[jk8]

I am so excited to to able to answer questions about something I love so much!

1) I would advise late seating for you. It you are interested in doing alot at the ports it is hard to get back and get cleaned up for early seating. We by the luck have ended up with the 5:30 seating each time and it was a bit of a drag. We do eat early here at home so that part of early was good. The other part that is good is when they have a late dessert buffet you feel hungry enough to eat it vs. when you have late seating.

2. With the Eastern I don't think doing something at each port is too much. You still have 3 sea days to relax.
-Passporter cruisers give the Regatta a "10" rating. It only lasts 3 hours so that will give plenty of time for shopping or getting back to the boat.
-Atlantis sub only gets a 5 rating with people talking about cloudy water and that they enjoyed it but probably won't do it again. This particular dolphin encounter is too new for a rating. But my dh and dd did one last time and loved it! I would say go for that one.

3. You book online 75 days in advace up to when you are on the ship. They apply to your on-board account that gets charged to a credit card.

4. Arrange your own airfare for sure!! We at minimum fly in the day before so their are no chances of missing the boat due to a flight delay. We have flown in on Thursday and stayed 2 nights at disney before going to the port. We use Quicksilver to get us to the port.

5. We have not done this but advanced Palo seems like a plus. Return cruisers can book Palo 90 days out while 1st timers are only 75 days. Sometimes Palo books up at 90 days. But I have heard they save some reservations to book when you get on the ship if you get on early enough.

6. Friends of ours had no windows last time and still had a blast on their cruise. They got a window this time and enjoyed it more. I don't think it will make you have a bad cruise. What level are they booking at right now? Sometimes if you book in GTY you have a chance of an upgrade, but you never know. The split bathrooms you get with the Cat 10 and up are a big plus as well.

Feel free to ask more questions!!