kermit99

Right they didn’t but it’s obvious because of the type of rooms they did mention. And there is no exception for being across the hall. It’s clearly states in Connecting Cabins. 
 

1 hour ago, dkjretired said:

 

I brought Celebrity up because most of their policies are the same and in this case I was right.   You should have read the next sentence. Im still not sure whether its connection or across the hall cabins.   Here's the quote.

 

No Guest younger than the age twenty-one (21) will be assigned to a stateroom unless accompanied in the same stateroom by an adult twenty-one (21) years old or older. A guest's age is established upon the first date of sailing.

This age limit will be waived for children sailing with their parents or guardians in connecting staterooms; for underage married couples; and for active duty members of the United States or Canadian military.

Certain other restrictions and conditions will apply; such as compliance with the age twenty-one (21) alcohol policy, and proof of marriage for underage couples or proof of active duty military status required.

Or maybe you need to read what I wrote or what OP wrote about the two rooms NOT being connected. 
So still wrong! 

2 hours ago, dkjretired said:

 

Not true, depends on the cruise line...I know Celebrity allows it, would guess that Royal would since they are the same company.

Actually the person is correct (remember OP stated that they were NOT in connecting rooms). And since this is about RCC not Celebrity why mention their policy. Not every policy is the same on both lines. 

And also this:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/international-age-policy

And this from Celebrity (not that it matters because this cruise ISN'T on a Celebrity ship):

Rules for cruising alone: When sailing from North America, passengers must be 21 years old (as of the day the ship sets sail) to travel on their own. When sailing from Europe, Asia, South America, New Zealand or Australia, the minimum age to sail on your own is 18. Anyone younger than 18 must share a cabin with someone who is 21+ unless the couple is married (i.e., a 17 year old and 18 year old can only share a cabin if they are married)

But have any of you who replied actually done it? 
 

Connecting. We always consider a JS but then always decide that you can’t beat having the extra bathroom, and we only have 4 people.

 
If you’re looking to save I’d look into connecting insides. This is our go to room selection. We like being out and about the ship so don’t mind an inside. But, we have done connecting balconies when the prices is right. We have talked about switching to one inside one balcony now that they are even older (17 &13) and I’m much more confident in their ability to handle it.  
 

15 minutes ago, arsenic74 said:

 

Primarily in this article, though I've since noticed that it's from about 10 years ago so maybe things have changed since then 😞

 

https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Royal-Caribbean-introduces-kid-tracker-for-the-Oasis

Yes outdated. We cruised Oasis 2 years ago with my then 10 year old and we didn’t get anything other then the standard muster bracelets. No gps no special phones. 

I bet they found that most people wouldn’t pay the extra $17 for the phones. 

1 hour ago, arsenic74 said:

 

Thanks for the advice, appreciate it and I think I might try that. Somewhat related then, I know the younger age groups are given gps wristbands for tracking purposes. Do the 12-14s have something similar or are they un-tracked at that point. I was somewhat hoping to not have him have to carry his phone around with him all the time 🙂 

I’ve never seen gps wristbands! Were did you see this information? 

Good catch. We rented from Enterprise and I knew there were other companies there. 

We rented a car. For our party of 6 it was the cheapest option.  
 It’s not a bad trip and we stopped off at Ron Jon’s and had plenty of time to make it back onto the ship. 
just be aware that you might not be able to get a shuttle back to the pier from the car rental depending on your return time. But the walk back is less than 2 miles a totally walkable. 

Tacking on to this thread instead of starting a new one. I see that you can now get whatever beer is on draft.  Would this apply to Playmakers too? I’m guessing that they are going to have better draft selection. 

Night Light! The actual bathroom light is super bright and it will be super dark otherwise.  We use one we have from ikea that stays charged forever so we just charge it up before we leave and are good to go. 

Magnets are the best thing ever!  There are so many uses. We have a set of strong magnets including ones with hooks that we keep in our cruise bag. We also have fun magnetic door decorations we bought at the dollar store. 

This bag also includes all our RCI branded stuff (pens, highlighters, lanyards, bags, and reusable water bottles) this stuff comes with us on the cruise and are always helpful. 

We use to bring bendy straws for the kids but now have metal bendy straws. 

OTC meds & other first aid supplies as mentioned these can be exorbitant on the ship and hard to find in ports. Ditto for menstrual products (I always pack a few things just in case). 

Snacks and snack bags. Your daughter is older so maybe not as big a deal but when my kids where under 10 we always took snacks off the ship with us. So packing a sandwich and having their preferred snack bar often saved us a meltdown because someone was hangry or the food at the beach shack or wherever in port was weird. Salty snacks, like chips or pretzels, can be hard especially hard to come by on the ship.

Poo-pourri can keep everyone happy. 
 

I bolded the things I think everyone should bring but the others are part of our personal choice and make our cruising easier and you may or may not find them useful. 

I find that there if you are on a 7 day cruise and don't over pack clothes there should be enough space for everyone's stuff. It's more a matter of organizing it.

I really appreciate your review, it was detailed and fun to read. We are heading to the Symphony in April over Spring Break, I'm expecting there to be a ton of kids. My kids have enjoyed the clubs in the past but this will be my youngest first time in the Teen portion so it will be interesting to see how it goes. My oldest gripped endlessly about the Teen Club last cruise because all the fun kids were in the older section and she was in the younger section and on and on. Honestly I was totally okay if she didn't get to go but that meant she was limited to hanging with us or in the room. That she complained about those options were the things that annoyed me. 

Anyway it was good to hear that even with so many kids that waits weren't that long for the "extras" as we have already deemed the The Key not worth it. 
The thing with your kids cards is this, you CAN make them so that they aren't linked to your cc before you cruise (the no charges option) but because of shady practices you have to turn off the ability to use them in the arcade on the ship. So they wouldn't be able to use the cards to purchase a ice cream or anything in the stores but they are always active in the arcade. To me it's a way that RCCI gets over on parents because a lot of parents don't realize this and even if your child goes to "free" play with the cruise staff or another event there are still games that cost and those games they will be able to swipe their card and play with you unwittingly being charged and many parents not noticing until the end of the cruise and just paying the charges. 

We tend to check our charges daily because we have had so many odd charges show up on our portfolios in the past (been on 15 cruises with RCCI). 

Any way thanks for all your time posting. I know it takes a lot to do it and even more effort to make it a joy to read. 

Choose Wonderland. As previous posters have said a lot of the food it's self isn't all that adventurous its more about the presentation. I'm sure you will be able to find something enjoyable for yourself and your daughter will really enjoy the experience. 

Thanks for your detailed breakdown of our options. I appreciate your knowledge and assistance. 

We are all arriving at different times. Some will be in by 1 pm and others not until 8 pm. 

Are there any suggestions for a hotel that provides a shuttle to the port? Or would it be easier to rent a car? We do have to get from the airport (mia) and then to the hotel and then to the ship. We have done this in the past but haven't sailed out of Miami in many years so I'm not sure what the best options are and what will be the most cost effective for our group of 6. 
Thanks for you advice.

Yep what Susancruzs said.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will check them out. 4-5 hours sounds perfect. We would really like the ability to go to Jordon Pond and take a short hike which wouldn’t be possible with the trolly.

Oct 15 2018

I'm trying to figure out if there is any way to get to the park besides a organized tour. We are in port Oct 15.

I’m not a big fan of large group tours and like the flexibility of being able to spend as long as we like at various places in the park as well as going to less popular locations.

I know that the Island Explorer wont be running and that there aren’t any car rentals nearby (which is our preferred way of exploring a port).

Are there really no local transit options?

Hello,

We are a family of 6 that are big Star Wars fans and are looking to see the latest during our stop here on our cruise. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me if there is a movie theater nearby and what would be the most economical way to transport us there. I've considered renting a car but really all my family wants to do is see the movie then get back on the ship (Anthem) to enjoy it. So I'm not sure if there is a cheaper way for us all to get to a local theater. I'm also not sure if there is a theater closer then Merritt Island. Any help is welcomed and thanks in advance.

Thank you for your reply.

Did you get a discount on the tour since they didn't pick you up. Also our ship is there from 12-9. Would that pose any issues.

What things/trails did you do at Mendenhall?

Hi looking for some advice. We are pretty set on renting a car (group of 6) and going to Mendenhall but would also like to do a whale watching tour. I'm looking for tour suggestions for a company that we could meet at the whale tour boat as we won't need transport.

Alternatively if anyone has information on a tour that would take us on the whale watch and then drop us at Mendenhall we might be willing to go that route if we could catch the bus back to the pier.

So would love to know where to find the bus schedule.

Any other advice/tips about visiting Mendenhall is also welcomed!

Ultimate goal is to see the glacier and some whales! So if you have another plan that you think would help us meet that goal we would welcome that information too.

RCC Explorer of The Seas Sep 4

Can anyone tell me if you could walk to the Ferry Dock from the Cruise Dock? We are thinking of taking it when our ship docks in Skagway as there are some things we would rather do in Haines.

Woohoo!! We are traveling with kids on Quantum on the TA and it has been hard to find out much info on the kids clubs, etc. I will be following!

 

Thanks!

Yes us too!! I'll have a 11 year old girl and 8 year old boy. We were beginning to think they would be the only kids on board.