GizaGaza

We booked our first (of many, hopefully) "bucket list" cruise with next cruise when we were on Adventure last week. Eastbound (Los Angeles - New Orleans) on the Brilliance in a GS leaving September '24. The next cruise agent was very surprised this cruise was open and said he thought it opened either that day or the day before... bonus for us, we got a great price! I just looked a bit ago and there were only 5 GS left and had already gone up about $650/pp, again yay us!! This will be our retirement celebration trip, we have been very blessed and have been able to truly retire at 52 and 54. We will be 54 and 55 for the cruise. That being said, we have some questions about it and a 14 day cruise in general: What is the typical demographic on this cruise? We assume it will be an "older" crowd with limited kids, not that it matters... we are very good at chameleon-ing into any group / environment. Is this going to be a big mindset change from our normal 7 day cruises? We don't think we will, but we are a bit nervous about becoming bored or getting cabin fever. Mind you, we are the kind of couple that are just as happy staying on board during a port as we are going outside. Oh, we love sea days too... looks like that's a good thing on this trip. Packing... so many questions On a 14 day or longer is there an option for laundry service? Just take light, sink/tub washable items? Do we run a chance of becoming "food numb" from the same, same again and again or do they try and change the menus up on a longer cruise? So many questions... I am sure we will have more as time goes by. Sooooo excited, and soooo far away But in the interim we have two star class adventures to come on Allure and Harmony so we probably won't go insane waiting lol. We read @twangster live blog and got some good info / tips, unfortunately none of the pics are there anymore so we think we lost some context. Thanks in advance for any tips, tricks, ideas, etc.

Thanks for the info everyone. Is the tour for purchase worth doing, I know that’s kinda subjective but? We are kind of thinking about trying a lot of the options on this cruise as they are fairly low cost, compared so many of the other sailings. Our thinking is if we do a bunch of it then we will know moving forward what is worth doing and what is not. Does this sound like a decent plan or a waste of time and money to you veteran cruisers? Just think, in a few months we won’t be newbies anymore and will hopefully not ask so many silly questions... or maybe not ?

Soooo... Here we go with another newb question that we just can't find a real answer to. The wifey and I have seen some info related to bridge and galley tours being included with a GS on LOS, but we can't seem to find anything official. Any of ya'll wise and all knowing folks have any experience, info, etc. Thanks as always for your help.

See, another thing we didn't think about ? We're on the May 24-31 sailing. Thanks for the info thus far. Guess as long as the ship is on time about the latest you would be off is 1000? And the non-self assist would be the real wild card? Thanks again everyone.

Sorry for more than likely redundant question, I'm sure it's been asked and answered but I couldn't find it via the search. We are first-timers and will be flying in/out of Hobby... therefore we are super stoked, and a wee bit anxious/nervous and really don't want to screw anything up. The question, would a 1245 departure be to early? We are planning on using Uber/Lyft. From what we've gathered, if we do self-assist we should be fine. If we don't do self-assist ??? For those with experience, what would we be looking at worst case scenario (zero stars aligned, SNAFUs, etc) for regular disembarkation? The unfortunate thing is if the 1245 won't work we would be able to leave until around 1800... the downside of living in the middle of nowhere. TIA

@WAAAYTOOO Gotcha, if we get the UDP, is it included as part of that? Which of course then brings up the question if the UDP is worth it on LOS with only 3 specialty restaurants, thoughts?

The boss lady and I are cruise virgins... first cruise in May of this year (well almost). We've seen some discussion and a couple videos of people having lunch IN chops on embarkation day when in a GS or above, not the key deal. How does one go about doing such a thing? Sorry for the probably very newbie question.

@YOLO Where is that located?

The wfiey and I are going on our first ever cruise on the LOS in May of '20. Everyone that we have talked to that have been on cruises tell us we will love it and become hooked from the get go. Wifey is sure of this, I am... well... optimistically hopeful ?. So we decided to go "big" ish for our first (which will also be on our 25th anniversary) and booked a Grand Suite, will probably do the UDP and DBP... cause we will never know if we don't try, right? All that being said we have a couple questions: Our LOS itinerary includes Falmouth. We probably aren't going to do any excursions there but just kind of freestyle it. We have read that it is really unsafe to leave the port on your own and we have read that it is fine. Thoughts? Being that we are virgins, what do you wish you would have done or knew before going on your first? Any absolutely must or must not do items? Being that we're giving this whole cruising thing a whirl we have decided to book an Alaska cruise for '21. So... What time of the season would you go to Alaska? I know this is a super subjective question but are there any significant pros/cons of going early (May-June) vs. later (August-September)... mid June through early August isn't a possibility. Royal or Celebrity? We are leaning towards Royal but... Thanks in advance for any helpful thoughts and insight you might be able to give us desert dwelling cruise virgins.