vmom

I'd recommend one of the Royal Caribbean cruises. Royal Caribbean has something for all ages and is great for both your children and the grandmothers in the group.

As for rooms, keep in mind the cabins are small compared to hotel rooms. The cheapest way to go would be a cabin for for you , your wife and 2 children. 3rd and 4th passengers in a cabin pay a reduced fare. Then have the 2 grandmothers in their own cabin.

If you have extra money you can get 2 adjoining cabins for you, your wife and children.

NCL has lousy food in the free main dining room. Their specialty dining is good but that will add extra costs for 6people.

Assuming same length of cruise and similar costs, I have a slight preference for # 1. I enjoyed Hobart, Tazmania and Taruranga. Melbourne is a very nice city, but its a typical big city.

I took Supershuttle from LAX to the hotel I was staying at about 1/2 mile from Port of LA in San Pedro in January. Port of LA is right next to the Port of San Pedro.

Very happy with Super Shuttle. I think the cost was $17 + tip.

I've had cabins directly under the Horizon buffet several times and loved the location. No problem with noise from the buffet and it's easy to get to rear open deck for great views.

We usually pick a cabin in R 700+ to avoid being under the pool area.

I find it helpful for discounts for hotel stays pre-cruise.

I got one on my January cruise on the Ruby. I love those totes. I use them on the ship to tote around any misc things like an extra sweater and book and then use them at home for shopping.

Have you thought about joining your roll call for this cruise?

I last cruised solo and there were a couple of groups from our roll call that formed to eat at the Crown Grill together. Why don't you see if anyone from the roll call would like to form a group?

Last month when we had dinner in the Crown Grill the waiter stopped us from adding the tip to the bill (we had forgotten to bring cash) saying the cover charge includes his tip. I then specifically asked him if I ran back to the cabin and brought back some cash, would he get all of that tip. He responded, "There's no need to do that, why pay something that's already been paid."

 

We're not newbies so we were shocked by his comments.

Thanks for sharing this. I think we from the US often forget that other cultures and countries have a different view or standard of tipping.

I was in England a few years back. I took a one-day tour and tipped the tour guide at the end according to the US standards. He looked at the amount I had tipped and told me i had tipped too much and gave me two thirds of my tip back.

we just got off the regal princess last week and we ate in the steak house and like I said when the waiter came over with the slip he asked me to sign it and there was a line that said tip so I know there are some people here saying that tips are included in the payment for the specialty restaurant but if this was true then there wouldn't be a line that says tip.

Not true. Just because there is a tip line for extra tips doesn't meant that the tip isn't automatically included. It just allows for extra for those who wish to tip more.

I think it also is likely to encourage more tips since many people don't realize that the tip is included in the fee and therefore are more likely not to think it through and give an extra tip.

My experience is that how many people dress up and to what degree is highly influenced by where the embarkation port is and where the cruise goes to.

I've found that if the cruise requires a lot of travel by many of the passengers to the port of embarkation or if the cruise requires a lot of cold weather clothes or both cold and warm weather clothes, there are fewer people that dress up as formally. They usually bring something passable for formal night, but something that requires less packing space.

I think this is due to luggage issues. You can only pack so much and if something has to go, its more likely the extra dressy clothes.

My experience is that Caribbean cruises and cruises leaving out of California tend to be dressier on formal night.

Don't know what other people have experienced, this is based on my personal observations.

The new bedding is the most comfortable I've slept on on a ship. I slept great. Can't wait until all the ships have iit.

Looking at your picture of the dining area, it looks like there is a greater distance between tables than in the main dining area.

Is it a trick of the picture or were the tables spaced further apart?

Every cruise line may list some type of single/solo meeting, but some cruise lines do it better than others.

I'd suggest joining your roll call for your cruise. There may be other single/solo passengers who are interested in an activity or dinner together.

Go on the solo travel forum for other ideas.

Leaving a tip at the specialty restaurants vs land restaurants is not really a fair comparison.

In land restaurants in the US, servers rely on the tips for their pay. There is no service charge included in the meal cost.

On the cruise ship, the cover charge includes a tip, so any extra tip is purely up to the diners, the servers are still receiving a tip.

An additional question,

For a Princess transfer to the ship at the beginning of the cruise, where does the Princess shuttle pick you up at?

By what I calculate, the Princess transfer is cheaper if one or two people are going and needing transportation, but if you have more than two people, then maybe a private car company would be cheaper.

However, a private company would pick you up and drop you off where ever you want to go, not just from the ship to the airport.

Interested in getting a sim card in Italy.

Where do I get one? At the airport?

I have Verizon service, so I just take out the sim card in there and put in the new one?

If I get a Sim card in Italy, is it typical to also buy a phone/text/data package? Seems that would work well for calls made in Italy, but still not calls from Italy to the US.

Its largely a matter of personal preference.

Hard sides luggage that is newer is made of a different material than the hard sided luggage of the past. It still opens up in the middle.

I have been in airports several times and seen the newer made type of hard sided luggage where an end or corner section had been cracked and severely damaged, so I don't believe the new stuff they are making hard sided luggage out of is as durable as the old stuff.

I also don't believe that the argument that the hard sided luggage (newer lighter weight stuff) is any more durable than the soft sided luggage.

I am speculating here and wonder about other viewpoints.

For those who choose traditional dining, are there many empty seats in the dining room at tables?

Could the longer waiting times for Anytime dining seating be related to more people wanting Anytime dining and therefore greater demand with fewer people wanting the Traditional seating times or using the traditional dining assignments?

On my recent cruise, I talked to several people with traditional dining who told me that they were often not going to the traditional dining time. Many were eating in alternate dining venues.

In the mean time, all of those seats were being left empty and unused, while many people outside the ATD dining rooms were waiting in long lines to get seats.

I just wondered if this along with the club class dining, which I understand involves between 30-40 tables being held in reserve, is impacting the long waiting times.

I just saw on the princess patters that were posted yesterday that there was a free pub lunch on the Ruby Princess Mexican Riviera Sailing a week ago. Looks like it is back and free....

Glad to hear that the new idea of charging for the pub lunch experience was a big flop.

I'm getting tired of all of the new pay to dine options. Its become excessive. Nice to have a choice for an upscale dining experience for extra $, but Princess has been going overboard as I felt it had on my January cruise. It felt like just a grab for more money.

Actually Princess now will charge your credit card at the time you make the reservation. At least for excursions in Alaska, maybe others, too.

 

They trying to sell the policy that "everyone else does it" to all of their loyal, repeat customers who really liked the original policy.

 

Frankly I would like to book and pay for an excursion before sailing and then, on board, cancel and immediately rebook with my onboard account that has an OBC available. Just to make more work for Princess.

This may be true from some excursions in Alaska, but I did not have to prepay for my excursions that I pre-booked/reserved from my January cruise.

Just got back from a cruise in January. I prebooked two excursions. I didn't prepay them. I then waited until I got onboard and the cost was taken out of my OBC account.

So , yes you can can OBC to pay for excursions, but don't prepay them before getting on the ship.

I'm not sure if there are exceptions to some of the excursions in Alaska.

The only explanation I can think of is there must be a new head chef or some other major staff changes in the dining/ food department.

Regarding the long wait time for ATD, I don't know if this is a contributing factor or not, but during the morning shows the CD talked about seating times for the shows for early seating and late seating and said something like, there's always anytime dining.

She seemed to be saying that if you have traditional dining and it's not working for you just go on over to anytime dining.

It seems like for the January 7-17th cruise some of the people were having some difficulties with the dining times relative to the showtimes. I wondered if many traditional seating diners may have been using ATD.

A lot depends on the position a crew member holds as to the working conditions.

So many good posts already with some great points and info.

Just to add my two cents:

I had dinner last week was someone who had worked as a massage therapist on a ship for two years and loved it. She said her contracts were for 6 months at a time and that she was treated very well. She got two days off per week which rotated. She was able to go off ship if it was her day off and it was a port day. She said the spa staff is typically treated very well since it is such a money generator for cruise lines.

I'd suggest sticking with RCCL but definitely cruise when all the kids are in school.

RCCL has the wow factor and has more overall energy given your ages than other excellent cruise lines such as Princess, Celebrity or Holland.

I have cruised all but Celebrity and I think that if you cruise when the kids are in school, you won't have too many children. I've cruised Princess and Holland, and enjoy both lines, but when school is in session, those cruise lines attract an older passenger age group.

I frequently travel with someone who is not platinum. I also cruised in and out of San Pedro in January.

In San Pedro, they were very strict about priority boarding. If someone was sharing a cabin with the Platinum member they could board at the same time, but passengers who were not in the same cabin could not. Passengers had to board with their assigned group unless sharing a cabin.

Also, the pre-dinner lounge for platinum and elite was for those passengers and fellow passengers cruising in the same cabin. If not in the same cabin, then this perk could not be shared. If sharing the same cabin, yes they could go into the lounge as long as accompanied by the platinum or elite member.