Eli_6

Lol, I meant the part about possibly having tongue cancer was the curve ball. Hopefully, it isn't, though, and I can go on my cruise worry free.

So, as of right now (FX), I have decided to go on my Sydney to Singapore cruise despite the world throwing curve balls at me. As I posted before, I came back from our Europe cruise and got Covid and had my tooth start hurting. My ear and throat were hurting, too, but I figured it was either the Covid or the tooth. I went to an Endodontist to have my root canal from 2 years ago redone, and while I was there, she found a big, lacy white spot on my tongue at the back of throat. She immediately referred me to an oral pathologist...as in I got in the NEXT DAY with the help of her office. I had a painful biopsy done last week and will get results next Wednesday...just days before I leave. It is taking so long because the pathologist is on vacation this week. The oral pathologist said it could be cancer, but feels it is more likely Lichen Planus, though, due to the appearance of the abnormality and me not fitting normal demographic for oral cancer...i.e. I am under 45, female, and not a smoker or tobacco user. I do fit the demographic for developing Lichen Planus, though, as it is thought to be autoimmune related. I have had a positive on an ANA test before also developed preeclampsia--also thought to be autoimmune related--in pregnancy so Lichen Planus would fit with my prior medical history. So, assuming I don't have cancer (or, even if I do, assuming I don't have to start treatment), I plan on going. So, yall send good thoughts my way that I doubt end up finding out I have oral cancer next week. Another deciding factor: I just today got a really great deal on airfare. I was "paying" 400k miles (for two of us) to go from IAH-LAX-SYD in business and today I got two flights (business) at 100k miles each basically the same date/time going IAH-SFO-SYD. I am told that it is easier to fly through SFO than LAX. One quick question on the SYD-SIN cruise: Will there be auto grats on this cruise? If not, are the employees paid more than on European or US-based cruises?

I have decided to go on my Australian to Singapore cruise. It is a 15-day cruise. Can I still only take 1 bottle? Here is the carnival alcohol policy: carnival.com/help?topicid=2633 According to this, it appears to me I can only take 1 bottle of wine even though it is 2x as long as a regular 7-day cruise and because my son is only 11. I don't want to get CHEERS as it comes out to $74 USD per day (because it is $111 AUD) or between $1100-1200 total which is basically what we paid for the cruise per person. Actually, I think it may be more if you take off the taxes and port fees. I am thinking about getting Cruise the Vineyard instead...especially because I am told by the Australians that both the fish bowl and pitchers are $66 AUD each, which I think is like $44 USD. (It was not this much when I last purchased on US based cruise.) Anyone done Cruise the Vineyard in Australia? What did you think? It appears to have different wines than the US version.

Yes, you will need more than 110k miles. If you are interested in points, look into 10x travel. They have a course that is good and explains everything. Typically, I have the points already ready and then book as soon as tickets become available 355 days (or whatever it is for the specific airline) out. I have flown my family of four back and forth to Europe for the past three years all of us on the same flight every time...all with points. Granted, that isn't Asia but I am flying my son and I on points around the world this summer as I mentioned above. United typically has 4 or more available and so does BA. Singapore Airlines usually has 2 or 3 per flight. Qatar usually 2-4...sometimes they will have 2 in business and 2 in first. Albeit, with either BA or Qatar, it will usually go through Qatar or London so that may not make sense for you depending on where you live. (Although, you could also do a day or two layover and make an additional trip out of it, too.) Not sure about other airlines. ANA has good deals but I personally have had a harder time finding availability. Don't use amex or chase portal. Look on the individual airline websites. Best availability is either going to be a full 355 days out or to wait within a month of the flight.

My 11 year-old and I are disembarking in Singapore at about 8 am. Our flight out is at 2 am. What would yall recommend we do for that time in Singapore? I admit that I have not done a lot of research because we just booked this cruise in May and are leaving in only 25 days.

Also, you could fly to east coast, fly to hawaii, and then fly to japan or China. Even east coast to Japan is maybe 10-11 hours. There is actually a low cost carrier out of Japan that has a very affordable business class. It doesn't have free drinks or food or high quality service, but it does have the lay flat bed. When I looked, I think one way was maybe $1600 per person for biz without the perks. (You even pay for the ammenity kit.) However, I was looking at one way and not r/t in biz because our cruise is a repositioning cruise.

I don't think there is a way to get comfortable in economy if you are over the age of 30 and a normal size human being. Maybe if you did New Zealand air and did their economy couch, but that is basically the price of PE. I get get sign up bonuses on credit cards and collect points/miles. I would not do the flight in anything less than PE or business. My son and I are flying to australia in business on United and then home (about 23 hours on two flights) the long way around from Singapore to Houston in biz on Singapore Airlines. (The reason for this is that I wanted to circumnavigate the globe. It was a bucket list item.) The SA tix were ~120k miles each and the United were 200k each, but can be found as low as 100k each. (They usually go down in the week before departure so I am hoping to cancel and rebook at 100k each. If you are willing to fly through Vancover and do Canada air, you can get as low as 80k-90k each, but that is way far out of the way for us.) You can get a sign up bonus on American Express Plat for 250k-300k for a 15k spend. Just got a sing up offer for a gold for 150k for 10k spend. Chase cards are usually 75k-100k for a lower spend (usually 4k-6k). Chase Sapphire, chase ink cards, chase united, etc. I put private school tuition for my kids and taxes (property taxes and income taxes) on my credit cards in addition to regular spending.

My 11-year-old son and I are taking a cruise from Australia to Singapore. I have excursions booked through the cruise company for all ports except in Lombok, Indonesia. First - Is it safe/a good idea for a woman and child to go off on our own in Lombok? Someone on another page suggested that in Bali traffic can be bad and we might run the risk of missing the ship so opted to do a cruise company excursion there. What would yall recommend doing in Lombok? Or should I just stick with one of the cruise excursions even if they aren't that good? I heard there was an elephant sanctuary, but we are going to one of those in Bali.

I am taking my elderly mother on a Princess Scandinavian cruise. Her father was from Denmark, but she has never been. It is a life long dream of hers to see Denmark. She can walk, but can't walk long distances. We are going to be taking her small, portable scooter that folds down to a small size. We want to see the Den Gamle museum in Aarhaus. Will there be availability of taxis at the port to be able to take us from the port to the Dan Gamle museum? I do not want to book the Princess excursion there because it appears it requires a lot of walking and you only have a short time at the Den Gamle By Museum.

They didn't offer cruise insurance for this cruise when I booked. Not sure if it was because I booked after the 90-day mark or because it is an australian cruise. I purchased independent insurance for medical/emergency.

Yeah, that sounds like an older version of my son down to the very thin and pale. He's going into the sixth grade. Almost 12. He is very, very smart and literally currently reading my husband's college physics textbooks but can't keep track of anything. He wouldn't even remember to shower if I didn't remind him.

UT dentists were not much help. They took xrays but could not tell anything from the xrays and would not remove the crown. So, now I have an appointment on Tuesday with an endodontist to remove crown and see what is going on.

We have extra travel insurance I actually just purchased for this trip that lasts a year because Carrnival didn't offer insurance. It actually wasn't very expensive for a year long travel/medical policy. If something happened to me, I would assume he would just come with me to the hospital and my husband could fly out. We are lucky in that my husband is a physician so normally we don't have to worry about anything minor on vacation. We have had stomach viruses, a broken toe (husband in Scotland falling down stairs at the castle we were staying at), a twisted ankle from falling through a medieval bridge when wood broke (me), food poisoning, colds, kidney stone (me), etc. and never had to visit a hospital. My husband even removed my son's stitches one trip because he busted his head open a few days before we left. He took surgical scissors with him. But if I got sick, my son would be NO HELP. He is very easy to travel with because he is super easy going, but along with that goes that he is a bit of a space cadet. He is just always talking about physics or flags or some other something that is going through his mind and not paying any attention to the world around him. You know "Sheldon"? Literally, that's my kid except that my kid has a better personality. Down to even loving flags and theoretical physics. He wants to be an astro physicist when he grows up. Very smart about very complex scientific issues, but no help on common sense matters. He has lost a dozen or more pair of glasses and I have to remind him to shower and wear deodorant, but he can talk your ear off about things 99 percent of adults know nothing about. Off to the dentist. FX it goes well.

Apparently, I am not the only one who has used air tags/tile to locate luggage on a cruise: I tried AirTags to track my luggage on a Royal Caribbean cruise | Royal Caribbean Blog Also, you can page them and they make a noise. I don't know about using them on kids, but certainly you can use them on your luggage on a cruise ship if you check your luggage.

I used them this past cruise to find a piece of lost luggage. However, we had just left when I found the lost luggage. I don't know how well it would have worked once we were far out at sea. I was under the impression it worked off the location of cell phones.

The fact that they can't sign themselves in or out of Camp Ocean until they are 10 is a pretty good indicator that Carnival doesn't want young children running around the ship unattended! Look - you do you. But 8 is really young to allow them to run around the ship unsupervised. Apart from safety issues, the greater likelihood is that they will simply misbehave and get in trouble. My kids are very well-behaved and both are very advanced in terms of their development and intelligence. And I still wouldn't have let them run around the ship unattended at 8. And, fwiw, neither would my husband and he is a psychiatrist so actually has medical training on child nuero development. Carnival may not kick you off the ship if caught, but it is still poor form. This sort of thing is exactly why they now have to station a person at the ice cream soft serve machine to "supervise" it. Or how my husband and kid and other adults ended up locked in the basketball court. (This actually happened again this summer, too, but with my son and a teenager locked in the court by some kid running around unsupervised and causing trouble.)

Are you sure about that? Because we used ours to find a lost bag this past cruise. In any event, if the kids were stolen, you could locate them once they were on land.

I don't think you can leave 8-year-olds unattended per Carnival rules. I think the youngest they can sign themselves in or out of Camp Ocean is 10. We let our kids sign themselves in/out for the first time this year. My boys went around the ship soliciting for their version of a "Ted talk" that they held in the Library at 8 pm on subatomic particles and physics. They even created a tip jar. And, shockingly, two people came to their talk.

Put tiles or apple tags on them. You can see where they are and page them with your phone if you lose them. I do that with my keys. This is in case you lose them accidentally. I would not let 8-year-olds run around without supervision.

I am pretty sure I am going to go on my Australian cruise. I was looking online and they don't appear to have the option to buy water. Also, does anyone know if there are different menus for their bars? The drink package is like 1650 AUD and that is more than I want to pay...$73 USD per day. Do they have pitchers on Australian cruises or the fish bowl?

As an aside, I am not that worried about getting Covid. More just worried about being so far from home for so long with just me and my kid.

I am thinking we will probably go. Still have 3 days to cancel and get a 50% refund, but I am feeling better and leaning now towards going. I have had 4 covid vaccines and also have had Covid 4 times. This recent one was like a bad cold where I was also really tired. Although, the tiredness could have been due to coming home from the cruise. I also have a tooth that is really bothering me so that probably doesn't help. Going to the dentist tomorrow. I hope they can pull it and do an implant before I leave and I don't have to go on the cruise toothless. I already had a root canal and crown in that tooth.

We took the bus, waited in line for the trolly, and then walked all the way to the zoo only to find out it was closed. Totally my fault because I didn't check the website to know it was closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We went to Taormina as well, but we were on the excursion that also went on a boat tour. Really enjoyed the boat tour. We went swimming as well. Very cold, but fun!

@BlerkOne Did I see you on this cruise? I was on it as well with my two kids and husband. We had fun, but I came home with Covid.

You know how when you go to a buffet and you see lots of yummy things and put a bunch on your plate, but when you sit down you can't actually eat everything you put on your plate? I think I did the same thing with traveling. We just got back from an 8-day cruise to Italy on the Legend. It was fine except for I came home with Covid and I didn't sleep well because of noise from something related to the ship. (I was in the Vista suite on deck 4 and every time we docked--which was every day save 1 since we only had 1 sea day--I would get woken up early with some weird noise and vibrations. Could even feel it with ear plugs in.) I am supposed to leave on July 16th to fly with my older son to Australia and then take a 15 day cruise on the Splendor to Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore. Then I fly home from Singapore the long way (through Manchester, England), promptly have to get my kids ready to start school, and then leave about a week later leave to fly to London again. take my Mom on an 8-day cruise to Denmark and Norway. I am feeling exhausted rather than excited. Granted, it may be because I have Covid. But what if I get Covid again after my Splendor sailing? I can't back out on my Mom going on the Scandy cruise. (It is Princess out of Southampton.) It might killer her. She's been looking forward to this trip for too long. (Lifelong dream to go to Denmark where her Dad is from.) But I can cancel the Splendor sailing which is probably far more exhausting as I will literally be going around the globe. It would cost me about $1400-something. However, I know my older son would be very disapointed. (Younger son and husband are going to Colorado fishing for a week during this time. Older son and I have no interest in that.) The plane tickets were purchased with miles so I will have about 400k miles stuck in singapore airlines and another 400k stuck in United--both are biz class--but at least it is just miles and not money and I can always use them later. The $1400-something is 50 percent of the room cost. I have to make up my mind in the next week. What would you do? I was super excited about this a month ago and now I just feel tired. Really tired. But, IDK, maybe in another month when I no longer have Covid I won't feel so tired...