SemperMom

Let me know what you find out. I'm seriously considering just changing my kids name officially. Not only are they T/G, they HATE the name we gave them. Thankfully their chosen name is great and as non-binary as they are AND there was no special reason for the original name we gave them so I am not offended at all to change it forever. lol

No, you aren't missing anything. I think they may have just misunderstood the process.

My application was approved!!! And, I can expect my passport on or about 2/22. Hubs is still a couple days behind it looks like. Thats not bad at all. 3 weeks looks to be about standard. Way better than 8-11. lol

Update: My application began officially processing on 2/3 and my husbands on 2/8. I hope they will come sooner just because I've never had a passport before but according to the State Dept. website, we are looking at about mid-April.

My husband and I applied for our first passports this week, me yesterday and him today. We aren't going anywhere we really need a passport until August of next year but still curious to see how long it will take. lol

Add me to the coke snob club...RCL spoiled me into not thinking to check this very important detail before booking cruises elsewhere. I gained 5 extra pounds on Carnival because I was forced to drink Mountain Dew for a whole week. Now I am booked on NCL next year...I am going to have to boost my diet and exercise before 10 days of Mountain Dew or else train myself to actually drink water. This is going to be a difficult task.

I was worried about what we would get when we booked our GTY balcony but was pleasantly surprised when we got our assignment. I am glad to know now that if it was less than desirable there might be an opportunity to change it next time.

We have always bought the drink packages but this time I am seriously leaning toward us each getting a coffee card and the soda package then buying drinks Ala carte. Between the two of us we might drink maybe 4 alcoholic drinks a day tops. I mean, I could buy a watch or a Mariner of the Seas tracksuit and beach towel with the money we'd save. OR I could buy a couple bottles of duty free liquor on board since its in the real world that I seriously need a drink. We haven't cruised in 5 years so when I saw these prices I got a headache. I'll still keep an eye out for the drink package fairy though. Just in case.

I'm with Whitsmom. @bryresangel Thanks for the reassurance!

Thats for the deluxe package, right? If so, I hope it gets that low for my Mariner sailing in August! Right now its $92 pp BOGO 50% off. Thats still $1300 for the two of us.

We tried Uber and it was expensive (for us anyway, lol). It was our first time using the service though so maybe there were factors we weren't aware of that increased the price. We landed after midnight and there were 4 of us, maybe that played a roll? The vehicle I chose estimated the trip at $75 but it ended up being $180. We had already paid for a nice room at Port Canaveral on top of that. The Goport deal just seemed cost effective to us and since we really don't mind being on a coach bus (we don't get out much ), and the hotel we chose has great reviews we figured, why not? Any Uber tips for us newbs? ~T

Thanks MattG. I did see that thread, of course after I posted my question. I will get better at searching first, then asking. haha So much great info here. Ya'll are the best! ~T

Thanks so much Matt. Not sure what took me so long to get here! lol That is great news. I will keep an eye out for the next round. ~T

Hi! We are cruising on Mariner in August and right now they are having a BOGO 50% off for the deluxe drink package that ends today. My question is how often do they run these promotions? Will this sale happen again before August? Thanks! ~T

Hi! We had the same question when we booked our cruise for later this year. My research turned up a company called Goport.com. Great reviews and they have a "fly, snooze, cruise" package that includes transfer from airport to hotel, hotel stay and transfer from hotel to port. We went ahead and booked close to the airport and it was super reasonable price wise. Thinking we might swap things around and see if we can switch to a hotel closer to the port though. Hope that helps! Happy Travels! ~T UPDATE: Found out we would need to cancel our current booking in order to switch. Of course the hotels closer to the port are more expensive and we are pretty committed to our current budget. lol We paid $223 for the package with a hotel close to the airport and would pay another $200 for a hotel near the port. We decided to keep the deal we had especially since it looks like we would get to the port just as early. Hope that helps!