ediesbeads

We are booked on a Royal Caribbean Cruise leaving this Sunday, Dec 14th. We are leaving HOME on Friday December 12 to drive to Florida from Illinois over two days.

We applied for passports in early Oct. The kids and I got new ones, but DH needed a replacement. His was two years old, but it had been accidentally put through the wash.

So four weeks after application the kids and I get our passports. DH gets a letter stating his picture is too old and he needs to send another. He used the second pic from his previous passport application, and the pic apparently needs to be less than 6 months old. Our oops. OK, no problem. He gets another pic taken and send it off the next day. This is in early November.

We are waiting here five weeks later and he still doesn't have his passport.

He has called a couple of times and they say they have everything, and his passport is in processing. If we wait and call 72 hours before we leave they might be able to do something about it.

So tomorrow morning is 72 hours before we leave home, but NOT 72 hours before we depart on the ship. We will see what they say tomorrow.

We would go with the birth certificate and ID route for him (we are leaving and returning to Ft. Lauderdale) but he doesn't have a regular birth certificate we can get easily. He was born in Germany to American parents (military) so he has a consular report of live birth rather than a State issued birth certificate. The passport office has his only copy, and the only way to get another copy is to request it through the passport office and wait.... 4-6 weeks!

So whats gonna happen? Has anyone dealt with this before? Any insight or ideas are appreciated.

Thanks!

Edie

We are traveling on the Independence in December and are looking at getting the Royal Refreshment (NOT the Replenish that includes coffee etc.) We are getting the one that is Soda only. So if they don't have the freestyle machines on the Independence, can we still get this package and just use it at the bars and restaurants?

I have mostly stayed home with the kids since they were little. Now they are older and I still do! We homeschool! But with older kids, even though they are home during the day, I am able to work from home. They don't need as much "care" as babies and toddlers do. So in addition to homeschooling, I have a couple of online shops, and I teach online classes for our local community college. At least I'm still getting some use out of that very expensive Master's degree! LOL!

Congrats! Do you have to continue to purchase the "diet plan" to continue the diet? I did Atkins with some success, but I found it stressful to be in ketosis. I couldn't eat at a friend's house without worrying about kicking myself out of ketosis, or being a very picky guest, and basically starting over again. It was very hard, and I really missed fruit. So in preparation for our first cruise in December DH and I are doing a "low carb" but not so low. I try to keep my daily carbs around 100g which make me feel better, trims the lb's, and will hopefully let me buy a new swimming suit before we cruise!

Good luck and keep up the good work!

Hey Navybankerteacher.... we bought my FIL a tshirt last Christmas that said "Grandkids, God's gift to those who don't kill their own children!" He agrees!

We love to travel! We are planning our first cruise for December and I'm set to LOVE it! From talking to friends and family who have cruised, it looks like once you start you quickly get addicted. :) So did you ever meet someone who really doesn't like cruising? If so, what did they dislike?

I wouldn't say we are tired of it. There are plenty of places in our points sytem we haven't gone to. We might be a little tired of Wisconsin Dells, and that's the only place close enough to drive in a few hours, but we still love it. But we are expanding our options and I was just trying to figure out how to use both, or swap them out. We can also do a cruise/timeshare combo by tacking a cruise onto the front or back of a timeshare stay. We hope to do that sometime soon!

I haven't read all the replies, but if you go on RCI on the shorter cruises you tend to get the smaller ships with smaller rooms. RCI is having a great sale right now and have balconies for outside prices on 6-9 day cruises. It might be worth looking into a balcony!

We have a Points Based Timeshare with BlueGreen. It's awesome and we love it and have used it to death! But now we are interested in starting cruising. It doesn't look like it's really worth it to try to exchange for cruises through RCI or the BlueGreen site. It seems you don't get as much worth out of it as you pay in maintainance fees. So this year I did "rent" a few of my points to a friend. She was looking for a quick cheap get away with her family, so I got her three nights in Wisconsin for her family and only charged her a little to get back some of our fees. But I'm thinking rental might be a good way to exchange timeshares for cruise money.

Has anyone done this? Any other thoughts on how to convert timeshares to cruises?

Edie - getting excited about our first family cruise!

So we splurged on the balcony cabins. Not SUCH a splurge as they were at outside prices. They also included $150 OBC per cabin. We have TWO cabins for our family of 5 so Woo Hoo!

We plan to buy soda packages. That will take the majority of it. But what do I do with the rest? We are passing on other drink packages.... we just don't drink that much. We will bring some wine on board to toast our anniversary. We aren't really spa people. And I'm generally pretty frugal (read tightwad), so I am finding it difficult to decide how to spend it!

If I wait until we are onboard to book excursions will we miss out? Will they run out of spots?

Anything I'm not thinking about? I've done lots of research, but this is our first cruise, so I'm still figuring it all out. BTW we cruise in Dec, so plenty of time to plan.

Happy to get any ideas!

Thanks!

Edie

I was the YOURWOW going on. Thanks for the info!

Thank you! I had his e-mail, so I just sent him a request.

Edie :)

So, quick question... I'm still learning my way around the Royal Caribbean website as this is our first cruise. Is there somewhere I can see the OBC I got for booking a balcony? I can't find it. We only booked yesterday. The cruise is in December. Do I need to wait?

Thanks!

Edie

We are F and F looking to "buy" one of these from my sister! LOL! It's not wierd at all for us... she actually paid the full $200 deposit which would cover herself plus her DH if they use it. If we buy it from them and get a family cabin, we can book all five in our family (DH, me, plus our three kids) for $200 to my sis and another $300 to RCI.

Pulling together a $500 deposit is much easier than pulling together a $1250 deposit. And then we have many months to pay the rest of the cruise off.

Also, if I am understanding this correctly, there is no requirement that we travel with my sis and her husband.... am I correct?

It's definitely a gift for my sister to offer this to us. No wierdness at all!

We are looking at a budget 7 night cruise out of New Orleans on Dec 13th on RCI Seranade of the Seas. We are a family of 5 but will be doing two inside cabins. Due to good rates, state discount, and port being closer to home it's going to be around $3000 for travel to the port and the cruise. Any spending on the cruise or for excursions is extra. We will drive. A flight for the 5 of us is as much as the cruise alone.

This is pretty cheap, but I'm a good shopper. ;)

I haven't read all the replies, but this is key for us

"The point of all of that is - before you spend a dollar - think, "would I rather have this, or a cruise?" If your answer is "this" than buy it, if your answer is the cruise....put your dollar away and say no."

It's about priorities.

We love to travel. We want to add cruising to that travel. We have a time share that we use very carefully by traveling on Sunday through Friday (fewer points used) and we are hoping to add cruising on to the beginning or end of our family vacations when we are already near the ports. With a family of five it's much cheaper to drive than fly. If it takes two days, then it takes two days.

DH is a prof and doesn't work summers, plus he gets all school holidays. Time off is not an issue, but we are stuck with higher rates during school vacations.

I homeschool so the kids get off when dad gets off.

We tend to go on vacation in Mid to late May after the colleges close but before most grade schools are out for summer.

I have an online business. All my online business money is our extra money. Any thing like going out to eat, travel, theme park tickets and soon cruising and excursions are dependent on my business. If my business is doing well, we have more fun!

When I think "I'm to tired to cook tonight...." rather than hit Olive Garden, we pick up a chicken from the deli at the grocery store. It's all about choices.

I'd rather have a cruise!

Edie

We live in IL and are considering a 4 day cruise attached to the front or back end of a beach vacation we are planning in Florida in June. We're driving anyway and will be there so why not!?

This is a great thread! At what age would you feel comfortable leaving your kid alone? My oldest is turning 16 this year. Her younger sibs will be 9 and 12 when we cruise as a family later this year. I don't think I'd leave them alone until my oldest was at least 18.... maybe 20? LOL! I'm just thinking ahead. This year we are going on a cruise for our 25th wedding anniversary and my daughter's sweet 16. This will be a family cruise. But wow, it's a lot cheaper to go as a couple! I've talked with my MIL about watching them, but she seemed iffy about the idea. I'd hate to buy a cruise, then have MIL back out or something at the last minute. Someday, someday we'll go on a cruise alone!

We have decided this year we will significantly decrease our Christmas spending, and take the family on a cruise instead! I added up all the money spent on gifts and it was almost enough for a cruise for our family of 5!!:eek::eek::eek:

So this year I told the kids we will cut back significantly on Christmas, and instead take us all on a cruise the week before Christmas! It's perfect timing for us this year - DH and I have our 25th wedding anniversary, and our daughter is turning 16, so it's a big year for us!

She will be turning 16 right after the cruise! It's partly sweet 16 for her and 25th wedding anniversary for DH and me! :)

My daughter eats a gluten free diet. She was born hypothyroid and has had digestive issues her whole life. We tried all kinds of dietary options to help her feel better and gluten free seems to work the best for her. She can handle a little bit, but a piece of regular bread really causes her digestive distress. So she will do things like order a piece of cheese cake, but leave the crust, or order a sandwich, but only eat the insides.... I'm not sure if we should mark her as gluten free or not? If there is a rice or potato option, she usually just chooses that over noodles. If there is breading on chicken or fish, she just peels it off and eats the meat.

What's your opinion?

Marking this to read later! Looks like great fun!

We are cruise for the first time this December with three kids! We are from central IL. This cruise will be out of New Orleans, but we've driven several times to Florida for family vacation. We have a very comfy van with DVD players for the kids. We make EVERYONE try to go potty every time we stop, which helps reduce the number of stops. We usually plan a car lunch with sandwiches etc, then stop for a hot dinner when we drive all day.

Our kids will be 15, 12, and 9 at cruise time. For our New Orleans trip it will be 12 hours of driving, so we plan to drive about 9 hours the first day, then get up and drive the last 3 the morning of the cruise. That should put us to the port right around boarding time.

We are going Royal Caribbean. We have connecting rooms. One for two, one for three, with a door between the rooms. We also looked at a family suite. It has two bunks, a pull out couch, and regular push together beds. It was similar cost, but we decided we liked two bathrooms and more privacy.

Have a GREAT time!!

I'd LOVE to do cheaper cruises in off seasons, but we are tied to hubby's work schedule as a college prof. But some day he will retire! :) :) :)

I loved this review! We are planning to go on the Freedom or Independence in March and I will definitely come back and review this review again before we go. :) Thanks so much for all your hard work! I read it over two days and I feel like I went on a cruise myself!

Edie