O2cruise_again

Whew- quite a long thread so I hope I'm not repeating information. Both my 5 and 7 yr olds love the Fun Factory. Something that is not advertised... if your child has a condition that may cause you concern, call X ahead of time (special services, I think). My son was diagnosed with high functioning autism right before his 3rd cruise. I was reluctant to take him to the Fun Factory but since he'd attended Fun Factory on a previous cruise, it would have disappointed him not to go. Special services told us to board early and speak with the Fun Factory staff and they were wonderful. They also had a limited number of pagers available so I had that extra piece of mind and my son had a wonderful vacation. Thankfully, he had no ASD issues, but I was paged because he got seasick one morning.

Regarding a poster's comment about value system- agree to disagree. IMO, it's all how you handle it. My kids understand that cruising is special and they are saving up "behavior points" towards their next cruise. The oldest has also asked his grandma if he can do some chores for her to help him save- at age 7! And although there are people less fortunate than us all around, it didn't hit home to my boys until we were driving in a Caribbean village and they saw children with less than what they have. We had a great conversation about being thankful for what we have but also appreciating the things money can't buy (son was surprised that the children were happy playing without toys). Prior to the trip, we show them the ship's route on a map and teach them a few easy facts about the places we will visit. On Eclipse, we spent a lot of time using the giant globe. The kids were learning and didn't even realize it. We did enough activities for a Cub Scout belt loop. Then there's the opportunity for my kids to practice the table manners they learn at home. And learning to order from a menu. And remembering to say thank you to the ship's crew. All this and we get to do it as a family. For us, it's the best kind of vacation.

Here's the link:

 

http://www.southwest.com/html/travel-tools/index.html?int=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-TRAVEL-TOOLS

 

If you go to the bottom of the home page and click on Travel Tools, you will get this page with the next release date. Only you will need to look for the one after 5/26 for your January date.

Looks like they are going to skip over mid-November and December to open up all winter sales on May 26th. Is that usual? Trying to buy tickets for Thanksgiving Week cruise and thought the SW schedule would be available in April vice May. New to this "gamble" of when to purchase tickets or when to hold out for a discount airline.