Questions about New Year's cruise

[Algebralovr]

Silly me, while on board Equinox with the "kids", my mom and sister, I booked us all into a New Year's of 2015/2016 cruise. I think that has to be just about the most expensive week to sail, but it is the one time that I should be able to get the family together. I've realized that the kids aren't really kids any longer, and one will have finished college the year before, and the other will be about halfway through college. I didn't book over Christmas, since I'm pretty sure DD's SO wouldn't be willing, but figured New Year's stood a chance.

 

So, for those of you that have sailed that week before, I have a few questions.

 

First, will the holiday decorations still be out on board? My thought is to sort of celebrate late.

 

Next, DH and I will be celebrating our 24th wedding anniversary while on board. It should be the first formal night. Should we tell them? Can we expect anything special?

 

How crowded should we expect the ship to be? How many children? We only have two sea days, at the start and the end. I assume this will be good.

 

I'm considering booking a cabana for the week, anyone know when the will go on sale?

 

How strict are they with regards to a glass of wine for a person under 21? DS will be a little shy of the "magical age of 21" that some in our puritanical society think means you are an adult. He will already be contracted with the US Army, we allow him a glass with a meal at home, and he understands the difference between accenting the meal with the appropriate wine and being stupid. In Europe it wasn't an issue. Will it be in the Caribbean.?

 

Thanks!

[CHEZMARYLOU]

So, for those of you that have sailed that week before, I have a few questions.

 

First, will the holiday decorations still be out on board? My thought is to sort of celebrate late.

 

Next, DH and I will be celebrating our 24th wedding anniversary while on board. It should be the first formal night. Should we tell them? Can we expect anything special?

 

How crowded should we expect the ship to be? How many children? We only have two sea days, at the start and the end. I assume this will be good.

 

I'm considering booking a cabana for the week, anyone know when the will go on sale?

 

How strict are they with regards to a glass of wine for a person under 21? DS will be a little shy of the "magical age of 21" that some in our puritanical society think means you are an adult. He will already be contracted with the US Army, we allow him a glass with a meal at home, and he understands the difference between accenting the meal with the appropriate wine and being stupid. In Europe it wasn't an issue. Will it be in the Caribbean.?

 

Thanks!

 

I can answer some of your questions.

 

Christmas decorations will still be up and should remain up throughout the cruise.

 

Celebrity usually provides a cake for anniversaries and other special occasions so I would tell them.

 

Our New Years cruises were 11 & 14 days with most of the days in January so there were not a lot of kids on board. If New Years is at the end of your cruise I would expect more than we had with New Years being at the beginning.

 

You are right, technically the drinking age is 21 on Caribbean sailings and your son would probably have a problem going to a bar and ordering a drink. If you purchase a bottle of wine with dinner he should not have a problem drinking a glass with his meal. They also have waiters coming around just before midnight on New Years eve with glasses of sparkling wine. With the large crowd on deck, he would likely be able to have a glass to celebrate.

 

Don't know when cabanas can be booked.

 

Enjoy your cruise, even though they were more expensive we had a great time.

 

Mary Lou

[Project_gal]

Barb

 

We were on the 2012/13 New Year cruise on Eclipse to celebrate our 40th anniversary whilst on board. Yes, the Christmas decorations will still be up. There will be plenty of opportunities to have family photographs taken with decorations in the background.

 

If the ship is aware of your anniversary, they will do something special. We ate in Murano that night and they produced a little cake with a sparkle. When we returned to our room, there were little treats and surprises waiting for us.

 

The ship was buzzing for the whole cruise so, although it was full, it seemed exciting rather than crowded. Ours was a 14 night cruise but there still were a number of children on board. However, they were, without exception, the best behaved children we have ever met on holiday. My husband is a retired junior school [7-11] teacher and he was very impressed.

 

You should have a great time. We have a number of cruises booked but have realised that our New Year cruise was our favourite and cannot wait until we can book another Caribbean "holiday" cruise in 2016 ...

[WestLakeGirl]

His card will look different from yours so he will not be able to order a drink at a bar.

[cruisead]

There will be a ton of kids on board. Holiday cruises tend to do that. Your son's sign and sail card will identify him as being under age, so he won't be able to order drinks on his own---doesn't matter if he's one week or 6 months away from being 21.

[Jane2357]

My one and only New Years Eve Cruise was 7 nights on the Solstice her inaugural year out of Ft Lauderdale. NEVER, EVER again. While the ship was new and beautiful it was over run with the most rude children and teens, along with their parents, that I have ever seen. :(

 

This was the only cruise I have ever been on where there was fighting in the theater over the rampant seat saving by these huge families who were saving entire rows for 20-30 people. If you said anything they would try to pretend they didn't understand english which you had already heard them speak. When one obviously overly entitled family brought their darlings into the solarium pool, many people tried to tell them it was adults only and they said they didn't care. I complained to the pool attendants and they were made to leave.

 

I will never cruise over New Years again - not worth it to me. This was the second cruise that I had massive amounts of rude children (the other was out of San Juan) and now - I do everything possible to avoid the high children season. :eek:

 

On our last cruise we dined in Murano for our anniversary and they provided us with a beautiful cake. Just make sure that they know.:D

 

[Algebralovr]

Thanks for the help, all. Sounds like it will be a full ship. We are only on board for 7 nights, much as I would love the 10,11, or 14 night cruises. Maybe in the future!

 

Meanwhile, it sounds like I will want to book a cabana to make certain we have sun chairs and such. If the ship is that full, getting a sun lounger may be difficult.

 

Thanks also for the polite answers regarding DS. I'll just plan to order bottles of wine, since the choices on the by the glass aren't great anyway.