NJCruisers

That looks awesome, too bad my phone won't fit:(

Are they nice big towels? Honestly I was thinking of bringing older oversized towels and then leaving them at Coki Beach at the end of our trip. I'm just concerned with not having a balcony to be able to dry them over night.

I'm petrified to fly. Between all the plane troubles lately and now this I too have some friends who are jerks as well, lovable, but jerks!

Not all of NJ, my kids have never been off a week in February, only get the Monday. However they are off a week in November which Disney refers to as Jersey Week because half the state (at least it seems) flocks there. I made sure to book our upcoming cruise AFTER that week on purpose:)

We plan to bring our Samsung WB1100 camera with us, although it's kind of bulky it takes much better pictures than our phones. Curacao is just so beautiful I know I would regret not taking it afterwards. I will probably bring it along on our Aruba Trikes excursion too because we will have a trunk to carry things, I don't plan on taking it to the beaches. We're also bringing my son's Go Pro - it's an older model but I'm just learning how to use it. I want to take that on all excursions for sure. I already purchased the underwater filters (very inexpensive on Amazon) & the floating hand grip. I plan to test it out in the water over the summer so I know what I'm doing come November. Luckily since it's very small we can take it into the water whenever we want. I'm still a bit torn on how to secure our stuff, my current thought process is to use a a zip tie to attach my small backpack to a beach chair & just use nail clippers to cut it off at the end of the day. Not perfect, but easy enough to stop the grab & go type of thief.

I'm going in November, I highly suggest Twangster's blog that was posted earlier, so many great photos and good info.

I cleaned out not too long ago, saved one in each color and donated the rest with a whole bunch of other stuff to goodwill. Not sure why we started a shot glass collection when we got married but we have so many now and I was worried that they may have changed the look of the cup and hubby would want to get one every night again!

I love my Tommy Bahama beach chair (from Costco) & if we weren't flying I would totally bring mine! If we ever decide to cruise out of NJ I'm pretty sure I'll bring it.

I haven't cruised in almost 10 years, but I remember every night at dinner our group had the shot of the day or something in those metal shot glasses - is that still a thing and is it included in the drink package w/o the souvenir glass? I think they were called Loving Cups or something corny like that.

I'm going on Freedom and my cap is listed at $12. for a Nov. sail date.

The good thing about that is you can take advantage of Black Friday deals! I locked in 2018 rates then re-booked my our drink package on black Friday, then got a good deal on an excursion I was interested in on Cyber Monday.

Yes! I've been looking for those myself and thought it was just me not having any luck finding them.

Thank you - I hope they serve the lobster roll on sea days!

Just curious if you ask for something special like that if they can make it happen perhaps the next day. I know I've seen that suggested at dinner. Also - is there a lunch menu for the MDR?

I mean it's not like I'm going to cancel my cruise or anything if they go up but it's good to know ahead of time - thanks!

Thanks - I did book with a TA and have prepaid my gratuities.

@twangster I'm not sure why I didn't see this sooner, but thank you so much for this blog. Although at the time you experienced it I had no idea I would even be taking another cruise, I'm going on the Freedom in November and absolutely loved reading your blog and those pictures were just amazing. I also emailed the link to myself so I would be able to find it again!

As a newbie, can you tell me if your rates are locked in from when you booked or do they go up by sail date?

I would check out Old Navy - you could get him a few pairs of colored jeans and cotton button downs and he would still be comfy but look a little better than regular jeans. Also, Old Navy doesn't break the bank and they are pretty comfortable. My son (19) wears a lot of their tan colored jeans and his go to "dressy" outfit is a pair of those with a white button down & he looks pretty sharp.

Yes, I booked Woodwind a while back and I'm sticking with them. We've only snorkeled twice so what someone may consider just an okay trip may very likely blow us away. I do plan to touch base with them before the cruise leaves as we will not have the wifi package. Honeybees in the ocean? Wow!

We're in port from 8am - 9pm. We booked Aruba Trikes for the morning tour which is 3.5 hours then we plan to hit a beach afterwards. I've never been on it before so I can't recommend other than what I've seen of them on Trip Advisor and Facebook.

Huh, they have conflicting info for the Nov. 17th Sailing of Freedom.

Definitely worth it!

I had no idea they could be customized. My son is an avid skateboarder and lives in Vans - would have made an awesome birthday present.

OMG - Those are SO COOL!