New Cruiser, Advice needed!!

[momonmeds]

Hi, I'm new to this site and new to cruising. We are taking extended family of 12 on Royal Carribbean's Vision of the Seas to the Mexican Riviera in December. Children range from 2-20. Any and all info and advice are welcome. Which shore excursions do you reccommend, how formal is formal, what is best for meal times, activities? What do we need to pack? Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom and experience!!

[DHADEN]

Wow; that's a lot to cover...:)

 

Welcome to the C.C. Boards!!

 

I give all "Newbies" three warnings:

 

1) Once you've been on your first cruise, expect to spend the rest of your life planning and looking forward to your next cruise.

2) If you don't gain at least 5 pounds, you didn't have a good enough time.:p

3) Hope your kids can get scholarships because you'll spend their college funds on cruises.

 

Now for your questions; I would suggest spending time reading through all the threads that are available on this RCI board. Do searches for your particular question like, "What should we pack" - do a search using "Packing" in the title. You'll find 3 or 4 threads for each topic and I'll bet they will answer your questions.

 

Hope this Helps.

[MacThespian]

Hi, I'm new to this site and new to cruising. We are taking extended family of 12 on Royal Carribbean's Vision of the Seas to the Mexican Riviera in December. Children range from 2-20. Any and all info and advice are welcome. Which shore excursions do you reccommend, how formal is formal, what is best for meal times, activities? What do we need to pack? Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom and experience!!

 

First, a word of warning: some people get overly passionate on these boards. Take everything you read (including this) with a grain of salt.

 

For example, formal nights: You'll find people who believe that all men should wear a tux (with appropriate matching attire for women) down to those who are adamant in stating that since they paid for this trip, they can wear anything they darn please anywhere at any time. I wear a tux, because I like it, but RCCL's guidelines for men say a dark suit is also acceptable attire. (I think the clothing guidelines are on their web site.) There's a bit more leeway with kids, of course. My daughter's been cruising since she was around 2, and we always liked to dress her up; she likes it too. But you certainly don't have to go overboard (sorry about the pun) and get suits/tuxes for kids. Nice slacks, a collared shirt, and a tie are fine, in my opinion. (Others will differ.)

 

Yes, you'll probably be admitted to the dining room, even on formal nights, if you're not quite as dressy as I've described above. But there is a chance (most likely a small one) that you'll be turned away. And if you really flout the dress code, the chance does increase.

 

And yes, if you don't want to dress up, there are alternatives to the main dining room.

 

Meal times are another story. A lot of kids have trouble waiting until 8:00 or 8:30 for dinner (especially if they have an early bedtime) so you might want to choose the early (also known as the main) seating for dinner. We've always chosen late seating, but then, our daughter's a theatre baby (my wife and I are both very active in community theatre) and is accustomed to staying up late.

 

Whatever you do, don't obsess about anything. Relax, and have a great time!

[dc-snoopy]

2) If you don't gain at least 5 pounds, you didn't have a good enough time.:p

 

For us, it is the opposite. If we DO gain 5 pounds, we didn't have a good enough time. Although we eat a lot, we love active excursions. We snorkel, hike, bike, rock climb (at least as much as I can drag DW out to these), raft, kayak while out on cruises. Alaska was great and active. W Caribbean less so, but okay. S Caribbean was great! So, I've never gained more than 2 lbs on a cruise (W Caribbean) and that was because we were slightly less active. :)

 

Now for your questions; I would suggest spending time reading through all the threads that are available on this RCI board. Do searches for your particular question like, "What should we pack" - do a search using "Packing" in the title. You'll find 3 or 4 threads for each topic and I'll bet they will answer your questions.

 

Hope this Helps.

 

This is great advice. YOu'll find so many answers just browsing through the threads. And do not limite yourself to just the RCI site. Go visit the DESTINATION boards and visit the board for each of your ports of call. You'll find much more concentrated information there about each port, the good and the bad, the cheap and the expensive. You should also go to the ROLL CALL boards, to see if anyone has started a thread for your cruise (you didn't list which week, so I'm not sure). Then you'll be able to meet and talk with people that will actually be on your cruise. You may be able to meet up with them on the ship which is a lot of fun. There may be an official party on board the ship called "Meet and Mingle" (M&M) where you can meet CC friends. Finally, (if you have time!), you can also look to see if any other ships have a similar itinerary to yours and visit the board for that line to see if any passengers have done a similar cruise have any tips or comments.

 

I have done RCI, but never the Mexican Riviera, so here are some generic tips:

 

1. But a clear plastic shoe organizer (I got one at Target). Hang this on your bathroom door and put all sorts of small/loose things in the pockets. You'll always be able to find them and it will keep the very limited counter space relatively uncluttered.

 

2. If any of you suffer from motion sickness (or might), one thing that works for many (including DW and I) but not all, are ginger pills. I bought a brand called Ginger Force from our local health food store but it can be purchased on-line easily. It works wonders and even helped a friend who had sailed before but wasn't having any luck with bonine, dramamine and sea bads (the magnetic wrist bands). Although I don't get motion sickness from cars or planes, I did have a little motion sickness on our first two cruises (none this time! yeah!) and it was great. It is also natural and non-drowsy.

 

3. Get into the habit of checking out the ship newsletter every night or morning for the next day's schedule. On RCI, it is called the Cruise Compass. It will have all the info you need from the time the ship docks and leaves, to the activities on-board and the schedule, the sales in the shops, dinner dress code for the next night, hours of operation for the various facilities on-board and more.

 

4. If you do digital photography, plan to take a lot of pictures. Make sure that you have enough batteries and your charger if you are charging batteries. If you use disposable, get the high-grade batteries designed for electronics. If you are doing rechargeable you should get NiMH instead of NiCad because they'll last longer. Make sure that you plan for how to store your photos. I bring my laptop (for a couple of reasons) and download my photos every day into separate directories for each port of call. Some people buy relatively cheap additional data cards for their camera. Plan to take more photos than you usually take on vacation and make sure you can store that much on the data cards that you have. If you need, some go to the photo shop on board where you can download your photos onto a CD for something like $15-20 (one time burn). However, be careful as I have heard from some people that the kiosk to do this isn't always working on all ships. It would be sad if you can't take photos because you were relying on this and it wasn't available.

 

5. If you bring/use various electronic and electric appliances, then you should bring along a power strip (one of those bars with multiple plugs that plugs into the wall and possible a couple of standard indoor extension cords. There is usually only one plug in each room and it is on the counter. Rather than fight over the plug for various things, the power strip helps you to plug more than one thing in and the extension cord allows people to use power around the cabin. For us, I have a laptop, DW has an air cleaner to get allergens out of the air and a curling iron. It helps us out.

 

6. For dress, most cruises are pretty much casual now. During the day, any active wear from bathing attire to shorts and tees goes. In the dining room for dinner only, you'll find some controversy over attire. In general, pants below the knee (coulatz are acceptable, jeans are controversial but common) and no tees of flip flips. For formal nights, you should dress as you would if someone were taking you out for a nice dinner for your birthday at a fancy restaurant. Each cruise varies, but anywhere from a few to many will be wearing actual formal wear, like tuxes and fancy evening gowns. The largest group will be wearing "business attire" e.g. suits and nice/cocktail dresses. Some will be in business casual like sports coats, slacks and tie and dresses/skirts. Some smaller part will be in less like slacks, shirt and tie vs nice blouse & skirt or dress slacks. Any of the above will work. Go with what you are comfortable with, but try to at least pay some respect to the recommended dining attire. Last, many people like to take family photos from the professional photographers on-line on formal nights, so you might want to take advantage of that and get your family dressed up for a family photo that you might not be able to duplicate (how often do all 12 of you get together?). We just did that on our last cruise for our family celebrating my parents 50th anniversary. We don't have too many occasions to have all 11 of us together.

 

That's all for now. Hopefully with a little research, you can narrow the scope of your request, because you've asked for a lot of information. Good luck planning. For many of us, that's half the fun!

[cb at sea]

Plan on having your extended group go their separate ways during the daytime! Not everyone will want to do the same excursions and it's best to let everyone do their own thing! You can link the reservations so that everyone will sit together at dinner, and catch up on their day! The younger kids will not be up for 8 hour adventure trips, while the 20 year olds may be raring to go!

Just use common sense in "planning" your vacation and realise that despite all efforts, it will not work out perfectly! Use the time to relax and just have fun!

[cb at sea]

Oh--with younger kids, main seating will be the best dining time, if the kids are planning on doing any AO activities!

[hawkfish]

To reiterate something that Snoopy said, you will probably have 20-30 opportunities to have your photographs taken throughout the week. There are the formal nights, with several options/backdrops, and then when you get on/off ship, plus other random photo setups on different nights. Some ships even do a dress up night, where passengers can have their photos taken in costume.

 

I would encourage your group to take as much advantage of this as possible. You will get a wide variety of family photos, and as Snoopy said, when else will you all be together like that? And you only have to buy the ones you like at the end. Some one else mentioned that you can get a waiver that allows other photographers to print the photos for you, so you don't even have to buy them all there.

[reallyitsmema]

Welcome to Cruise Critic. My first suggestion would be to read, read, read and read some more. There is a lot of information in these forums that will help you. Read the RCL website too especially the before you board and the all about cruising tabs, those help a lot.

 

Make sure all your reservations are linked so you can be together for dining if that is what you want. We prefer main seating which is at 6pm since a lot of the kids activities start at 8. There are shows each night for both main and late seating so you won't miss them if you choose to go.

 

Formal night is a very hot topic around here. For us, my husband wore a dark suit, I wore a dressy dress and my 16 yr old son wore a navy blazer, shirt and tie and khakis. You will see gowns and tuxes and also people less casual too.

 

Make sure the kids go to the meet and greet for their adventure ocean age groups so they can meet people the first night.

 

Have fun planning:)

[frudutx]

We started cruising about 5 years ago and we'll be taking our 12th this coming September. One thing to remember is the temptation to overpack, I did this on the first cruise. Shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops or tennis shoes during the day, or just a bathing suit and then something for the evening. And don't think you can't wear the same thing twice, cause you can. Mix and match is the key. I try to pick the same color of evening wear so that I only have to pack one or two pair of dress shoes. :rolleyes:

 

Just some thoughts.

 

Have a wonderful time, the Mexican Riviera is a great initerary.

 

It is Vision?

 

d

[dc-snoopy]

When we went on the Jewel in Feb 2005, we were with a group (dc-diva got married on that cruise and we had about 40-50 on-board together). One couple had their 3-year old son with them and we had late seating. So they were able to hire a babysitter through the ship and around 5:30, they would take him to the buffet and have him eat. Then they would take him back to the cabin, have him wind down while they were getting ready. The babysitter would show up about 7:45 just as they had him in bed with a DVD playing and they would leave for dinner. Worked great for them. They had family time for a couple of hours before they had dinner, he got to wind down (and he loved his sitter and so after a couple of days, they had her come earlier so that he could play with her before going to "bed") and they got to have adult time with all the friends cruising for the wedding. It was great all around.

 

Note: babysitters can be arranged through the purser's desk on-board and they were lucky. They made arrangements with the young woman to come back every evening and got the same woman. She loved playing with him. And boy did he raise a stink when his parents told him she couldn't come home with them! :)

[isujim]

Take twice as much money as you planned

 

Take half as many clothes as you planned:rolleyes:

[dc-snoopy]

Take twice as much money as you planned

 

Take half as many clothes as you planned:rolleyes:

 

Gee...if you only planned to take one outfit per day, then I think the second half of the week would be interesting for your fellow passengers. ;)

[isujim]

Gee...if you only planned to take one outfit per day, then I think the second half of the week would be interesting for your fellow passengers. ;)

 

Who said I take one outfit per day:rolleyes: .........First cruise (it is a first cruiser) we took everything but the kitchen sink......LOL......and I probably would have taken that if I could figure a way to take it. After so many cruises, less is more.........we still take plenty of clothes.......just not as many as we used to.;)

[momonmeds]

Thanks so much for all of your help, I've gotten some great ideas and feel a little more prepared.

[Merion_Mom]

Hi, I'm new to this site and new to cruising. We are taking extended family of 12 on Royal Carribbean's Vision of the Seas to the Mexican Riviera in December. Children range from 2-20. Any and all info and advice are welcome. Which shore excursions do you reccommend, how formal is formal, what is best for meal times, activities? What do we need to pack? Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom and experience!!

 

Another good source of information about Royal Caribbean cruises is the Royal Caribbean website:

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/customersupport/faq.do;jsessionid=00009BlMvqcsffCSWDyTXOEt2F9:10kohi76p

[emayracing]

Sorry momonmeds to sort of hijack the thread you started, but you are asking the same general questions I have and I am also a first time cruiser with lots of questions.

 

I totally understand the main dining room having suggested attire.

 

So, my question is - is there someplace on the ship where I can have a good meal, in my shorts or jeans and t-shirt? When looking online everything seems to be "smart casual" - except Johnny Rockets.

 

Second, a more general question - this is also my first cruise. Aside from dining - what is the general attire around the ship? Are people in t-shirts, shorts, and jeans? (I'm not talking about restaurants)

 

I see dc-snoopy says that pretty much jeans/shorts/t-shirts are acceptable (not for dining), but I just wanted to confirm.

 

I've read all sorts of forums boards, and some make the ships sound real stuffy and as if I'd be the only one in jeans or a t-shirt on the deck.

 

So, to all those who have cruised before - aside from dining - what is acceptable attire around the ship?

[KelJ]

Sorry momonmeds to sort of hijack the thread you started, but you are asking the same general questions I have and I am also a first time cruiser with lots of questions.

 

I totally understand the main dining room having suggested attire.

 

So, my question is - is there someplace on the ship where I can have a good meal, in my shorts or jeans and t-shirt? When looking online everything seems to be "smart casual" - except Johnny Rockets.

 

Go to the buffet.

 

Second, a more general question - this is also my first cruise. Aside from dining - what is the general attire around the ship? Are people in t-shirts, shorts, and jeans? (I'm not talking about restaurants) I see dc-snoopy says that pretty much jeans/shorts/t-shirts are acceptable (not for dining), but I just wanted to confirm.

 

Shorts and t-shirts are exactly what you will see.

 

I've read all sorts of forums boards, and some make the ships sound real stuffy and as if I'd be the only one in jeans or a t-shirt on the deck.

 

So, to all those who have cruised before - aside from dining - what is acceptable attire around the ship?

 

See my answers above.

[KelJ]

Drat. Double post!

[KelJ]

Triple post!!!

[Coralc]

Alaska, people wear jeans, including dinner. Mexican Riviera, you will see probably see people in jeans. Especially on the days out of San Pedro and coming back as it is often windy/cool. In the Caribbean, hardly anyone wears jeans, I think because it is hot/humid. Light weight pants take up so much less room in the luggage and are so much more comfortable. Dining room used to say, no shorts, no tank tops, no caps. We don't wear any of those things to dinner, so I haven't checked recently.

 

No one is stuffy, and I don't think anyone really cares what you wear. They might think it, but no one is going to say anything about your attire. I don't, and I don't think others waste any of there vacation time on how others are dressed. :)

[TEXASMUNK]

We live in Texas, jeans and boots are everyday wear. So, this advise is not to question your decision to wear jeans, but to advise you jeans are VERY hot on any ship that sails into warmer weather.

So for shorts, or dockers, etc. Leave the jeans home.

[emayracing]

We live in Texas, jeans and boots are everyday wear. So, this advise is not to question your decision to wear jeans, but to advise you jeans are VERY hot on any ship that sails into warmer weather.

So for shorts, or dockers, etc. Leave the jeans home.

 

We are sailing the Caribbean in early February, and someone told me that the evenings and early mornings at sea actually get quite chilly at that time of the year - which is why we are packing the jeans. (Plus, we are leaving Chicago, so I'll need warm clothes to get to/from the airport anyhow).

 

I've never been in the Caribbean in February, so if the advice I was given (chilly at night/early morning at sea) isn't true - just let me know.

 

Thanks

[DHADEN]

I've never been in the Caribbean in February, so if the advice I was given (chilly at night/early morning at sea) isn't true - just let me know.

Thanks

 

It will depend on WHERE in the Caribbean you are going. Which itenerary are you sailing?

 

Eastern - Average temp will be mid to high 80's - maybe 60's at night

 

Western (further south) - Average temp will be high 80's to low 90's - maybe 70's at night

 

Southern (Once you to south of Puerto Rico) - Average temp will be high 80's, maybe low 90's to mid 90's - maybe high 70's at night.

 

Hope This Helps.

[emayracing]

It will depend on WHERE in the Caribbean you are going. Which itenerary are you sailing?

 

Eastern - Average temp will be mid to high 80's - maybe 60's at night

 

Western (further south) - Average temp will be high 80's to low 90's - maybe 70's at night

 

Southern (Once you to south of Puerto Rico) - Average temp will be high 80's, maybe low 90's to mid 90's - maybe high 70's at night.

 

Hope This Helps.

 

 

 

We are doing the Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel itinerary.

 

 

Yes, that helps quite a bit. Thanks.