Tony C

We dropped are bags off at 9ish and walked over to the IOWA on or last cruise. (took 5 min) We had a boarding time of 10:30 (booked in a J.S.). The Iowa doesn't open until 10:00 and we were not going to miss a minute on the Navigator, so we passed on the tour. If you have a later boarding time, it would be a great option to kill a little time before you board.

Our Kids love it (age 10 and 6). If we let them they would spend all day in AO. We find that we spend most of the day with our kids taking advantage of the slides, pools and other activates on board (or venturing off on an excursion) during the day. After dinner most nights, we let them stay at AO while we watch a show, grab a drink or make a non-tax-deductible donation in the casino, which is great for us. But for them, I think they benefit from interreacting with other children their age. Especially ones that aren't siblings they have been confined to a stateroom with all week.

We are boarding the Navigator OTS tomorrow (  ) and we are curious if Mike Pace's comedy is kid friendly. Our kids are 10 and 6. My wife and I are both Marines, so our kids "may" have heard a curse word once or twice in the past, so we would be ok with a stray adult word or two. Thank you in advanced for any information. 

I would be willing to bet the percentages of Diamond and Diamond plus will be going up in 2020 with all the double-point cruises. We booked a suite on a 7-night cruise in January and we are embarking as gold members and disembarking as emerald. Assuming our plans don't get canceled, we will be adding 4 more to the diamond numbers in June of 2020. I expect there are many more like us.

Flowrider lines with 8 or less people--for the entire cruise . It was like paying for a private lesson all week long. I actually had to get out of line to take a break because my turn was coming up to quick.

Sounds like it would be just shy of a Perfect Month...

27 nights in 2020, basically doubling our lifetime cruising this year (hard to say no to double points)... Our favorite cruise booked is scheduled to stop at Perfect Day and Labadee on the same sailing in June. I hope, I hope, I hope we get to keep Labadee!

Thanks Matt!

12 hours ago, jeffmw said:

I don't see this changing drastically, particularly for unvaccinated kids. My assumption is it will still be at reduced capacity and the reservation system will be similar, as to make sure everyone gets a fair chance. 

I would also have to imagine they're going to begin having different rules for children who are vaccinated vs. those that aren't. Most smaller venues onboard are already only for vaccinated passengers. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go vax-only for AO too. If they did this, I suppose they could loosen the reservation policy.

I hope your are right. The kids love AO (so do we  ). We have 4 cruises in 2022 and our little ones will be fully vaccinated, so I hope they will have more opportunity to go.

First time booking a suite and we can't wait! We are sailing Jan 17th out of Los Angeles and wonder how early suite guests have been allowed to board. I have an 11:30 check-in time and have seen some sailings allowing suite guests to check in up to an hour prior. We are are the type to get on board as soon as possible, grab a quick bite, strip down to our swim suits (no need to bring them in a carry-on if you are already wearing them), and hit the slides and Flowrider. We are curious if we can get on a little sooner (I Know, 11:30 is not bad).

Also, any input from any recent suite guest on where at what the breakfasts and lunches has entailed would be helpful. I have heard it can vary. In fact, any advice on how to maximize our suite perks on Navigator OTS would be warmly welcomed. Thank you in advance. 

You won't see the check-in on the app until it opens. I would recommend checking in on the app. Its seems a little more user friendly. Skip down to check in time and do that first. You can go back weeks later to fill out the rest, but you can lock in your time right away. Ours opened sometime after midnight east coast time (i had set an alarm and was ready to go). I tried for about an hour refreshing it to no avail. In retrospect it may be because we are going on Navigator OTS and it is on the west cost. I ended up checking in around noon (Arizona time) on the day it opened and we got a 11:30 boarding time... I'll take it! Good luck. 

You might consider booking B2B cruises. That way you would need to worry about your land legs  

I am not sure wait the limit per bed is(I think it is six), but it is an open area, Your family will have no issues coming up to your day bed to "check-in." If your group, for a time, exceeds the limit bed limit, I seriously doubt anyone is going to enforce it. Pretty sure as long as your group does start interfering with the use and enjoyment of other day-bed guests, you will be fine.

I may be a little late to the conversation, but I have a trick that shortens the drying time. Roll your item up in a towel then a step on it. It sucks the water out pretty well and you start with damp clothes instead of wet. one towel works on about two swim suits, but towels in a hotel, or cabin, are usually easy to come by... Have fun!

We are typical one cruise a year folks. We book four cruises in 2022, just to make it to Diamond!