[woohoo]

1) Pros & Cons of both the early & late seating options? My first instinct would be to request the early seating but how does that effect days when you are at a Port of Call. For instance, on the St. Maarten day it says you don't return to the ship until 7pm, early dinner seating is between 5:30-6:30?

We like the early seating because we get to enjoy the rest of the activities of the ship after we are done eating. The shows and the excitement after dinner is better than rushing to do it all before dinner and then not knowing what to do after you eat. As for the later ports of call, we have never had that before- we have always had to be back on the boat before we ate dinner- the ship was normally pulling out of port by that time.

2) Is doing one excursion at each Port of Call too much? Do you think we'll feel too rushed? I was considering the following:
- St. Maarten: 12-Metre Regatta (Daniel would LOVE this, ok so will I )
- St. Thomas: either the Tortola Dolphin Encounter or Atlantis Submarine adventure

I say do it all- your not going to be back anytime soon so why not!


3) When do you book & pay for these excursions?

We booked them online before we left either by booking through the cruise website or looking for some of our own online (was always cheaper than through the cruise and had more options) You can do some reaserch on reviews of the ones you book outside the cruiseline. Sometimes you need to take a cab to where the excursion starts but I have found some great trips outside that limited list the boat gives. We have always paid a deposit but paid the rest when we actually got there.

4) Do you usually arrange your own airfare or include it in the cruise package? I see you can keep the ground transportation even if you arrange your own flight but when I got a quote WITH flight they were charging me $600. extra just for Daniel and I. I KNOW I can get a better price through Continental. You fly into Orlando, right?

do your own fare! There is never a discount and its no more convenient


5) Has anyone ever added on the "romance package"? It seems to include a lot of extras like champagne, a bottle of wine at dinner, robes in your room, a rainforest spa pass for the week, a "gift" in your room, and includes getting advanced ability to book Palo.

I have never done it, we decided to get the wine package instead when we got on the boat. It was a different bottle each night for dinner. We never had issues booking Palo but we also were able to book it early because we are Castaway club member so we had early access already.

6) OK, REALLY, the "inside deluxe stateroom" with no windows could REALLY save us a lot of $, especially b.c this is a Spring Break cruise... is it REALLY depressing to have no portholes?

We have done both- They just make it look like there is a window that is covered by a curtain. We spent so little time in the room that it really never mattered. The only times we like the window is when we first get on the boat and we can look down- or when we are on shore and we can point to our room.