momof3cruisers

Ahh. I had seen that the Luminosa as painted red, white, and blue so I assumed that’s what they were doing with this one too.

The bottled water thing is huge for me. I know they say the water has no salt etc, but I can eat whatever but if I don’t drink bottled water, I have problems.

I’d probably have given the one who helped with your reservations and the special orders an extra tip and then filled out a comment card mentioning the extra care the other specific team members gave you. FYI, people on here will tell you it isn’t true, but to help with the water retention, try drinking only bottled water. I was sailing with two of my sisters. One was drinking only bottled water, the other two of us weren’t. We commented about having swollen feet. She said it was the water. Very soon after we switched we both saw a huge improvement.

As I recall, they had three bottles. And you definitely never know if they are going to care or not.

It does, thank you!

Not this thread, I agree. I also agree that tipping is a personal choice. Trust me, I paid for a lot of college by waiting tables, I believe in tipping and tipping well. Some people don’t and that’s okay too.

This has been truly incredible so far. Thank you so much for taking us with you. So what’s with the Costa painted smokestack? They didn’t have time or they aren’t changing it?

To me I think it’s kind of funny that on this forum people act like you are committing a crime if you don’t tip extra when you have Cheers and yet Carnival advertises it as including the tips.

So have we. They didn’t take my bottle of Coke that I had forgotten that I’d shoved into my beach bag while doing some shopping. The people they did take it from were two ahead of us in the security scanner.

I have done that cruise twice. It’s a great trip! Have fun!

That is a good time of year for prices as long as you don’t book over a holiday. Also, most kids will be in school so it may be quieter and not as crowded. There is a special needs cruising forum here on Cruise Critic that might be helpful to you. My son has changed a lot in the last 8-10 years but was always fairly high functioning. We found Carnival to be much more accommodating and flexible than Royal. Several crew members (a waiter, bar tender and someone at one of the shows monitoring the entrances for reservations) treated him like they clearly thought he was weird. Whereas on Carnival they always went out of their way to be accommodating. Muster drill is a beautiful thing these days as on most cruise lines, you just check in at your muster station, they give a little schpiel about what to do in an emergency, show you how to put on a life jacket and off you go. I think that one or two of them have gone back to the old school way of having everyone gather (until all the late people get there) in one big place and it takes forever. Avoid that. As for cabin choice, for us, an inside with no window was not an option. His first cruise, he was very worried about getting seasick. So we booked an ocean view down low and in the middle. His next cruise, we booked a balcony and that was a huge improvement as he could get fresh air whenever he needed to without having to deal with people.

Do you get better flight prices if you are a member and are logged in? I’m not seeing any difference in prices between AARP and Expedia, but I’m not a member. Thanks.

If the private company has a guarantee they will provide accommodation and transportation too. Just be careful and read lots of reviews. If there are a few with similar complaints and different dates, avoid that company. (Ask me how I learned that. 😉) But the general assumption is that only like one in 100 people with a positive experience will even write a review. So if there are lots of them, it’s in all likelihood going to be fine. I totally get being nervous. I was the first time I booked outside the cruise line too. Now, I rarely do an excursion through the cruise. Except for Grand Cayman. Last two times I have been there, time in port was rather short and I wanted to be certain of an early tender and not getting stuck in traffic.

I feel like if one expects others to justify their financial choices, they should be prepared to provide an exact monthly expenditure of what they purchase. I am also pretty sure that the OP spends money on things others think are wasteful. A friend of mine loves camping and would never pay for a cruise at all, let alone more than one but she bought a pretty snazzy camper that I would get very little use out of. OP, is this really a sincere question or…? Because if you look at the questions on drink packages esp the “is it worth it” types on just about any cruise line board, people frequently explain to those wondering if it’s worth it, why it is worth it for them.

He must have been leaning very far. My boys are both 6’5” and we’ve checked, with normal behavior they couldn’t “fall” over. Very sad for the fiancé and the rest of those who care about him.

I’ve never heard that rule. On a three day cruise, I brought six cans of Coke in a small bag in my carry on. Wasn’t a problem.

That’s my feeling as well. But this is a group cruise so I might need to bow to peer pressure. I forgot about the internet but I’ve never used internet on a cruise other than the one on which my son got Covid and they gave it to us. I used it to change his flights.

Wondering about the value for the rest of the cruise. Sailing on Voyager. The first day perks sound great, but since it’s a per day cost, I’m not sure about the value. Not planning on the Waverider or rock climbing wall. Other than preferred times for those there isn’t much as far as I can see. Is the preferred seating at shows that big of a deal?

That’s not a great idea. If for some odd reason your luggage disappears or is really late (rare, but it can happen) you won’t have your medication. If you are flying to the port, same thing. Always keep your medication, your passport/ID and any valuables like electronics with you. I carry quite a bit of medication and they have never taken it out of my bag anywhere. The most likely thing they will look at is liquids so keep those together and you can quickly show them.

Holy cow! Are you going to be gone for a month? LOL. That’s a lot of luggage!

That’s awesome! When my boys were 12 and 14, we bought them tuxes. It was cheaper than renting and we were on a seven day with two formal nights with grandma who wanted formal pictures. They LOVED them! Might have had something to do with all the compliments and flattery. 😉

Well, I really didn’t want him to get in trouble and kept hoping he’d step up his game.

Yep. I misspoke. Payroll taxes for the crew, not income taxes.

I’m quite surprised to hear that Shirley Temples aren’t included. My kids always asked for them. Huh!

From what I have read, an additional reason is because the fare is considered income for the cruise line. Which they have to pay taxes on. So, a % would automatically be unavailable to the crew anyway. The cruise line is making money in the US, they pay US taxes. The crew are not considered to be making taxable income in the US but only under whatever system their home country has in place. The crew receives more money when tips are paid to them because the cruise line doesn’t have to pay taxes on that money.