sleepy425

We were at PDCC for Thanksgiving on Anthem 2022 (also did Anthem 2018 and 2021 for Thanksgiving). It was adorable - they had a crew member dressed as a turkey running around the pier and a chef chasing him. Then that night the Captain pardoned the turkey and lit the Christmas tree. It was a nice day. I don't eat meat, so I can't comment on the Thanksgiving meal besides knowing there is turkey, but all of my family members eat meat and nobody has actively complained about it. We are loving holidays at sea - we just did Christmas 2023 and this year we are doing NYE. It's so nice to be away and not having to worry about seeing traveling to see family. If they want to see us they can book the cruise!

I'm so uncomfortable around water that I got drunk enough to put my toe in the water last cruise and my family took pics and made memes about it. Not enough alcohol in the world to get my in enough water I'd need an oxygen tank

My husband dove at CocoCay once, each time he has tried since the excursion has been canceled. He got a bit sea sick during that dive, but I'm sure the big breakfast he had prior didn't help! He is scheduled to do it again in 3 weeks, hopefully it actually happens. (If you ever are near Disney and haven't done it yet, he raves about the dive at Epcot. It's called Dive Quest, and he has done it about 10 times now)

Definitely has to be 21 in North America. We are unexpectedly adopting an almost 18 year old, and thankfully have a large group going on our NYE cruise. I had to borrow an adult from another room to switch into his room reservation because despite him being 18 by then, the rule is 21 (my husband and I were already in separate rooms because we have 4 other kids). Had we been able to get him a connecting/adjoining room it wouldn't have been an issue because his age wouldn't matter, but GTY was cheapest so we needed an adult.

Our guarantee for NYE this year had a room number in January. But then I repriced because the interior GTY dropped, so it took away the room number. I just looked and it has been reassigned again, not sure when that happened.But our other GTY rooms (an interior and a balcony) from 2023 were assigned much closer to sailings.

Not going to lie, I was actively watching people trying to figure out if I could spot you based on your profile pic. This year I will try harder to find you!

We just did Adventure for Christmas, we used We Drive You Fly (there were 9 of us, so definitely a better option than Ubers). We are doing Adventure out of Canaveral again for NYE and already booked them.

We just did Christmas on Adventure 2023, 11 of us total in 5 rooms. We were given 2 round tables next to each other in the dining room. I linked everyone to my app and got us all the check in time. For shows if you want that many to sit together you need to show up EARLY. We did it every man for themselves for shows - I was not going to try to hold seats for that many people (there was a Christmas ice show that 2 of my kids went to with me. We all went and found seats, then they went to get milk shakes. It was rough keeping people from taking the seats for the brief time they were gone, I can't imagine trying to save more than that! For Labadee I got a Cabana (they sold out within a couple months of the cruise going on sale, I'm thankful we booked as soon as it opened up) and we tipped the attendant extra and he let everyone use it. It was great having a nice area for all of us to hang out.

Yep, it will go against anything charged to your room, including gratuities!

I have a large family (5 kids) so we always have multiple rooms. Each room's OBC pops up individually, not as one pot of money. So your parents and kids will each have their own $100 to spend, as well as you. Happy cruising (and spending!)!

My Citi Costco card is 3% back for travel, I get the money every February to use as I please (my cash back is always over $300 so it qualifies to be direct deposited into my bank account. Super easy).

If you don't want to rent a car, I like We Drive you Fly for transportation. They are former cast members that started the service after being laid off during COVID. Disney Springs (formerly known as Disney Village many years ago - thanks for bringing back memories!) has so many amazing restaurants, definitely check them out! You can even park at Disney Springs then take a bus to the Polynesian or one of the other monorail resorts and just hang out and walk around/do a monorail tour of them. There is so much to do on Disney property without ever going to the parks. I do Disney often, and haven't had park tickets lately.

Many of these people have a family back home, who still need a place to stay and to eat. So I would say a decent portion are still paying for a place to live in their home country. Our server on Adventure was single, but was in the process of building a house because, as he told us, in order to get married he had to prove to a woman's family (there was no specific woman yet because he had no home yet) he had a place for her to live.

In December my kids had the AquaPark/Coaster combo and the AquaPark people told us it didn't matter what time we ended up at the coaster, to just go whenever we wanted. When we got to the coaster the people were very nice and didn't ask us for our time, just got the kids registered and let them enjoy their ride.

The wonky pricing per guest was super annoying with FCC during the COVID shutdown. Making sure each person had the right amount, and then using the credit for a new cruise was like trying to pass Advanced Calculus