Traveling with my teenagers in different class cabins?

[warmwinds]

I know, none of my business.  I should not have posted that, all families are different.

 

 

[GypsyCouple]

2 hours ago, warmwinds said:

I can't imagine going on a cruise with my family and not eating meals with them.  Sometimes it's the only time to reconnect after the day - when they were little, they would be off in the kid's club all day, older they'd be off hanging with their new friends, but we ALWAYS had dinner together.

 

I know what you mean, but honestly, my oldest is enlisting, my 17 year old is a senior and my 16 year old is incredibly independent. All 3 drive, have jobs and are all around extremely responsible kids. We are VERY lucky. On every prior vacation we have eaten every meal together, but there just at the age where they don’t want to spend all day with mom and dad. I plan on breakfast and lunch together every day. And then at least 2 dinners together. I’m happy to give them some independence mixed in with our vacation. 🙂  Plus, were lucky that they are so close in age and will spend time together, even if they aren’t with mom and dad. Besides, they will be “forced” to do excursions and go to the shows with us. Ha! 

[cruiserchuck]

8 hours ago, dkjretired said:

 

Mid they give you any trouble show them the quote I gave which is directly out of their website. Make sure you do get at least a couple of nights in Luminae.

 

 

 

I doubt that there are any suites that are connected to (or across the hall from) two ocean view cabins.  

[hcat]

I recall fairly well  Celeb advertising that certain rooms for family members that are located next to certain  suites are entitled to suite perks same as the suite guests.,

 

Not  sure  what ships or if it included dining or Michaels or maybe just the retreat...  i suggest OP search cruise critic and have their TA  or Cruise planner look into it....perfect for this family!

[jelayne]

The are 2 Royal Suites on the M class ships that connect with a Concierge cabin and on the S Class there S1 suites that connect with verandas.  But since the OP needs 2 cabins for the children not sure they would solve the problem. 

[varoo]

It is not only the meals that would be problematic here.

I am somewhat surprised that nobody has mentioned the retreat facilities and the special events that are scheduled for suite guests.  When you book a suite, you are paying extra for them, whether or not you will use them. 

 

So the parents would need to decide whether to take advantage of those special suite perks, or skip them to spend the time with their children.

 

The children are at the ages where they will soon be going off to college.  In that situation, I would not book a suite  because it would require paying for suite amenities that we would not use.

 

Ideally in that situation (at least to me),  would be to book a family veranda cabin, if possible, plus an inside cabin or two.

The parents will have many years ahead to cruise in suites and enjoy all the suite amenities when the children are grown and out on their own.

But as a previous poster stated,  Different strokes.........

                                                      

[hcat]

47 minutes ago, jelayne said:

The are 2 Royal Suites on the M class ships that connect with a Concierge cabin and on the S Class there S1 suites that connect with verandas.  But since the OP needs 2 cabins for the children not sure they would solve the problem. 

Thanks for the details . We lost track of it all but at one point were considering this great deal for a family trip.  Us in the suite   and dd and sil and their  pre schooler in the adjacent cabin

 

Not sure why the three siblings cant  share a room.. with 2 beds and a sofa? 

 

[helen haywood]

18, 17 and 16...two boys and a girl.

[GypsyCouple]

When I booked our rooms, Celebrity said that since the cruise was technically sold out, they could not book more than 2 people per cabin. Our cruise is in July. This forced me to get 3 cabins. 

 

I think I’m going to contact celebrity and see about getting the other 2 rooms moved to inside staterooms across from the suite. Thank you!

[JFontaine]

The other reason to do that is so your kids will be assigned to the same muster station as you - which is the place where you go in the very unlikely event of an emergency with the ship.  You will have a muster drill before you depart on the first day, where you report to your station and get instructions.  There are multiple muster stations on board, assigned by location of stateroom, and unfortunately being next to each other doesn't guarantee the same station - I don't know how families traveling in separate cabins handle different muster stations.  Anyone?

[cruiserchuck]

11 minutes ago, GypsyCouple said:

When I booked our rooms, Celebrity said that since the cruise was technically sold out, they could not book more than 2 people per cabin. Our cruise is in July. This forced me to get 3 cabins. 

 

I think I’m going to contact celebrity and see about getting the other 2 rooms moved to inside staterooms across from the suite. Thank you!

 

I would call and find out what Celebrity can/will do.  However, this close to the sailing, they probably will not refund you any amounts, even if the inside cabins are cheaper.  

[MarLieb]

I would just pack your patience and know you will really have to deal with all of this after you board.  On our cruise on the Summit last December, we booked a RS (me, my husband and our 11-year old son).  After paying in full, I noticed the concierge stateroom that connected to our RS was available at a significantly discounted price so I called Celebrity to see if I could book it for our son (so he could have a real bed to sleep on instead of a sofa bed).  Not only did they transfer his payment from the RS to the concierge room, they assured me that because he was under 12, he would still retain all of the perks he would have had in the suite.  I reconfirmed this information with Celebrity two more times prior to sailing.  Great!  Well, after we boarded, we went to Michael's Club and began hearing from the concierge that he didn't think that was correct and my son would not be able to go to Luminae, specialty dining, receive his beverage package, etc.  Our butler then proceeded to tell us the same thing.  I was livid.  We went to Luminae that evening and I felt like we didn't even belong there even though I had just spent more money on this extra room just to get my son a real bed.  If I had simply kept him listed in the RS, there wouldn't have been an issue.  The Michael's Club concierge had contacted shoreside after we boarded and, by the next afternoon, finally got in touch with me to tell me I was correct - my son was supposed to get all of the perks except the beverage package (didn't argue as I just wanted things resolved at this point) and he had contacted all of the specialty restaurants.  It DID get straightened out, but it was 24 hours of really wishing I hadn't even booked the cruise and thinking Celebrity's customer service was pretty darn poor as the right hand was definitely not communicating with the left.  We did book again for this year, but we are all in the suite this year and I am not messing with connecting rooms in different categories again.  I do hope they can get things straightened out for you so you can dine in Luminae, get the beverage package, etc., but just know shoreside and ship side sometimes are not on the same page.

[helen haywood]

Gosh!  I am so sorry!  How awful to be reassured one thing (and something you paid extra for!) and then be told something else onboard.  It just makes me think that these days one needs to have written confirmation of everything.  That’s a pity but alas perhaps a necessity.

[waterbug123]

21 hours ago, the_dylaness said:

 the embarkation lunch for concierge- I think it's crazy this (or equivalent) is not offered for AQ pax since those cabins cost more.... so I don't know if we will be allowed to eat lunch with our kids on embarkation day 😞

 

Different cabin categories come with their own unique perks. Depending on when a person books and the demand level for different categories, AQ might not always be pricier than concierge, but even if it is, it comes with its own unique perks. Obviously, if you prefer the concierge perks, book that category.  If you are otherwise happy with your cabin selections and eating lunch together on embarkation day is of utmost importance, your kids can always forego that perk and you can all eat together elsewhere.  The kids probably won't care one way or the other where they eat.

 

16 hours ago, warmwinds said:

I can't imagine going on a cruise with my family and not eating meals with them.  Sometimes it's the only time to reconnect after the day - when they were little, they would be off in the kid's club all day, older they'd be off hanging with their new friends, but we ALWAYS had dinner together.

 

And some people are fine with it.  Maybe they eat as a family every other night of the year and want to let their kids do their own thing while on vacation.  When my kids were younger they liked the "grown up" experience of dining with us in the MDR or specialty restaurants, but now that they're teens and older, they have little interest in a long, drawn out multi-course sit down dinner every night.  They don't want to do OUR thing and eat in that manner any more than I want to do THEIR thing and grab pizza every night.

 

12 hours ago, hcat said:

Not sure why the three siblings cant  share a room.. with 2 beds and a sofa? 

 

 

I'm sure that that technically they CAN, but the OP prefers her daughter to have some privacy and apparently they can afford it so have opted to book the kids in multiple cabins.

[VOLEYMOM]

Since this is your first cruise with teenagers thought I would throw out a few ideas.  We have cruised since our kids were 7 and 10 and we all love it. They are grown now and we still love to cruise together.  This is what we did.  We didn't worry about breakfast and lunch together at least on sea days. The kids would stay up late dancing and just hanging out with all the new friends they made and want to sleep in.  Now if we had a excursion we would meet or even they would sometimes run up and grab something from the buffet since we would be in a hurry to leave the ship. We would try and meet for family dinner and talk about our day.  Not every evening but many of them. A lot of times they weren't interested in the show or if they were, liked to go with their new friends. Since your 3 are older they might like the specialty dining. It will take some time to get it all straightened out when you get onboard if you stay with the suite. Probably easier to get a nice balcony with 2 insides for your kids and that way you have more money to spend on tours! Just a few thoughts, whatever you decide have a great first cruise.  They really are fun!

[upwarduk]

On 6/17/2019 at 1:46 AM, GypsyCouple said:

When I booked our rooms, Celebrity said that since the cruise was technically sold out, they could not book more than 2 people per cabin. Our cruise is in July. This forced me to get 3 cabins. 

‘Technically sold out’ yet you were able to book 3 cabins! 

SO, what does ‘technically sold out‘ mean exactly?

Edited June 21, 2019 by upwarduk

[bEwAbG]

I, too, would have questioned the need to get a third cabin.  They do reach a point in which capacity per cabin is limited due to the number of people assigned to a particular muster station, so I suspect this is the issue that was being cited.  However, I'd be curious if a different agent would have come up with a better solution, perhaps after talking with a supervisor.  We know that X allows children to be in nearby cabins without having the parent booked onto the reservation, so I'm thinking the agent also got some of the other details wrong.  I believe it would be worth calling and talking to someone else to make sure everything is settled in advance. 

[GypsyCouple]

On 6/17/2019 at 5:49 AM, waterbug123 said:

 

Different cabin categories come with their own unique perks. Depending on when a person books and the demand level for different categories, AQ might not always be pricier than concierge, but even if it is, it comes with its own unique perks. Obviously, if you prefer the concierge perks, book that category.  If you are otherwise happy with your cabin selections and eating lunch together on embarkation day is of utmost importance, your kids can always forego that perk and you can all eat together elsewhere.  The kids probably won't care one way or the other where they eat.

 

 

And some people are fine with it.  Maybe they eat as a family every other night of the year and want to let their kids do their own thing while on vacation.  When my kids were younger they liked the "grown up" experience of dining with us in the MDR or specialty restaurants, but now that they're teens and older, they have little interest in a long, drawn out multi-course sit down dinner every night.  They don't want to do OUR thing and eat in that manner any more than I want to do THEIR thing and grab pizza every night.

 

 

I'm sure that that technically they CAN, but the OP prefers her daughter to have some privacy and apparently they can afford it so have opted to book the kids in multiple cabins.

You are 100% correct! The kids would much rather run around the ship eating pizza and buffet than sitting through a long dinner with us! Thank you!

[GypsyCouple]

UPDATE:

I contacted Celebrity to try and move the kids rooms. They would not and still won’t, allow me to put all 3 in the same room. This is because they say the ship is technically full, meaning that they are only booking 2 per room in any open rooms. So we need 2 connecting rooms for our 3 children...2 kids in one room and the last in another. That’s what we have now and there is no better option. Even if my husband and I weren’t in a suite, we would still need a 3rd room as there are 5 of us in total. Once we board Ill try to get our names switched so that I’m listed in the suite with my husband, but if not...that’s ok too. We’ll just get an extra room key and make it work. Thank you EVERYONE for your input. I appreciate it!

[cynbar]

GypsyCouple, I hope you haven't been offended by some of these comments, I think they mean well. I want to make sure you are clear on the dining arrangements.

 

The people in the suite are assigned to Luminae as their dining room --- it's open for dinner and breakfast everyday, lunch on sea days. Those in the other cabins are assigned to the main dining room, sounds like in early seating traditional where spaces will be saved at a certain table. You can link the reservations for the 3 not in the suite, but you can't link the suite with the others, they are totally separate dining rooms. If you want to bring the kids into Luminae with you, you'll have to ask the maitre d' and then pay $30 each guest for dinner. It's not guaranteed, but they do try to accommodate.  If you want to join them in the MDR, ask the concierge in the Retreat or the maitre d' in Luminae how to best arrange this. Hope all of this works out for all of you without too many headaches.

[GypsyCouple]

8 hours ago, cynbar said:

GypsyCouple, I hope you haven't been offended by some of these comments, I think they mean well. I want to make sure you are clear on the dining arrangements.

 

The people in the suite are assigned to Luminae as their dining room --- it's open for dinner and breakfast everyday, lunch on sea days. Those in the other cabins are assigned to the main dining room, sounds like in early seating traditional where spaces will be saved at a certain table. You can link the reservations for the 3 not in the suite, but you can't link the suite with the others, they are totally separate dining rooms. If you want to bring the kids into Luminae with you, you'll have to ask the maitre d' and then pay $30 each guest for dinner. It's not guaranteed, but they do try to accommodate.  If you want to join them in the MDR, ask the concierge in the Retreat or the maitre d' in Luminae how to best arrange this. Hope all of this works out for all of you without too many headaches.

Thank you! This cruising stuff is complicated! We’re going to have family dinner in Luminae twice, which I’ll set up directly with them and understand I’ll be paying. The other nights, our teenagers can choose where to eat. We might do specialty dining a night as well.

 

i actually wasn’t offended. Anyone with teenagers knows that most of them don’t want to hang out with their parents. 🙂 

[wrk2cruise]

I echo the statement that you should go to Michaels Club and explain the situation to the Concierge there and let them straighten out the cards and bev packages.  They should be very helpful.  If you ask nicely for this assistance they will know you are traveling with your family and you "might" be pleasantly surprised.

[gold1953]

On 6/16/2019 at 7:59 PM, cruiserchuck said:

 

I doubt that there are any suites that are connected to (or across the hall from) two ocean view cabins.  

Actually they are .. across the hall but never connected to of course . We have stayed in insides which were in 'suite neighbourhoods'

[evitacruiser]

Did you check the muster station situation? We were on Royal one year and in adjoining cabins and our kids were on a different muster station to us and it could not be changed. Now, when we book that is the first question we ask but it always takes a long time to get an answer.

[hcat]

On 6/21/2019 at 8:42 PM, GypsyCouple said:

Thank you! This cruising stuff is complicated! We’re going to have family dinner in Luminae twice, which I’ll set up directly with them and understand I’ll be paying. The other nights, our teenagers can choose where to eat. We might do specialty dining a night as well.

 

i actually wasn’t offended. Anyone with teenagers knows that most of them don’t want to hang out with their parents. 🙂 

Sounds like you have a positive approach...it will work out for all.  A few dinners together sounds lkke a good plan..Your teens are pretty much adults,  so privacy for your dtr is a good thing She'll have her own bathroom, shower etc.  ( lucky her) .  Have a great time on your family vacay!