Jax

We are visiting Paradise Beach next month for the first time. Friends will be joining us; between all of us we booked 4 daybeds to act as a central place to call home. We booked the beach facing daybeds, not the ones poolside. I had to contact Paradise Beach after an itinerary change and they made all the necessary changes right away. I hear consistently good experiences with activities, food and service so I hope we have a great day. I will report back on my blog.

That was my initial reaction but I told her to bid anyways. #enabler

I am not sure the words of an enabler mean much, but sure I will vouch for you.

Haha guilty! My hubby still has no clue what’s happening when I tell our driver to stop at the purple banner. Lol

Thanks for the support @Lovetocruise2002 You passed the test.

This made me laugh out loud. My thoughts exactly. LOL It’s why I had no idea they were happening. Well since we have never been to Europe we probably won’t know any better. Lol But I am definitely trying to book early to lock in prices. I booked our hotels several weeks ago and I am so glad that I did. Prices have doubled and our room category is no longer available. I grabbed our flights last week through air2sea (first time using them) ….. and don't even get me started on the cost of 3 premium economy seats. I defected from WestJet to Air Canada which saved me several thousand. Reyd is graduating high school this year so I keep justifying these high costs. He is worth it.

So…….. I just learned that the summer Olympics are happening in Paris July 26-Aug 11. A friend who is a flight attendant believes this may be a contributing factor for high airfare this summer. And of course, my cruise is smack in the middle of them. How did I not know that Olympics were happening in Paris. LOL Anyone else with me?

I booked it months in advance so that definitely helped with pricing. But no question it was still on the pricey side for our week leading up to our cruise last year. Definitely more than coco beach club overwater cabana expensive for the week. One added bonus is that we accumulated quite a few Hilton points for that stay and are using them for 2 nights stay in the Houston area this December.

Just catching up. Congrats and look forward to following along.

We loved the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach resort. We stayed in the newly renovated 1 bedroom ocean front last December for a week pre cruise. From the website, not all suites are renovated so if this is important to you check with the hotel to be sure. One nice option for us was having a twin bed rollaway brought in rather than the sofa bed option. There was a small upcharge but it was worth it when compared to the uncomfortable sofa bed option. The 1 bedroom oceanfront has been renovated. At the time we stayed not all suite categories had been renovated but you are fine. The website did a good job identifying the suites that have been renovated. I can’t wait to hear your reviews. A part of us wish we were staying there again this December but we are excited about the new adventures in Galveston.

PSB was our first meal; lunch on embarkation day and we still talk about how good it was. Shane delivered the royal treatment for us too but I loved it! Lol After our underwhelming first star class experience I enjoyed every minute. Funny story…on our way to PSB hubby mentioned going to Playmakers instead but we ended up sticking with PSB. After we saw that Shane met us there and rolled out the red carpet we were all so glad we didn’t bail. Lesson learned; do not change plans without informing your genie.

Agreed, in my case the website showed no non stop return flights even though they existed.

I just booked Air2Sea for the first time for our upcoming European Cruise from Southhampton this summer. We almost exclusively fly WestJet and have an annual companion voucher; for $399 one of us can fly to Southhampton in premium economy. I thought the voucher would be the cheapest way to go but surprisingly it was not. I priced out premium economy from YYC to LHR with Air2Sea with both Air Canada and WJ and it was considerably cheaper on AC than if I booked direct with AC or WJ with the companion voucher. So for the first time in many years we will be flying AC. It’ll be a good way to compare premium economy services between the two. I was reluctant to try Air2Sea because of the ability to secure seats before final payment and ticket issuance. But the agent told me that with premium economy and business class, seats can be requested and secured. If I am being totally honest I didn’t really believe them so I had them complete the booking along with seat preferences and I immediately signed into AC and saw our seat assignments! I still don’t believe it and will be obsessively checking to make sure AC doesn’t drop our seats. Because this trip is still up in the air Air2Sea made the most sense for us. I was happy that the price worked out favourably too.

Plane Spotting in Maho Beach, St Maarten. Our first visit there in December 2021 met or exceeded expectations. The following year (December 2022) the beach was badly eroded resulting in a very steep drop off, essentially dividing the small beach area. It was dangerous and made capturing plane spotting with your camera difficult. The excursion was oversold, the drive to Maho Beach was delayed when the driver rimmed a curb and had to stop to do a repair to the tire, the bathrooms are very basic and they now charge to use them, the guide with the bus company talked about irrelevant facts and the bus was late picking us up. Our genie spoke to the shore excursion team and 50% was refunded. The shore excursion manager called me to discuss and promised these items would be addressed with the tour operator so it’s possible some of the deficiencies have been addressed. Disappointing because the plane spotting experience was a highlight.

Yes please!

We are on HM Dec 24th. Like you, this is our 2nd last star booking. Hoping both our experiences meet or exceed expectations.

Yes great suggestion, we mentioned the tip amount in the card we gave the genie.

Either cash tips or you can charge to your onboard account. I have done both. If you choose to charge to your onboard account there is a form you will need to complete that can be found at guest services or through your genie.

Agreed. I am curious to see what our experience is like on HM this December.

Yes in 2025

We have 2 more star cruises booked too and then we will see what happens. With our son graduating this year there are so many unknowns, that I have held off on any further bookings. Hubby wants to go to Egypt so that has necessitated me look at other lines. I am not ready to sacrifice the amenities of a new ship as many send their older ships to that region but interestingly enough NCL has an itinerary on one of their new ships. It’s tempted me enough to look into the Haven perks and how they differ from star class. But not enough to call Mindy. Lol Great blog! Really enjoyed following along.

I can’t remember if you are already on what’s app with Wendy. But if you are, send her a message to let her know you are there. She may offer a reason for the delay. It’s possible your room isn’t quite ready yet. Last year we arrived earlier than expected/ scheduled to the port and I messaged our genie and told him not to rush; we were fine waiting until he and our room was ready. Within half hour or so he met us and whisked us off to our suite. Hopefully it won’t be much longer.

Happy cruise day! ️

Don’t be so hard on yourselves; I love the picture! It ticks me off that we now have to purchase these pictures even when you have the digital 100 photo plan. It makes it more difficult to reach 100 digital prints. Specialty restaurant pictures were included on Anthem in 2019 and Oasis in 2021 but not on HM last year.

What! Is this new? I don’t like this either. We have never had to put our luggage out the night before. Pretty sure one of us would find ourselves with an underwear problem. LOL It will be interesting to see what happens on HM this December. My memory about some cruise details isn’t the best but I think last year on HM a porter came with the genie; grabbed our luggage and we collected it in a star class area in the terminal. Regardless it was definitely not the night before.