Bowen

2 hours ago, Maryann said:

How do you have teens on a 16 day cruise????  Are they missing school?

 

Nope! They’re all homeschooled. Some will do school work on the trip, others will work ahead and enjoy the vacation.

We're on this one as well, big group, got some teens, ready for fun!

On 9/18/2024 at 2:41 PM, WAAAYTOOO said:

The repositioning cruise for next year goes from Vancouver to San Diego with an overnight in San Francisco.  Then the Panama Canal cruise goes from San Diego to FL….16 nights just like this year’s.
 

 

Dang it! I was thinking you'd be on this cruise! I was excited to hopefully meet you! Anyhow, I'm sad you won't be there, but the one you are on next year sounds amazing! 

Does anyone know if you can use your NextCruise certificate while booking online? I have one to use, but when I call in I am not getting the same price as what I am getting online. Can I simply enter my NC certificate number somewhere in my initial booking to get that OBC? Thanks!

We've done this a few times. We've never had any need to do anything special as long as one parent is on board. My mother has taken my minor kids off the ship without me, etc. The one time we did need to do something was when we were traveling with other minor children whose parents were not on board. In that case we followed RC's protocol, downloaded the letter from their site, filled it in for the kids traveling without parents, and kept it on us at all times.

We were just notified yesterday of our bid acceptance for a sailing in two weeks. 

On 4/15/2024 at 3:02 PM, Bean79 said:

It's definitely doing better than carnivals stock. 

I always wonder why this is. We bought during COVID when it tanked, and we also bought Carnival during their $8 release (or whatever it was), RC has done great, Carnival is struggling.

51 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Obligatory

I am so glad you posted this. 

We've stayed in the 2BR AS on Harmony, it was really nice, great view of the ocean, great view of the aqua theater, enormous balcony. There are even binoculars on the balcony on their own stand so you can go out and look at things whenever, it's a cool feature. The only downside for us what was that my kids were younger and still needed naps, but the Aqua show has to practice and it is very loud in the suite when they do, which is typically mid day. If you're not a napper, it won't even be a thing. Have fun!

Thanks! We're mainly thinking of Granville Island, so we'll be staying on that main drag. 

12 hours ago, Someone_else said:

One thing I found great (that was on Brillance) is that we were able to borrow toys from the nursery to bring to our cabin. We could rotate as we pleased. We brought our own toys, but my youngest was more interested in the 'new' toys.

I always pack magnets. They are a big hit as it sticks to the walls of the cabin and it's easy to bring. 

My spouse and I rotate the naps/bed time schedule so we can both enjoy the ship and activities. I will admit that I love to nap so I don,'t mind staying in the cabin for my youngest's nap. If not tired, I have my Kobo to read. They are getting older now (3&6 years old) so we may be able to enjoy the evening shows and etc. as a family this time around. My youngest was about your LO's age when we first cruised with them and everything went very well! 

 

The curtain is such a great tip! I loved that Disney had this as part of their room set up, and it is so easy to duplicate on any ship if you bring your own stuff.  Sorry, quoted the wrong post! 

45 minutes ago, AshCruises said:

My last cruise I took my toddler and the best tip I can give is to take magnetic hooks and a dark curtain so you can "divide" the room. When my husband or I would come back to put him down at night we would put him down on one side of the curtain and still be able to watch TV/chat/etc on the other side. We plan to do this again on our next cruise this year.

Also, take an umbrella stroller. Much easier to store in your room and navigate the small spaces with than a large stroller. 

One other note - patience. It can be hard for a toddler to sit through dinner in the main dining room so opt for Windjammer some nights or all, and just be prepared if you do try to sit down for dinner somewhere that toddler may not be cooperative (and thats okay!) It is courteous to have a plan if that happens - so my husband or I would take turns taking the toddler out if he was having difficulty, so as not to disrupt other passengers during mealtimes.

Such a great tip regarding dinner, absolutely. My kids didn't sit through dinner, it was too much to ask when they were young, so we just ate in the WJ every night. We did it for years until we knew they'd sit through dinner. Way less stressful for everyone. 

We're coming in to Vancouver with time to spare before we can board, so we're looking to spend 5-6 hours doing something around town. Is Vancouver pretty walkable as far as safety? We're two older ladies on our own. It would be daylight hours. We we're thinking of walking to Granville and some of the stuff out that way. Thanks!

On 5/29/2022 at 8:55 PM, HeWhoWaits said:

I recommend a visit to the Alaska Raptor Center.

Is the raptor center walkable from the shuttle stop, like within 10-15 minutes?

A couple of things. First, if it was in the safe when I left, and then I called and it was no longer in the safe, I'd be livid. There are a whole lot of places I could imagine accidentally leaving something where I wouldn't expect it to be when I called back in an hour, the safe isn't one of them. So if it wasn't in the safe then it was taken by an RC employee, and that's a whole bunch of garbage. 

Second, no way you got off the ship and through customs with just your ship ID, zero chance that happened. So you either had some other identifying document or you used facial recognition, but there's absolutely no way one of those two things didn't occur.  Not that this really matters, except that in the context of what you are saying happened it makes the entire story less credible when you are saying you got off the ship in a way that everyone on this board knows cannot happen. 

I don't at all get the people dragging you for leaving something in the safe. It happens, and as far as leaving things on the ship, that would be just about the only place I would 100% expect it to still be when I remembered and went to retrieve it. I travel with someone who always uses the safe, that person has left their things in the safe after we left (not on a cruise, but at a major theme park resort) and when they called after figuring it out a couple of hours later, the stuff was there and was mailed immediately, minus the cash because they said they were not able to mail cash. There's no excuse at all for something to not be in that safe when you called back. And there's no excuse at all for that stuff not to be immediately taken to lost and found and mailed right back to you. It's not as though your address wasn't readily available. I'm sorry you're dealing with it, it sounds frustrating as heck.

1 hour ago, CambridgeSimon said:

Looking at wi-fi options.

If I buy this for me, one device, can I use my phone as a hotspot for my laptop or daughters phone? 

Also, is there 4g/5g mobile signal at CocoCay?

I have tried this exact thing, my hot spot toggle was greyed out, I wasn’t able to use it at all. I can’t help with CocoCay, sorry.

Minecraft almost certainly.

4 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

You collect confiscated items when you get off the ship.

I've seen tons of weird stuff. Some folks come to the US and do a lot of outlet shopping and have nowhere to store their goods before they hop on a cruise.

I  was wondering if it was something like this.

1 minute ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Where is it ?  I cannot identify it.

It’s in the box under the silver tea pot in the front. 

This is the oddest thing I’ve ever seen on the table.

A friend sailed with about 30 bottles of EO, no issues.

10 hours ago, PeloAl said:

Really? Security got involved over a magnet? People will really believe everything they read…

That’s the story, yep. I didn’t ask the woman or the security guards, but I linked what I witnessed with a post matching my details on the Facebook page for the cruise. I guess someone could make that up, but seems like a really odd thing to make up.

Just now, Traveling Mike said:

What ship were you on?  Carnival of the Seas?

LOL! Right?

Two funny stories from the cruise we’re on that’s just about to end. On night four we noticed security going up and down our hall, they entered one room while wearing cameras attached to their chests and then we heard the safe open (we were one door away across the hall, we didn’t mind our business). Turns out someone had a magnet on their door and it had been stolen. The person complained to security, they got involved and found the thief, a grandmother who had taken it to give to her grandkids.

 Last night there was a grown man passed smooth out in the waiting area near the elevators on deck 10, just absolutely out cold. Security had to get involved there as well. 

It was a great cruise, lots of stories to talk about for sure!
 

It was listed in the planner. Day two and three at 2:00, lasting about a half hour. Then again at 2:00 on day seven with the actual performance at 4:45. You just show up, no need to sign up, no limit of people. After the first practice we just went back to our original spots each time. It was on the promenade in front of the little shop next to cafe promenade. The practices and performance were all in the same spot.