sleepy425

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

We've done Anthem for Thanksgiving 3 times, (2018, 2021, 2022) all included CocoCay. I don't go in water, but everyone else has happily been snorkeling each time (we bring snorkels so everyone just does it from the beach). I don't recall anyone complaining the water was too cold. I'm assuming it was a decent temp considering at least 2 of the times there were a bunch of jelly fish still at that time of year.

We have yet to have a good experience with the arcades on the ships. And yet my father still gifted the kids each money for the arcade on Adventure in December...and it was just as bad as the other ships they've been on. My advice is don't do it. Just stay away from them. Even with the spend $50 get $25 back onboard Crown and Anchor offer, it isn't worth it.

I've been wondering this also. I was considering an April break cruise, but they didn't release them.

My booking I have on hold went up by $225 with the new sale...and offered $225 in OBC. I really need to tell my TA to just book it officially. Of all the ones I have on hold, Symphony is the one I'm most excited about. Even if it means another time with the same exact itinerary. I wish the short Liberty to Canada also went to Maine. My husband and daughters were on the Bermuda cruise that had to reroute over Labor Day so they did Portland and Halifax and they LOVED Portland.

It's finally pricing out correctly. A cruise I was eyeing is $1k cheaper now, so I put a hold on it. I'll have my TA use my NextCruise certificate to book it in the morning.

Kids Sail Free doesn’t seem to be working. I sort by eligible sailings, but it’s only coming up as 60% off for guests 3 and 4 no matter if I put it as 2 kids 2 adults or 4 adults - same price. Anyone finding a cruise it’s actually working on for the new releases?

It was showing that for me around 11:30pm for Xmas or NYE, I forget which sailing I was checking.

Good times, when I try to book it switches one room to Interior instead of balcony, but the price doesn't change (I am trying to do one balcony one interior. Everything looks good, right pricing until I get to entering names then it changes it to interior). Guess I'm just going to bed. ETA: put a hold for one room on a 4 night Canada, maybe we will take 2 kids on that one and then the other 3 on another one.

I'm regretting my NextCruise certificates. These prices are a complete bummer. For $8k+ I think the kids would have rather checked out Universal. And I really didn't think it through - the cheaper room options are all Guarantee these days, so if I want to use all 3 certificates I need to convince my parents to go and put their name on a room and hope we end up at least somewhat close to one room for my younger 2, or pay even more to choose. Or just have my parents take a kid in their room...my brain hurts...

Guilty! NextCruise told me it was scheduled for Feb 14 at 11am. But I take anything they say with a grain of salt and will be stalking the website. I already warned work to expect me to be useless Wednesday because I have vacations to plan. Tomorrow is my day off and I'll probably be stuck home in a snow storm so it would be amazing if they managed to do it then.

I bought 3 Next Cruise Certificates while on my Xmas cruise. It's been torture waiting for the release of Jersey so I can book. Will it be three cruises and only bring a couple kids each time (we have 5 kids)? Will it be one cruise with 3 rooms? Will we go North? Will we go South? I just want to know already!!!

I paid $480 for Christmas 2023 9booked as soon as the cruise was released), and $520 for this coming NYE. They sold out within a few months of the cruises being released - I just looked and I booked the bungalow in March 2023 for Dec 2024 and it sold out right after I booked! We were REALLY hoping we hate the bungalow and found it a waste of money so I could cancel for the next cruise. But it was fantastic. I hate water/sand/sun (I'm a big fan of staying on the ship in the air conditioning, and my family is quite happy to leave me behind. They did two port days without me, so this was my compromise to actually spend a beach day with them and not stick my husband with all 5 kids again). It was fabulous having my Best Friend for the Day Oneil doing my drink runs for me! And it was close enough we could see the kids on the Aqua Park - my husband checked them in and told them to just meet us back at the bungalow. If it was only $150 I would have booked myself and my husband one and one more for the kids! To answer the original question - avoid the markets on Labadee. You really can't prepare yourself for the level of subtle/sometimes not so subtle aggressiveness they have. It is nothing like going through the big market building in Nassau! My new foster son (he's never been anywhere like this, and hasn't even experienced Nassau to at least give him some taste to what these markets can be like) is 17 and is a typical teenage know it all. I warned him to wait for us to go to the market, or even better just don't go at all. He insisted he knew what he was doing. 15 minutes later he was back and had blown all $100 he had on him, with some bracelets and a picture to show for it. I'm really hoping he learned his lesson and doesn't do it again this year!

My Junior Suite on Navigator had a closet big enough that if I had my kids with me, one in particular would have been thrilled to sleep in it (he's a petite 11 year old that loves to sleep random places, he's weird). So that is definitely a huge perk. This coming NYE on Adventure we booked a junior suite so that we can better organize the clothes for our 4 kids - we plan on keep most of the clothes in our room and having the kids share the oceanview a few doors down. I know a huge closet isn't the perk you were looking for - but we did Xmas on Adventure in two balcony rooms and there were clothes everywhere for all the kids. I was losing my mind trying to keep it organized. That closet is going to be worth every penny I paid for the JS! Plus being able to walk around the room without bumping my poor shins into a something is a big plus.

I took my boys in June on Liberty and figured my standard 30 minutes early would be fine - it was PACKED. Thankfully someone saw us looking for seats - he was alone and had an empty seat on either side of him so he let us take those 3 seats and moved to another empty seat. I was shocked, I've never seen the theater so full so early. For the ice rink we all got there super early so they would know where I was sitting, then I would read a book while they ran to Johnny Rockets for a milkshake.

Did you get the previous rate?

Interesting, because I did the same thing Friday and was charged the $18 (and this was a cruise that was booked back in June 2022 when it was $14.50 - I have the original confirmation that says that amount). I had them add the gratuities when I paid the final payment.

Is All Access the only one that tours the theater (or does that one not even go there)? We are staying in a grand suite on Brilliance in July and I'd love a tour that goes to the theater.

The past two cruises (Sept 2023 on Liberty and Dec 2023 on Adventure) my girls have come back with multiple lanyards from the kids club. They kept winning them. We always bring our own but it was nice to get some extras for when they lose them between cruises! (Older ships you can have them punch a hole in the card, newer ships you need the plastic sleeve for the lanyard to store the card in)

I like the Taste of the Caribbean class, I'm glad they're putting it in the cruise planner now!

We love 270, always go straight there when we embark. Thanksgiving 2022 on embarkation day they had raffles going on. My dad won a (cheap) watch, and I won credit to gamble in the casino (I forget how much it was. $25 or $50 maybe?).

Yesterday we didn’t get to St Thomas until noon, and brunch was offered on Adventure. We enjoyed getting to sleep in a bit then eating, but I did miss the vegetable bowl I normally get.