Onessa

There will be SOME kids....just not a shipful of kids!

And more the week of Tgiving than the week before or after!

As a mother of four boys, whom I admit weren't all A students (as many on these boards claim in order to justify taking kids out of school) . . .

while I hate to burst your bubble, there are some kids out there who do get straight A's -- and dissing those of us who have raised such kids by saying we "claim" is really not constructive. My DD worked very hard to maintain her GPA and if, as a family, we determined that she could miss a day or two of school for whatever reason, it is my family's decision.

 

. . . no matter what behavior we demanded they use, in reality it just wasn't the case---every one of our boys had some kind of issue at some point, especially our third son who contributed to my gray hair. . . .

Perhaps, in your family's case, your family should have decided that you could not do certain activities. And I hope you did.

 

During our DD's final band trip this year, as head chaperone, my DH did end up making two boys sleep on the floor of their hotel room one night so their chaperone could bunk in to make certain they stayed quiet. All four boys in the room got to spend the next day (when we were at an amusement park for a large portion of the day) with my DH -- who does NOT "do" any rides. Each of the boys had to call their parents to explain what they had done (they were loud, and continued to be loud after being warned). The parents all took this very seriously - and each of the boys were punished once they got home which included each of the boys doing chores for both my husband and their chaperone.

 

I have discovered after 15 years of being a scout leader and youth soccer board member, and 8 years of band trips and curling trips, and countless other chaperoning/supervising of kids -- that 98% of the parents do take their kids' behavior very seriously. Some kids can be a real handful - but if you work to figure out what "gets" to them, you can usually get through to them.

 

But you are right there are some parents who just do not care. And there are some kids who are just incorragible.

 

 

. . .But what really galls me on these boards is when individuals always throw this comment: "We encounter obnoxious drunks on our cruises.......". While we have encountered our fair share of those who've imbibed too much, not once have those individuals negatively impacted our cruise, but out of control and unsupervised kids most definitely HAVE negatively impacted our cruises.

My experience has been pretty much the exact opposite. While I have encountered situations where a fussy toddler has interrupted my meal prior to its being "whisked" out of the room, and I have had to "excuse" myself to get by a knot of tweens camped out in a stairwell. I have never been awoken at 2:30am by a kid pounding on my stateroom door demanding for me to let them in, but I was threatened by some drunk one morning (who, turns out, was one deck off). And I have been physically knocked down by a 250lb drunk who tripped getting onto the elevator, . . . so yes, drunken adults have negatively impacted my cruises.

But I'm not saying we need dry cruise lines (First, they would be WAY too expensive :) and secondly, 98% of the pax who drink are perfectly able to drink in moderation). So anyone who is saying that because a few badly behaved kids have disturbed their cruise that that is reason to not have any kids on a cruise, may be over reacting.

Hello all

 

My family and I have booked a 10 night cruise on the Equinox over Thanksgiving break. Has anyone with kids done a longer cruise on the line?

We have a 10 and 15 year old.. the itinerary is great , I'm just hoping there will be other families onboard at this time.. i have joined the roll call but not seen lots of evidence of families.

i guess I'm just wanting any input from others who may have sailed on longer cruises which traditionally dont have lots of kids sailing.. we have cruised Princess, RCL, HAL but wanted to try Celebrity this time..

Any feedback would be appreciated..

When my daughter was in elementary school and middle school we always cruised the week of American Thanksgiving (mostly Hawaii or Mediterranean). RCCI, NCL, Celebrity -- seven cruises mostly 7 or 10 day - one 12 day.

 

Since her school had three and 1/2 days off the week of Tgiving and generally had a 1/2 day the Friday prior to Tgiving week. She'd generally end up missing 2 to 3 full days of school and 2 half days of school. Many schools have extended Tgiving holidays. And we discovered on the Med cruises, most of the "American" schools that ex-pats send their kids to in Europe have at least a week off for American Tgiving. For the European sailings there were always quite a few school-aged kids on board. For the HI cruises, it was generally one of the lines' busiest sailings for kids.

 

Celebrity typically does have a few fewer kids than RCCI or Princess. And a 10 day will have fewer than a 7 day. But in our experiences there have always been plenty of kids and kid's activities on a US Tgiving cruise.

My DD's child US passport expired 9/1 so she had to get a new one (she is 18YO so she went from child to adult -- technically with a child passport you do not "renew", you re-apply). She applied (in person at local Post Office) on 8/15, it came in mail on 9/4. Processed through New Orleans.

This cruiser (diamond) does not find DyDi at all appealing and we have, based upon DyDi as the "final straw", voted with our pocketbook and have booked our next cruise on another line.

 

While I appreciate that RCCI is trying something new, it does not appeal to me. And there are several other changes that RCCI has been making over the past few years that make it clear that we are heading in different directions.

The car dealship where I take my car to be serviced has the same problem. The dealership does their own survey, where they encourage the customer to be totally honest. The dealership wants to know what went right/wrong so they can use that info to make business decisions.

 

The car manufacturer also wants me to complete a survey. The service desk dude, said fill it out if you want to and make whatever comments, but please get give scores of 10 across the board. If they get even one "9" on one question, out of 100 surveys the manufacturer's reps beat them up. There is manditory training that they have to attend (which the dealership has to pay for, so it ups their cost of doing business, which of course ends up impacting their prices). Management has to submit plans and show evidence of progress. There are special programs that they will not have access to unless they are 100%.

 

This is similar to RCCI's process. RCCI doesn't really care about using the survey information to figure out what is working and what is not. They want all 10s to report to JD Powers and other "customer satisfaction" programs. They want all 10s because the bosses' bosses' bosses' bosses' bonus is dependent upon all 10s (kind of like when that multi million dollar football coach runs up the score against some team in the last game of the season because he'll get an extra 100,000 dollars if the points for percentage is over 60% or something). The scores are not expected to be "real" they are being used for a completely different purpose.

 

More and more RCCI's policies are coming up short. And while my waiter or room steward may deserve all 10s for working hard and smiling at my dumb jokes or whatever -- RCCI's management deserves lower scores. We just booked a cruise - non-RCCI -- so that is my scorecard to RCCI.

I think this is the crux of why some people like the idea of DD and others don't. I'm not a picky eater and I find the MDR menus very boring - meat and veg, fish and veg, pasta dish, salad etc every night - even though the choices change every night I wouldn't usually eat such boring stuff every night at home so definitely want something a bit more exciting when I'm away. On our recent week on Oasis there were some nights when we just didn't feel excited by anything on the menu - in fact one of our sons (23) said just how boring the choices were.

 

I would happily eat from the Asian menu and the Mediterranean menu several nights a week (in fact I could quite happy try most things on both those menus), the American menu isn't the sort of food I would usually choose but worth a try for one night. I also enjoy dressing up and partaking in the formal night menu and think it will be nice to go along to the 'formal' restaurant with other people who are dressed up too.

 

This is why I find the concept exciting but can see that for picky eaters it may present a challenge.

I don't know what about the same menu night after night after night in one venue (but having several venues), is any more exciting than a different menu every night in one venue. But if it is exciting to you, so be it.

 

I am in NO way a picky eater. But I know picky eaters, and I see this as something that is better for picky eaters. They will find what they like and stick with it.

 

This way if I am traveling with a picky eater, I'm going to get stuck at one venue night after night because that is where they have the dishes they will eat. MDR concept, if they wanted the grilled chicken every night, they could order the grilled chicken every night and I would still have multiple options. If a pax DH is a "meat and potatoes" type and the pax DD prefers the pasta offerings at the Med venue - the poor wife/mom pax will end up in the middle. And what if, nothing on the Med menu really interests you -- you have to pick "something" because your traveling companion is really interested in something there -- normally I can default select the curry on the MDR menu if all else fails.

 

I do like to get to know my tablemates and my wait staff. If I wanted to go to a different resturant every night -- eat with my DH -- have a different waiter/bus boy every night -- I would stay home and drive to a different local resturant every night. Most of the local resturants have the same menue every night. My husband's mustache will probably need to be trimmed just about any time and he'll be wanting to talk about football and the people with whom he works. The wait staff will be pretty much indifferent. With DyDi - it will be a different table, different waiter, same old DH, same menu that that venue offered six months ago on my last cruise. Seems like it will get boring pretty quickly.

 

I applaud RCCI for trying something different, but I can't say that as the new program is described that DyDi really is appealing in any way.

 

We were in the midst of selecting a cruise when this was announced -- between the concerns it raised as to its appeal to us and the fact that it will still be pretty "new" - we voted with our feet and booked on a different line. We'll see how this shakes out, and re-evaluate before booking our next cruise; but it is likely we will not be sailing RCCI again for a bit. Too bad, but there have been enough changes that they've instituted that have convinced us that we will be taking our loyalties elsewhere.

It is all about ROI (return on investment). Celebrity could make money with smaller ships, but they make more money with the larger ships. So they could invest a dollar in a small ship to see an ROI of 10 cents, or they could invest a dollar in a large ship to see an ROI of 11 cents. So they choose the larger ship because it has a higher ROI.

 

Being profitable is not enough -- you need to be more profitable. As Michael Douglas' character said in Wall Street "greed is good"

 

We've all helped make this world, now we have to live in it.

Those are great ages for cruising.

 

Most ships have kids clubs up to age 11 and then teen clubs for the 12 to 17 year olds. Ages do vary so check carefully if having them together is important to you or if having your 12YO in a kids club (rather than a teen program) is important. Some programs or individual ship's staff will allow a 12YO to "age down" into the clubs, some will not. Check with the line for general rules.

 

The kids programs are pretty structured - check-in/check-out/supervision. The teen programs are less so - generally more of a come and go as you with proposition, the clubs and activities are supervised, but the counselors are more there to kick off any organized activities and to keep the peace, not to keep track of the kids. Most of the teen activities are divided up into age groups, so don't worry your 12YO will not necessarily be lumped into activities with 16YOs.

 

I discovered that when my DD had turned 12YO she was really "ready" for the teen program and would have been bored stiff in the kids programming, but that was her.

 

There is nothing that will "kill" a teen program faster than allowing the under 12 set to participate. When my DD was 12YO she admitted to me afterwards that she did not mention that she was in 6th grade, because most of the other 12-14YOs she hung with were in 7th or 8th grade and (typical to teen girls that age) she felt she would be treated differently if they knew she was in 6th. So I would avoid asking to "age up" the 10YO.

 

Be certain to set out ground rules for your kids. Where they will be at certain times. Areas that are off-limits. Check-in with you processes. etc. But otherwise the "contained" nature of the ship, makes a cruise pretty easy on parent.

 

Also, I do not know what your situation is, but if you are divorced or never married to their father, make certain you have appropriate documentation to allow them to travel with you. . . copies of court papers that give you sole custody and/or notarized letter from him giving his consent or whatever. If he is deceased, bring the paperwork that shows that. But that all is common-sense for any travel.

Don't forget to get milk and cookies for Santa - and maybe see if your waiter can scare up some carrots for the reindeer (catching up with a ship, is not easy work)!

 

Reindeer antlers, elf hats or santa hats to wear on Christmas Eve day can also make things very festive.

To keep my DD more engaged in sightseeing, I would put together a list of items to "find" during the day.

 

The number of items varied based upon her age. Some of the items would be tailored to the city we were visiting, some would be more "generic" in nature. When she was a pre-reader / early reader, I would include some basic drawings to accompany the words on the list.

 

So Venice might have had the following list:

_ Statue of winged lion

_ a basket ball

_ Gondola

_ Orange purse

_ Red baseball cap

_ carnival mask

_ Canadian flag

_ Someone wearing an article of clothing from a Wisconsin team

etc.

 

All she'd need to do is say she saw it at the time she saw it and explain where (we'd try to avoid pointing - particularly at people :)). She was a pretty good kid, so we believed her if she said she saw someone "with a Bucky shirt by the church" even if we had not actually seen it.

 

If she checked everything off the list on one day, we'd have some sort of treat the next day.

 

We've also done treasure hunts on-board with maps and clues (including ones when I would "run on ahead" to hide the next clue - or to enlist a bartender to hold a clue). Those took a lot more work, but were supremely fun for the whole family.

Whatever the merits of the OP's original complaint may be, I do relate to the issue that they have with the canned response they feel that they received.

 

Is it just me who is tired of the "canned" customer service.

• A store near me has a "rule" that if an employee is in 10 floor tiles of a customer, the employee must make eye-contact with teh customer and acknowledge them.
  
• Another store insists upon asking you every time "did you find everything you were looking for" at checkout -- but if the customer answers "no, you were out of bottled skim milk" the employee is completely discombobulated
  
• I wanted to complain to Kellogg's about two product problems I had had. Their "contact us" web site was so restricted, that I needed do two separate complaints (no way to select that you had multiple issues). I got the same exact word-for-word, cut-and-paste text reply to both inquiries.
  That is not customer service, it is automating complaints to reduce operating costs. It is not providing customer service, it is mitigating the risks that would be associated with giving a Customer Service person any real authority to address a complaint.
  
• I sent an email to "Pink" to let them know that one of their associates had really gone "above and beyond" in providing excellent service and got a canned "sorry you had a problem" email in return.
  

As I said, I don't know the validity of any of the OPs actaul complains, but I can understand that recieving a boilerplate response is disingenuous and lacks any real sincerity or even any attempt by the company to try to understand the issue. Companies spend thousands and thousands of dollars on market research, they really should pay some attention to the free feedback they are getting in complaints.

. . . Just look at any Celebrity ads / brochures... One or two pics of kis & families... Tons of pics of couples.

Actually MOST of the pictures are of scenery or buildings -- so if we are basing who Celebrity is marketing upon the pictures in their ads, I think that beaches, old buildings and mountains are their target passengers. :D

 

I see plenty of marketing from Celebrity aimed at family market, but of course I regularly visit web sites geared and read magazines that are geared toward families. I am in marketing and if Celebrity is doing their job right you are looking at marketing aimed squarely toward your demographic. Some lines use a more generic marketing campaign so you may see family-related content in those lines' ads.

 

 

 

. . . there are kid focused activities on Celebrity... But you are not going to find the water slides, wave riders, rock climbing, ice skating, zip lines etc that other lines have.

 

Kids may "hang out" and meet new friends wherever they go, but that doesn't mean they won't be bored or wouldn't rather be on a Disney or NCL ship.

Not all adults have the same interests, nor do all kids. My DD is most interested in the social aspects of the trip -- meeting new friends. Her favorite cruises were not DCL, NCL or the big RCCI ships - her favorites were on RCCI Splendour and Celebrity Solsitice. Part of the reason I suspect was that there was not the peer pressure to "try" the zip line or wave rider or whatever.

 

Many kids may be bored if the number of "cool" physical activies are missing. But there are many adults who would be just as bored without the wave rider or whatever. Bored kids may loiter, bored adults tend to drink heavily -- just saying :D

 

I have two co-workers in their 30's who went on a cruise with their wives -- these are folks with boats and jet-skis and snow mobiles and snow boards. They chose a RCCI Behemoth-of-the-sea type ship and "skipped" going on shore at most ports.

 

 

. . . And as for fellow Pax...Seems to me that clearly some of the most heated cruise discussions about Celebrity have happened on Cruises where there have been lots & lots of kids aboard. . . . Personally, I think it is cause the kids are bored more than anything else....

Seems all line's discussions on these boards have very heated discussions about dress code, chair hogs and kids. Again not specific to Celebrity.

 

. . . if the Parents had done their homework and actually looked at what Celebrity had to offer... And compared to other lines, and figured out what their kids needed wanted to have a good vacation....

Yup, EVERYONE should do their homework and select a vacation that best meets the interests of all those involved. They should feel free to chose Celebrity if that line and that ship and that itinerary would meet their needs.

 

Broad sweeping generalizations of any group of people really are not helpful.

 

Will there be a lot of tween aged kids on a short cruise during the Spring Break period? Probably.

 

The OP did not indicate if their 11YO DS preferred video games to wave pools or whatever. If they had, the other posters could address what types of activites would be available to an 11YO boy that might interest him or what might be missing.

This is not reserved to cruises - it is a trend across all business and all of society. Save money and cutting costs is all that really matters. We will talk about Customer Service, but if making our CS better is going to cost even ten cents a day, forget it.

 

Case in point, the building in which I work has over 2000 employees -- the coffee shop (which had been run independently) got contracted out to a big food service organization. You used to be able to buy 1 or 2 postage stamps if you needed one down there, but the new management determined that the "cost to carry a stock of stamps was prohibative" (by stock they are talking about a roll of standard US postage stamps - the forever stamps -- a roll is less than $50. The carry cost was estimated by the company to be $27.55 a year). Maybe twice a year I bought a stamp - it is no big deal - I'm not going to quit my job, but does it make this a little bit less of a nice place to work -- yes.

 

And to those of you who have bought into the idea that "little things add up" -- I agree, but business needs to understand that the Little things that they cut may add up to something "big" for the business; the sum of those little things that the customers are now missing will also add up to become something "big".

 

No chocolates, fewer towel animals, lower quality of cuts of meats, fewer staff members at the main desk, one less trivia game, lower quality of towels, extending the time between replacing old linens with new, etc. No one of them may be a "big thing" but together it becomes a big thing for many people.

Both times we took a ship's "Santorini on-your-own" excursion to avoid the regular tendering onto the island. The ships excursion take to you a different docking point on the island with buses to get you up.

 

First time was September, and pretty busy. We were among the first off our ship and the bus went across the island to Oia -- we had a couple of hours in Oia, then back on the bus to a winery and then Firia. Winery was nice enough. We chose to get back to the ship on our own and took the cable car down. Got tickets earlier when the ticket line was very very short(because there are two lines one for tickets then one for the ride). Then we by-passed the ticket line and just had to wait for the car. Then had to wait for a tender.

 

Second time was November, and not very busy. We were the first excursion tender off (and we were on the island almost 45minutes before the first non-excursion tender made it). We were in Oia when there was no one else there. We had arranged for alternate transportation from Oia to Firia (avoiding a return trip to the winery). We let the tour operator know. We then bummed around the island - snacked a bit in Firia and then got tickets and the car back down. We were the only ship in port, and not a lot of other tourists on the island so the waits were short

If anyone has insight on menus in MDR, both kids and adult, it would be appreciated. We have 2 pickey eaters, and I want to be sure there will be something for them.

My DD's pre-school teacher referred to such kids as "selective" eaters (picky became a "title" that some felt duty-bound to uphold :D). This way anyone could "select" what they liked or did not care for.

 

DD was particularly selective -- but we discovered fairly early on that she really did not care for certain textures in food (think "meat"). We found cruises to be a great opportunity to try things with little or no pressure. If someone does not care for something, they can get something else and/or go up to the buffet. The wait staff/ kitchen staff were very accommodating, leaving off ingrediants, putting sauces on the side, changing out sides, etc.

 

The creamed or cold soups were interesting for her, and she developed a fondness for the vegetarian curries. She still avoids meat but has grown up to be a young adult who has a variety of tastes and many pretty exotic!

We've done this in Venice and Barcellona - Venice port is a bit of a "hike" from many of the "sights" in Venice the city and really a bit too close for most taxi services, so be very aware of what you want to do. Barcelona was a bit more "friendly" for that. But yes it is very possible (and since early checkin tends to be less busy so it can also be very practical)

Typically the overall lower limit for the kids' program (3YO) is dictacted by the line's libability insurance policy. So an "almost" 3YO is a 2YO and will not be allowed into the kids' program when the lower limit is 3YO.

 

As to anyone wondering if their almost 6YO could move "up" into a 7-9YO group (or the like) - moving "up" is sometimes allowed. If the demographics within the childrens' program allow for it, they may consider it. But typically the child will need to spend some time in "their" age group so that the staff can observe the child to make certain that the child is ready. (nothing "kills" a school aged group than one kid who is too immature to handle themselves with the rest of the kids).

 

Moving "down" is very unlikely unless the child has a diagnosed development issue of some sort and even then only if the size of the child does not make them "dangerous" for the smaller/younger kids.

From years of working on ships with strict uniform guidelines (that do not include pockets) and having to tote around a room key and/or ID card, I just simply put the cards in my bra! They never fell out, and I never lost them!

Unfortunately with my "build" it would drop straight through!

We have not had to do the "line" thing for boarding for any of our cruises for the past 10 years. We tend to board early and rarely have any of the lines more than two or three back. Is it just because we tend to board early, or is the ports where we board? -- I really just thought that the lines had figured out some ways to make it go more quickly.

For women, even the pants/shorts that have pockets have pretty much unusable pockets. I will use the really dorky retractable badge holders (I get them as freebees all the time and then clip the holder onto my waistband and then put the card in one of the otherwise too shallow pockest. This way if (when) the card falls out it is "leashed" to me. As others have done, I use the quick release type attachment for easy access when I need to hand it over.

Wow - interesting to see this thread resurrected!

 

Back when I originally posted DD was 9 and in fourth grade - she's now nearly 19 and starting college at "the U" in Minneapolis in a few weeks :eek:!

Some kids want cartoon characters, wave pools and zip lines on their cruise ships. Similarly some adults want wet t-shirt contests, wave pools and zip lines. Those adults will be just as bored on many of the "up scale" lines (and thus just as prone to "acting up")

 

Don't assume that age is the only factor that will determine whether a passenger will enjoy a certain type of a cruise or a cruise line.

Add me to the list of people who want the singing to stop.

 

As for the typo, Reese, it always amazes me that people will carp at a typo, and yet clearly understand the meaning of what was written. So how exactly is a typo a problem?

"Staff sining" - trigonometry in the dining room? Wow! sining, cosining, tangenting!

 

Oh, probably a typo (thought I, disappointedly)! Maybe it was supposed to be "sinning" - again Wow! Sins of ommission (not disclosing to a vegan that the pasta dish is prepared with some butter? Or maybe one of the seven deadly sins -- gluttony would be a natuaral, and maybe some lust, and if there had been sloathfulness getting rid of that would be good!)

 

Or maybe "sitting" -- that would be reasonable? Staff sitting on the job should be discouraged.

 

Or "signing" - what would the hearing impaired do?

 

"siting" - would we all be on our own to seat ourselves?

 

"singeing" - no open flames allowed so that couldn't be it!

 

Or . . . .

 

The mystery and drama of not knowing was so tantilizing . . . but no, I open it and disappointingly it was singing. On to other posts!

We've cruised US T-Giving and also over Christmas many times. And in all cases we were cruised to get together with family (including kids) rather than attempting to escape them. We have never cruised the Caribbean so I cannot speak to a Caribbean holiday cruise. But we never had any issues with either "our" kids (family) or other people's kids on a holiday cruise -- at least not anything any more than I have encountered with obnoxious adults on those same cruises.