aimathy

You can bring all of that onboard, either in "checked" luggage (handled by porter) or carry on. Honestly though, unless your children are really, really picky, there is SO much food on board that you probably don't need much in terms of snacks.

We've done many cruises with our kids and when they were toddlers, we did a few things that made snacking easier, without having to actually carry on snacks. The first thing I'd recommend is the thermos type sippy cups or water bottles (we got ours at Walmart). They keep drinks cold all day and we would fill them with ice water or juice to carry around the boat with us, or to take on excursions. Easy to fill and "free" drinks!

We also took snack containers and baggies. Dice up some fresh fruit or veggies, take cheese cubes, crackers, bagels etc and pop them in a bag. Then you have something in your backpack all day for them to munch on. Another favorite was the small boxes of cereal.

Honestly, it was nice not having to lug tons of extra stuff on board. There's already so much to take when you have little ones with you! Then again, if they are super picky and will only eat certain things, then at least you know that you are allowed to bring them on board.

Have a great trip!

I'm getting lots of great advice! Thank you!!

Travel R - I can't wait to read your review, I'm sure it will be helpful.

I hope someone checks back in with this, but I think it was Travel R who said that if they missed their set dining time at 6, they were able to just show up and get seated. Does anyone know if that's true?! I thought that if you weren't there close to 6, you were out of luck. Perhaps that would be the happy medium for us?

We plan on doing independent excursions at all ports and they will most likely be fairly full days. We are banking on our sea days to rest up and get ready for the next port day! Two ports (Genoa and Malaga) are shorter days where we depart at 3 and 4. However, the rest of the ports have a departure time of 6 or later (so 5:30 up to 7 PM on board time).

Lastly, someone mentioned checking the dinner time because it may be later. It is definitely a 6 PM dinner time.

All of your answers are really helpful in figuring out what will most likely work out best for us. So thank you!!

Thanks for all the advice so far! I am still undecided, but you've given me some good points to think about. :)

The only part I can really chime in about is the excursion we did in Cozumel. We went to Nachi Cocum beach resort and loved it! The beach was beautiful, they had palapas and hammocks. There was an inflatable climb on thing in the water for the older kids or adults. The food was excellent. There was a pool and hot tub, along with other water sports available. I would highly recommend spending a day there. It's a quick cab ride from the port. There's plenty for everyone and you can be as active or as calm as you'd like. Enjoy!

They will not allow the younger children to go to an older group. They will occasionally allow an older child to go down to the lower age group, but it is extremely rare to hear of them making an exception the other way around and you probably wouldn't know until you were on the ship, anyway. I know it stinks....but at least you'll be prepared! Have a fun time either way!

Hi All!

We are lucky enough to be taking a Mediterranean Cruise this summer on the Adventure. We have only done Caribbean cruises before and the Mediterranean cruise is 14 nights. (Wow. How many pounds will we gain with that many nights?! :eek:)

As of right now we are scheduled for the early dining slot, which is 6 PM. There will be 5 of us, and our kids will be 18, 14 and 6. The late dinner slot will be too late for our 6 year old for every night.

I'm noticing now though, that in 5 of our 7 ports, we don't get back on the ship until 6 PM or after 6 PM. Do you think we should switch to My Time Dining and reserve times around our arrival back on the ship? Or should we keep it, go at 6 all the other nights and use those port nights as nights for the buffet, Johnny Rocket's etc?

I recently cruised on NCL and had a horrible experience with their Anytime dining. We waited over 1.5 HOURS on many nights!! I'm worried that My Time Dining may be like that.....especially if everyone else has this idea and tries to book their dinners for when they get back on board. However, I suppose the same may be true at Johnny Rockets on those nights, or the specialty restaurant.

Does anyone have advice or an opinion on what they would do, or did do? Thanks so much!!

Honestly, I know this may sound callous and it's not meant to, I promise...but if my child's allergies were THAT life threatening, I really don't think I'd take a cruise at all. There are so many hundreds of people handling/cooking/serving food that I would be terrified the whole time that one misstep along the way would mean disaster. I don't know that I would want my child going into anaphylactic shock on board or in a 3rd world Caribbean port...and trust that they would get the attention they would need. I know it stinks to miss out on certain trips, but as a Mom, I would be a wreck worrying. Yes they should accommodate you, yes they probably will do everything in their power to honor your requests....but when it comes down to it, mistakes happen, even when they are trying their best. I just don't know that I'd have the confidence to put my child's life in the hands of hundreds of other people.

At least at a land based restaurant, they're cooking for far fewer people and when when word comes in that attention should be paid to someone, they can usually micromanage their procedures. I just don't know that they can effectively do that on a ship that cooks and serves thousands of people in a short time frame.

Good luck and hopefully other people who have cruised with allergies can give you the inside scoop on what the best procedures are to follow!

Hi! I'm not mitsugirly, but I have been to all three of those places in Cozumel and I would recommend Nachi Cocum, hands down! Chankanaab and Playa Mia were very, very "touristy" and just felt over crowded and well, average. Nachi Cocum was awesome. The food was excellent, our kids loved the pool and the beach. They had water inflatables for the kids to climb on, you could go out snorkeling or jet skiing (extra). They also had hammocks, cute little palapas to relax beneath and impeccable service for anything you wanted to drink all day.

Good luck with your decision! :)

I think it depends on what you're holding for. I was on hold for the same amount of time a few weeks ago...but holding out and waiting meant that I saved almost $3000 (!!!) for our cruise! It was well worth every minute. If you're calling for something more mundane, and you don't have speaker phone to leave it on, then I'd probably hang up at this point and call back. I hate being on hold!

Thanks for the reply! Hopefully someone will read this that has some experience with it. I'm worried that we will get on board, they won't let her go in the younger group and then she won't want to go. That would make sea days, long days! :)

We've sailed RCCL a number of times and my youngest LOVES Adventure Ocean. We are going on a 2 week cruise in July and I really hope she is as excited about it this time around, since we will have many sea days.

I know RC is usually very strict about age limits, especially in terms of allowing a younger child to join an older group, even if their birthday is very close to the sailing date.

However, my question is the opposite. Does anyone have experience with them allowing a child to stay in the lower age group? My daughter will have only just turned 6 days before we sail, and I know that she will feel much more comfortable in the 3-5 group than the 6-8 group.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice!

Cute video, but we just sailed NCL in January and it definitely didn't make me happy! :). Hype is one thing, delivering is another!

I loved the video! Great job. :) We will be on the Adventure in July in Europe. Thanks for posting this!

They do have structured clubs for kids that age. My son, who is now 13, went every day and loved it. I was afraid he wouldn't like the activities or want to go....but it turns out he made friends that he hung out with the entire cruise. They even met up outside of club times (like the afternoon break) to play basketball etc. I hope your son has a great time, and you as well!

Our kids have always loved the Royal Caribbean kids clubs and we've always had excellent experiences with the staff. My son (13) likes the tween/teen club activities and meets lots of friends to spend the week with, and my younger daughter (5) LOVES Adventure Ocean. She actually makes us a bit sad because she never wants to be with us!!! I like the breaks the club has during the day (or we'd never see them!) and the clubs have been a wonderful treat on sea days, so my husband and I can enjoy some alone time.

We have also sailed with Disney, Carnival and NCL. We like Royal Caribbean's kids clubs the best, followed by Carnival, Disney and we really disliked NCL (though it was only one ship, so not a lot to go by).

I think liking or disliking kids clubs really depends on the kid and what kind of activities they enjoy. My older daughter (now 17) always preferred not to go to the kids clubs and even now, she'd rather hang with us. Some of the kids club activities for the younger groups are a school-type environment with group games, crafts, songs etc.....so kids that don't gravitate towards that will most likely not enjoy the clubs as much. Some kids love free-for-alls and you won't really find that on RCCL. That's why I love it as a parent! They are very responsible with the kids and they are very structured.

Have a great time!!

I agree. I would definitely not try to do that change on your own, online. I would call and speak to a rep. They can secure the new rate first and then cancel your old reservation. If you have even a slight delay between the two, you risk losing your rooms or you risk have 8 rooms booked!

We had two rooms booked previously and then we called up to get the new promotion. They cancelled our old booking and rebooked the same rooms at the new price.

Good luck!

We have two aft balconies on the Adventure this summer (we can't wait!!!) and I'm just wondering if we can get the dividers opened between the two balconies. It'll be for rooms 7388 and 7390. Thanks for any help you can give!

We stayed at the Pelican Grand Beach resort after our last cruise and LOVED it. We got a good deal, which made it affordable and it was a great mix of convenient, luxurious and beachy. :)

Our deal with KSF is almost too good to be true....but thankfully it is! We were already booked on a July sailing of the Adventure for the Mediterranean. We had booked 2 rooms, one interior for 3 and one aft balcony for 3.

I was on hold for over an hour and a half but it paid off royally. We saved over TWO THOUSAND dollars on our aft balcony! I was excited enough at that, but she checked on our interior room and we got moved to a BALCONY room AND SAVED almost $700 on that room! I never, ever heard of something that amazing. Not to mention, it is an aft balcony and is right next to our original balcony!!!

I seriously felt like I hit the lottery with this. I am so, so glad I called. I almost didn't!

We did have 2 rooms originally, and still have 2 rooms. We have three people in each room. It's not 2 rooms for the price of 1...though that would be nice!

Thank you to everyone! We are so excited....and I'm glad that when I woke up today, it wasn't a dream. :)

I definitely think it has to do with which sailings they offered this for, and it does seem like prices and availability was shifting around a lot. I'm sure there's a rhyme or reason for it...but I don't know it. For example, when I did a "dummy" booking at first just to see if it was worth calling, it showed a $1000 savings. I thought THAT was significant enough to hold for 1.5 hours, and we just ended up lucky that we got even more than that.

One odd thing is that while I was waiting on hold, our sailing went from "available" to "sold out" on their promotion page. I was so upset, thinking I had missed the boat (no pun intended...haha). Thankfully, I still waited just to see if there was any chance of getting a better deal, and it did work out. I don't know how they determine what could be done, or what couldn't be done! However, it seems like there really were deals based on what was available, what level rooms you had already and what sailing it was was for.

It seems like they were insanely busy yesterday, so who knows what's left today, but if you have a sailing book already....it can't hurt to call!

Thanks everyone! Hopefully this will encourage someone to stay on hold and check their prices. I almost didnt bother checking the price, thinking that it didnt matter much. Then when I had to wait an hour and a half on hold (while making and eating dinner!) I really almost gave up. I'm so glad I didn't! Good luck!

I waited an hour and a half last night to talk to someone, but it completely, amazingly paid off for me. We had an interior room and an aft balcony for our European cruise this summer. With the promotion, I was able to get the interior upgraded to a BALCONY (an aft too, right next to our other one!!) AND I saved almost three THOUSAND dollars!! I felt like I hit lotto last night. :). For once, the wait was worth it!

Haha, I think I should get a lottery ticket too! It was really that amazing. I'm glad that some other people were able to get good deals as well. That money means such a great deal for us as a larger family. :)

And no, I didn't have any OBC and I hadn't made any reservations/excursions/dining plans yet, so nothing was affected.

I could cry, I am so happy!! :D I'm almost afraid to share this, like it's a dream and I'm going to wake up!

I waited on hold for over an hour earlier, which is not the part I'm happy about. But oh my goodness, did it pay off!

We had reservations for a cruise in Europe this July on the Adventure. We had a balcony room (aft balcony 7388 which we are super excited about) and an interior room.

When I saw the new promotion, I realized that I could save over a thousand dollars on my balcony room alone. I was kind of bummed, even though I was happy with what we had and would have been fine if it stayed that way. I asked some people on this board if they knew if it could be cancelled and rebooked to get the promotion and some people said they did that. (THANK YOU for the replies!) I was very, very afraid of losing our aft balcony room though, so I was unsure if I should even try.

So I called and was on hold for an hour. However, once I got a hold of someone, they told me that I could cancel and rebook and she would be sure that we kept that room. I knew we were taking the "oops, sorry, I made a mistake" risk....but the amount we stood to save was worth it.

Not only did we keep our room....we saved over $2200 on that room alone!!!!! :D Then while I hold, I realized that the deal included upgrades on some sailings. So I asked if our interior room could be upgraded to an ocean view, and how much would it cost?

It turns out, we got our interior room upgraded to a BALCONY.....and SAVED $630 over the price of the interior!!! I was in HEAVEN!!! :eek:

To make it even more amazingly amazing.....the balcony room is right next door to our corner aft balcony! So we are right next to each other, went from an interior to a balcony and saved almost $3000!!!!!!

I have checked and double checked our documents and confirmation to make sure it's true. It's true!! Holy cow, am I a happy lady!!!! Sorry for happy-venting, I just had to share.