VAtravelers100

We are considering a 7-day Alaska cruise roundtrip from Seattle. Does anyone have advice on the best way to book with three children (ages would be 8,10, 11). I'd want a balcony. I'm not sure if we'll need to book a balcony cabin and then an inside cabin across the hall. I'm not sure how we'll be able to qualify well for "kids sail free." Thanks for any advice!

These comments are really helpful. I'm wondering if anyone could suggest which beach would be better when traveling with kids (ages 5-15). Also, I'm thinking we would walk around the town a bit first, then head to a beach for a couple hours. If so, do you recommend lunch in town or at the beach? Thanks!!

I don't know if this is a good place to ask, but I was wondering if the verandah rooms on deck 5 will have nightlights in the bathrooms? We are in the quad rooms if that matters. And, what would the best thing to use to hang sheets of paper on the wall (magnets vs. the blue putty stuff). Thanks for any info!

Have you checked to see if there is a roll call for your dates? Even if not, check the other Oosterdam roll calls to learn advice about tour operators for that cruise. Good luck!

Thanks for the helpful info!!

Thanks for the helpful reply! It will be fine, of course, if a particular item isn't there, but reassuring to hear that several items would normally be available. I'll be trying to figure out each morning how to put together a collection of food for my daughter to eat mid morning before the rest of us are ready for lunch.

I thought I'd try posting this question here instead of starting a new thread. This will be my first time on HAL with my 5 yr old along. We eat a 95% vegan diet, whole foods plant based. It's harder for her to eat things she isn't used to. When I travel I always make sure to have available avocados (to make avocado sandwich for her), peanut butter and jelly to make a sandwich, red pepper slices, mini carrots, kidney beans, hummus (and other things like fruits that I am sure will be available). She will often want to eat earlier than us, and I'm wondering at what time of day (breakfast? lunch hours? via room service?) these items would be available so that I have them on hand when she announces she is ready to eat. If it will be hard for me to have these items available, I'll try purchasing them in Venice prior to boarding. Thanks!

Totally OT, but what is Project Fi Cell Phones? I use T-Mobile which give me free Data/Text world wide and only $0.20 minute to calls. Since when we are overseas calls are very rare. This works out great for us.

It's Google Project Fi. T-Mobile is also a good plan. Project Fi is probably the ideal plan, but only if you have a google phone (like the Pixel). Your phone operates the same out of the country as within the country, under your same plan. If you go over your data amount, they charge only $10 per GB (charged by the MB, not as a flat rate). Their speeds are not throttled. Can also get data-only SIM cards for free to add to your plan. Didn't read it carefully, but here is one person's description, https://www.applause.com/blog/project-fi-international-data-performance/

haha

Thank you, everyone!

LOL thank you so much for your replies. Your reaction to his plan is much like mine. However, it's really the only option in order for him to make the cruise at all. I wasn't willing to do it like that, which is why my daughter and I will already be in Venice with our friends when he arrives.

I'm thinking I will let HAL know and ask about what needs to be done on their end if he misses departure. He already knows he would have to catch up with us at the next port, so he is looking into those contingencies. Thankfully he does carry on bags only, so hopefully all will go smoothly. His flight is Boston to Portugal to Venice. We both have Project Fi cell phone service, so our phones should be operating smoothly in order to communicate that day.

I think what we may do is set a certain time, like if he makes it to the water taxi by noon, he could come meet us at St. Marks, but otherwise he has to go straight to the boat. Something like that...

Our hotel has its own private pier, so the water taxi pickup from there will be as efficient as can be. I'm going to reread your advice telling me what time the group should plan to leave the hotel via water taxi, but I'm thinking we may want to have lunch and prearrange a water taxi from hotel to pier at 1:30.

We'll be on the Oosterdam, sailing from Venice in June. The listed time is 5 pm. I have two questions:

1. What time is ideal to board for those of us who have been in a hotel in Venice the night before? We like the idea of being able to explore Venice a bit more that day before boarding. We plan to travel from our hotel by St. Marks Square by water taxi. Any suggestions about timing or logistics of that?

2. My crazy husband is flying in that day at 11 am. Not a lot of room for error. He is hoping he can have a nice lunch in Venice before boarding. Any thoughts on the logistics and timing of that? Some of our group may go straight to the ship, but some may meet up with him. The other 10 people in our group will be down near our hotel near St. Mark's Square. Should he come to us and then we all go to the ship together, or some other plan?

Would love any advice! Thanks, Jody

......We've been reading the Magic Treehouse series about Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Pompeii and watching 'The Voyager" on TV so I think my 6 year old will know what to expect!

Thanks for mentioning - will look for those!!

We're traveling with our 5 year old and two other families with kids (ages 6 to 15). Like you, all our kids are very well traveled. We're going with the same tour operators others recommend on here. We happen to be a group of 11, so all our tours are private. But, we've traveled with our child on group tours in multiple countries without a problem. You know your child, and you'll know what preparation you need to do to make sure that the tour experience in positive for everyone. Maybe check your roll call and see if you can start "Family" group private excursions. I'd imagine you'll find people who want to join you and split those costs (like the Rome in Limo type trips).

Thanks for the replies. I did read up on the change from Formal Nights to Gala Nights. That makes planning easier for us, actually. I appreciate the feedback!!

Does anyone care to help me guess which will be the formal nights on this itinerary?? Trying to think about dining plans...

Day 0:

June 17, 2018 Departs 05:00 PM

Venice, Italy

Day 1:

June 18, 2018 Arrives 10:00 AM

Departs 06:00 PM

Split, CroatiaTRNW

Day 2:

June 19, 2018 Arrives 08:00 AM

Departs 05:00 PM

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Day 3:

June 20, 2018 Arrives 08:00 AM

Departs 05:00 PM

Sarande, AlbaniaTRNW

Day 4:

June 21, 2018 Arrives 08:00 AM

Departs 05:00 PM

Katakolon (Olympia), Greece

Day 5:

June 22, 2018 Arrives 08:00 AM

Departs 05:00 PM

Souda (Chania), Greece

Day 6:

June 23, 2018 Arrives 08:00 AM

Departs 06:00 PM

Mykonos, GreeceTRNW

Day 7:

June 24, 2018

AT SEA

Day 8:

June 25, 2018 Arrives 08:00 AM

Valletta, MaltaON

Day 9:

June 26, 2018

Departs 06:00 AM

Valletta, Malta

Day 9:

June 26, 2018 Arrives 08:00 AM

Departs 03:00 PM

Mgarr (Victoria), Gozo, MaltaTRNW

Day 10:

June 27, 2018 Arrives 08:00 AM

Departs 05:00 PM

Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Day 11:

June 28, 2018 Arrives 08:00 AM

Departs 07:00 PM

Naples (Pompeii), Italy

Day 12:

June 29, 2018 Arrives 07:00 AM

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

Thank you for the detailed information! We will keep that in mind.

If you are set to sail at 3pm (that is the time that will be listed on your itinerary, not last tender), then last tender will be 2:30. Arriving at the tender dock by 2 is safe.

Thank for your responsiveness. So helpful!!

Thank you for this feedback. It's very helpful.

For the Mgarr port in Malta, with tender, if the listed port hours are 8-3, I like the idea of 9 am start time for our private tour. The tour operator recommended an end time of 2:45, but said that the tender hours are not available to her yet. Do you agree that 2:45 would be impossible as an ending time if the port hours end at 3:00?? The 3:00 time is for ship departure, right? Not the board-the-tender time?

Thank you.

You probably know this, but the port above for Rome is Civitavecchia.

Also, for Mgarr port (Gozo, Malta) we have a tender with port times listed as arrive 8 am and depart 3 pm. When there is a tender, how does that affect the times we should use when setting customized private tour meeting/ending times? In this case we have a start time set at 9 am, but when should the end time be?

We are trying to set the time for our transfer at the end of the cruise. I see an arrival time of 7 am in Rome on our itinerary, on the Oosterdam this June. Does anyone know what time we're likely to disembark?

The company proposed a meeting time of 7:30, which seems possibly unrealistic, but I'm not sure.

I'm interested in knowing the earliest and the latest if possible, because if possible, we'd probably appreciate not meeting our transfer until 8:30 am. Would that be allowed or will we need to be out before then?

I also need to figure this out for other ports. For example, our tour for Olympia has asked me to specify a meeting time, with 8 am port arrival, etc.

Thank you for any knowledge on this topic!

Thank you for the reply! I would love to get additional advice about these ports, especially please keeping in mind the kids, ages 5, 6, 10, 10, 15.

It seems quite likely that we will book a private tour/excursion for our group of 11 from Naples to Pompeii. Does anyone have advice about what destinations to bundle with Pompeii?? Amalfi coast?

I think it's quite likely that at least a couple families will also book a van tour of some type in Palermo. Any suggestion of things to put on the itinerary that the kids would enjoy?

Will really appreciate any leads!

We are excited - the more research we do on ports, the more excited we feel! I realized I made an error in the itinerary above.

Day 9 of the cruise is actually Mgarr (Victoria), Gozo, Malta (tender). So, if anyone has thoughts about the Mgarr port, please do share! There isn't much to be found on that topic in other forums/threads.

Really so appreciative of all this advice!!!!! Thanks very much.

Hopefully someone will reply about your new hotel. We ended up booking at Hotel Becher for Venice and an AirBnB near the Pantheon for Rome (with a backup refundable reservation at Hotel Smeraldo). Thanks for all the recommendations!

Thanks that is a really good point. The ship is in Port from 8 until 5