melski

Go along on the first night as everyone is "new" then. Make sure she doesn't have 'privilege' of signing herself out. Then you can be sure if you have put her in she is there until you collect her. To collect her you need I/D, copy of passport will do or driving licence with photo. She will love Adventure Ocean.

Actually all you need is your sea pass card to collect them. When you register, you list who is allowed to pick up the child and their room number. They will either look you up from the room number or scan your sea pass card.

Depending on when you travel and the number of kids on board, the AO can be quite busy in the evenings. The evenings tend to be group games and while my kids will go in the evenings, they prefer the quiet day time activities where it is more arts and crafts. You'll receive an AO compass so she can choose which activities she would like to attend.

As a side question...is there a way to find out when 'spring break' falls? Or does it totally vary by location/school? We are Canadian so March break is a specific week (usually around March 10th)

College spring breaks tend to be early March...some can extend to late March.

School spring breaks tend to be 3rd and 4th week of March to mid-April.

We have done 4 Spring Break cruises with my school aged kids as that is what works for our school and sport schedules. There are many multi-generational families on board. You can find a group of partiers (IMO they are typically adults) on any cruise which is why we tend to hang out near the kids pool. There will be a ton of kids on board and they travel in packs. I can see why this would be annoying to people without kids but for those of us with kids we think its great.

We are on Allure b2b and last week there were more than 800 kids. This week there are still many but not as many as last week. I was wondering as well if parents pull them out of school. There were many school age kids.

We purposely book after school starts so this was not expected. Even as I type there are so many kids running around outside our cabin that the floor is shaking.

That many people weren't pulling their kids out of school as most schools in the South have fall break...many schools have it for a week and some for only part of the week...we had off Wed-Friday and headed to the beach. There were lots of people from KY, IN, and TN where we stayed. If you want less kids on your cruise, you need to stay away from the 2 weeks surrounding Columbus Day as that is the typical Fall Break time.

Is this true of the soda package?

Looking at my March Harmony cruise and it only applies to the Deluxe package. With the Soda and Refreshment packages, everyone does not have to buy it.

Unless there is a good Cyber Monday sale on the deluxe package, we won't buy it. We won't drink $110 a day for 2 of us.

The latches are difficult to open but not impossible. It is more than a typical handle where just push down and it opens at 90 degrees...you basically have to turn it 180 degrees or more.

My youngest was 3 when we first started cruising and that was a concern. Our rule was that the kids could never open the balcony...I understand that may be too much for the 2 year old to understand but not the 7 year old. They also aren't allowed to go outside on the balcony without us. That being said hopefully you can get the connecting rooms of a balcony to interior.

I had booked all our March 2018 Harmony MTD a few weeks ago and was happy to get the 6:15 reservation (there were no times available between 6:30 to 7:30). Now my cruise planner also says "At your Leisure". Hoping others are right and my times are still reserved. If this is a new system for MTD, I won't be happy.

The Royal Family Suite is on Liberty that sleeps 8 (a tight 8 from what I've read). We are a family of 6 and always book 2 balcony connecting rooms...1 room sleeps us and the other the 4 kids.

We will be traveling with our 13 yr old boy girl twins on the 12/2/17 sailing. Any other teens aboard? It's their first time on RCCL, they've been on Disney several times. I want them in the Teen Program & wondered if any here have had past experience with it on Harmony and could share any tips.

Thanks

The biggest tip is to go the first night. There will be ice breaker/get to know you games and then the teens will separate themselves into groups to hang out with. That being said, I would have no idea how many teens would be on a non-school break cruise...on school break cruises there are tons.

My son in law is in the Marines. We are booked on Freedom Eastern Itinerary Jan 5th. We picked Eastern because my daughter said the Marines are not allowed to travel to ports in Mexico. I told my daughter I am pretty confident our ports will get changed.

 

.

I am not sure why you think your ports will change for a January cruise. St. Maarten is saying it will be open for cruise ships mid-November. St. Kitts is fine and so is Labadee. The only other port is San Juan and they could easily switch that port to another eastern port. They won't change the entire cruise for 1 port. Now anything can happen (weather, etc) and if he checks with is chain of command that Mexico becomes an option, he should ask if he can go ashore and if not will he be ok with just staying onboard.

Also, while you have travel insurance, you may want to check what it covers for active duty military. We go thru USAA and it covers a lot of military specific instances: deployment, etc. If your Son in law is a USAA member, I suggest you look at the difference in coverage.

No HOTS info as we'll be on there in March. I strongly recommend Blue Hole in Jamaica. I have fairly adventurous kids (16 and 13 at the time) and this was by far their favorite excursion. I booked a private driver in advance and while a drive, it was absolutely worth it.

I feel your pain. I have HOTS booked the week before Easter and was looking at switching to AOS. AOS is significantly cheaper however when I priced airfare into it, the trip was even more.

To me the unbelievable thing is that the SW "wanna get away" fares were sold out about 5 days after they were released (for both spring break and thanksgiving). I'm not sure if there are fewer number of this fare on any given flight or if everyone books so quickly...which means you can't wait until 60 days out like someone else said.

For spring break, we are flying Jet Blue for the first time to FLL and was lucky to find it for half of what other airlines were charging. However, I occasionally find my best fares by searching for one way flights and be willing to use different airlines if need be. Also, I will search for 2 tickets at a time. If they only have 2 available at a lower fare, they will charge you all 4 tickets at a much higher price....instead of 2 at the lower and 2 at the higher. By doing 2 different bookings, you could save a few hundred dollars.

I think there are 2 different families wondering about teens here so it is a bit confusing...

The 10 and 11 year old will be in the Adventure Ocean Explorers club (ages 9-11). They will have games and activities throughout the day. You can look for an Explorers compass for an idea of activities.

The other family with the 15 year old will be in the teen club. For my teens, they typically meet another group of teens the first night and then hang out the rest of the cruise. If its only 3 sea days, my teens would appreciate just sleeping in, hanging by the pool and then hanging out. Mine typically don't do the activities in the teen club but use it as a meeting place....key is attending the first night to meet other teens.

If you want to cruise for the activities on the ship, then you may be disappointed especially if you have been on the Epic before. However, if you are cruising for the ports then absolutely go for it. With only 3 sea days, the ship is not as important IMO and with a good attitude there will always be something to do.

Personally, I would contact a few TAs and see if anyone can do better...your TA doesn't seem to have given you a great deal. The TA doesn't have to be local to your area...I don't use one local to me but still receive great service. Many TAs give more OBC for a group booking. Compare 3-5 TAs (local, online and box store TAs) offerings and then decide to use a TA or RC.

Not sure if you are paying for all or if each room will be paid individually. If individually then it seems to be easier for the TA to keep track of all that.

It also depends on when you cruise and how many kids will be onboard if they allow him to move up. Our first cruise was on Brilliance which is much smaller and he turned 12 the week after the cruise. It was spring break and they were not allowing any changes as there were so many more kids than what they typically have. He turns 15 mid-cruise on our next cruise and really hopes to be in the older teen group.

Every cruise we've been on have had the teen club separated into the 12-14 and 15-17 year olds but we travel when there are a lot of other kids on the cruise too. Each sailing could be different and you won't know until they go up there.

My kids have always loved the teen club. If he's allowed in the teen club, its really important to go the first night...my kids race out of dinner to change and head up. The first night is when the kids separate into their own groups which tend to be based on gender/ages even if the activities aren't separated. My kids rarely did teen club sponsored activities other than the flowrider but used it more for a meeting place for their group.

I think the first 2 nights on any ship tend to be crazy in MTD. I would make a reservation and get there early. After that, things sort themselves out.

That being said you should be aware of the flow of the dining room. People start entering the dining room at 5:30 and it can be full anywhere between 6:15 and 6:30 (earlier the first 2 nights). Then you will have to wait for a table to open which can be between 6:45 and 7:15 (assuming a 60 -90 minute dinner...60 minutes being quite fast) to have a second seating at that table. Then the question is do you want to be in the first seating of MTD which then you need to get there before 6:30 or would you rather be 2nd or 3rd seatings and get there after 7:15.

They typically won't make a reservation during a time when they know the tables will be full...so there are times you won't be able to make reservations and they probably won't seat you at that time either.

Of course you don't have to make a reservation but I like to and it is easy to change the reservations if our plans change.

After hearing the importance of the kids meet and greet on the first night, I thought that adventure Ocean was closed for the first night.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Adventure Ocean is open the first night but a bit later...I believe 8-10 pm plus $$$ late night. It is closed the first day to drop off kids but is open to visit, meet staff, fill out paperwork for the 3-11 programs. None of that is needed for the teen club. FYI, the lines can be long to drop off the first night (3-11 yo)... no drop off for the teens as there is no check in or out for them.

The key to the teen club is going the first night. We tend to go during school breaks so it is packed full of teens and they split the teens into 12-14 and 15-17. We found that even my shy son met a group to hang out with. Sometimes they'd meet up during the day but mostly they hung out at night. The teen staff do have organized activities like scavenger hunts, teen only flowrider, basketball, etc. Be aware you may be begged for a late curfew...1 am is the ships curfew for under 18. My 13 yo had a midnight curfew on sea days. I also purchase the ships wifi so we can keep in touch with them. Its up to you to set the rules..ie never to go in another stateroom and don't do anything on the ships railings, etc.

As for you 9 yo, like others have said at that age you can give check in and out privileges to them. My 10 yo was allowed in and out but my rule was he couldn't wander the ship...he could either go to the arcade or be in kids club at night until we picked him up.

We found the staff in the clubs to be wonderful. Have a great trip.

I'm looking to switch my Harmony spring break cruise to Adventure the last week of March 2018. Prices on Harmony are really expensive so I'm looking to change to Adventure as it seems cheaper...not really interested in other ships.

1. Will there be kids on Adventure over spring break? ( know less than typical stateside cruise but we need some kids. I'd bring 4 kids and they love meeting friends on board.

2. Does the RC air program give decent discounts to Puerto Rico? Looking online and want to make sure the air fare doesn't eat all the savings from changing ships.

3. Is Adventure fairly family friendly? We've been on Liberty twice before but never a Voyager class. Looks like similar evening offerings. Is there a broadway like show on it?

I may be missing something but I don't see a roll call for the date I'm looking at.

We've been on Radiance and Liberty (twice). All were great and had a good experience in AO but on Radiance the older kids were grouped together for 1 big group. Liberty had nice big spaces for each and a great kids water area. There were water slides on Liberty (there are height restrictions but my 6 yo could go on both slides this year but she was too small for the bigger slide last year). Probably the best thing for you with the 1.5 yo is the toddler water area (no swim diapers allowed in any pool except the toddler area). So I'd look for ships with those (Liberty, Adventure (I think), Harmony). Not sure of what other ships may have it. The AO is similar on all those ships and overall a great program.

Pack half your stuff in DW's suitcase and vise versa.

As already suggested, carry a day's extra clothing in your carry-on, as well as the really important stuff (medicines, ID, important papers, etc.)

 

I can't stress enough to split clothes in someone else's suitcase after losing my bag on our way to Phuket and it was never recovered. At a minimum 1 day's wear and bathing suit but ideally 2-3 days. Even if a suitcase was lost and it never made it to you, you could get by.

One thing we learned the hard way on Liberty was that with MTD reservations, they may not hold a table for you if someone else shows up first. We had 6:15 reservations for 6 and had to wait 30 minutes to get a table the first night...they told me it was first come, first serve even with a reservation. Very frustrating and seemed pointless to have a reservation then.

They strongly suggested a reservation by 6. Basically to get first seating which may be anywhere between 5:30-6:15 and then you have to wait for the table to clear before you will be seated which could be around 7.

It was really only crazy the first 2 nights and then it was much smoother.

That is our Spring Break too (right before Easter). It is a prime week and will be more expensive than others...we too must follow kids school break so we will be on Harmony that week.

As for prices, RC sets the price and I think the TAs must use RC sale price. The difference may be other perks...some TAs will pay for gratuities, give extra OBC or other free stuff. One of the big box stores, typically offer a rebate of a "cash card". You really have to shop around the TAs and their perks to get a deal.

As for cabin configuration, that is completely up to you. If it was me, I'd probably get 3 rooms...have DD, friend and MIL in one, DS, DS and friend in another and you and DH in a 3rd. Having a DD17, I wouldn't want her going with a friend and sleeping in the same room with other male teens and my DH wouldn't feel comfortable being in a stateroom with someone else's teen daughter...but maybe thats just me. Interiors will be the cheapest. Another option is the Royal Family oceanview cabin with 2 bedrooms but I think the max is 6 and it only has 1 bathroom. The kids need to be in a room next to you or directly across from you which can be challenging and limit some options.

You really should use a TA. They can check inventory and room availability and give you all the options and maybe some you haven't thought of.

Another issue with Liberty...even if you have a drink package, all alcohol has to be purchased the first day due to Texas alcohol laws...you can't use the package.

 

My daughter went to Roatan on the Breeze and it was just ok for her. Port wise, I would do Oasis over Liberty. We love Labadee as we always do the excursion to the private sandbar/island.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We were just off Liberty in March. You can use your beverage package there first day but there are limited selections (both for purchase or package) due to Texas liquor laws. By dinner, its typically full bar.

Roatan was one of our favorite ports. It is a top area for shallow water snorkeling....so many fish.

I agree that whatever ship you pick, you will have a great time. We have been on Liberty twice and had a blast. Love Roatan and Falmouth so either would be great too. One more thing to consider is that depending on when you travel in March, you have to think about Spring Break. Both will be overwhelmed with multi-generational families and LOTS of kids (especially 3rd and 4th weeks). If I was traveling without my kids, then it would depend on the adult only spaces and if Liberty's solarium vs. Oasis specialty restaurants and shows. Don't pick a ship based on the smaller bar entertainment, those entertainers could be there or not on your sailing.