sles

That is the thing I am trying to figure out. My original plan was to fly the family in a couple days early to EWR on Southwest, stay at a hotel around Jersey City and do some touristy stuff in Manhattan before the cruise. With Southwest pulling out of EWR I am VERY torn on if I should keep that plan and just pay more to fly United and keep the plan, OR still fly Southwest into LGA and stay in Manhattan. I know that adds some expensive transfers and a much longer trip from ship to airport on departure though.

So my first time cruising and just trying to figure out plans for getting home. We will be on Anthem in Feb. What time would you suggest for making flights home? I am just not sure how the disembarking works. I don't want to be rushed in order to make the flight, but I also don't want to be sitting around the airport for half the day on purpose.

So we are a family of 4 (11 year old girl, 7 year old boy) looking at our first attempt at cruising. Probably looking at something going from Florida most likely in the 5-6 night range. Not looking to break the bank. Kids are homeschooled so timing is not as much of an issue with school breaks. What ships would you really suggest trying out and which ones would you stay away from for a first time family?

So to put a little more context, we are on the 5 Night IoS leaving Dec 28-Jan 2. The cruise is pretty booked, and if I remember going with 2 balcony rooms wasn't that much difference than the JS. If I move it up 2 weeks I am saving over $2,500 for the exact same options as far as cruise, flights, and hotel. I am just at a tough point with it being holiday weeks. I am pretty open to pushing it out to Feb or March, and I am open to destinations. My sister picked this one so we just went for that without really thinking of what ship and where we want to go. Since we haven't been I just don't have a starting point to know where to go. The port in Jamaica doesn't seem that great which is why I am looking at other options.

My family and I are currently booked on the NYE cruise on the Independence of the Seas. I booked this based on the fact that my sister and her family had already booked that and we wanted to go with her. We have never cruised before and were getting excited. As we get closer and I start to add up all of the costs (junior suite, airline tickets, & hotel the night before) and seeing how much more it is because of it being around the holidays I am starting to get sticker shock. I know flights MAY come down still, but I am looking at quite the investment for the cruise. So I started comparing it to other dates and saw how much money we could save and it started to get me thinking of rescheduling. Then I started thinking of the different options for ships and destinations and got a little overwhelmed. I had been following the Independence groups on facebook and everyone raves about it and says it is the best ship, etc etc, but I really have no knowledge or comparison. So what suggestions would you have for me to look into for a family of 4, (11 year old girl, 7 year old boy) for ship and destination?