TupeloHoney

I love all the souffles.  My kids are crazy about the fettuccini alfredo and the princess love boat dream!

This is great - we are on basically the same cruise, but later in the summer (we also stop in Orkney).  So you are giving me some ideas.  We've got most ports planned, but made a note to London Magical Tours as we hadn't figured out that part yet!  I will be following along!

We're thinking about renting a car at the port and driving to Rouen ourselves...

There will always be people who get annoyed by everyone and everything on a cruise.  But I have not experienced too much of that on Princess and we have sailed with our kids on them many times.  Now my kids are generally not overly unruly so that perhaps helps.  But honestly, it's the grumpy butts that are the bigger problem on cruises, not the kids.  Chill out people!

You'll be fine on Princess!

You can also get a Pina colada and a dirty banana.  I think different bars have different menus in them.  

6 hours ago, John Bull said:

 

I'd hope not. But certainly something warm, just in case, cos our weather can be a bit fickle.

 

It's the potential for rain (hopefully just showers in July/Aug) that you need to be aware of.

Even if the day starts beautiful.

And the potential for the weather to turn glorious after a dull or rainy start.

So raingear that's easy to carry and not too hot to wear

 

JB 

Thanks!  I'll look into a packable raincoat for me.  The rest of the family has them already.  And some waterproof, comfortable shoes!

I'm surprised there is a magnet in it without a warning to passengers.  I would imagine many passengers have medical devices that should be kept away from magnets.  My daughter is one of them!

We've cruised many times with the kids. My son has been used to wearing a uniform to school, so dinner wasn't too difficult for him though he'd much rather be in his joggers!  But look for boys' pants with elastic waist.  That's how we survived elementary school.  Something like this:

https://www.gap.com/browse/product.do?pid=492879002&cid=6187&pcid=6187&vid=1&grid=pds_40_74_1&cpos=40&cexp=1426&cid=CategoryIDs%3D6187&cvar=10464&ctype=Listing&cpid=res20010208668169922506515#pdp-page-content

And polo shirts.  Black pants like the above and a shirt and tie will suffice for formal night.

On 12/29/2019 at 10:40 AM, roverix said:

I totally understand your question. I also wonder can you just dress morning till night for the cruise. Is there any reason to change from your morning outfit on tour to dinner on the ship. We want to only bring 1 suitcase each and seems like that might difficult on a 12 day cruise with 2 additional days in London. I assume there are several formal night on the princess ship. Do people really dress up? Help!!

Yes, they do dress up.  But it doesn't have to be anything too fancy (except on formal night - and even then it's not necessary to go nuts).  I usually bring a couple pairs of nicer pants and some nice blouses.  If it's Princess they have laundry on board, so I take advantage of that!  Probably for UK I might bring a few light sweaters rather than blouses.  And I bring one pair of heels (nothing too tall as walking on a moving ship can be a challenge!). On formal night I often just bring a fancier version of the above.  I'm not a particularly formal person and neither is my travel group, but we dress up some.  

I am trying to figure out how warm of clothes I'll need in July/August.  We did Alaska a few years ago, but I'm thinking we don't need stuff quite that warm...

I'm trying to remember as my kids are 8 and 12 now - but we have cruised with them a lot...  One thing we did when my daughter was little was have the beds made into a queen and then pushed them all the way against the wall.  Then my daughter and I slept in the bed and my husband took the sleeper sofa.  But I co-slept with her, so that worked fine for us.  I don't remember what we did when my son was little, I didn't co-sleep with him.   I do remember his sleeping in his stroller when he was really little - because it reclined all the way - but he was only 3 months at that time.  But I would think if you pushed the beds together and then against the wall, that'd create more room in the cabin for the pack n play.  I know we used a pack n play when my son was older at least once.  We used the ship's, and it was fine.  We did bring our own sheets though - a couple sets just in case there were accidents.  

I also remember cruising when my nephew was little and they turned the sofa around for him and pushed it again the wall to create a little crib.  I don't know if that is even possible anymore with the sofas that are in there, but it worked great for him when he was 3ish.  (but that was 19 years ago!)

And we have always tipped fully for our kids!  They create more work for the cabin steward as others have posted above - extra trash, extra ice, extra towels, extra vacuuming if they spill their cereal on the floor, etc.  And they have always gone above and beyond for the kids. 

I don't have a picture, but I can tell you the balcony for our mini suite Riviera 326 on Regal was tiny.  We had 4 mini suites in a row and had them open the doors so we could walk across the balconies to each others rooms, but it was really difficult to do so.  The chairs and tables take up most of the balcony with almost no room for walking.  

We got back from Regal on Sunday.  I always make a video like this for my kids after we return from a trip, and I thought I'd share it here in case anyone is interested.  

We went down a couple days early to go to Kennedy Space Center.  Some people say Disney is the happiest place on earth, but for us, it's Kennedy Space Center!

We had a very nice trip.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dapsGMAEzI

I bought these :

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KO2TE78/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TA8812C/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And they worked great!

We've sailed with our kids every year since they were born - mostly on Princess.  It is bummer not to be able to use the pool, but otherwise it's been great.  They at least used to have times where you could take the child into the kids club.  You had to stay with them, but they could play with the toys and such.  That was fun.  We also found bars during the day were a good place to play.  At that age they just need time to run around like a crazy beast and not worry about tripping people and such.  The bars are usually empty during the daytime, so that was a good place to get some energy out!

I always brought a bag of surprises.  I'd go to Micheal's and the dollar store, and have something new to give them every night at dinner to help pass the time.  Crayons and coloring books are your friend!  

We've loved cruising with our kids.  They are now 11 and 7 and we head to Florida tomorrow to get on the Regal on Sunday!

I requested that our medallions be sent over a month ago.  I got notification today that they are shipping from Hong Kong, but we leave on Thursday.  So what happens if they arrive after we've already left?

Thanks all!  I'm not one to bend rules, it just didn't occur to me for some reason it was against formal dress code policy. Glad you all think she'll be fine.  She'll be much happier!  

It just occurred to me that what I have set aside for my daughter to wear to dinner a couple of nights probably won't fly.  I would never wear shorts myself, or allow my husband or son to wear shorts in the dining room, but for some reason in my head it was okay for my seven year old daughter.  But it just occurred to me that it probably isn't.

She got two pairs of Bermuda shorts as hand me downs and I was going to bring them.  One pair is navy blue with white polka dots, and has a cute tie belt I was going to pair with a white polo.  They come to her knees.  The second pair are white and I was going to pair those with a flowy light blue shirt with silver threads in it.  These might come just below her knees - so maybe they'd be okay?  More of a pedal pusher?

She's going through a phase and refuses to wear dresses and skirts, though I've demanded she wear dresses on formal nights (I tried and tried to find cute, formal jumpers for her, but just couldn't find any!).  I thought I'd make her happy and bring these long shorts.  They are quite fancy, but are, alas, still shorts.  I better pack pants instead, hadn't I?  Which is silly, because her pants are not as nice as these shorts.

Anyway, just thought I'd double check.  I did a search, but the posts I was finding were all quite old.  

Sounds like you had an amazing trip.  Thanks for doing such a detailed review!  It got me quite excited for our cruise on the Regal on 10th!  

Your wish list for next time sounds good to me!  Though I usually prefer private excursions over the ship ones, but it kind of depends.  We're doing a mix in two weeks.  

And we did Princess to Alaska, and it was amazing.  But it was also super expensive!  I think Alaska is just the most beautiful place.  Just that gorgeous, vast wilderness....  Ah, I want to go back!  

Anyone know if the bungalows have reopened after the fire at Princess Cays?  We have one reserved in a couple of weeks and wondering if we'll get to use it!  Thanks!

You can ask for other stuff too.  We regularly ask for a bowl of watermelon or strawberries or something as an appetizer.  My son also loves to get the cheese plate, which is on the dessert menu, as an appetizer.  My kids are adventurous eaters, but it's good to have something to order that they will for sure like!  So they order a cheese souffle and the escargot and also spaghetti (hold the meatballs)!  😉

The other thing we did was a lot of watching of educational videos on the places we were going.  That was more for my 10 year old though.  My 6 year old got some out of it, but not as much as he did.  He's a history buff anyway, so he likes that kind of thing.  But I do think it meant more to him when we were at the Colosseum and the Leaning Tower, etc, that he knew something about them ahead of time.  

We took our then 6 and 10 year olds to Europe last spring.  I bought a pillow like this for my 6 year old for on the plane, and it worked pretty well.  https://www.amazon.com/Height-Adjustable-Inflatable-Airplane-Accessories-Footrest/dp/B07B7J1HQW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1550430563&sr=8-4&keywords=kids+plane+foot+rest 

I also brought along a couple of my cheap pashminas and some clips to make her a little sleeping tent.  She didn't sleep great, but she got a few hours.  My 10 year old didn't sleep at all, but he was too big for the pillow thing.

So I was wondering if anyone knew of any apps that are similar to something like The Kids Book of Questions?  Something that is a conversation prompt for kids?  Those long dinners get, well, long!  And I want to keep the kids off their screens for as long as possible - and keep them talking and interacting with their relatives.  But they get so bored!  We do have the book of questions, and we do, somewhere, have a deck of cards that have questions on them that are conversation prompts.  Just looking for something new, and thought it'd be handy if it were an app!  One less thing to pack.  But I'm not finding anything when I google.

This post is making me excited for our upcoming cruise!  Thanks for doing this!

Interesting!  It never occurred to me to do this!  My son gets booked into Grandma's room (so she isn't alone).  We always get balconies and have them open up the door between the balconies for us and then usually leave the balcony doors unlocked  I'll have to look into this though!