mechcc

While children may not remember everything, they do enjoy the relaxed time with the whole family regardless of age.

We lived in Germany when our children were young. No extended family to take care of them while we vacationed so we took them with us. Some of our favorite memories are from those family trips around Europe.

Sounds wonderful to me as Galveston is our home port and would love to cruise on one of the big ships without paying for air fare. Plus our grandsons are getting older and our ready to try one of the big girls (oops I mean big ships).

From my understanding every port is different and our only experience was in Miami. They had us meet in a lounge and escorted us off the ship, through a short customs line, gave us our new cards, and we were back on the ship before any new passengers. Whole process took 30 minutes.

Since we had the same cabin for both cruises, we told our cabin steward to skip making up our cabin that morning.

Yes the child endured a horrific event. Yes the person who did this to the child is a criminal. Was the comment by the boy to the girl offensive? Yes, it was. But was it deserving of the sexual assault by the adults? NO!!!!

To me the 1:00 curfew is not binding in anyway but more of a reminder that parents need to know where their children are and take responsibility for them.

As a parent and grandparent, I would not let a 13 year old out after 10:00 and would ensure they were asleep for the night before I went to bed. I also would not book a cabin or hotel room that was not connected to my room or cabin for anyone under 18. You can never ever take a vacation from being a parent of a minor.

My opinion is that common sense was thrown out the porthole by both sets of parents. It is impossible to expect that all cameras are monitored 100% of the time or even at certain hours.

If the cruise lines, as a result of this case, are required to monitor all cameras then we will see a great increase in price for a cruise. RCL is in business to make money and therefore will pass on added expenses to the customer. Just like any other business.

There are at least two of us then! I'd much rather have hot chocolate :)

There are actually 3 of us coffee and tea haters. :D

Having a husband who uses a scooter has attributed to my drinking more than I should. We go to meals early and stop at a bar for a pre meal drink and after a show we go get a drink so the crowd gets where they want to go before we head for the elevators.

Seriously, we like to stay on deck 6 (if there is a handicap balcony cabin) because we have found that elevators going up are fairly empty. Going down from upper decks, we use humor to gain our turn on an elevator. We have several plastic toes and hubby puts them into the basket and says "Look out, I collect toes" as he points to his basket. Many times we have been met with smiles and "It's the toe guy".

Aggressive sales people have taken foot everywhere and not just in poor countries. We were in Las Vegas last month and went through the shopping mall at the Venetian, the aggressive sales people made those in Labadee look like kittens, I actually had to yell at one vendor to leave me alone after he grabbed my arm. Another time I was alone walking from the area of the casino to the front desk, which is where the high end stores are located and was harassed by a salesman coming out of the store. Again a simple "no thank you" was met with a loud "I'm doing you a favor and it's a special price for you" as I kept walking. Point is - at Labadee and many places in the Caribbean you can avoid the aggressive sales people and understand the poverty behind it.

We have to have a handicap cabin and solve the water on the floor issue by rolling up a towel(s) and place them on the floor around the shower.

As a mother to a former All American High School Swimmer and the Grandmother to 2 competent swimmers, there is no way any of those 3 are allowed in our backyard pool alone. We also realize that the 3 year old, that is now going through water confidence/drown proofing/swim lessons, is at this point at the most of risk for drowning.

If I never get that drink, so be it, it is not worth a child's life.

Having been on over 20 cruises, I have never ever observed anyone tip the staff in the buffet. Just saying.

My hubby uses a scooter and I can walk but not for long distances. That said, we like deck 6 close to aft elevators. The elevators are not crowded going up and going down from top floors was fairly easy. For dinner time, we just head down early and have a pre-dinner drink or two.

Another option is to rent a scooter for the one who has a mobility problem but this needs a handicap balcony room on Royal. Scooters can be accommodated in Jr. Suites or above on Royal. Check out the Disabled Cruising Boards for more info on renting a scooter.

Really!!! We have been C&A members for over 10 years and have experienced many changes to the RCI internet site. Never has the site ever worked easily and without errors. The latest version doesn't recognize our C&A number. We verified we had the correct numbers with reservation person over a month ago, yet when I put the numbers into the web site I get the message that it doesn't recognize the number!!!!

Royal - PLEASE GET A MORE COMPETANT IT DEPARTMENT AND DO BETA TESTING BEFORE ROLLING UPDATES TO YOUR SITE TO THE PUBLIC.

We are getting concerned that our current C&A status will not be recognized on future cruises and that we will not get accurate credit for pending cruises.

While the price may not be worth the cake, I would not hesitate to order the cake and have it delivered to the table on the evening of a 6 year old's birthday. It comes down to what makes the child feel special on their special day.

We cruised with our grandkids and their parents on my birthday once and the grandkids were a whole lot more excited by the special birthday cake surprise than myself. For children sometimes birthday equals birthday cake.

The only time a tablemates attire effects my dining experience is when a person shows up at the table with their hairy armpits exposed.

I also don't like baseball caps and/or cowboy hats worn at the table. It does not effect my enjoyment of the meal to the extent of hairy armpits but we may change our reservations due to the crazy spring weather.

Are you serious? Newer vets have had to watch people get killed/be in active combat zones too. Serving in the military in any capacity is exactly the opposite of being entitled since they're potentially giving up their lives for you.

As a female veteran, the daughter of a retired veteran who served in WWII, Korea War, and Vietnam; a sister of a retired Vietnam and Desert Storm, a wife of a retired veteran of Vietnam, and a friend to many, many vets, almost every generation have seen war and suffer from PTSD. It is just that it is now recognized as a real problem. It is not generational at all.

Also, as a female vet - PTSD can occur from sexual abuse that happened while in the service. It is just harder to prove and as of yet it is not recognized by VA. And you must prove that it happened years ago when you just couldn't tell anyone or you were "labeled" and even more discriminated against. After all, when I went into the service - women were either "lesbian or a whore". A typical man's approach to women at that time and no reflection on those who are lesbian or have been caught up in human trafficing of females.

My Hubby uses a scooter on board as he can only walk short distances. He doesn't need a roll in shower or a larger bathroom but does need a bit wider door and more room in the cabin to park his scooter. What we have seen on several cruise lines is that handicap cabins increase the size of the bathroom to accommodate wheelchair accessible (rightly so) but they do it without increasing the overall size of the stateroom. Thus, the living/sleeping area becomes to small to accommodate the scooter, If we choose to sail the majority of cruise lines it forces us to go for an expensive suite just to get the extra room to allow for his disability and a wider entry way. I would also think that this may be a problem for many disabled people that need both an accessible bathroom and extra space to park and recharge their mobility device.

What I would like to know, and provide to those that are in the same situation, is what cruise lines and/or ships make room in their disability cabins to accommodate both the need for accessible bathrooms and wider doors by increasing the size of the cabin in each category and those lines that only address the bathroom issues by taking space from the living area of the cabin?

We have sailed on 3 different lines and only Royal Caribbean increases the size of the disabled cabin. Are there other lines that do this and if so, which ones?

Does breakfast carry a charge now?

Thanks for asking.

First point, I didn't read the whole thread. My bad.

Second point, leave the auto tips in place so no one gets the shaft that doesn't deserve it. Instead use that annoying cruise survey to express bad service by one crew member. Well not until you have expressed the problems before the end of the cruise.

Couldn't believe the room steward that we complained about several times that wanted us to mention him by name on the survey. We obliged him. Others got extra tips.

If I wanted a vacation where I made the bed, picked up and folded the towels, and took care of our dirty dishes, I would get a RV or just stay home.

There is a big difference in Gins. As a G and T fan, I prefer Bombay Sapphire and certainly glad to know that Princess carries it and the tonics they had are also acceptable.

So enjoying another cruise with "Cheapo Dad" and his beautiful family!

So we have to go physically ourselves to s bar and bring back to our room .. correct?

 

 

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Yes.

Harry

Looks like your youngest has had a big growth spurt since your cruise. You do have a nice looking family.

Can't they find a decent Tech person or is that all part of cut backs, also? Not that the site was ever all that user friendly IMO For pete's sake, they are in Seattle. Home of Microsoft and plenty of able techies.

 

 

Maybe they hired the techies that were fired from Microsoft. :-)

Trying to pick a cruise to the ABC's and comparing cruise lines. Bad news is HAL's site is frustrating. Good news is that its not the only frustrating site.

Hopefully the new "truse" with Cuba will make the economic situation better there and people will stop risking their lives to get to the U.S.