BND

Fortunately both our "kids" make very good money. Youngest DS (36) makes just over what my DH makes because he chose IT and is very good at it and managing people. His wife can't work so he's their income. Oldest DS (39) is an engineer and makes just about as much and his wife is an RN so they're very comfortable. Both boys have had good jobs since they finished school and both own single family homes. They put the effort in. My friends gave their kids down payments on houses which the kids never paid back (they should have). They had families and jobs. We spend money on our kids but I'm not giving them our equity. We did use some equity to help pay for college but never would I just give them the equity. But, as has been said, everyone has to make their own choices. The green eyed monster always comes into play though.

And, we have friends who aren't exactly wealthy. She makes good money and he's retired, but they gave so much to their kids before they retired that they had very little equity in their home when they sold it. They don't own now as they are renting. A few years ago, they took 20K out of their retirement account (we bit our tongues) and took the whole family on a cruise. Was that a good financial decision? Not particularly. Do they regret it? Not now. Point is, you don't have to be wealthy to spend that kind of money. As I said before, it's choices. We used to only cruise in GS the first few years we cruised. We moved to JS when they started requiring double deposit for GS and, on longer cruises which we were taking, meant $1800 was tied up for one cruise for over a year. But, that was our choice as we could afford it, we just didn't like giving up that much for each of our 2-3 at a time booked cruises. When we close on our previous home at the end of April (we just moved), we'll be paying off our new to us home so we'll only have taxes and insurance on it. Our payments are currently both very large, so it will mean freeing up a lot of money. A lot of seniors who had decent retirements set up have no mortgage so it's much easier to choose what's important to spend money on and can do so without worry.

We've sailed with Autism on the Seas and they are a great organization. They provide a quiet room for them in the conference rooms so they can go decompress. It's an all volunteer organization and gives the families a break as the volunteers do activities (swimming in particular) with the autistic person (they work with all ages) so the families can relax and do something they couldn't easily do with their family member. We've been on with them and honestly, we really didn't notice anything different. Unlike other groups that just take over public spaces, they tend to do small group events and one on ones.

Oh please, now we're quoting Chat GPT?

And, you are fortunate to have been able to retire at 59 (no SS at that age though). Obviously you live somewhere where you can afford to. 50K here isn't enough to live on unless you have savings to supplement it and/or you don't do anything else except live. People forget where you live impacts how far your money goes. Average single family home in the NoVA area (unless you want a complete fixer upper) is over $500K so incomes, hence savings are higher. My point is that the OP makes choices as to how they spend their money. And, I retired at 60, but my DH is 65 and still works so he can max out his SS because we want to keep cruising as long as possible. We go 2-4 times per year depending on whether we do a b2b. And, we also get the "you're cruising again" question. Although DH works with a few people who go quarterly to timeshares in the Carribbean and Mexico so they don't question it.

The same way people afford 100K cars and 2 million dollar homes. Choices. I would say most people on these boards make six figures (it's very common now). DH and I just moved. We bought our new home before selling our last one. Once we close as we have a contract, we'll have a very small (if any) mortgage. We have no other debt. Our household income is over 200K and I'm retired. Our net worth is north of yours. When DH retires, we'll prob still be close to that number. But, we live in a fairly high cost of living area. We have multiple sources of income. While we don't spend 20K on a suite, we do always cruise in a JS. If you spend $600/night on a hotel, you can do a 20K suite. You just choose not to.

I just don't enjoy people soup. Hot tubs tend to be much more crowded than pools and I've seen people sit in them for long periods of time drinking. Have to wonder how long their bladders can do that for. That's particularly common in the Solarium. But, everyone can decide for themselves.

How about minors traveling with who they live with, get the highest status? Otherwise, what do you consider a "family" group? You could get a group of 25-30 family traveling together using the status of one person. How do you determine who is "family" To keep it simple, they've always used people traveling together who live at the same address. It has been a ridiculous policy to allow inheritance, but has only become a real problem in the last few years. In reality, it should be each person has their own status and points with minors having their parent/guardian status til they are adults like is being reportedly being done now.

I have no problem with this policy. Status should not be inherited. I always thought it was a weird policy. The numbers are getting way out of hand.

WOW. I never said they can do no wrong, but saying EVERYTHING was wrong doesn't carry any weight. As you said, SOME!. OP said ALL. BTW, do you think someone who books at a specific price and then complains about the price isn't at fault for booking at that price?

That's what I said. 7 is more than 6.

BTW, others said basically the same thing. Why focus on my post? Do you not think people need to take responsibility for their decisions?

It's so subjective. We enjoyed Jewel's solarium, but also love Anthem and Oasis class. The reality is we like all solariums when we can find a lounger in the shade.

It's not there. The one that is there is the one asking where the original one went. So, you need to look again.

Heartless? People need to take responsibility for what they do and grow up. No one made him take this cruise or pay what he did.

Um, okay. You're one of "those" lol You didn't even say what exactly you mean by your post.

Cruise out of Baltimore or NJ. Lots of families year round, even on the longer cruises and they're sold out every trip.

You mean all those parents who say their kids are "mature" for their age? Are some, absolutely, but that is not a hallmark of most teenagers. Monitoring your kids is not being mean, it's being responsible and teaching them important life lessons. I can always tell the adults who were raised by parents who thought their job was to be their kids "friend". Most are adults who make terrible life choices.

So, people are supposed to run away because people don't make their kids behave? We've had no issues with cruises with well behaved kids (usually that's cruises with the number of kids the ship can actually handle in it's youth programs). Why should anyone have to switch from a cruise line they have been sailing on for years? Personally, IMHO, the cruise line should limit the number of kids under 18 to what the programs can handle. That makes the most sense for everyone. And, who knows if this behavior continues, it may come to that. I wonder how those parents feel who have been kicked off the ship (and probably banned) feel after the fact? I know they most likely blame the cruise line which is 100% the problem.

I would have if I'd seen it. I like how you handled it. "lightening up" parenting is what gets kids into that kind of trouble as they know there are no consequences to their actions. Our boys never would have behaved the way I've seen some behave because they knew right from wrong and what we expected of them. They're in their 30's now and we never had a problem with them. We were strict but gave them independence too. We weren't their friends until they grew up. Our job was to raise responsible human beings, not spoiled brats. I also really wish that people would quit saying but "adults do xyz". That does not justify any of the behavior, at all.

What I find interesting is people report their actual experiences and what they witnessed onboard and people get offended by it. And others don't get the point and decide it's about them.

Yes, but even that's changing. Parents have zero problems with taking their kids out of school anytime they feel like it. Our upcoming Apr 8 cruise on EN is a 12 night and from the roll call, there are a lot of kids that will be onboard.

Yeah, it really doesn't work that way anymore for a lot of people. As I said earlier, parents will defend their kids even for doing things that are way beyond the norm of "kid" behavior.

And, the some of the behavior is enough to get the family banned for life from the line, yet some of those parents will continue to defend their little snowflakes. It's one thing to defend your child against something being done to them and quite another to defend them doing something to others, but these parents just don't get that. They misunderstand the whole self-esteem idea. A child's self esteem is built by what THEY accomplish, not always telling them how wonderful and perfect they are and how no one else can tell them what to do.

The subject of kids has come up about spring break on FB roll calls and when I mention our experience last year on EN with 695 kids, I have been attacked because you know "adults act worse, kids have every right to sail, etc". That's not what I mentioned. It's behavior and lack of parenting. Bobby the CD last year said kids club can only handle about 150 kids and that some (actually more than just some) parents don't parent their kids and when the cruise line does, the parents defend the kids, regardless of what they have done. We're back on EN Apr 8-20 and there seem to be a lot of kids going on our sailing on a ship that is not equipped for that many kids. As I said last year (and other spring break years) people need to research a ship before bringing their kids onboard. There are ships better equipped for lots of kids than the smaller ships out of Baltimore. Last April was the worst behavior I'd ever seen and at least one family got kicked off and other kids got caught doing things they shouldn't have been doing.