Booking our first ever cruise and need help :)

[SandyinMonterey]

Thanks for the info! I personally dont think paying the extra for concierge is worth it but having a 17 month old I think we would get good use out of the cabanna. How long are we on castaway cay for?

I don't recall the exact number of hours. Perhaps 4 hours? It just didn't seem very long. We had first seating for dining. We headed back to the ship later than we normally would just because we felt like we weren't there very long. Ended up being late for dinner.

 

[olookasquirrel]

people had to race off the ship to get beach chairs ect. I dont want to feel like we are unable to enjoy the day if we are racing around having to find chairs lug our stuff with us ect.

I just wanted to point out - we went when my son was 9 months old, and I didn't feel like this at all! We walked off the ship a little while after they had docked, got on a tram to the beach, got a wagon for my son/our stuff, found many chairs all together, and then had the water slides to ourselves for probably a good hour.

Caveats:
-We were on the Wonder, which is a smaller ship
-We were sailing early May, not exactly high season, and it was very windy & slightly chilly
-We are morning people - by afternoon the beach had filled up (& the wind had gone down somewhat). I suppose at that point a cabana might have been nice to have a quiet place to nap the baby, but he was so wired we ended up having to take him onto the ship to calm down and relax in the dark/quiet cabin.

Everyone's priorities are different, of course, but I wanted to give you some info from that side of the equation

 

[kateandy08096]

I just wanted to point out - we went when my son was 9 months old, and I didn't feel like this at all! We walked off the ship a little while after they had docked, got on a tram to the beach, got a wagon for my son/our stuff, found many chairs all together, and then had the water slides to ourselves for probably a good hour.

Caveats:
-We were on the Wonder, which is a smaller ship
-We were sailing early May, not exactly high season, and it was very windy & slightly chilly
-We are morning people - by afternoon the beach had filled up (& the wind had gone down somewhat). I suppose at that point a cabana might have been nice to have a quiet place to nap the baby, but he was so wired we ended up having to take him onto the ship to calm down and relax in the dark/quiet cabin.

Everyone's priorities are different, of course, but I wanted to give you some info from that side of the equation

Thank you so much for the information after a long restless night last night I was online reading alot of blogs and TR and seen alot of people say that the cabanna isnt really needed. I didnt know about the wagons until last night also. Thats a great little perk on the island for all guests.

 

[kateandy08096]

One last question about concierge compared to reg cabin. I read on a blog that concierge gets guaranteed tickets to meet and greets. Is this the case?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

One last question about concierge compared to reg cabin. I read on a blog that concierge gets guaranteed tickets to meet and greets. Is this the case?

Well, they get first pick when the booking window opens, that's sorta "guaranteed".