Cutigerlady

The Black Friday sale was the one time I saw a few of the cabanas discounted. It was the pool and beach ones. The Beach club and water park ones were excluded from the sale. 

Are you sure you can't get a copy of your children's birth certificates from the Health Department?  I found myself standing at the courthouse with my husband, kid, and all the other documents and was missing my son's birth certificate.  I turned the house upside down and couldn't find a single copy!  The courthouse representative told me that the Health Department could reprint it for me on the spot.  I got extremely lucky that they have an outbranch very close to my house and I managed to get there just in time before they closed for the day.  I had them print 10 copies and the lady looked at me like I was crazy.  I told her I would never lose a copy again!  

My older son's birth certificate doesn't have a raised seal, but it was signed by the person who printed it out.  My younger son's certificate doesn't have any seal or signature.  Both of them if you try and make copies, it is very clear it is not official.  It's possible the copy you have would work if that is how your state use to issue them.  

I hope it all works out and you have a great laugh about it on your cruise!  

I gave magnetic hooks, luggage tag holders, lanyards, mini flashlights (gets very dark in inside rooms), insect/hand sanitizer wipes, and a travel alarm clock (sometimes ship time differs from actual time). We have used these on every cruise!

Thanks!  I saved a bit on my kids Refreshment package 23.99 to 16.99 and the surf & stream package is about $50 cheaper.  The Deluxe beverage package is more expensive than what I paid for it.  This is for April Harmony cruise. 

You don't need to spend any money on food here.  The Snack Shack and the Chill Grill (both which are really good) are completely free.  The Snack Shack (back by the Oasis Pool) opens around 10:30 (at least pre-covid).  There are plenty of chairs/umbrellas, so you don't need to worry about that.  My kids brought their own snorkel equipment and they tried to snorkel by Chill Island, but it was too rough to see anything.  We moved to Harbor Beach, which was nice and calm (and warm in the Winter), but there wasn't anything to see here.  We also wandered around the Straw Market looking at the local stuff that was for sale.  We have been here twice and still haven't been over to the Oasis Pool. so I can't comment on that.  I've also not been to South Beach.  Also note that by Chill Grill you can swap wet/sandy towels for clean/dry ones.  

I take copies with us, along with DL and leave our passports in the safe.  For my kids, I did get them the passport cards as an extra backup that we take with us.  

My kids would pick any itinerary with Coco Cay every time!  Your kids are old enough that they can go into the water park by themselves if you feel comfortable with that.  Mine spend the entire day going up and down the stairs for the water slides.  They also recently picked Harmony over Odyssey because they loved every second on the Harmony.  

My kids are similar age to yours and they got the money's worth of the Refreshment Package!  They are not big soda drinkers, but they had lots of smoothies, non-alcoholic frozen drinks, Powerade, and bottled water. I loved that they could go grab what they wanted without me.  We did not buy dining packages, but did take our kids for sushi one afternoon.  I have boys and they eat all of the time and they found more than enough to keep them satisfied.  We also picked My Time Dining because it is a little faster than the formal dinner times.  Our servers knew the boys wanted to be in and out quickly in order to get back to doing things!  

Lastly, my kids are very happy hanging out on the ship and didn't want to get off.  It wasn't necessary to spend alot of money on excursions.    

Thank you!  I've been an Amex user for years and never knew about these offers!  I occasionally get some in the mail, but it is never to something I actually use.  The ones online had several that benefit me!

I've been on both ships and I would not pay the extra for the Harmony.   I actually like the Mariner a little bit more because it seemed a more manageable size.  My family had plenty of things to do on both ships and some of the extras that the Harmony had they didn't keep them any more entertained.  We had oceanview balconies on the Harmony and inside on the Mariner (booked last minute Christmas cruise in 2019) and we thought they both were fine.  My husband would say that a 5 night cruise is the perfect length because 7 is a bit much for him (he likes to have the weekend to get ready for going back to work).  

My passport renewal was mailed on 6/11, it was logged by passport office on 6/28 and I'm still waiting for it!  I did not pay the expedite fee.  The current timeline for non-expedited requests is 18 weeks (was 12 when I submitted my request) and 12 weeks for expedited requests.  They are blaming the USPS for taking up to 6 weeks for the receipt and delivery of the passports.  

We saved $300 plus got a $200 OBC. I’ll take it because we had to cancel and rebook for my son’s school break change. I’m now back to what the other cruise cost!

They have all kinds of family activities!  We went to see Santa and all kids get presents (grouped by age), they had hot chocolate and cookies and free alcohol drinks for parents.  Everything on the ship had a holiday theme - trivia, caroling, ugly sweater contest, music, games, movies, etc.  We missed the memo that everyone wears matching holiday pjs to breakfast on Christmas day 🙂 and everyone went to the main dining room!  I would not spend the extra money for the fancy specialty Christmas meals because what was served in the MDR was just as good!  

My family prefers to book connecting rooms over suite because we like the extra space/bathroom.  The year we went at Christmas, I booked the trip very last minute and we had inside rooms.  My kids loved it!  

If you are struggling to get an appointment, look for locations that take walkups.  My county courthouse does a very brisk business because they don't take appointments.  I had been trying for weeks to get an appointment (renewals for kids require you to go in person).  First thing in the morning, they are always busy but at noon, I walked right in with no wait.  Also check how to pay for the courthouse's fee to process your paperwork because mine you must pay in cash.  

I submitted my son’s renewal on 6/11 at my local county courthouse and it didn’t show up as received until 6/28!  Now it’s at the processing part and on 7/12, the passport service websites says could take 12 weeks plus 6 weeks for mailing, which is almost 6 months!! Ridiculous!  The FAQs say you can call to change your application to expedite and pay the extra fee over the phone. I can’t believe I’m considering doing this to get his passport in time for a December trip.
 

I don’t understand why a renewal takes so long because he’s already gone through the process and I sent back his expired passport!  I applied at the local courthouse, so I knew everything in the application was correct. 

I would definitely look at connecting cabins or even across the hall from each other.  For my boys, they are big enough that we can put them in a room next to us without having a connecting door and that usually saves us some money!  We have also looked at interior cabin for them and balcony for us.  Note that you are going to either have to call or use a travel agent to book multiple rooms because the online system requires that one person in each cabin is over 18.  For the ages of your boys, they would like Oasis or one of the amplified ships to give you plenty of activities to keep them busy!  

My family finds that it is easiest to depart out of Orlando because we can get the most direct flight options that way.  It also makes it easy to add on a night or two at Disney.  We cruised on RCL because Coco Cay was on my son's bucket list and it did not disappoint.  

I booked this for $38.99 per person during one of the massive sales to infuse cash to RCL. I’m pretty sure my boys can eat that much food to make it worth it! 

I got this today too. It sounded like they are trying to understand if the cruise I just booked was new and what motivated me to buy now. It was a reschedule though because my kid is switching schools and our L&S from last fall no longer works. They also asked a lot about what I’m expecting the protocols to be. 

We were on this cruise in 2019.  It was so much fun!  The one thing I wasn't prepared for was how crowded the main dining room was on Christmas morning and how so many people came in their holiday pjs!  We stayed on the ship on Christmas day when we were docked in Nassau because all of the excursions were very pricey.  We loved the nearly empty ship and getting to do whatever we wanted.  Have a great time!

We did this for my family of 4 and I think I paid about $450.  I was able to cancel and rebook several times to get that rate.  It was worth it to my family.  My kids are old enough to go on their own for all of the water slides and my husband and I could relax.  It was nice to have a spot to store our stuff and a home base to meet up with them periodically.  We were by the wave pool (which is freezing even in the summer heat). 

Our server placed our lunch order to have it there right when food became available because we got there early for the kids to get in as much water slide time with low waits as possible.  She also brought us skewers of fruit at the end of the day.  She spoiled my kids with keeping their drinks stocked (we had the drink package, so they had everything from virgin drinks to soda, powerade, and water).  My kids loved the water slides, wave pool and obstacle courses.  They stayed until the very end of the day. If you have smaller kids, you have to be with them on the slides and check the height requirements.  

We were at Coco Cay in September and while it was hot outside, the pool/waterpark had freezing water!  There is lots of shade spots, so it was more than comfortable. 

I'm not feeling too positive about my Mariner September sailing.  I noticed this morning that you can only book the 3 night cruises now and I'm on a 4 night sailing.  Yesterday, the other sailings were still showing as bookable.

This sort of scares me because we have a September Mariner cruise booked. 🤕

Hmm, odd the prices on my cruises went up significantly!  For example, deluxe beverage package had been hovering around $53 and now $71 (no thank you, I'll pay as I go).  Dining package was $119 and is now $145 (5 night/Oasis class).  I have one cruise in September and one in December.  

We were on a Christmas sailing in 2019 and it was a blast!  I'm not sure how COVID will impact things though.  They gave out gifts to all kids 18 and under, photo with Santa, hot chocolate & free drinks.  They had holiday sing-a-longs, special trivia, movies, etc. Pretty much every activity had some sort of holiday theme.  I didn't get the memo that everyone goes to the main dining room breakfast in matching Christmas pjs!  There is a special meal for Christmas Day dinner.  If you want to eat at a specialty restaurant, there was an extra charge and the only real difference was a mini bottle of champagne.  We were in Nassau on Christmas day, but we decided to just stay on the ship.  It was a great decision because it was empty on board and every excursion was pricey.  We hope to be on the sailing right before yours this year!

Just an FYI that if your teen has the refreshment package, we had to give him the ability to charge to his band (sadly, it’s been long enough that I forget why!). My teen is responsible and didn’t buy anything from his band that I didn’t know about.  I also discovered my credit card didn’t get linked correctly and when you hit $500, they cut off your privileges until we fixed that. 
 

We also got the surf & stream package for everyone to make it easy to communicate about where they were and the TV is so limited, he used it to stream his YouTube stuff at night.  He also loved he could text his friends.  I’m the one who accidentally racked up the high roaming bill and eventually your carrier suspends your phone (I got lucky and had a strange international plan through my company so my $900 bill ended up being $9). 
 

My teen wasn’t a fan of the teen club group activities, but he did go there to play video games and ping pong or other stuff. We did give him permission to use the gym (he’s an athlete and needed to be working out while we were on vacation). 
 

He loved the freedom and can’t wait to go back!