To Go or Not To Go, that is the question – Excursions.  Your cruise line will give you a bunch of options with regard to the excursions they offer, and I will tell you that I go back and forth on the excursion bandwagon.  Your mileage may vary when it comes to the value of an excursion for you and your family, but here is my best advice.

If you just want to hit the beach, hit some shops, or do a quick tour of the port, you are probably better off on your own.  There are usually reliable cab services and other drivers waiting to take you to your destination – and some spots are within walking distance of your ship.  Other locations have shuttle services run by the city, town, island, or port, and it’s usually reasonably priced to hop on the shuttle to head out to see some sights (some shuttles – like in Belfast, Northern Ireland – are free to go from the ship into the city and back).

On the other hand, if you are hoping to see some of the famous sites in the areas where you are traveling, you should consider two options – a cruise line organized excursion, or finding a private tour company.

If you are going to be visiting Rome, for example, you are likely to find on your own that lines for anything you truly want to see are long.  Many group tours bought their tickets in advance, and they will just send someone to pick them up to take the group inside.  You may find that you can only access certain things during specific times of the day, and on your own, you might not know what those times are unless you’ve thoroughly researched in advance.

This was our tour guide in Rome, where we did a privately arranged tour.  Our guide was AWESOME, fabulous with the kids, and I can’t recommend him highly enough.  His name is Manilo Tranquili, and you can find him at

http://www.limousineserviceinrome.com/

It can be tricky to find a tour guide on your own that will be reliable.  it can absolutely be done (and I did it myself on our second third trip to Rome), but you have to be willing to put in the time and effort to make sure the company you are dealing with is reputable and can take you where you want to go to see the things you want to see.

I often tell people, if it’s your first time, opt for a professional (get your mind out of the gutter, people).  Book an excursion in advance with your cruise line, and be assured that you are most likely going with people who have done this before, are well organized, and if nothing else, will get you back to the ship on time!

Free Babysitting!! This is your vacation, too, Mom and Dad, and while I know for me the temptation has always been great to want to spend the whole time with my kids, my kids are finding it much more appealing to spend time without me, despite my reminding them of the hard pregnancies and difficult deliveries I had with each of them.  If your children are over the age of 3 and potty trained (check your cruise line to confirm that the age is correct on your voyage), they are eligible to participate in the kids’ club activities aboard your ship.

Now, kids’ club activities vary not only from cruise line to cruise line, but may also vary from ship to ship and destination to destination.  If a ship anticipates very few children onboard, they tend to limit the number of hours and the activities for children.  We have never been on a ship with NO children’s activities, but I have heard that there are sailings where the number of children passengers is so low, there are no planned activities for children.

However, hands down, the best cruise line for children’s activities is the Disney Cruise Line.  This has absolutely nothing to do with my love of all things Mickey Mouse, but is rooted in pure fact.  Kids Club activities onboard the Disney ships begin early in the morning (by 8 AM usually) and last well into the night – going as late as 1 AM in many cases.  The activities include arts and crafts, character interaction, and lots of physical activity to keep the kids moving, dancing, and grooving.  My kids would check in at the earliest possible opportunity and not check out until it was time to disembark if it was up to them.  While they have enjoyed activities on other ships, the children’s activities alone almost justify the price of a Disney Cruise.  Phenomenal is the best way to describe the kids’ clubs with Disney.

Next port o’call – cruise excursion tips

Another consideration when booking a cruise is what deck on the ship you’d like to be on.  As someone who comes from poor Irish stock, I have to tell you, the lower decks on a cruise ship always scared me. Visions of My People on the Titanic, stuck in steerage, unable to get to the life boats – not a good picture in my head when I’m booking a cruise.  I felt it was much better to be closer to the top of the ship, nearer the lifeboats, so that if there was an emergency, I could get there before the ship went down.  I know – not the happiest way to book a cruise.

Well, we took a recent seven day cruise, and our trip was free.  Beggars can’t be choosers, as they say, so while I was pretty upset that were were on Deck 2, there was very little I could do to complain about the location.  We joked about being lower than most of the crew members on the ship, and we were just down the hallway from the shipboard hospital, so I figured we’d be exposed on a daily basis to people walking by with typhoid fever.  But now that we’ve sailed, I have to say, it was one of the best locations we’ve ever had!  We boarded the ship, went to lunch, and were able to go to our cabins at 1:30.  By 2 o’clock, all of our luggage had arrived, and we were able to start unpacking.  This NEVER happens for us!  Usually, we are lucky to get all of our luggage in time to change for dinner.  We experienced very little rocking, despite having some moderately high seas on a couple of the days of our trip.  The rest was peaceful, and except for the occasional squeaking sounds, it was really a great cabin.

We were only a floor below most of the dining rooms, convenient to the elevators to get where we needed to go higher on the ship, and on our last night, our luggage was picked up almost as soon as we put it outside the door.  Awesome location.  So if it means saving a few dollars, making the trip more affordable, don’t hesitate to choose a lower deck – or better yet, just ask for an outside guarantee.  This guarantees you an outside cabin, but they will fill you in where they have available room.  You may get a lower deck, but you might also find yourself upgraded to a verandah cabin!

Next stop on our cruise tips – Free babysitting – !!

“Aruba, Jamaica, ooohh I wanna take ya; Bermuda, Bahamas, come on Pretty Mama…”

Yeah, so I don’t have the best singing voice, get over it.  And the song, well, you won’t find it on too many top 10 lists.  Sue me.

Back in the day – and that day meaning before I had a houseful of kids – I owned a travel agency specializing in cruise travel.  It was called the Cocomo Cruise Company (I loved that song), and while I didn’t have a chance to run the agency very long before we were leaving South Florida for New Jersey – and taking a new baby with us – it did help me to find a love of cruising – a love that began to flourish thanks to my in-laws.

My mother and father-in-law are frequent cruisers, and my father-in-law was a Walt Disney World cast member when the Disney Magic was built.  A lottery was held to determine who the passengers would be on the Maiden Voyage of the Magic, and my father-in-law was lucky enough to be chosen!  There were five of us boarding the vessel, and I thought I had never seen anything so elegant and wonderful in my life.  At least as beautiful as the nicest hotels, the ship held Magic and Wonder at every turn, from the amazing restaurants to the incredible shows.  While the trip was not without it’s mishaps (it was, after all, Disney’s first foray into the cruise business), it was wonderful, memorable, and something I knew I wanted to do again.

Over the years, we’ve learned a lot about cruising – like what’s important, what’s worth paying extra for, and even some stuff about tipping – the good, the bad, and the so ugly, we shouldn’t mention it.  But we will.  Because we’re like that.  So here are some of my best cruising tips.

1 – Inside? Outside? Verandah? Oh My! – When you hear the call of the deep blue sea, and that call leads to a call to your travel agent (and I know two phenomenal ones, so if you need numbers, let me know!), one of the first things they are going to ask is whether you want an inside cabin, an outside cabin, or a cabin with a verandah.  Now, I have to tell you, I have been on many cruise ships, and on at least a few of them, I’ve been with sick children – or I’ve been sick myself.  While this is something you certainly can’t plan for, it might be something to consider.

If you are looking at a standard sized cabin – as opposed to some sort of suite – it won’t matter in terms of size or storage if you book an inside or an outside cabin.  For some people, there is a concern that they will feel claustrophobic if they don’t have a window, so if you don’t think you can make it through the length of your cruise without a window in your room, don’t book an inside cabin.  If it doesn’t matter one way or another, consider the amount of time you will actually spend in your stateroom.  If you plan to spend your cruise lounging around the cabin, ordering room service, and watching television, you might want to spring for an outside cabin so you can at least periodically allow yourself to see the sun.  If you are booking excursions, plan to be up and out each day doing things in the ports or on the ship, it probably doesn’t matter.

Now for the verandah.  A couple of cruises ago, we spent a week on a ship, sailing to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Key West.  During the trip, my middle daughter got sick.  Then my youngest daughter got sick.  Then my husband got sick.  I spent quite a lot of time in the cabin, and with the two sick children, I spent a lot of time trying to be quiet so they could sleep.  Having a verandah on that cruise probably saved my sanity.  I didn’t get to go off the ship in Grand Cayman, so the closest I came was to take pictures from my balcony on the ship.  Having the verandah allowed me to go sit outside, enjoy some of the sun, and not disturb the girls sleeping inside.  It gave me a place to go to feel like I was “out” of my stateroom, and I have to say, even in the evening, while the rest of the family was at dinner, and I was sitting with a sick kid, it was nice to be able to step outside for just a few minutes and enjoy an ocean breeze.  It also allowed the sick children, who did not get to enjoy the kids’ activities, a bit of a breath of fresh air and sunshine.  I would say that having a verandah on that cruise was well worth the extra money spent to have one.  Again, getting sick is not something you can anticipate, but if you do plan to spend time relaxing in your cabin, consider a balcony.  Also, if you plan on going somewhere where the scenery would be amazing, you might want to budget for a balcony.  I haven’t been to Alaska yet, but I don’t plan on cruising there unless I have a balcony cabin.

Next tip – How low should you go?

My apologies for taking so long to get this blog posted!  It has been in my save box for a year, and I’m finally taking the time to get caught up on things!

DAY 1 – Jim drops us all off at the terminal, and he goes to park the car. Because she uses a wheelchair, they take Dot in through the VIP entrance, and she and Russell take the girls in with them. I wait for Jim outside, then we get in line. The line really moves pretty quickly, and within a half hour, we are on the ship. We are told when we check in that our cabin has been switched, and we are now in E-30. This is next door to Dot and Russ, which is where I thought we were supposed to be anyway. I asked when we checked in if the new room would still accommodate a party of 4, and I am assured that it will.

We come onboard, and we head to lunch first thing. The doors to our deck are closed, saying the stateroom is not ready until 1:30. Dot and Russ are already there with the girls, so we go up and find them. This is our first taste of the chaos that is the Lido deck. Mobbed in an understatement, and there is such confusion! They have multiple stations, which is fine for the pizza and sandwiches, but there are two sides of the buffet inside, both of which have different things. Then there are two grills outside on the deck. One offers mongolian BBQ type items, the other one is a grill with burgers and hot dogs. But the lines for any of them are incredibly long. The sandwich line is at least a 20 minute wait, and the pizza line is really deep. I get in the buffet line on one side with Jim, but I want to try things from the other side. That means waiting twice. Outrageous. I am glad when lunch is finally over.

It is just after 1:30, and we can go down to our cabin. We open the door and find the two lower singles pushed together to make a full size bed; and there is one upper bunk. But we have two kids in our cabin. Jim calls the pursers desk, and they assure us that a rollaway bed will fit into the room for Granuaile. We doubt that, and he asks for someone to come down. A woman comes down and she says there is no way they can get a rollaway bed in the room. She says we’ll have to wait for a cabin steward to come and see what he can do to situate the room. Jim insists that they send someone immediately, but she says they don’t come on duty until 3 PM. He doesn’t want to wait that long, because if we don’t all fit in this room, we are not going to be able to stay on the ship. She says she will have someone come as soon as she can, but she doesn’t see how they are going to get another bed in here.

Rather than wait for something to happen, Jim calls the 1800 Carnival line that we used when we booked the trip. He gets someone on the phone who says they never should have been able to book 4 people in the cabin we are in. He puts us on hold, but when he gets back on the phone, he is back pedaling and claiming that they can indeed get a rollaway bed in here, and on the sailing before ours, they did fit 4 people in this cabin. We are in serious doubt. They are trying to reach someone on the ship who can come and get us sorted out.

Eventually, we do see a cabin steward, who says it is not possible to get a rollaway bed in our cabin, but they can put a mattress on the floor. Um, no. No one wants the baby to have to sleep on the floor. He says he will bring a rollaway bed in and see if he can make it fit. We are back on the phone with the 1800 number, one cell phone has already died, and the second is on it’s way. The staff here are incredibly uncooperative, and we are now being told that the pursers’ desk is involved in a medical emergency and unable to help. Someone will call us back.

The ship has set sail, we have missed the on deck sail away party, and we are getting ready for the muster drill. We are obligated to attend the drill, so we go, although there is definitely a damper placed on our first day of vacation.

We walk back after the muster drill, Granuaile sleeping in Jim’s arms, and we walk into our cabin to find out that our cabin steward has returned, set up a bed, and now we are unable to walk in the room. He has set the bed up so it fits, but in making it fit, we have zero access to any part of the room. To get to the bed for Jim and I, we have to walk over the bed he set up. We cannot walk around the foot of the bed, because with Eilis’ upper bunk down, the foot of the bed meets the side of the upper bunk, so you would have to be about 3 feet tall to make that work. We cannot get into the desk, or the drawers, and now unless you are sitting on Granuaile’s bed, there is no place to sit in the room. We are immediately back on the phone to both the purser’s desk and the 1800 number to see who can help us. The purser’s desk is still embroiled in a medical emergency. The 1800 number tells us they have called the pursers desk and been assured that we are the number one priority after the crisis has been concluded. We have no option but to wait for something to figure itself out. The first day of the vacation has been miserable, there is a definite lack of customer service, and we are beyond frustrated.

It is out of that frustration that Jim starts playing with furniture. He eventually moves the baby’s bed in such a manner that it fits up against the wall at the foot of the big bed. We are not going to be able to use that floor space at all, but we can now use the desk, the chair, the dresser drawers, and we have the ability to get to our bed without stepping on Granuaile. Whoever sleeps in our bed by the window will have to climb over the other person to get to the bathroom, but at least we don’t risk stepping on Gracie.

It appears that everyone else has gotten their luggage on our deck, so we ask someone who says that there is some luggage they can’t identify down in the lobby. Now, when we checked in and were given the new cabin assignment, in addition to insuring us that we would have room for 4 people, they assured us that our luggage would be properly re-routed. We come to find out that our bags were delivered to the original cabin we were supposed to be in. Those people – THANK GOD – told the staff they were not their bags, and those bags were deposited down in the lobby. Jim went down to the lobby, and there sat our bags, among a group of others with no identifiable tags, with the original tags on them indicating the other stateroom number. I wonder what Carnival does if they deliver your bags to a cabin where someone decides to just claim it as their own? Thank goodness for honest people.

We went back to the cabin, luggage in tow, and unpacked our bags.  The ship is so crowded, with a lot of family reunions, hundreds of kids, and it just seems like this might be more hectic than restful.  I’m not terribly optimistic that we are going to have a peaceful and quiet holiday.  But the Christmas decorations are pretty, the drinks cold and fruity, and we’ll do our best to have fun and make it work!