Patbeth

One of my favorite reasons fro reading thru CC are for posts like these. I am SO GOING TO TRY the lemonade with ice cream post on our cruise on the Conquest THIS WEEKEND!!!!!( AHHHH Cant help myself..... ) That sounds so darn good, I may not even notice that there is no alcohol in it!

I also thought the ice cream with coffee and white, or even better with chocolate milk if they have that, would be sooo good. And free instead of a fancy spendy milkshake or coffee drink.

Another vote for make your own! Save the Downy bottle, when it runs out, refill with your own. I use it as homemade febreeze as well. Spray the drapes, or musty bedding etc.

We have ATD. We have 2 cabins. Do I need to link our cabins? Is there any other reason to do it besides dining?

My sister has a REAL service dog, that helps her daughter with many issues including anxiety and being safe. You would never know by looking at my niece that she is differently abled.Even if you had a conversation with her, you may not know. Please realise without judging, sometimes you cant see the Disability, but it IS there.

Her dog is VERY highly trained. ( my sis and her entire family had to go to training in another state for 3 weeks to be trained themselves) He is NEVER off duty. He wears a REAL service vest to alert people he is a working dog. He is allowed in restaurants etc. anywhere my niece can go, he can and does go, even to school. He is so well behaved most people wouldnt even know he was there, except he is very large.

Generally speaking service dogs can be tiny Papillons- right up to huge Goldendoodles like my niece's dog. You will not however generally see them in costumes( except halloween, he is dressing up as a FROG. too Fun!) and being rolled around in strollers. By ADA codes Carnival has to let service dogs accompany differently abled passengers. They would be considered like essential medical equipment. A real service dog will have a vest, and isnt an "emotional support animal". They are the vests anyone can just buy off the internet.

Maybe Carnival needs to require more stringent oversight to assure a dog is truly a highly trained well behaved in EVERY circumstance SERVICE dog. Because people who abuse the system with their fake vests and horribly behaved "pets" are making it hard for people who truly do need that dog. But having just said that, please dont judge someone to be faking their need for a dog because YOU cant SEE their disability.

Just started reading your review. I had to stop and comment on that hilarious pic of Walmart and Target. Someone needs to come up w a funny caption!!! I must share your sense of humor!

Thank you everyone for all of your opinions. I truly appreciate not being flamed. I expected to get different opinions, and I did. I just wanted to make sure I didnt look like a fool. After weighing the advice I have been given , I have decided to wear the dress, and feel sexy and beautiful in it. And making my DH look at me with "that" look will be my reward.:D He is a great guy, and he would say I look beautiful to him all the time, regardless of what I am wearing. ( and more importantly when Im not wearing anything!) But I have come to realise after thinking about this question,and the answers I have gotten, that its as much about how "I" feel in the dress, as it is about how DH ( or others ) see me. Pretty Deep huh? Thanks CC, for helping me, learn to be happy being me.:) So if you see a petite lady in Mid Nov wearing a black velvet dress, in the Caribbean, thats me, and I LOOK FABULOUS!

Cruising Carnival Conquest in Nov w 2 teens, 17 yr old boy,and 14 yr old girl. What is the first thing we do when we board with them? Do we register them at the camps? Or do they just show up? Anything we need to do right away so they dont miss anything I guess is what I am asking. TIA

I DIY wrinkle release. Then I never have to remember to buy it. Buy an empty smaller spray bottle at dollar tree. Put in 1 -2 splashes of Downy or whatever fabric softener you use. I use Kirkland from Costco. Pack bottle in ziplock. Add water to fill bottle, after you get on the ship, so you dont risk it spilling all over your suitcase. shake. Viola!

new here. Whats a 3-1-1 bag?

Hi all. Found a gorgeous formal dress for our upcoming November 14th cruise on Carnival Conquest in the Caribbean. It fits great, I love how it looks, but it is black velvet. Is that ok for a tropical locale? It is the holidays, so I think the time is appropriate for black velvet. Am I right or will I look ridiculous in velvet in the tropics? I do tend to run chilly in air conditioning, and Im not worried about being hot. Thanks so much for any advice you have for me. Im not a fashionista,just a regular old mom who wants her DH to go WOW!:eek: when he sees my cleavage, ahem I mean me:p, in that dress.

Blue Heron, thank you! I need to run it by DH, but I think your plan is the one we are going with. I have a question about Uber. I have never used it before. Can we use Uber to pick us up at airport on the day we arrive? We get in super early,so are heading to a publix near the port, that has an early restaurant nearby to kill time before we can board. Then a cab or uber to port. How does uber compare to a cab? How much would an uber be from port to your 4 star beach hotel, and then uber back to airport? How do I book an uber as well? Thanks so much for all of the helpful info on this board. How far is the beach from the airport timewise, so I know what time to head out?

Yes please. Do tell us how much. Our family is all going to be together, so I would love to do this. I would like to know if it is a doable dream, or just a dream. Thanks so much. Also not sure if it matters or is the same on all ships or not, but we will be on Conquest.

I would like some insight on this as well. Im not sure what we do when we board the ship. In our case I have a social butterfly daughter 14, that will be one of the ones pounding along on the scavenger hunts with the herd. Its my just turned 17, shy, somewhat socially awkward son that worries me. Not trying to hijack the ops thread, but moms of teens need to know! He is into Majic the card game and Dungeons and Dragons, . Do they offer anything like that for the ones who are into it? Are there games other than the spendy ones in the arcade to play? Like x box and wii? And like the OP how to get the shy kid convinced he should venture into the scary place with his peers? do we need to sign them up for anything and do we do that now or onboard? Thanks so much op for posting this and anyone who has info to share with us.

We are on the Conquest not the Pride, also an 8 day in November. Not sure if the programs are the same basically on every ship.

Im not sure how to go about this. Get in to Port everglades on Conquest Sun Nov 22. Our flight leaves at 8 pm. 6 people total, 4 teens and us. No mobility issues. Thought about a day room but selection seems limited. So Luggage is an issue. Thought about renting a car for day, but logistics seem like a PIA, plus we need a minivan so pretty spendy. Also DH not thrilled with this option. Im considering just pricelining a room, but usually cant check in till 3 so that seems like a waste of money. Can we check in early? How hard is that if I priceline? I also dont know what area on priceline to try for, near the port or near the airport or beach? How much to cab from the port area to airport, or beach area to airport approx? Seems like our last day we should at least be able to look at the water. I dont want to worry about traffic near the airport or getting to airport since that is a pretty busy pre thanksgiving travel day. Best way to get from Port to whatever hotel? I assume cabs? Thanks for any help or advice you have for me.

what about stuffing your 2 backpacks to carry on, ( using space bags if you can) then paying for only one checked bag between the 2 of you? Cheaper than 2 bags, and the bonus of NO LAUNDRY TO WORRY ABOUT:):)?

Hi. we are crunching numbers on this and I have a few more questions. We have 2 cabins. Thinking of moving DH to kids cabin, and moving DS 22, to mine so we need to buy only 1 package. Is it a pain to change S&S cards so they can each get into the correct room? Is it awkward to try and order drinks at the bar or around the ship that we are going to share? Do soda and virgin drinks count towards the 15 limit?

Are virgin drinks covered on the soda package if we get that for our kids?

Flying in on a redeye in Nov. plane arrives 5 am ish day of cruise.( tickets are booked already. I know this isnt ideal, but this is what our schedule n budget allowed). We are flying on Spirit. they have a 40 lb limit on bags. I would like to reduce expenses for sodas on trip w my kids by getting some fancy grocery store drinks for kiddos, but we wont be able to drag them all the way from Colorado. There are 5 or possibly 6 of us going. Doing research on here I think that a cab is best way to get from airport(FLL) to port (also FLL). Is there a grocery store we can have cab stop to run in and pick up a few items, and then is there a restaurant for breakfast, to also kill some time, we can have cab drop us off that we can then walk to port from? Due to the number of us I know we need 2 cabs. Or could we just rent a car for the morning? How would that work, and would it be ridiculously expensive? Any other ideas people can throw out there ? The cruise leaves on Sat and it is Carnival Conquest if that matters. Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, etc. any of them would work.It doesnt have to be a grocery store.

I am prone to motion sickness. I was rather paranoid about it leading up to our first cruise last Oct. I took ginger every day for a few days leading up to cruise and on the cruise, I took bonine every day, and the sea bands were great! I got commplacent the last day and took the sea bands off. I sent DH back to cabin to get them for me because I started feeling off. I Put them on and it went away. I got them at Target for about $11 or so. Put them on before you get on and dont take them off. I wore them in the pool and hot tub and bed too. I slipped them off for fancy pics ( they look like sweatbands so not too pretty!) then right back on they went. They were comfortable. I also read every single thing I could about sea sickness on these boards and 1 thing I read but never had to use, was green apples are supposed to help. I guess the crew will get you some if you ask. They know why you are asking.

Lunagirl, Thats what we will do on our next cruise in Nov. I hadnt realised we could cash out our S&S card. We had pre paid all of our excursions, so at least we didnt lose out on them. It didnt ruin our cruise by a long shot. It was just a bump in the road. The worst was having ZERO cash for the trip home. Our flight was early, but can you say HANGRY:mad:!!!! I could have eaten my own arm off. Especially after being so well fed throughout the week:o

ON OUR CRUISE LAST Oct, we notified our bank we would be out of the country. Went to use the card in Cozumel, denied. Took a 20$ call to our credit union to find out our card was used fraudulently in our home state! The credit union just cancelled the card! We had little cash ( thought it was "safer" not to). The credit Union let us make a one time larger than allowed withdrawal from the ships atm. It was a royal PIA!!! DH also lost our remaining cash from his pocket, either dropped it or was pick pocketed at the port at embarkation. Had a 1 night stay thankfuly pre paid , at a hotel. Had no cash left to buy dinner. This was on Sunday too! Had my sis who lives in Ca. give us her CC # to order pizza! we had just enough cash to get the taxi to airport. We felt like broke college kids!!!We have the one and only card as we are mostly debt free, and dont believe in multiple credit cards. Next time we will get a pre loaded pre paid visa with a balance of few hundred bucks for emergencies to supplement our regular visa. We will also take more cash. Lesson learned.