cheermomof2girls

My wife and I are newbies to cruising, 1st cruise next month, and neither of us are scared to death. Can you please show us where the reports are of newbies being scared to death ? I am not trying to be a smarta$$. I am just saying.

I doubt there are actual reports of it, more hearsay that people worry. I get the comment a TON when I tell people that our family's vacation of choice is a cruise that aren't I worried about us/the kids falling overboard. And I was worried about getting a balcony room our first time. Until I realized how they are designed. Most people don't realize that the railings are pretty high and the design makes it very unlikely.

I haven't seen the commercial, but I do think it's a common worry for a lot of people who have never cruised.

We always get cheers and bottomless bubbles for our kids. It's pretty cheap for kids. And I just don't want to mess with carrying soda's onboard plus I know that my kids might still want a soda at a time when I don't want to go back to the cabin to get their soda. (it's vacation, so yes, I let them drink all the soda's they want).

It has nothing to do with carrying them being a struggle, so no, I don't need to hit the weight room, it's just a hassle that to me is not worth it.

Service at most bars can be kind of slow waiting for a soda, but since we get cheers, we tend to get to know the bartenders and my kids get served quickly after that. I also tip on soda drinks too, not every time, but every now and then I add a dollar to their ticket, or tell them to.

We do both cheers and bottomless bubbles to have most expenses paid up front and not have to budget for the bill later. My kids don't drink a ton of sodas, and are pretty wasteful, drinking a few drinks and leaving it. But it's just part of the overall cost of cruising for us.

Glad you had a great time! The Triumph was our first cruise and we got hooked. :) First cruise we never touched the buffet. We had seaday brunch for breakfast, or a burrito from the Blue Iguana and had burgers or tacos every day for lunch. Main dining room for all dinners.

Since then, we have tried the buffet- never LOVE anything, but can always find something to fill us up. But I still highly recommend the seaday brunch. The steak and eggs are wonderful.

It is very annoying sometimes, when you can't walk through deck 5, and taking alternate routes isn't always an option. Sometimes I'm in the casino trying to get a drink at the Alchemy bar. LOL I had one pretty pushy photographer trying to take a photo of me and a male friend i had met on the cruise that we had stopped to chat for a minute. Finally he was like, her husband is right over there, he doesn't want to buy a picture of the two of us. lol. We cruised RC for the first time a few months ago and that was one of the nice things I noticed, the photographers were all out of the way. They were around, but didn't block things or get pushy. Carnival still won overall for me, but honestly, that gave RC a few points. (I was trying to determine which line "won" overall for me)

We always get Cheers. We purchase it ahead of time, and I like knowing it's all paid for and I can order whatever I want without worrying about cost.

We buy the social media plan and use facebook messenger to communicate with our daughter when we cruise without her. It works great for texting, we can use the voice call feature and it's ok, a little spotty.

Enjoy your time together!

I never thought we would like it, never saw the appeal. Then started trying to find an affordable vacation for DH and I to go without the kids. Decided to try a cruise, then felt guilty and booked the kids with us. That was in August 2015.

There was just something so appealing about unplugging, spending time as a family, having a perfect mix of family time and using the kids club to get adult only time. Loved meeting people, the crew, everything. We were spoiled because we had booked an ocean view and got an upgrade call to a suite, that we took. I didn't know we were hooked and thought about taking another, but maybe a land vacation, just couldn't decide. Then booked on a whim and of course we are hooked now.

Went on another with just DH in Oct 2016

Took the kids and grandparents in April 2017

Had a rough few weeks at work, booked vacation with the kids in August 2017

And decided to make cruising at least once a year with just DH and I an annual tradition, booked again Nov 2017.

We have the Breeze booked for August 2018 but I'm really wishing we had the funds and time to go on another to break up that LONG delay. 243 more days. :) As my screen name says, cheer takes up most of our budget and time, so I think we will have no choice but to wait out that LONG wait. I laugh now at how I resisted cruising for so long. Probably a good thing for my budget.

I consider myself a tightwad but on vacation, we like to relax and have fun. We always buy the drink package, but we always pre-pay it in advance, it's a little cheaper and I just like having it paid for prior to the cruise. We purchase discounted gift cards, or from our grocery store when they do 4x fuel points to save a little extra. We always book in the "off season" for cheaper fares. We don't buy pictures, well, I usually buy one of the kids. We don't use the spa. We do go to the casino, but we take cash to gamble with. We book on our rewards credit card to get rewards. We do specialty dining once usually, but again, budget for it ahead of time.

On our last cruise on the Valor, I think I did a 3 for $99 thing, a facial, salt scrub and massage.

The services were nice, but after the sales pitch at the end, I'm no longer relaxed!

We love Passion island. We do the one where you take the Catamaran over. We book through Carnival but I think you can book privately as well.

I made one for my upcomming RC cruise because it's my first time with them, and it's our first kid free vacation in a year! :)

We tend to book late August right before school starts for lower rates.

Have you joined the Roll Call for this sailing? We're over there........... not many of us, but we're there.

I'm on this sailing as well, I will have to join the roll call. Thanks for the suggestion!

I had an issue trying to do this once at the casino bar. My husband was at a table playing and no waiters were coming around, so I went to the bar to get him a drink. They wouldn't let me, so I paid for his on my card, then waited 5 minutes to order my own. I was a little irritated but realized they were just doing their jobs. However, if they had better waiter service while people were playing it would have been a non issue. Every other bar has always let us get both drinks if one person had both the cards. But, in their defense, the other bars had likely seen us together much more often than the casino bar as we don't typically drink at that bar. And those bartenders are always SO busy.

Great review! We have done Passion island twice in Cozumel and wouldn't hesitate to do it again. I love that it's a peaceful beach. We enjoy the ride over, much more enjoyable than a bus. Glad you had a great time!

This is the longest we have ever booked out... still 282!! But I have a short Royal Caribbean booked in 20 days, that helps ease the pain.

We go to the room, drop off our bags (we always get FTTF), then to the Lido deck for a guys burger. A waiter always finds us sometime on the way and I get a funship drink. I usually move onto a different drink after, but I love that first funship when I board! Then we usually people watch, walk around the ship, rest a bit, and pretty much just wait on the muster drill.

This is our first time on RC, so sorry, I'm a bit clueless. On Carnival, when our kids are not with us, I purchase the social media internet package and facebook message my kids once a day. Does RC offer anything like this?

liquor is always cheaper in the ports, same wait period

We have not found that to be the case. My husband likes Alberfeldy 18 I believe and it was considerably cheaper from Carnival than at the port.

I don't have a price list though, they seem to run several different specials during the cruise as well.

We have always purchased when able to get it, and booked it already for our cruise in August 2018. I almost always have to go to guest services for something or other and it's really nice not having to wait in line. We have young kids so being able to drop our carry ons off at the room and have access to the room immediately is very nice. That combined with priority debarkation makes it worth it for us. We always stay the night before in a hotel, and like to check out early and get to the port and on the boat as quickly as possible. I like to get our vacation started!

We are doing this itinerary in August, on the Breeze. Please come back and report!

We love cruising out of Galveston. We caught the bug bad after our first cruise in August 2015, we leave for our 5th in 28 days, and the 6th is already booked. :) We always stay at either the Hotel Galvez or San Luis resort so that we can leave the car there and take the free shuttle. We just pay for one night of valet parking. Plus we love both hotels, they have great pools/bars. My favorite place to eat is Landry's. I know it's a chain, but we don't have one near us. We always buy cheers, but remember in Galveston it doesn't take affect until the 2nd day due to Texas liquor taxes, so you have to pay for drinks your first day.

We always get FTTF when we can as well. We like to get on the boat as soon as possible! :)

So, let me ask. If your paid the $800 or more for Cheers, for say a 7 day cruise, and if the total cost of beverages was below the cost of Cheers, you'd be ok with that, its part of cruising?

I honestly never go back and add up our beverage costs to see, because, yes, for us the cost of cheers is just part of cruising. I know on our first cruise we probably would have spent less not buying it. However, I wouldn't have been able to just relax and have fun. Since the first one (our kids were pretty young, didn't do the kids club much, etc), we have always drank at least 4 a day plus coffee, etc, so I am sure that we still come out at least breaking even. But again, once it's already paid for, I feel like its part of cruising. We always pre-purchase, so once on board I'm not concerned with getting my money's worth. I buy the kids bottomless bubbles and don't count them up either. I don't want to spend my vacation thinking about what I spent prior or worrying about what I will spend when I leave. I'm on a cruise to relax and unwind.

Obviously, before we decided to purchase we thought about it and made sure it made sense. If we were the type to only drink 1-3 drinks a day we wouldn't have purchased. But we knew it was far more likely to drink at least 4-6 a day, with some days being more, some less. If either of us was an exclusive beer drinker, we wouldn't get it either, but we are not.

We always buy it- and this might sound stupid to some, but here's my reasoning. If I pay up front, I just consider it cost of cruising and don't stress about it. But if I pay as I go, I will not have a drink when I otherwise would, worrying about my final bill. I go on vacation to relax and unwind. I don't stress about breaking even with Cheers. But I feel certain between the two of us, we do. Some days I probably don't, but DH does, and vice versa.

I get specialty coffee, bottled water, etc as well. But honestly, the specialty coffee is pretty cheap compared to Starbucks.

We have never hit our 15, but have gotten up to 13 once. lol. But it's not so much as getting the absolute most out of cheers as it is for US getting the absolute most out of our cruise and part of that is knowing I can have a drink whenever I want, try new things, etc with no stressing.

Oh, and we always stay on the boat for at least one of the port days, and get back pretty early even when we do excursions, so we still get value on port days.

Were you at the front or the aft? You said aft but then said front, I'm curious because we have booked front on the Breeze for our next cruise.

I'm very sorry to hear that you did not have an enjoyable vacation. :(

We have been on 4 Carnival cruises, and have another booked for August 2018. We are trying RC next month. I'm excited to try it, but also a little nervous to see if I miss Carnival. We booked it a year ago, just because it was cheap and the dates worked, but then later booked another Carnival. I like knowing what to expect, the ship's features, etc which I have found easier on Carnival. Maybe it's in part due to this board. RC board doesn't seem as active.