kimogilvie

My room has 7 in it. Total group is 17.

Thanks for the recommendation!

I've only cruised Disney, with the exception of one unfortunate Carnival cruise in college, and a very subpar experience on NCL. We are on the Harmony in June in a star class room, and I have several questions/need help - and I booked directly, so I don't have a TA to ask. 1. How do I find out when formal nights are? I see always "2nd night" - is that get on boat, 1st night, go to Cocoa Cay 2nd night? Or does embarkation not count as a full day/night? 2. I do not want to dress up for formal nights and chef's table, so I'm trying to do Chef's table on formal night (hence question 1) but do not want it on the 3rd day/sea day/June 12 (cruise departs June 10). Should I book that now and have genie reimburse or wait for the Genie to contact me? 3. I keep seeing that you can book dining reservations once you're on board. However, I see that I can go through the app and book dining reservations now. I do get that my genie will handle most things, but I don't understand when preboard dining reservations open for everyone to book. Can everyone book now? Is it like Disney where there's a phased opening for booking? Are there things I should be booking now if my Genie doesn't contact me until 4 weeks pre-cruise? 4. I have no idea on entertainment schedule/shows, so no idea what to tell my genie I want to see/do or what dinner times I want to book. How do I find that or when will that be posted? 5. We are traveling with a large group, with most in sky class, and one balcony room. I get that my genie will handle everything for my room, unfortunately, I get to handle everything for everyone else and need to figure out how I can be prepared to try and match up with what the genie does.

My oldest has chosen to do an Alaskan cruise for his graduation trip in summer 2024. This is a trip to celebrate him, so I don't want to only concentrate on ports/excursions and then have him be bored on the ship. Initially, I was leaning towards Ovation of the Seas - can't go wrong with teens on a quantum class ship. But after looking into it, I have decided that if we are going all the way to Alaska, we are going to see more than the tip of the southeast arm. I would like to do a one-way Northbound and add in a Denali land tour at the end. Is there a cruise line/ship that you would recommend for teens (ages 18, 16, 15, 13)? Is one better for the 18-20 crowd since the teen club will no longer be an option for the oldest? Do these one-way itineraries still have a lot of kids/teens on them or is it an older crowd? I was leaning towards NCL jewel of the seas or RCL ROTS, but it doesn't look like either of those go into glacier bay - do you know of any other family friendly ships I should look into that may also include glacier bay?