Plantcitycruise

We sailed last Easter on Royal Caribbean. I'm not sure what Carnival does but I can give you some info on what RC did.

They did have some Easter functions. Photos opportunities with a bunny, Easter activities in kids area and we are pretty sure they had an egg hunt although none of us remember doing it.

We always do a basket for our daughter too. Instead of brining one we had one at the house for when we returned...gave her something to look forward to coming back to reality.

Hope that helps a little. Have a great cruise.

We have taken 5 cruises in the last couple years. Of those four of them were during school times and one during the summer, yes we are those parents that take our daughter out of class for vacations.

I would say that other than the Disney cruise, which was packed with kids, the ships didn't have as many kids as the summer cruise we did. On one cruise we did in September I would guess the ship had less than 20 kids around my daughters age. Another one we did in April had quite a few. I'm not sure you can know how many kids are onboard till you get there.

That being said our daughter loves cruising. She is ten now and has never complained about the quantity of kids...actually like the Disney cruise the least. Lots for them to do both with parents and without.

Matter of fact...headed out in two weeks for another 7 day cruise with her....bringing two grandmas too. :)

Thank you for starting this thread. I have really been struggling with our Jamaica stop but this is the answer! Between the beach and the Margaritaville down the road we will satisfy everyone.

Thanks again for the info. I actually emailed the Riu in Montego Bay and they do day passes as well. We stayed at a Riu in Playa Del Carmen last year and we enjoyed it so we are leaning that way. It's about $30 less per person and only 5 - 10 minutes from the port.

We mix up our cruise vacations with other vacations but I am really missing a cruise right now. It's been almost a year!

mitsugirly, thank you for your reviews. I'm pretty sure you reviewed the Ron Jon a couple years ago and we have been there twice before cruises since your review. Great pre cruise stay.

I did see your review on the Rose Hall, however I read it is changing ownership this week so I am uncertain about booking. We have 11 in our group going and I'm trying to find something for all of us. No one else seems to concerned and they are all relying on me to choose something...too....much...pressure! I figure as long as we make it back safely I made a good choice. :)

As far as pool or beach it really doesn't matter. Out of the eleven, 6 live very close to the beach and 4 are only a couple hour drive. However we are the only ones with a pool...so I was leaning that way.

I guess I better get on it soon. Down to about 6 weeks.

Thank you for the info on Doctors Cove. That may be more up our alley. We decided against the Sunset place and were leaning towards the Rose Hall. However I see that they are changing ownership in January. I would hate to have remodeling going on around us if the new owners decide to spruce it up.

We are only 62 days away from sail day so I better start making some decisions.

I'll second wishing we have Cigar City Jai Alai available at some point. Rebel is decent, but better IPA's are out there. I'm sure they have to go with a brand that can produce enough to make sure they have ample supply.

Very happy to see that IPA's are starting to become a more mainstream beer choice in general.

Thank you for the feedback. We still haven't decided what we are going to do. I see that Carnival offers an all inclusive beach day option too.

I realize that both of these places have multiple threads and reviews. However I couldn't find one that specifically compares the two. We are considering an all inclusive this time in Jamaica and I am having a hard time deciding between the two. We dock in Montego Bay.

Sunset is closer and less expensive. Is the quality lower? It's $40 less per person which isn't a ton but if it's comparable why pay more.

Hilton Rose Hall is a bit further and more expensive. It is a Hilton which I am familiar and comfortable with.

It's 10 adults and one 10 year old. So most important is good drinks and a fun pool area.

Thanks for any feedback

I'll second the Stingray Sailing excursion as a great choice. We went in 2012 and had a great time. We are headed out on a cruise next Feb and going to go again. They are very efficient at picking you up and dropping you off.

Thank you for the review. We are going on Brilliance in a couple weeks with a 9 year old. It sounds like your kids enjoyed the kids area, which is good to hear since we would like some adult time. Sometimes our daughter loves going and other times its like pulling teeth to get her to go.

We have been to Cozumel a bunch of times and find that we are in the same boat as you. Our daughter is too young to appreciate anything historic and we live close to the beach too so not point going there. We usually just enjoy going into downtown and having lunch and walking around.

The sushi place sounds great and it's nice to hear that you felt the price was worth it. I will put that on our to do list...which now has one item...which is about the max we allow on vacation, so our to do list is full now.

You mentioned booking another cruise for next year on the ship. What is the benefit to that? Do you get any pricing guarantee? I know on Carnival if you book way in advance and the price ever goes lower they will credit the difference to OBC. I know we booked this one about a month ago and I logged on yesterday and the price is $200 less than we paid for similar room and I was told that they don't adjust...which means from now on I won't look after I pay so I don't bum myself out.

Thanks again. Great review.

Thank you for writing a review on the Brilliance. I have not seen too many of this ship. We are going on the April 17th cruise. I didn't even think about the spring break possibility. Our spring break here was last week, but it could be other areas spring break still in April. Hopefully it's not to crazy since our 9 year old will be with us.

Hope it was a great trip!

Our favorite cruise ship by far! We never lacked in activities. I will list a couple of my favorites and my wife's favorites too. Just as a base, we are early 40's.

Mine:

Flowrider

Rock wall

sport contests - ping pong, rock climbing, etc

Promenade people watching

My secret favorite - golf simulator, who would have thought I could play Pebble Beach in the middle of the caribbean

Wife:

Relaxing at pool - telling me not to get hurt climbing the rock wall

Relaxing at Flowrider - watching me wipe out in spectacular fashion

Relaxing on balcony

You get the idea

To sum up...lots to do if you want to be active...lots to do watching people be active...lots to do not doing anything.

Have a great cruise, I'm a little jealous. Wish I was going too.

We did FOS in October 2013 and Disney Magic in January 2014. The kids area was far superior on Disney...honestly I think I could have played there a few hours. That being said, our opinion (9 year old girl inlcuded) was that FOS was a more fun ship. My daughter actually asked to sail RC again when offered the options. She obviously has no idea of cost difference so her opinion was strictly based on her experience.

Comparisons per my 9 year old

Food - better options on FOS - ordered off adult menu on FOS, on Disney ordered off kids menu due to no interest in adult menu

Entertainment - enjoyed the shows, parades, etc on FOS more

Kids area - Way better on Disney - only spent a couple hours over 7 days in play area on FOS - spent twice as much time in there on our 3 night Magic cruise

Other activities - She enjoyed the FOS options more, disclaimer...she has no interest in waiting in line to say hi or take a picture with a dressed up character. She likes them, just doesn't want to wait to say hi. We ended up with zero character pictures on the cruise as much as we tried

Comparisons from adults - 40ish

Food - better on FOS

Entertainment - FOS - adult options too

Kids area - Disney by landslide, daughter spent a lot more time with us on FOS...which was fine, lots to do

Other activities - FOS

Cost - we are FL residents and got an increadible rate on Disney, but at normal prices, FOS

Adult activities/entertainment - FOS by a huge margin - felt that Disney focuses way more on the kids and kind of forgets the adults (at least the ones that aren't huge Disney fans)

Anyway, after typing all that I can't remember the question. Hope my two cents helps. Our motto, a cruise is a great cruise!

Thanks. That is a bummer though.

Does anyone know if they have the freestyle coke machines on Brilliance of the Seas? We went on Freedom last year and it was a nice option. Probably don't even drink enough soda to make it worhtwhile but the travel cup came in handy.

Thank you.

We have been to both a couple times. If you haven't done the stingray trip then I would say Grand Cayman, otherwise my vote is Roatan. We like the much more laid back feel and the beaches are nicer and less crowded. Aslo as someone else pointed out, much less expensive. GC is about as expensive a stop that you will find in the western caribbean.

We didn't even get off the ship last time we stopped in GC. It was nice to have a much less crowded ship to explore.

Either way...Have a great time!

Sail Away - David Gray

We always play it when we are loading car to head to the port.

Thank you for the great review. We will be on the Freedom this Sunday for western Caribbean. Thanks for posting a daily compass. It is really neat to see all the activities that are going on.

Did you have any experience with the golf simulator? I have used some good ones and horrible ones in the past and was curious if this would be worth it.

Thanks again.