If you can get those two way radios, then you can be doing your own thing on the ship or the island and your spouse can do his own thing or the kids, and when you need to communicate with them you use the radios with no charges to your phone.

Good investment is the soft drink card and/or wine card. We only get one and share it.

When you book your trip you will be asked if you want early dining or late. Which ever you choose that is the only time you can eat in the dinning room. If you miss your time, then you eat on the liddo deck/buffet line. Both are great. The other dining rooms are for reservations only.

Wait till you see the chocolate demonstration. The nightly shows are great. There are so many things to do even if the weather is bad.

We never booked excursions until we heard what they were about on the ship, but if you can talk to someone who knows the area, they can usually tell you where to go on your own.

I have done a cruise in the Carribean, Hawaii, and Alaska and they were all totally different and on different Cruise lines. You will have a blast and will be looking into another one before you leave this one. Talk to others on the ship for advise.

Hi Butternut,

Hereâs my take on your cruising questions:

1) The price of the cruise is all about supply and demand. Others have mentioned that the start of the school year may be influencing the $500 difference in price, but it may also be hurricane season. Early to mid September is the peak hurricane season in the Caribbean.

2) Go for the balcony room! I guess Iâm not a typical cruiser but I spend a good bit of time in the room. I love the peace of sitting out on the balcony in the mornings eating breakfast and watching the waves and the ocean drift by. When leaving and entering ports it is fun standing on the balcony waving to all the people down below.

3) As far as room and deck location I donât have a real preference except being close to an elevator or stairs, but not too close because you donât want to hear all the foot traffic. A cabin in the middle of the ship is also the most strategic, because it cuts down on the time it takes to walk to your events (dinner, pool, disco, etc). I'm always late for everything so this is an issue for me.

4) With the excursions I usually buy the ones I really want to go on in advance. I have been disappointed in the past when excursions get booked up. Years ago I used to find and arrange my own tours, but now I just donât want the worries of getting back to the ship on time. Once on a Hawaiian cruise we rented a car and were driving around. We had a slight accident (the car slipped backwards into a ditch) and I was a nervous wreck that we wouldnât make it back on time.

5) As for food there is always something available to eat. For dinner we have been opting for the âfree styleâ where you donât have a set time, you just make a restaurant or just show up and wait for a table. If you are willing to sit at big table you hardly ever have to wait. There are also specialty restaurants that you have to pay an additional charge to eat at, usually $20 person. The food, service and atmosphere is a lot better than the main dinning room, so we usually splurge and eat one meal there.

6) Communication is an issue. Iâve never used my cell phone onboard ship (too expensive), but using the internet is not too bad. If you buy a block of time it is about 50 cents a minute. Someone mentioned the two-way radios. We tried that one year and could never get the radios to work. If you go that route make sure they are good ones and test them out (through cement walls) before you pack them.

7) And donât worry about staying busy. There is always something to do, demonstrations, classes, movies, shopping, EATING. Last spring we went on a Princess cruise and they had this HUGE big screen on the pool deck. They were always showing movies and concerts. At night it was really cool because you could lounge under the stars, watch a movie and eat popcorn.

I love cruising. No worries, just be happy and well fed.

dldbrou - thanks for your reply. OH yeah, a chocolate demonstration. Now that really sounds REALLY good. I think we may check in on that soft drink card. Do you recall how much it cost and is it limited to a certain number of drinks or all you can drink? I've been drinking mostly water during the day but I do like a diet coke at night. Thanks so much for your help.

moreCakePlz - Yeah, I think that the lower cost of the cruise in Sept has a lot to do with the hurricane season as well. I just hope that 2 weeks won't make too much of a difference. We have chosen a room with a balcony. I'm so looking forward to lying out and be under the stars listening to the waves splashing around. Wow, doesn't that sound so relaxing?
The first room we were looking at was the deck below where the pools are. We quickly learned from some cruisers that this is NOT what we want. Too much noise and dragging of chairs at 5am when doing the cleaning of the pools and deck..... Sooo glad we didn't book a room on the deck below. It looks like our room is fairly close to the stairs and elevator but not close enough to cause a problem (I hope)
There is one excursion that I really am thinking we should book by the cruise just to make sure that it's not sold out when we get there. That being the one on the ride in the glass bottom boat. I so want to do that one. I really haven't looked much into all of the excursions yet. Will do that soon.
Oh wow, I can only imagine how you were feeling when you thought you may not get back in time to get on the boat before it left. Geeez, what in the world does one do in a case like that? I'm sure it does happen. Hmmm
I think we are also going "anytime" for the dining. I hate to think that we have to be there at a certain time. May be other things going on that we want to do that we would miss out on because of a set time to eat. We do want to eat at the two specialty restaurants. I hear they are really good.
Yes, I am so looking forward to the "huge screen" movies at night. It looks like it would be a lot of fun.
Thanks again for sharing your experiences on your cruise. I really do appreciate it.
You've all been a great help!!!

Ok I just want to clear something up cause everyone keeps giving bad info about hurricane season.
I have lived in south florida for 20 years now so I know a little about it.
Hurricane season runs June 1 - November 30.
October and August are usually the busiest aka when we get hit the most, however its just a luck of the draw and they are predicting that El Nino will linger into this year so who knows.

So it has nothing to do with the difference in price- the difference is because the high tourist season ends at the end of august because school starts.

Definitely get traveler's insurance that covers everything including your transportation, hotel reservations etc in case of weather issues.

Let me know if you want some tips on where to eat and things to see while you are in Fort Lauderdale- I work across the street from the port so I know the area well.

Sounds like your going to have a blast.

What moreCakePlz said about going out on your own is so true. If you are on a ship booked excursion and are late getting back, the ship will wait for you. If you are on your own, the ship will sail without you.

The only time we have ventured on our own has been when we knew (without a doubt) we could get back to the ship on time.

Once we were on a ship booked excursion and the bus was running late...really late. We got back to the ship almost 2 hours after it was supposed to sail. We just sat back and enjoyed ourselves, knowing that everything was okay.

Auryn - Thanks so much for the information. In talking with the travel agent, she did tell us that the cost was less in Sept than in Aug because the tourist season pretty much ended late Aug and that was also when kids went back to school, etc. But so many people have also told us that it was due to the fact that it was when hurricanes were most active. So, I kinda figured that it was a bit of both. But sure glad to hear you say that August and October are usually the most active.
The travel insurance is still a bit confusing to us so we really need to sit down and discuss this further. But definitely gonna get that. Thanks again for your suggestions.

Ren715 - Wow, because of what you just told me, we're definitely going to book a couple of excursions throught the cruiseline. I'd rather pay a bit more and be assured that the boat wouldn't sail without us if we were running a little late. That is just way to scary to even think about. Thanks so much for sharing that with me.