Sigyn

I adopted my son and had to go through months of police and FBI background checks and visits from social workers before I was permitted to become a parent. My son's pediatrician, while filling out the paperwork during one visit, before the adoption was final, said he wished that all parents had to go through such a strict regiment before they were allowed to have children.

the free kids are 12 and under, so it doesn't sound like those are the ones causing problems. This is very disturbing. I'm traveling with my 15-year-old son in two weeks, and I will have him read this, and use it as an object lesson prior to our cruise. He's a well-behaved kid who attends a strict school where "sir" and "ma'am" are part of the lexicon, but you never know what will entice even a good kid to misbehave when they're around larger groups of teens. Lord of the Flies as reference. As a parent, I do supervise and I have many ways of preventing any disobedience, but I know that all parents do not follow the same guidelines.

I signed up for an Intro to Pickleball Clinic on our upcoming cruise because I've been very interested in pickleball but know nothing about it. My teenager has played before with his friends, and agreed to do the class with me. He's been trying to get me to play with him. I figured that it's always good to know the rules and basics when you start a new game, and this intro class is at 8 am on our first sea day so, if nothing else, it will get us up and out of the cabin and ready for our first day at sea. Has anyone else taken this course? Is it a new thing? I'm very curious about it. It's not cheap, $70 pp, but then, nothing ever is on a cruise. It sold out within an hour of being offered.

It all works out for my family. My teenage son is clothing obsessed, so I know his style and since he has ADHD, it's good that I am there to make sure all the right things get packed. I do consult with him before I pack his stuff. And my husband is relieved that I'm packing his clothes so that a) he doesn't have to bother and b) he has the right clothes to wear. He just packs his own toiletry kit. One of the reasons I fell for my husband in the first place was he was subscribing to GQ magazine when I first started dating him. He said he got the subscription when he first divorced, because he knew that it would help him get clothing tips to land the kind of woman he wanted to date. I mean, a man after my own heart... 🙂

As the OP, I should say, one of the reasons I like to pick everyone's clothes is because I used to be a fashion editor. I'm extremely picky about what my family wears. It's a hard habit to break.

Lots of adults are good. I traveled with four adults - myself, my then-husband (dad), my best friend and her husband. We were still all exhausted from monitoring the 21-month-old. My best friend still jokes that we didn't eat a single meal together without tears. My son was always so tired at the end of each day that he'd start crying at dinner every evening. Despite afternoon naps. It was just a nightmare trying to keep him on a schedule. Just do your best and don't overly stress. It worked out okay - either his dad or I would take him to the cabin and rest with him at dinner time and then that person would eat dinner with one of our friends later on - and we just did what we could. But it was a lot of work to try to entertain a baby on a cruise. Other vacations were easier to do with him. The good news was the last one we did, in December, when he was 15, worked out just fine. He had a blast. And we could laugh about the drama from the cruise in 2009. 🙂

I was discussing this recently with a friend, and it made me wonder. Who packs the luggage in your household? Does everyone do their own, or is there one person who packs for everyone? I am the packer in our family. I organize and pack everyone's clothes and accessories. I can't trust them to do it right. The few times I have, my husband or kids have forgotten essentials. Or overpacked.

I booked a GTY neighborhood balcony cabin on Harmony of the Seas, booking the cruise on Feb. 22 for an April 1 sailing and my GTY cabin was assigned on March 6.

How long do you have to cancel a reservation in advance before being charged?

I'm so glad it worked out for you. I'm on the April 1 Harmony cruise already, so welcome to our cruise!

How do you find out when dry dock will be? I have never thought to look.

We have a cruise leaving out of Miami on April 1 - Harmony of the Seas. It's a 7-day. I think it's almost fully sold out tho.

My 15-year-old son and I are traveling in 17 days on Harmony of the Seas. He asked me today how often the basketball court will be open so that he can play ball. Can anyone help with this question? Thanks in advance!

I wish you great luck. I traveled with my son on a cruise when he was 21 months old and it was so difficult and stressful I didn't try it again until he was 15 years old.

We haven't sailed on RCCL before, but when my family of three was on the Norwegian Prima in December and dined in a specialty restaurant, we added $30 or so to each bill as an extra gratuity to the servers. We figured it was the least we could do since we were lucky enough to be on such a beautiful cruise over the holidays. We wanted to make their evening a little nicer, too.

Very helpful info. Thank you! Three sea days on our cruise. Could any teenage boy spoil their appetite? An hour later and they're ready to eat again! 🤣

It seems to really vary. It opened up on March 6 for our April 1 cruise.

That's a good idea about Jamie's. My son really loved the spaghetti and tiramisu at Onda on the Norwegian Prima in December when we did a holiday cruise. Sometimes it's the simple things done really well that are appreciated. He also loves filet mignon, so that's a possibility with Chops.

I have an upcoming cruise on Harmony of the Seas and I purchased the UDP. With a 7-night cruise, how should I divide up my nights among the specialty restaurants? It's just myself and my teenage son. I see five key restaurants that I'd like to visit for dinner: 150 Central Park, Chops Grille, Izumi Hibachi, Jamie's Italian and Wonderland. There's also Izumi Sushi, but my son only eats California rolls when it comes to sushi so we'll skip that. I only want to go to Izumi Hibachi once, since there's an extra pp charge for it above the cost of the UDP. If we visit each of these five restaurants once, we still have two nights to fill. Which two of the remaining four restaurants should we visit twice? 150 Central Park, Chops, Jamie's or Wonderland? I went ahead and paid separately to reserve Izumi Hibachi for dinner one night mid-cruise since I heard it's difficult to get those reservations. I'll accept OBC for what I paid for it once we're on board and get the time moved to our UDP. Also, I see that we can go to lunch at restaurants on sea days. We have three sea days, plus the day of embarkation and I heard that Chops or Jamie's might be open on embarkation day. Does anyone know which specialty restaurants tend to be open on sea days? There is also a Johnny Rockets and Sabor Taqueria on Harmony. (We can't go to Coastal Kitchen because we're not in a suite or Pinnacle Club.) I'd like to try Sabor for lunch one day. I'm not 100% sure how the $20 a la carte per day stipend works at restaurants with UDP. If anyone can explain, I'd be grateful.

At least my $50 OBC is back. After it was $100 OBC. And then disappeared.

There's this new package being offered for Royal Caribbean guests called Premier Pass. Have you heard about it? It's a steal! Oh wait. It doesn't exist. RCCL was just messing with us. 🙃

My takeaway from all of this as I am about to embark on my first-ever Royal Caribbean cruise? This cruise line is a hot mess.

Unbelievable deals offered and taken away. OBC promised and then too much added to accounts and removed. My takeaway from all of this is that Royal Caribbean is short staffed and a hot mess at the moment and is creating a lot of unnecessary ill will.

It's showing up as $100 OBC for one package. Another glitch?