mandyleighflies

Did I mention my mom was a nurse? 😆😆 Another packing “habit“ from my mother, the nurse, a traveling medical kit and sanitation. Fun fact, we have been carrying some form of Lysol in our bags since the early 90s. Since our cruising began in the mid 90s, I have been in the habit of wiping down and spraying down our cabin not only the first day, but every day. This was not a Covid thing, this was a “trauma of living with someone who works in a trauma department“ behavior. we also have antihistamine, DayQuil/NyQuil, two types of pain, relievers, of course, seasick meds, and stomach issue medication’s. Ahh yes the things we don’t wanna think about however, we’re glad we planned for because on board they are four times the cost. This bag goes in my backpack, so I have it immediately when we get to our cabin.

We do love our nights in Chops! It’s going to be our anniversary dinner. We just sailed on Lady G in April so I’m hoping they have added at least a new dish or two since then. Once again, stay tuned lol

My early holiday present to myself on sale from Etsy. It is currently filled with simply ice water however, on board, it might be filled with something else. 😆 Peter (my husband) and I are both airline crew members (different airlines) so our work schedules can make vacation prep interesting. I find myself packing this morning as I am off to work from today to Tuesday evening (11pm). That would leave a single day to pack and prep…insert mental chaos here…hence one massive job done. Since it is a short cruise, I will be using my Beis Weekender tote and a backpack. The tote will hold cruise only things while the backpack will hold pre-cruise things. I have miniatures of my skin care line and basic personal needs. I am a light packer in general but I always have extra drawers…my mother was a nurse, I will give her all the credit for this fear for packing.

Welcome back to another LIVE cruise with us! Later this week my husband and I will be sailing on Allure OTS for a 3 night Bahamas cruise from Port Canaveral. We are celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary, we are a Covid wedding couple so yes we celebrate each year (we also love an excuse to cruise 😄). We will be flying to Orlando from DC on Thursday morning, renting a car from MCO to drive to Cape Canaveral for some sightseeing on the Cape and the pre-cruise overnight there. My husband and I are aviation and space geeks so be prepared for nerdy space things from this pre-cruise adventure. We have the deluxe beverage package, reservations at Sabor and Chops and admission to CocoCay Water park as our planned "extra spending" activities. We are sailing in a JS and will attempt a dinner reservation at CK if we can manage one, our sailing is sold out so I have doubts but we shall see!

I was just talking to my mom about this and she was an ER nurse for many years, her response? "There could have also been drugs involved" We will never know and can only make our own assumptions. I discussed this with my kids before school this morning (14 and 16, just a couple months from 15 and 17) and they both immediately said "no way" when I asked if they would ever climb the balcony. Once again, my kids...not someone else's. We talked about what to do if they were hanging out with kids who did these things and they both said they would leave immediately and come back to our cabin. They have an 11pm family set "cabin curfew" anyway but that was their responses. Interestingly enough, my daughter said she she see's kids her age (14) vaping in the bathroom at school and also said alcohol would be easy enough to get if she had interest in it. Once again, where there is a will there is a way.

There are literally hundreds of videos of "how to sneak booze onto a cruise" and if there is a will there is a way. They could easily have made friends with someone older or was traveling with an older close in age relative who was buying and handing it to them. I will just say I grew up cruising and I saw it...all the time. I have never stayed in an interior balcony room but I can attest to how LOUD and DIFFICULT the outside balcony doors are to open. Sure, they might have slept through it.

I'm not blaming Royal, I am blaming the parents or guardians who were supposed to be the responsible party for this child.

We sailed on Adventure in June 2022 and I agree with PP's that she is in fine shape for her age and constant use. If you are LOOKING for wear and tear you will find it, but that's also the same in anything, if you want to see it then you will. A ship that age will show some signs of love but she's lovely and I would sail her again in a heartbeat.

My question as a parent of teenage children is simply where were his parents? The timing...it was late at night, past the ship set curfew for kids. I'm assuming alcohol was involved, we all knew how to get a drink or two at that age on vacation. However, at that time of night, you would think the parents would have been "home" also? I know I am lucky that my kids are not daring children, they tend to be mature and know right from wrong in situations such as these. I am guessing the parents were either still out, intoxicated and passed out, or staying in a separate part of the ship to not know what was happening. Each cabin is required to have someone 21+ staying in each cabin, where was the adult? Poor kid was basically left to their own devices and not equipped maturity wise to handle them.

If you're not a big drinker the refreshment beverage package has historically been our go-to for cruises, keeping in mind port day's (outside of cococay/labadee) you will still have the "break even" drinks to keep in mind. You already purchased the package anyway, try it out and see if it works for y'all. I would say most of the mixed drinks are $14-18 depending on size and type. Wine I saw starting at $9 a glass (think Yellowtail quality) and beers around $7 (Bud Light, etc). Even the NA mocktails are $7 and keep in mind none of the listed prices include the 18% gratuity. I am not a drinker anymore (my drinking persona would wind up in the brig as she was wild and the list goes on and on why I'm sober fabulous now) and I having the Mocktails options and bringing on my allotted cabin bottles of NA Sparkling wine. Happy Sailing!!

We found a Holiday Inn with a cruise shuttle for just under $300 a night per room (we needed two) for our cruise in mid-December. Keep in mind when looking for Miami hotel's near the port and downtown they are going to be more expensive than hotel's by the airport. The prices will also fluctuate with the time of year, ours is near a holiday so I knew it would get pricey. As A&L pointed out and I agree, what is a "reasonable" price for you and your group? Do your research and be open minded to Uber also, if you can find a budget hotel by the airport, you might be able to Uber to the port for less than a night downtown also. Good luck on your research!

Icon is already expensive enough, the nickel and diming is insane. I have to wonder what other attractions will come with an additional price tag. Celebrity and Virgin are looking better and better, if Royal starts nickel and diming any more across the fleet we may "jump ship" to one of those two.

Does Freedom have a suite lounge and and a Diamond lounge or are they combined? We were on Lady G in April and the suite lounge was on space but Diamond lounge was in a temporary space in one of the lounges.

I agree with Biker, the online orders can be hit or miss sometimes. When you are able to do so, book a nice dinner in one of specialty restaurant's they will only see bookings in the cruise planner if they go in a book something themselves. You could also book a fun surprise excursion, we are going on a holiday cruise as a family next month and I booked a couple things to do in Coco Cay and Nassau as a surprise holiday gift.

We will be sailing on Freedom in exactly one month!! It's our holiday cruise with my mom and my kids (my husband and I are sailing 10 days prior for our anniversary and my dad just doesn't like holiday travel 😄) It's fun to see the ship we will be on in about a month!! The OV room looks great for a family, we booked the 2 bedroom suite to stay in one room and not kill each other lol. My kids are teens so it's basically 4 adults in one room, enjoy the smaller sized humans in one cabin while you can. Happy sailing and will be following along!

I went ahead and rented one for our port day. I will let y'all know how it goes! They have a BF sale right now and it was only $100 for the day rental. It includes our own server, the casita and two beach chairs, water bottles, towels, etc. I figured at the least, we will have a dedicated "home port" for the kids to find my mom and myself and we won't have to worry about fighting for deck space by the pool.

Hi everyone!! We are a month out from our family holiday cruise on Freedom OTS and have a quick question. We are booked in a 2 bedroom family suite on Freedom and curious if there are already pre-reserved suite casita's around the pool for suite guests or if it would be worth booking one (they are on "sale" right now) or if there are complimentary ones already dedicated to suite guests. We are not planning on leaving the ship during our Nassau stop over and was going to sort of treat this day like a "day at sea" so we would be spending quite a bit of time in the casita.

We will be booking through our new TA friend for sure as he can usually get us great rates and OBC. It's still crazy how inflated the prices are getting though and our TA sent out an email warning his clients of this trend. Let's hope people stop paying the overly inflated prices (doubtful) and things level out again.

We noticed the same the other day! My son wants to take a California/Mexico cruise for his senior trip in Spring 2025. We usually cruise in a GS with the kids as it comfortably sleeps 4 people (myself, husband and both kids) and the two sinks in the bathroom is a lifesaver. However, we are probably just booking two connecting balcony staterooms. The JS on this cruise would be $14k with my Emerald discount while two balcony staterooms would be $5k. I will be diamond by this sailing so we will have the perks of diamond boarding and diamond lounge so suite benefits at this point for us are really just the use of suite lounge and the gold sail and sign card (ladeedaaaa LOL). None of those are worth an extra $9k BEFORE drink packages, shore excursions, airfare and before/after sailing arrangements. I think $20k+ is entirely too much for a week vacation in Mexico.

We sailed on Lady G back in April and loved her! My husband and I are sailing on Allure in December!!

Awesome thanks y'all for the help!! I will let them know!

Hi Y'all!! I am a loyal Royal Caribbean gal but my parents are sailing NCL in February to the Caribbean and asked me the following question... "If we purchased the drink package, does that include NA beer (Heineken 0.0)?" My Dad likes to slow his evenings down with NA Beer so he can get quality sleep on vacation. On RCL when you purchase the refreshment beverage package it includes all NA beverages EXCEPT Heineken 0.0 because it "has trace amounts of alcohol" even though most foods have the same trace amounts, but whatever. NCL cruisers....does anyone know what NA options (mocktails/beers) are available on NCL and if they are included in the beverage package? TIA!

We were just in Labadee in April and it felt very safe, all the staff members were so nice and accommodating. Beautiful island, truly loved it!! We rented an overwater bungalow and it was spectacular!!

Don't forget the jellyfish too!! 😄

Loving your review Sue!! We sail on Allure in December and can't wait! It will be my husband's first cruise in about 2 years (damn work keeps getting in his way 😂). The CLS looks amazing, we are in a JS on our December sailing as it's a quick 3 day cruise, but still appreciate the extra space. A co-worker of mine was just telling me the multiple benefits of the casino program. I am not a casino person typically but could be for the perks.