CruiseFamily18

I’m considering Mariner of the Seas first cruise back to sea as the week suits our family. I’m reluctant to sail on the first cruise back for that ship though. What are your thoughts? Thanks!!

We had the BEST experience in Montenegro as a CC perk. We got to go out on the helipad to view the fjords as the ship slowly sailed through to Kotor. It’s one of my family’s finest memories! We were up close! Plus it was 8:30am and we got unlimited mimosas!

7 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

That will work as I described above.  You just need their reservation numbers. 

So each books their own and then we link after payment?  

I should clarify - 8 cabins. All singles so 8 people total. 

2 minutes ago, cindivan said:

We typically travel in large groups so I have some experience as I am the primary planner. What are you specifically asking about?

 

dining?    Forget about specialty dining for that large of a group.  Anytime we try to book more than 6-8 people depending on the venue we can’t get the same time. MTD?  Max of 10 per table/reservation. If you are early enough and are lucky enough, you can book everyone same time, you can try to convince them when on board to be seated near each other. However be forewarned they probably will try to pressure you into 530ish or 830ish when you ask to be seated near each other. Stand your ground if you have the reservations. But if not, it will be tough. You may have to be 15-30 minutes apart and take turns who didn’t with who. Traditional dining?  We don’t do that because we don’t like the times so will let someone else speak to that. 

Shows? Just make reservations for everyone and meet up in time to get in before the general masses. 
 

 

excursions?    Personally, I would never book excursions from the cruise because it’s more expensive and I don’t like being part of that large of a group. But I don’t know where you’re going so can’t speak to that specifically.  But in general, there a lot of great private excursion companies that could handle a group your size

Thank you Cindi! I’m the planner too - ugh! Anyway, what is MTD? If we choose anytime dining will we be able to be together at one table? What about if we book speciality dining and link reservations like manatee suggested? We are looking to do Amazing Race in Cozumel and a beach break in Grand Cayman as excursions. Hoping it’s not a hassle with these reservations. Thanks for your help!

13 minutes ago, happymanitee said:

I have never linked 8 cabins together, but I link 3 together all the time.  Make one person in charge of booking everything.  That one person needs everyone’s reservation number.  When you go to book dinner/excursions, there is a link to ‘book members on a different reservation’.  Just click that and add them.  Then, you will have to pay for everyone at once, but you can split payments between credit cards.  Like I said, I’ve only done it for 7people total in 3 separate cabins.  So, I don’t know if there is a limit.  

Thank you very much. Using separate credit cards will help a lot.  Still a hassle for this many cabins but better than trying to collect money from everyone. 

We have 8 cabins with of friends traveling on RCL. RCL told us that we cannot link reservations making planning excursions impossible. How do we book excursions/onboard activities and ensure we are together??? This is nuts. All other cruise lines allow for this.  RCL told us to book individually and get in line for customer service on ship to try to coordinate but they couldn’t guarantee being together. Anyone have a work around for this? Thanks for your help.

We will be traveling with our 9 year old son as well as with grandparents. We are doing the August sailing from Barcelona to Venice on Constellation. I am wondering how to arrange transportation into cities - mostly to Florence and Rome without paying for an excursion. Does Celebrity provide transportation only? My son is open to all experinces so we aren’t worried about entertaining him and prefer to do the cities on our own. Since we will also have grandparents (mid 70s) with us we need to figure all activity levels in terms of ease of getting into the cities. Open to trains but how far from actual ship are the stations? Thank you for your expertise😀

We will be traveling with our 9 year old son as well. We are doing the August 11 sailing from Barcelona to Venice. Is this the same as your family? Wondering how to arrange transportation into cities - mostly Florence and Rome without paying for an excursion. My son is open to all experinces so we aren’t worried about entertaining him. We will also have grandparents with us so need to figure all activity levels in terms of ease of getting into the cities. Let me know what you have found! Thank you😀