newcruisefamily

That's a good idea! I need to consult with my sister, also, to see if they even want to do a family dinner on my nephew's birthday! From what I remember, MDR meals took quite awhile as well. Our son was 6 on our last trip, and he fell asleep on my lap by the end of dinner every night (he's kind of a little guy. The staff loved him, and called him "the baby" - I think there weren't many young kids on that cruise).

thank you, yes. I will definitely head straight there when we board to make arrangements. Do you know if it's even a good idea to take the littles (ages 5-7) there?

We've booked Alaska June 2020 on the Ruby, and are wondering about Specialty Dining with kids. We're in a Vista Suite with our two (12 and almost 15 when we sail), so we have comp specialty dining for embarkation night. We're sure they will be fine - they've traveled a lot and know how to behave/will appreciate the food (will do Crown Grill instead of Share, even though I'd prefer the latter, my other 3 won't). My main concerns are:

1) we're traveling with 8 other family members, none of whom are in suites (mini suites for them) - can they join us at Crown Grill the first night and just use OBC to pay? Are there even tables for 12?

2) embarkation is our nephew's birthday, so we want to eat with everyone (and not miss out on our perk)! However, the other 3 kids in our group will be ages 5,6,7. Would it be a bad idea to bring them to Crown Grill?  Each family has plenty of OBC to use, has sip & sail beverage deal, and don't plan to book excursions through Princess, so the $ isn't an issue.

My back-up plan is to do a group dinner in the MDR very early and just have light food for my 4, then we go to Crown Grill for a late real dinner.  Or everyone at Crown Grill at the earliest possible time? I'd love feedback/ideas!  We did this trip on the Golden 5 years ago with my in-laws (the 4 of us plus Grandma & Grandpa), stayed in a mini-suite and didn't do any specialty dining, so I'm flying blind for this one detail.

Thanks 🙂