Convincing Family

[bellatsava]

Any tips to convince our family to take a cruise for vacation this year? My husband and I cruise just about every year (4 times now) and we are trying to get my mother in law, her husband, their son (8) and her mother to go with us this year. Last year we took his adult brother with us for his first cruise. We had a blast and I know we'd have a great time as a family... But she keeps coming up with excuses - she afraid the boat will sink, she won't go unless she can have a balcony... Now it's the port days aren't long enough.

I am trying to be patient, but I am getting frustrated.

[JennLuvs2Cruise]

Hmm.. Not sure if I have any tips that would work, since it seems you have tried everything in the book. Just let her know that getting a balcony cabin is possible & that the larger, newer ships have less movement (especially if you stay on a lower deck midship).

 

The port days may not be long enough, but try to let her know you guys will have enough time to do a fun excursion, and the fun will continue onboard with all the shows & activities they have to offer.

 

If she continues to be super difficult, then maybe it is better to just accept it & leave it alone. :( Sometimes cruising with a difficult, needy person can cause quite a damper on the vacation..

 

Hope everything turns out OK though, OP & hopefully she will give cruising a try! :)

[mcampb2811]

Any tips to convince our family to take a cruise for vacation this year? My husband and I cruise just about every year (4 times now) and we are trying to get my mother in law, her husband, their son (8) and her mother to go with us this year. Last year we took his adult brother with us for his first cruise. We had a blast and I know we'd have a great time as a family... But she keeps coming up with excuses - she afraid the boat will sink, she won't go unless she can have a balcony... Now it's the port days aren't long enough.

I am trying to be patient, but I am getting frustrated.

 

 

I had been trying to get my mom to take a cruise for a long time and she never wanted to go either. I don 't know what you can say to change your mother-in-law's mind.

 

For me, my mom and I always do 1 trip a year out of the country. So basically I made plans for our "trip" this year, booked it, and then told her it was a cruise. She was somewhat looking forward to it but said that next time she would want to just fly and stay in one country but at least she could say she had been on a cruise. Well needless to say, by the night after the first port, she was already making plans for what she wanted to do in that port the next time we went on a cruise. By the end of the cruise she had already planned out our entire itinerary for our next cruise.

 

I think that it helped that almost everyone we met on the cruise had been on multiple cruises and told her stories of their different fun experiences.

 

Anyway, if you can atleast get your mother-in-law on the ship, I think she will be hooked :)

[westview1]

Hopefully you can convince her to join you. I have tried to convince my mom who is convinced she will end up eating Spam. :rolleyes: Ever since the Splendor had the fire she is sure any ship she goes on will have the same problems. I have friends that refuse to go with us because of the "whole water thing" :confused::rolleyes: I'm not sure what that means but I just accept it now.

[Tbay-eh]

I am a naysayer when it comes to trying to convincing someone else to do something you want to do. Personally, I would book for yourselves and sit down with them on all of the various web sites there are out there to show them how exciting it can be - barring of course any of the many unforeseen thngs that can occur. I can speak from experience when I say - if you finally, after talking until you are blue in the face, convince them to go and God forbid everything does not go perfectly well - they will blame you and pout the whole time. Tap them into sites and then leave the ball in their court to decide. Tell them how much you would love for them to join you but will understand if they don't want to go - that way they don't feel pressured and feel they still have control of the situation.

[Host Faith]

I've learned to leave them be. I would love a lot of my family and friends to cruise with us. I used to talk about cruising all the time with them, trying to make plans to go together. On each cruise we've taken (besides our honeymoon), family or friends were supposed to come with us, and each time, someone has cancelled. We were happy to have family and friends with us on our last cruise. We're fine just the two of us, or with a group. As long as we're on a ship, it's all good.

 

Just keep enjoying yourself, and share your photos, etc, with them when you get back. We've found that by doing that, people join us, one-by-one, when they're ready.

[WendyVF]

My "sell" is it's the no brainer no hassel vacation once you're onboard. We plan all the excursions and stuff ahead of time so once we are onboard there are no decisions to be made.

We've done land vacations and resorts (with kids and other adults) and each day turns into what time do you want to eat and where or I'm hungry and DH isn't. This is followed by what do you want to do, I don't know what do you want to do?

 

My Dad was the same way when he booked his first cruise. He griped and complained about everything. We were loading the car to go to the port and I told him to knock it off or stay home. Needless to say, aftering being onboard 2 hours, he spent the rest of the week thanking me for inviting them along.

[KenMo]

I convinced three GF's to cruise with me once...never again!

 

Costa Maya was our first port.

 

One loved it, but I guess I didn't know her as well as I thought. She was offended that a couple of women went in the ocean topless in Mahajual. She didn't think it was right because there were children around. I told her they weren't her kids, so don't worry about it.

 

Another one stayed in the sun too long in Mahajual and was burned to a crisp. I tried to tell her that sitting in the sun in Mexico is not the same as sitting in the sun in Oregon. She kept saying she knew what she was doing so I let her have at it. She spent the rest of the cruise in the cabin peeling the skin off her swollen legs. Yuck.

 

The last one got off the ship in Mahajual then stayed in the cabin the rest of the cruise watching TV. Oh...she did go to the Legends Show the last night.

 

I've tried to get my family to cruise. I gave up trying.

 

They go camping every year on the Oregon coast and try to get me to do that. Aint happening. So I guess we're even!

[Baxter]

I wanted my parents to try a cruise, and they didn't think it was their thing. So we took them along with us ... paid their cruisefare and flight down. Spending money was left to them. They have since been on 5 or 6 more, and look forward to cruising each year.

 

For them, it was the unknown...spending "all that money" and possibly not liking it.

[skylock]

I say if they don't want to go, leave them alone.

[librarymom]

Tell them it would mean a lot to you if they would just try it one time. If they don't like it, you will never mention a cruise to them again. We forced my brother to go for my parents' 50th anniversary. He liked it enough that he has been with us on another one since. Not his favorite vacation, but he likes it well enough for the family vacation. After all, it is definitely the type of vacation that has something for everybody. I find Carnival great for the multi generational cruises, everyone finds something to do with plenty of options for all of us to do together as well.

[Room Service!]

I don't know if I'd want her to go. As others have said, she could ruin your vacation.