N603- smiling island 18-01-06

[mummy Gin]

Hi we are first time cruisers going on 18-01-06.

We have 4 adults and the following age children. 16, 15, 12, 10, 3.

 

Do we need to take beach towels.

What amount of spending oney should we alllocate the children.

We have choosen the 6 pm dinner sitting. Any comments form other parents.

Is there enough for teenagers to so on board.

 

Can anyone help.

[kaseyoz]

hi mummy gin, welcome to the board.

 

i believe you dont need to take beach towels(grea,t as dont they take up so much room..?)

we have also chosen 6pm dinner(we changed from the later time due to feedback from these boards)

i can tell you more later as we leave 29th sept. We also have a 15 year old boy and a daughter who is nearly 13.

I also think your cruise like ours is in the school holidays so there will be lots of kids on board to mix with. Starnge that no one has yet replied to rollcall.

 

ask all the questions you like here as it si a friendly board with many past cuisers

cheers karon

[mummy Gin]

Karen enjoy the cruise and let us know when you get back all the info.

mummy gin

[claudio]

dont bother with beach towels they leave a beach towel in cabin for you on pacific sky so i presume it would be same on sun but if you lose it they charge you 25 bucks dont worry about your teenagers i wish you luck keeping them out of disco

[luvvin_u_2]

Hi we are first time cruisers going on 18-01-06.

We have 4 adults and the following age children. 16, 15, 12, 10, 3.

 

Do we need to take beach towels.

What amount of spending oney should we alllocate the children.

We have choosen the 6 pm dinner sitting. Any comments form other parents.

Is there enough for teenagers to so on board.

 

Can anyone help.

 

i was going to go on that cruise!! but we got upgraded on the one before that!! ur 16 an 15 yr old will be in the club and have a great time!! there is a few teenagers, but everyone talks to everyone so its all good. nah, u dont need beach towels they supply them.. 6pm could be early for dinner.. last time we had the early dinner and it was crap because my brother had dinner at 5, so we would have to be back at the cabin early around 4 to get him ready.. take him to the restaurant wait there until he was finished.. take him to the kids club and get ready ourselves.. its a rush.. u also miss the sail away parties.. u might like it though:)

[Past it]

i was going to go on that cruise!! but we got upgraded on the one before that!! ur 16 an 15 yr old will be in the club and have a great time!! there is a few teenagers, but everyone talks to everyone so its all good. nah, u dont need beach towels they supply them.. 6pm could be early for dinner.. last time we had the early dinner and it was crap because my brother had dinner at 5, so we would have to be back at the cabin early around 4 to get him ready.. take him to the restaurant wait there until he was finished.. take him to the kids club and get ready ourselves.. its a rush.. u also miss the sail away parties.. u might like it though:)

Welcome, I chose late sitting this time as I felt we were rushed through to make way for the next lot.Will see this time if it feels better.I took my own beach towel as the ships ones are small. but not worth the hassle to get it dry again so won't bother this time around. Try to bring lots of clothes as the washing/drying facilities are atrocious! Unless someone can tell me they have been improved on since Feb!!!!

[girl05]

i was going to go on that cruise!! but we got upgraded on the one before that!! ur 16 an 15 yr old will be in the club and have a great time!! there is a few teenagers, but everyone talks to everyone so its all good. nah, u dont need beach towels they supply them.. 6pm could be early for dinner.. last time we had the early dinner and it was crap because my brother had dinner at 5, so we would have to be back at the cabin early around 4 to get him ready.. take him to the restaurant wait there until he was finished.. take him to the kids club and get ready ourselves.. its a rush.. u also miss the sail away parties.. u might like it though:)

 

Would the 2nd dinner setting be better to choose than the first?

We are all having dinner at the same time(there's no kids travelling with us for the kidsclub)

Also this is a silly question but what are the sail away parties?:o(I'm going on my first cruise next yr)

Thanks:)

[aussiedisneyfan]

If you don't have kids the first dinner sitting is fine as your are not rushing to get them reading and yourselves as well, but 2nd is good because there is plenty of time from leave each port to have a drink and then get ready.

 

I found the sail away party to really not be much (only been on 1 with 1) it was just drinks out on the back of the boat when you are sailing out of the harbour with a bit of music.

[maxx]

If you don't have kids the first dinner sitting is fine as your are not rushing to get them reading and yourselves as well, but 2nd is good because there is plenty of time from leave each port to have a drink and then get ready.

 

I found the sail away party to really not be much (only been on 1 with 1) it was just drinks out on the back of the boat when you are sailing out of the harbour with a bit of music.

 

What's the sail away party? It sounds like an obvious answer but would love some details.

[Skyrules]

The second dinner sitting can be a bit late, particularly if you get the second second sitting! With 2 restaurants on Pacific Sun, and 2 sittings in each, there are sittings at 5.45, 6.00, 8.00 and 8.30. We were in the 8.30 sitting, and found that we weren't being served main courses until well after 9.30 most evenings. Where they seem to be fast in the first sittings (which we had on a previous cruise), the later second sitting was quite a slow affair. This meant that we almost never got good seats in the show lounge for the 2nd show performances as the people from the 8.00 sitting had all finished and got in and snapped up the good seats (and in the showlounge on Sun, there isn't many 'good' seats).

 

Sailaway parties is just that - a party on deck with music, etc, while you sail away from your departure port. It's just a bit of music to get everyone into party mood for the cruise. The first night's dinner sitting is usually billed as "Sailaway Dinner"

 

Kym

 

Would the 2nd dinner setting be better to choose than the first?

We are all having dinner at the same time(there's no kids travelling with us for the kidsclub)

Also this is a silly question but what are the sail away parties?:o(I'm going on my first cruise next yr)

Thanks:)

[maxx]

I'm beginning to think that I should book first setting for dinner. We want to see the shows, but don't want to miss out.

 

I am worried that when we do our shore visits we might find it difficult to go to first setting. But there are some many mixed opinions about the seatings, I am so confused.

I now am leaning towards first because we will then have time for post dinner activities. What time do the shows start and how long are they on for?

[aussiedisneyfan]

You should always be back on the boat in time for dinner. They organise the stops that way. Unless there was a problem. The only thing is it might be a rush getting ready for dinner.

 

Oh, they sailaway parties don't have any free drinks or anything, you have to pay for your drinks.

[rockie]

We went on the Sky last school holidays and there were hundreds of kids onboard which was great. They were all well behaved, untill the last three nights, then it was the teenagers that caused the problems. The parents had forgotten about them by then and left them to their own devices, that was, hassling passengers, not letting them back to their cabins by blocking hallways, standing in lift doorways so they didn't move. There were a lot of old people that couldn't use the stairs. In the end I dobbed on them and security sorted them. Hubby heard one mother commiserating with her son saying, "Dont worry son they need someone to pick on" If I had heard her I would have said something. Just be aware thats all, it would be a shame to spoil other peoples and their holiday. After that the security dogged their every step and they did not like it so the last few days of their holiday was also ruined I would say. Otherwise I think it is a great trip for a family. All the kids palled up with each other and a lot keep in touch afterwards I believe.

[Skyrules]

I didn't notice that problem on Sky last year, but I did notice it on Sun this year. On Sun, the area seemed to be around the forward stairs, on the promenade deck.

 

 

 

 

 

We went on the Sky last school holidays and there were hundreds of kids onboard which was great. They were all well behaved, untill the last three nights, then it was the teenagers that caused the problems. The parents had forgotten about them by then and left them to their own devices, that was, hassling passengers, not letting them back to their cabins by blocking hallways, standing in lift doorways so they didn't move. There were a lot of old people that couldn't use the stairs. In the end I dobbed on them and security sorted them. Hubby heard one mother commiserating with her son saying, "Dont worry son they need someone to pick on" If I had heard her I would have said something. Just be aware thats all, it would be a shame to spoil other peoples and their holiday. After that the security dogged their every step and they did not like it so the last few days of their holiday was also ruined I would say. Otherwise I think it is a great trip for a family. All the kids palled up with each other and a lot keep in touch afterwards I believe.

[aussiedisneyfan]

July holidays last year there were a few problems with the kids. I would have aged them 10-13 but maybe they were older. I wasn't aware of them directly hassling other passengers but they would hand down around the cinema and kick balls, they dented all the bins with the balls and kicking. When watching movies they were making so much noise and once the ball came flying through the cinema.

[rockie]

This was July this year and someone said they were in the cinema and the kids broke a lot of the seats, just for fun. The ages were from around 13ish-16ish. I don't know how many times the man had to repair the lifts. A couple of times NONE of the lifts were working, all out of order. One little boy was hassled and stopped with someones crutches from going down a hallway. Then, when all the bags were stacked for the night before departure, a smart little madam about 14 was hassling the security man who had to sit on a chair all night. She whined and complained she wanted something out of her suitcase and was mad he wouldn't look for her bag and open it for her. We witnessed a lot of these incidents. Each night there seemed to be more in 'the gang'. I was impressed with security though.

 

On last years cruise on the Sky out of Auckland hubby got up the first day and went out on deck. He come back and said it was cold outside. I jokingly said, 'Are you sure we are heading for Fiji". Anyway, I went up on deck and there was the Hole In The Rock at Bay Of Islands. Someone had got drunk and in the early hours of the morning had dived down that obversation deck thing that looks into the kids pool. They had to offload him with a suspected broken neck. I believe if anyone is really bad they offload them at the next port.

[aussiedisneyfan]

Glad we haven't had kids like that!