MTNeedsAVacay

Mariner also had these straws when we sailed last week. Thank god the era of crappy paper straws was fairly short-lived.

We just received our first block on the Mariner last week! Same as OP, our 140 was the last day, but we received our block and certificate on the morning of Day 2.

Another vote against COSTCO here. We used COSTCO for years pre-pandemic, and it was absolutely MISERABLE trying to get someone on the phone without waiting an hour or two, and then waiting on the phone for another few hours. We have 2 more cruises this year that were handled by COSTCO pre-/during pandemic, but all future cruises are going to be with MEI. All the time always spent on the phone with COSTCO was never worth the shop cards or other perks. Hope you are able to get hold of them eventually and get your NextCruise sorted out!

The photographers aren't around for most of the day to necessarily take pictures of you like you would with a personal phone. Instead, you'll see them taking photos at all of ports on the pier area and then in the evenings for portrait-style photos. If you go to Cococay or Labadee, they'll walk around the island and take pictures there too. They also often roam around the main dining rooms and specialty restaurants to take photos at dinner. IMO, 100 photos is A LOT. We did a 6-night cruise last October and did a 50 photo package and even then, we struggled to find 50 photos we wanted. Caveat that to say we went with our 2 kids, so most of the pictures were of them posing in the portrait areas with different backgrounds and poses, and we only need but a few pictures of the two of them, no matter how cute I think they are. As for the digital delivery of the photos, we had to wait way longer than promised to receive them after the cruise, even after several emails to RC customer service. We did eventually get them, but the process wasn't that great. Hopefully it's something they've fixed since October.

Very excited to follow along on your trip! We will be on Oasis in June from Cape Liberty

I’m not much help with the teens, but here’s a recent post relevant to the baby!

Before COVID, we were at 112 points. October 2021 had a 6-night sailing in Jr Suite (24 pts); April 2022 upcoming 4-night sailing (just 4 points, booked after the double points deadline); June 2022 7-night in balcony (14 points; lifted and shifted from 2020, so should still get double points); November 2022 8-night in Grand Suite (32 points; booked during double points promo window) Based on my math, we'll hit D+ in November!

Magnetic hooks! Lots of metal wall space in the cabin, so these hooks are lifesavers for keeping everyone organized and even for hanging wet bathing suits. Link below for ones we've bought before, but there are tons of options on Amazon https://smile.amazon.com/Magnetic-Ｍaximum-Neodymium-Corrosion-Protection/dp/B0787Q54M1/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AZ044N7BHDVL&keywords=magnet+hooks+for+cruise+cabin&qid=1649861645&sprefix=magnet+hooks%2Caps%2C142&sr=8-3

Hi there! Our first kid was 11 months old for her first cruise and our second was 8 months for her first. To answer some of your questions based on our experiences: 1) yes, pack n play is what we had. We also asked for an extra blanket to put under the fitted sheet as the mattress was super hard. We had no problem closing the curtains and keeping the small bedside lights on. They weren’t bright enough to bother the baby. 2) both of our kids were on formula when we cruised and we brought a tub of the powdered formula to mix onboard with each bottle. At the time, you could pre-order a case of bottled water to your room, so we used those to make formula and much easier to carry around a regular bottle of water than a gallon jug. As for washing, we brought a small bottle of bottle soap and a travel bottle washer/drying rack that was so clutch (OXO Tot travel drying rack with brush) Food was awesome and great opportunity to get the littles exposed to new foods! Windjammer always had plenty of options available and in the dining room, they were always willing to whip up whatever you ask for! As for extra tips, definitely bring more diapers and formula than you think you’ll need! I wouldn’t recommend a stroller any bigger than an umbrella stroller as the hallways can be pretty narrow. They have a special pool area just for littles who are in swim diapers, which is great. Otherwise, have a great time! Cruising with babies is quite different than cruising pre-kids, but you’ll figure out what new routines work best for your family!

Any chance @Matt/RCBlog can fund a test run of a proctored I-Health test to compare the test report with what comes from the Emed test? All in the name of cruise research!

For those of you who book via NextCruise and then transfer to your TA- do you have your TA plan stuff out ahead of time (or you plan out yourself) with research, pricing, options, etc, then take that info on the cruise to book with NextCruise, then transfer it to your TA? That way you can still get the extra OBC from NextCruise and your TA still gets the booking? Does that have any negative affect on your TA's commission (like, would they get more commission if booked directly through them instead of having it transferred to them from NextCruise)? Hope this makes sense!

Thank you for your thoughts! We will be on Mariner in a few weeks and are very excited!

Thank you for sharing your journey so far! We are booked on this same ship and itinerary in November in a Grand Suite, so I'm loving being able to follow along!

Yup! Odyssey OTS in October and our kids got the diamond drinks. Used them for mocktails and sodas. I've heard you can also use them for smoothies at the Vitality spa bar!

We were able to have a photo moved on our cruise last October. Not exactly the same scenario where a photo package was in play, but my kids (who were in my room) took a bunch of adorable pics together and my grandfather wanted to use his free Diamond+ photo on a pic of the great-grandkids. The associate in the photo shop was able to move one of the kid pictures to my grandfather's account so he could redeem his free photo, even though he wasn't in it. Not sure if that's normally allowed, but they made it happen for us!

Pre-COVID, we brought our 2 kids into the Diamond lounge every night for happy hour and the bartenders were always waiting with a pineapple juice for them! Our one cruise so far since the restart, the lounge was a vaccinated only area, so the kids couldn't go in as they were still too young to be vaccinated.

I miss the DreamWorks characters/parades. They went away after I was too old to care that much, but now that I have kids of my own, I would have really loved that extra excitement for the kids!

We were also just notified that our Mariner sailing for 4/19 also subbed in PDCC for Grand Bahama. Very excited for this change!

We had a very distraught toddler when we found out she couldn't do the north star due to the height restrictions. When we ask the attendant about why (we weren't upset, just curious how they implement a height restriction for an enclosed bubble), he explained that it all has to do with the emergency evacuation procedures should the guests need to be removed from the north star if it got stuck. He said they use some sort of "zip line" in order to get people out if needed, hence the strict adherence to height and weight requirements for each individual (as opposed to total weight for each group that goes). Each person would have their own harness to "zip line" off the north star, so everyone would have to be able to fit their harnesses safely.

Had a similar issue with our tags on our October cruise on Odyssey. Room number was correct, but location was completely off. Asked the porters about it when we arrived at the terminal and they were insistent that the shaded area was correct and it 100% was not (just like the OP's scenario). The luggage still arrived at our room, no problem though!

We were in JS 9208 on Odyssey in October. Not sure what category that is, but we had 4 people in it (2 adults and 2 kids). We had the "half bath" (one toilet and sink) along with the "full bath" (tub/shower combo, toilet, sink) right across from it. That second toilet is a game-changer for a family of 4!

So sorry to hear about missing Aruba after you were really looking forward to it, but it sounds like you are making the best of the situation. Sending good wishes for the remainder of your journey! And I hope you are able to make it to Aruba one day. Happy new year!

I had the same thing happen on our October Odyssey cruise. Keep pestering the [email protected] email account. I finally got a link with our photos about 3 weeks after our cruise that was sent to me from a customer service representative. Then about 2.5 weeks later, got the automated email with the link to download the photos that I think was what we were supposed to get to begin with. On a positive note, and I don't know if anyone else lucked out with this, but when I got that first link from the CS rep in response to my constant emails, I was able to access all 105 photos from our cruise, not just the 50 I had picked out and paid for. When I got the automated link for the downloads, I was only able to download the 50 photos we had chosen on the ship.

Limited capacity and the attention to hygiene/testing/vaccine requirements - haven't felt much safer anywhere else with our 2 young kids. eMuster drill was an absolute game changer and probably the best thing to come of all of this. Only sailed once in 2021, but it was on the brand new Odyssey, which we got changed over to from a dirt cheap booking in a Jr Suite on the Independence, so that was also an awesome surprise that we loved! It was our first time sailing an inaugural season, and it was totally unplanned.

19 actual nights booked on 3 sailings - 4night Mariner in April (regular points 1x), 7night Oasis in June (double points), 8night Enchantment in November (double point and suite, 4x) - for a total of 50 C&A points and will finally hit D+.