moesyk4

This is like my 7th cruise so you would think I would have this figured out by now...are the times listed for our stops on ship's time (where we sail from) or island time? I know all of our private excursions are on local time through my contact, but didn't know if I needed to adjust.

So, no having to reserve ahead, just show up at guest services? We leave in 10 days and have a stop in Grand Cayman, can't wait!

I agree..wear what makes you happy! Even if you are the only one on the ship that wears a fancy dress, who cares? It's not like you'd be kicked out of the dining room for wearing it :) I am a stay at home mom and DH is in more of a blue collar job, so opportunities to truly dress up are few and far between. On our cruise a few years ago (2005) I wore my sister's prom dress. I was definitely one of the fanciest people on the cruise (and the dress took a whole suitcase!) but I LOVED it.

I'm going less fancy this upcoming cruise but only because I'll be 15 weeks pregnant and none of my really fancy dresses will fit!

We have sailed both Carnival and RCCL and we really enjoy both...but I would agree with the PPer, if they were the same price I would choose RCCL hands down. RCCL has really just taken shipboard experience to the next level...not only are their ships gorgeous, but there are just sooo many activities and things to do, you couldn't do them all in one week.

Like I said, we love Carnival as well, but especially for still getting a balcony, I wouldn't even consider it in this case :) And we are sailing the Breeze in 10 days!

I am going to be 15 weeks pregnant on our cruising leaving in just 12 days! I have sent in the correct paperwork and am ready to go, but obviously have not cruised in this position before, are there any tips or cautions?

We've planned our excursions accordingly. We are doing an AI in Cozumel (i just got the day pass not the AI pass), river tubing and lunch at a local restaurant in Jamaica, and snorkeling in Grand Cayman.

Should I take anything special with on the trip? Anything else I should be aware of? Thanks!

I vaguely remember a news announcement a few months ago about Carnival reducing the fee structure to something easier to work with, something like 6 tiers? Can't remember which ones were being dropped and when, but could be that?

I stop by CC daily when we are actively planning a cruise or even looking...we are leaving for our next cruise in two weeks and I realized I will miss coming on here as I try not to come on unless there's a chance we can go. We can only afford to go every 2 years or so and so it'll be awhile :(. Do you come on all the time or only while you are booking?

I am extremely type A...plan for months in advance, packing a month in advance, lists, the whole 9 yards. And yet, on our first cruise together in 2005, I forgot DH and I's birth certificates. We were driving down the day before and were about 12 hours into the drive to Florida when I woke DH up cussing and crying. If I were to do it over, I would've sucked it up and turned around. We were driving down a day early, but overnighting wasn't an option as the next day was Sunday. I can't imagine just "winging it" now...and we didn't have insurance (not sure it would've even covered as it was "just" a short 4 day cruise.

What did we do? My MIL and my DH's best friend broke into our second story apartment, grabbed the documents, and faxed a copy to the bed and breakfast we were staying at for that night. We showed up as early as we could to the port ready to beg, borrow, and steal to get in....an elderly lady having a great time with a lei on said "No problem!" and went to talk to her friend at the counter. After a few minutes, they let us go through. I still have no idea how. We got quite the lecture from customs coming back through at the end, but they let us through too.

Not a story I ever want to live through again...now I annoy DH by clinging to our docs until we are on board.

We are leaning towards renting...we won't be returning to Disney anytime soon so I just can't seem to justify purchasing yet another stroller...we found a place that would be less than $20 for the whole trip, so it seems worth it to go that way. Thanks guys!

Keep watching rates...renting a car is by far the easiest way to go and the cheapest I believe. Our rates dropped by more than half from the time I first started looking. I think I paid $30 total one way and $20 total the way back. Picking up and dropping off at the airport is a breeze, and all the rental car places have offices within minutes of the port. The shuttles are a bit of a hassle, but I think they are anywhere as it's just not an organized system.

Our DS just turned 4 and we are going back and forth about bringing a stroller with us on our trip. He is fine walking for several hours say, at the zoo or museum...he does fine in a stroller too, but he's not one that complains after 5 minutes or anything to sit down. We own about 5 different strollers b/c we have 2 foster babies, but most are huge (sit n stand, double, etc.) that we wouldn't take, so our own option would be a regular single Graco stroller, which is still quite large, or a tiny umbrella stroller. The umbrella stroller is small...all over. I have to hunch to push it and I'm 5'7"...DH is 6'3".

I don't forsee any need for it on the cruise itself...we purchased FTTF so no waiting in line without being able to sit, all of our excursions we are picked up at the pier, etc. But, we are driving from Miami to Orlando after the cruise to go to Disney 3 days afterwards. Here, obviously, I think a stroller would be a necessity.

So...right now our choices seem to be bring the Graco and lug it through the whole trip to use the last 3 days, bring the handy umbrella but spend 3 uncomfortable days hunched over to push it at Disney, purchase a cheap or used stroller that would fit our needs better (smaller but still easy to push), or rent while there...stroller rentals look to be anywhere from 5-15 a day depending on where you rent from.

We haven't ever been to Disney as adults so we are clueless...any thoughts? Are we missing anything about the cruise where a stroller would be nice? Thanks!

We did an AI for our honeymoon...it was beautiful and it was nice to relax and um, have lots of time to spend together lol. But even with that, by the 4th day, we were completely bored. We too, can only spend so much time on the beach drinking. The drinks were good, and like I said, it was beautiful...gorgeous big room with a great view, etc. but it just got boring. The shows were terrible...the food was amazing (they had 5 specialty restaurants) but I had to get up every morning at 6:30 am to wait in a line for about 45 minutes to sign up for each restaurant. Not fun.

We hadn't planned on doing any excursions as the trip itself was pricey, but by the 4th day we needed to get out. We did snorkeling, but it was a looong drive through some sketchy areas to get there. DH got sick from the beach BBQ they offered.

We both agreed it was a one time thing for us, 8 years later and we stick to cruises!

We did the free way the PPer mentioned and it worked like a charm. Set up a thread on the "sailing now" board before we left and let my MIL know the name of it and we were able to communicate (she was watching our toddler). You can't put anything too personal of course, but we could update her and vice versa. You could supplement that with the occasional text for personal info and shouldn't be too pricey!

We are booked with Playa Mia for our January cruise. We just booked directly with Playa Mia, they now allow you to book directly from their website. you can cancel up to two days before for any reason, they will move your reservation if your itinerary changes, and they will refund if your stop is cancelled.

I know the taxi is a flat rate of $16 for up to 4 people, can't remember for 6 but I know it's set rates so try doing a search!

I would highly recommend just renting a car...it's crazy cheap, allows you to have the freedom to drive whereever you want to pick up stuff before the cruise, and it's a free shuttle to port out of cocoa beach (which is less than 5 minutes from the ship). Search around for cheap rates and codes...I think we paid less than $20 including taxes each way (plus gas of course). The shuttles are a hassle as there isn't any rhyme or reason to pick up and drop off, but for the most part people were polite and knew to wait their "turn"...and there really is no other way around it unless you want to pay extra just to drive that 5 minutes.

We booked at the Budget in downtown Miami. We used car rental companies and their shuttle services on our last cruise and although necessary (we were out of Port Canaveral that time) IMO they were a PITA. They are generally extremely busy and there is no real organization as far as pick up and drop off goes. You "know" where you are at in line but are just hopeful that those who came after you aren't rude and try to get on before you because there was about 15-20 people waiting at all times with no rhyme or reason. Then upon return, we waited over an hour for a shuttle van to show up and again, there are about 10-15 families descending on said van trying to get a ride. And there truly is no rhyme or reason then because there's not a specific place to wait, so you just stand around until the van shows up and chase it down hoping to be able to get on. Then if you can't do that one, you do the same on the next.

Anyway, it just wasn't worth it to us. We'll pay the 10-15 for the taxi and avoid the wait!

Oooo love the pics! Sailing in less than 2 months on the Breeze and sooo excited for our cove!

I think it's a really personal choice..for us, we wouldn't take a child under 2 (or really any non potty trained child) on a cruise. Basically for all the reasons you mentioned...our last cruise was 5 days and DS had JUST turned 2. We knew he would be in bed by 8 at the latest, we'd be stuck in the room for naps as well, we would really not be able to just "relax" unless we took turns, he couldn't swim, we'd really be limiting our excursions to ones where he could participate, we couldn't justify the dinners as he might not make it through them, etc. It just didn't sound much like a vacation to us. We went and he stayed home with Nana and had a great time. I will say, the trip was 7 days including hotel stays and we were terribly homesick for him about 5 days in, so in the future, I'd do a shorter cruise or cut out the hotel stay (and i'm a huge advocate for parents only time!)

Our DS will just have turned 4 for our cruise in January and I have no reservations about taking him now and I am SO excited for him to experience it. We got a fantastic rate on a balcony so if he naps or goes to bed early we can relax and enjoy the view. Either way, he is extremely flexible with sleep time now so if he has to miss a nap or stay up late, he is very easygoing. He is very well behaved and will have no issues sitting through a long dinner or short show, and he is potty trained obviously and loves to swim. He can't do all excursions, of course, but enough so that we can have some great picks.

I emailed Carnival about this yesterday, I will let you know what I hear back! I wanted to get it in writing.

I'm not positive..it's on all the excursions so I didn't double check elsewhere.

I asked this on the Jamaica board a few weeks ago, but all the responses I'm getting are for people with older children, so I was hoping for responses on here! We are desperately looking for something to do in Jamaica with a 4 year old that will be fun for both us and him...so IMO that takes out shopping (we don't shop), tours, etc. Dunn's River Falls has to be 6 and older...yes, you can wait at the bottom with him, but then what's the point?

I can't get a straight answer from the private tour guides if Irie Blue Hole is safe for a 4 year old, and I'm really drawing a blank on other options. We'd like to stay below $200...preferably around $150 if we can.

We are looking at river tubing, but would love any other options! We will do ship excursions if we have to, but would prefer private.

We've had it scheduled on two cruises and made it both times. Beautiful!

Normally, we don't book ship excursions, but because I've heard Jamaica can be pretty sketchy, we were looking at booking a ship excursion. Ship excursion or not, I can't find anything to do with a 4 year old! Almost all excursions include Dunn's River Falls which has a minimum age of 6. Tubing, horseback riding, sky explorer, etc. all have min. age of 6 or a min. height requirement. The only excursions left people specifically said in the review "fun, but wouldn't do with kids" because it was either tours or unlimited drinking without much activities.

I'm not a "first time" cruiser but it will be almost 5 years from our last cruise (B2B in the Caribbean) to this one and so I feel like I've forgotten a lot of stuff! A couple of things I remember reading way back when that was soo helpful on my first few (and I'll be reading all of this board to remind myself of tips I've forgotten!)

1) If you prefer to dine alone (or in a certain size group) the maitre'd is stationed during the first afternoon for seating arrangements. You can check with them and see what size table, where it is located, confirm time, etc. and make changes as you desire. DH and I prefer to eat alone and have always been able to switch to a 2 top.

2)If you are not planning on purchasing the beverages in your room, leave a note and ask your room steward to remove them the first afternoon. Then you can store all your own beverages in the fridge without worrying about being charged!

3)Bring 2 empty water bottles on board. You can fill them with the free drinks (tea, lemonade, etc) to enjoy while off the ship.

4)Buy one of those cheap, collapsible laundry bags at the dollar store. They store flat in your suitcase and are great for storing dirty clothes so you don't have to keep dragging your suitcase out!

5)Take some time the first day to explore the whole ship. You'll find out quickly where the "hot spots" are and where you can get some quiet time in too and don't find a fun spot on your last day that you would've used the whole trip!