack's shack? 

[CelticMCO]

Very nice write up and review!  Agree with you takes on the Cheers package and I like your style flying in day of cruise...BTW you were fine with 3 bottles of liquor, the limits on what you can bring in can be claimed/spread out among several adults in your party/family. 

[JaniceB]

Thanks for doing a review, I think you did a great job!

[MimiRN]

Great review, beautiful family!

[Julie0317]

17 hours ago, emdia43 said:

Just wondering if you sawTopher (Jack's famous dog)  when you went to Jack's shack? 

emdia43 - Yes we did.  Here is a pic!  He also swam with us for a bit and he is in one of the photo's I posted from that day. 

[MJSailors]

Hello Julie0317

Re the bridge in Curacao- 

My DH and I visited there on a Princess cruise to the ABC islands. While we walked across the bridge,we did not stay too long on the other side,so no issue walking back on the bridge.

However, I seem to recall that there is a ferry to carry people across when the bridge is open for water traffic.

So,no need to rush if passengers need to return to the ship and find the bridge open.

[Julie0317]

1 hour ago, MJSailors said:

Hello Julie0317

Re the bridge in Curacao- 

My DH and I visited there on a Princess cruise to the ABC islands. While we walked across the bridge,we did not stay too long on the other side,so no issue walking back on the bridge.

However, I seem to recall that there is a ferry to carry people across when the bridge is open for water traffic.

So,no need to rush if passengers need to return to the ship and find the bridge open.

That is right!  I did hear that there is a ferry.  When we went to the presentation before we got off the ship about the shopping the woman mentioned that after she told her story of having to jump onto the bridge when it was starting to open.  Thanks!

[cruisejess58]

I enjoyed reading your review and your photos.  Thanks for putting the time into doing it.