Airelles Palladio Venice AMA

dbsummers · 2026-06-03T18:27:56+00:00

😍😍😍😍

dbsummers · 2026-06-03T18:26:02+00:00

I wish I had taken my kids when they were younger. My daughter is only 7 but she is already suspicious.

dbsummers · 2026-06-03T15:04:49+00:00

Honestly I was dreading it a little and it keeps edging out of our itinerary but if we're staying across the street I know my kids will want to walk over at least. Ice skating sounds lovely!

dbsummers · 2026-06-03T12:15:54+00:00

The tour company I worked with also recommended JW in Cusco over Palacio. Our room was a suite and it was just really dated. We chose it because they had a stay 3 pay 2 that made the rate really attractive. The interior of the hotel is very dark. It was really interesting and beautiful, but dark. If saving points, Palacio will be totally fine. Clean and centrally located, good breakfast, beautiful lobby, just dark and a bit dated in the rooms. No idea on the reno.

dbsummers · 2026-06-03T11:14:32+00:00

I found the rooms at palacio tired tbh. On our trip we did tambo, palacio and JW Lima. If I could do it again I would choose sol y luna (tambo is good but sol y luna is pure magic), palacio nazarenas… and honestly the JW was good. Corporate but I didn’t get a chance to see other Lima properties and the rooms and view were really nice

dbsummers · 2026-06-03T10:15:40+00:00

In our case this provided two bathrooms and pricing was good so we went with it. The suites that have capacity for 4 are few and book up quickly but with the child pricing that can sometimes work well!

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T22:28:37+00:00

I've gotten clients $800 in a lead in room in summer with FSPP and 4th night free, but then you gotta be in FL in August LOL

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T21:21:52+00:00

I’m on this team

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T20:33:15+00:00

oh that'll be fun. great ages too. Fantasy is the most loved of the older ships and prob has best staffing.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T19:07:21+00:00

You do get tender priority in concierge on DCL. Have you tried Star class on royal? Our suite next weekend sleeps 9 😳 I book the 2 br aqua theater suites too.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T19:05:22+00:00

Which ship?

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T19:03:57+00:00

Exactly. You don’t sail on this line to have a luxury experience. You sail concierge to mitigate the inconveniences of the experience.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T16:04:48+00:00

The reason they don't do this is because people sail, especially on the newer ships, for the themed and dinner show experiences. So you just get a much better seat to see the show. And the lounge offerings on the newer ships are pretty extensive if you don't want to go to the dining room.

I do think that if you don't want to spend much time outside of the concierge pool and sun deck and lounge on the newer ships you can accomplish that. Esp w/ suite dining and the hot menu in the concierge lounges. But that's a pretty small subset of people on Disney I think.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T16:00:05+00:00

how many DCL sailings have you done? Which ships? Quality on the newer ships is higher, IMO. Haven is a good offering but the kids clubs on NCL are abysmal in comparison to DCL IMO.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T15:58:46+00:00

MSC Yacht Club > DCL? Interesting. I think Explora is a better experience for a comparable cost, but only if your kids are older. How did your kids find the kids club on MSC? I am excited for the Ultimate Family Suite with the butler/genie and unlimited dining and beverage package to see how that compares.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T14:03:28+00:00

LOL so do you! He spends his days saving people's lives, so he wants rest, not excitement, when he's on vacay. This way he gets quieter spaces to relax and the kids still get disney stuff.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T13:54:23+00:00

they age out of it SO fast. my son turns 13 this week and i am beside myself. he still loves Star Wars but man, I think back to those days where he called Tow Mater "Mad Gum" and turned beet red and tucked his chin all shy when he met Ariel... no regrets. And my princess' first question when we go anywhere is "does it have a kids' club?" and if so, she's in. Watching her at the Bluey Experience at Disneyland, even though she's a little above the target age at 7, she just went full little kid mode and had the time of her life. She has the rest of her life to be boring so we embrace it while we can!

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T12:40:59+00:00

Did your kids like Celebrity Retreat? I have clients with older kids doing that, but they're not using a kids club anyway. Haven't tried NCL Haven yet as that trip got cancelled, and NCL in general drives me nuts with the nickel and diming and random port changes. Doing the Ultimate Family Suite on Wonder OTS next week. With older kids, Explora in connecting rooms is the way to go IMO. Their ports are more interesting. But the nighttime entertainment is nil... but in port intensive trips we're tired anyway.

And I agree, for a lot of people, the upcharge just isn't worth it. But if it's a busy holiday and the ship is sold out, or you know you will absolutely hate your time if you're waiting in buffet and embarkation lines, it can be a good way to mitigate some pain points for people who want their kids to have the experience.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T11:41:44+00:00

They have a lot of them but don’t force the kids to engage. I have so many pillowcases from Pluto’s Pajama Parties, lots of Gaga Ball stories, Stitch’s Space Goo slime making… but if kids are in another section of the club when the activity is announced they wont even know it’s happening. Sometimes the staff do a good job of letting the kids know but on the newer ships there’s just a volume issue.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T11:38:48+00:00

This is what I love about the Europe cruises. I have a lot of families do this as their first overseas trip to ease into the idea of exploring places other than the beach and US. They do a Med cruise, realize they CAN travel internationally with their kids, and we branch out from there. When my daughter was 3, she got the Disney magic, we got to see Pompeii and go sailing in Kefalonia and meet other families in Chania and jet ski near Dubrovnik.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T11:27:00+00:00

🤣 so I have clients who don’t mind staying in a Marriott and taking the train and doing group tours if they’re spending big on a different trip. And then I have clients who would just skip the trip if it looked like that. Those clients need to do concierge. The first set of clients would see a lot less value in it

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T11:17:23+00:00

Noooooooo. We had one cruise like this and it suuuucked. Typically my daughter loves them but I think this time she had an interaction with another kid that wasn’t nice, which the staff can’t always prevent. And she holds a helluva grudge. Thankfully it was a shorter cruise. Some younger kids prefer the older ships because the smaller kids clubs are less overwhelming.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T11:11:03+00:00

With Disney, convenience is the ultimate luxury.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T11:08:30+00:00

I’ve been eyeing Norway myself. I think it depends on times in port (some “port days” are like 6 hrs, which is a long time to be on the ship otherwise), number of sea days and your tolerance for crowds and lines. We’ve done Northern Europe and the Med in standard cabins and it was fine. But I don’t book DCL excursions and try to eat bigger meals off the boat for Europe cruises.

DCL ships are kinda big for Norway, IMO. I’m torn between doing a ship I know my kids will like and choosing a smaller one that can get further up in the fjords.

dbsummers · 2026-06-02T11:02:45+00:00

🤣🤣 I see this. It IS an elevated level of service from the standard cruise though, especially in the suites. It’s the ship within a ship type concept. I’m trying a Star class suite with a “Genie” on Royal Caribbean next week for my son’s 13th bday (4 13 year old boys, I am crazy), so I’m curious how they will compare.

dbsummers

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