AshleyDillo

Room service is usually charged by default to the lead passenger of whichever room is placing the room service order. If you are juggling around rooms without officially switching the names on the reservations, that is going to get confusing. They sometimes will confirm the name and let you put it on someone else booked in the room other than the lead passenger, but you won't be able to charge the room service to someone whose name isn't on the room booking.

What rooms are your SO, yourself and 2DD booked into? If their names are on the room you pre-paid grats on, they won't be charged the daily service charge. The others will be.

Your step mom and whoever else is registered to be in the room you pre-paid gratuities on will not be charged the daily service charge. The daily service charge will be charged daily to each person that is booked into a room that has not pre-paid gratuities. You will set up your credit card/billing information before you board (either online or at the terminal). There will be a temporary hold placed on the card and at the end of the cruise when the charges are reconciled the final charge will hit the card. You can set up multiple people to have the same form of payment for their account, but they will show as individual charges while on board, but you'll only get one charge on your card at the end for that room. Basically if you pre-paid gratuities for a room that has four names on it, you've paid for 4 people in your party already.

Looks like Baked Alaska!

Roatan did not have a beach immediately at the port. You would need to take a cab. They have lots of vendors in the port that will arrange the transportation for you. I wouldn't walk on your own outside the port. It's very congested immediately outside the gates.

When I was leaving a cruise over the weekend I saw what looked to be beach umbrellas and pop-up canopies in their carrying bags in the luggage area. They were tagged as if they had been dropped with their luggage to be taken to the ship when boarding.

Mariner did this too...all the T&C on all the drink package promo material all over the ship stated $12 but the limit was $13.

After just doing that drive to/from Miami at 7 hours each way for a 3 night cruise...soooo envious of cheap airfare. I have access to one-way car rentals with no surcharge, but it's nearly breakeven for such a short cruise for me..being 7 hours away I need the good night's sleep before, so have to have hotel too.

Do not forget to take into consideration the bath situation. Most rooms only have teeny showers, so you need to pack a blow-up bathtub if the babies won't handle a shower well. The showerhead does come off as a hand held to make it a little easier on you.

This decision really depends on where you are staying and where you want to go. Uber/Lyft are very prevalent down there, but you're going to always need the XL services for 6 people. If you're planning on splitting up and doing different things, it's easy just to rely on regular Uber/Lyft services. Public transportation is not time efficient down there. A car rental would likely be cheaper and allow you to explore more of the area. Bonus if you have any access to rates where you don't have to pay one-way car rental charges that can also come into play when figuring out transportation to the port. You have so many variables going on here that you need to consider which you value more: money or convenience.

I just was at Coco Cay and it's really hard to say since the completion status of the island changes day-by-day. I would definitely reserve the cabana so you are guaranteed some shade and can lock in the current rate. You can cancel on your Cruise Planner and rebook if you see the rate go down as your cruise date gets closer. It will be VERY hot in August. I just went over the weekend and while it was in the 80s and comfortable with a breeze, it was still rather hot and sticky in the sun. There isn't much shade available on the island right now outside of hanging out immediately at the pool bar in the buffet's dining area unless you have a cabana or bungalow. As far as mobility issues are concerned, the situation currently is that guests have to walk from the ship down the concrete pier. They then have to walk through sand, over the wooden pedestrian bridge, through sand some more until they can get to a brick, paved path that will take them to the pool area. To get to the beach, it's all sand. The cabanas offer cart service that will ride you to the cabana area and pick you up, but to get there you have to walk in sand. The dive shop has a porch with a few benches that serves as the shaded area to wait for the cart to the cabana if it isn't immediately there. We used the cart service to our bungalow and they were willing to drive us to the pool area when we asked. Since May is when they're stating the waterpark is going to be ready, there may be more paved areas and less sand to walk through once that is complete and the construction fencing is down. Currently the brick, paved pathway to the pool is cut off by this fencing. Also, they did have wheelchairs on the pier with the big sand wheels on them, so I think assistance would be available to be pushed if needed.

Most of the bars have specialty drink menus now and if they have a blender they can make your tropical frozen drink. Not all bars have the blenders, so I guess they didn't make it into the standard menu.

Just not in the month of March...college spring break..avoid, avoid, avoid.

Orlando is a bit north of Tampa still...I just did the drive from Miami all the way up to Tallahassee and it's a solid 2.5 - 3 hours on the Turnpike from Miami to the Orlando area.

Making suggestions will really depend on what interests you. A major difference between Chicago and South Florida is that public transportation is not as prevalent down here. It's getting better with more rail options, but it isn't as easy to get around like Chicago without a vehicle, so if you truly want to explore before/after your cruise maybe rent a car for the day so you can save yourself time getting around to what does interest you. When I take people around Miami that have never been there I would probably hit up Little Havana, check out the Art Deco district in South Beach/Miami Beach...things that really scream Miami to people that don't live here. In Fort Lauderdale the only thing I can think of is Las Olas and riding around on the water taxi in that area.

The discount airlines fly that route...save on gas, port parking, tolls and hotel..could be a wash cost-wise depending on how many people there are. People place different values on different factors...I mean if I could hop on a $100 flight to avoid the drive and hotel stay I would in a heartbeat.

Agreed! I loved this port for that very reason. We before they even had a pier and it was so different from the other ports. I know they've built up the port area a little bit, but glad to see it still has its charm.

They hid our cot behind the curtains and it was never in our way during the day. Just make sure your kids are careful when they plop down on the cot and don't sit on the end of it and wind up on the floor like some people ??

If you ever sail a ship with the Bamboo Room try the Tiki Tea signature cocktail..tastes like peach iced tea!

If you have extras you might as well put them on your carry-on. That way if they get misplaced somewhere on the ship at least they could possibly make their way back to your room. Usually you don't let the carry-ons out of your sight before they end up at your room.

As long as you have this attitude and are prepared to hop in the car and go, you should be fine to fly the morning of. I would suggest not checking luggage as to not delay anything if you bail on your flight.

@tonyfsu21 he is in the pub right now if you want to come get an autograph for your daughter ???

Make sure you have MTD selected on your cruise for dining time and not traditional. Not sure if buying the UDP will default your reservation to that.

I have never seen one of those that wouldn't make it through a scanner, so should be no problem.

No limit to the number of bags, but you have to be able to manage them yourself and rooms aren't open until typically 1pm or later. They will go through the scanner (similar to an airport) so they should fit through that with no issue.