My first RCCL cruise review.

[judyf]

RCCL Voyager 9 day Cruise from Cape Liberty 5/21/04 to 5/30/04 to

Labadee, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman and Freeport.

Mother & Daughter cruise

 

This was a last minute booking for us and the first cruise we didn’t have to have a flight to the pier. This is the main reason we were able to book this cruise. We just returned from a Carnival Inspiration cruise on Easter Sunday. I was looking for a good deal after we returned and this came up as a great deal and I wanted to try RCCL. This review will have some comparison between the different lines we’ve been on.

 

Embarkation:

 

It took us 1½ hours to drive to Cape Liberty from the Hudson Valley NY. We arrived about 11:30-12:00. We drove around a building and there was staff there at this time directing us in the correct lanes. There are 3 main lanes one to the right parks and also pulls around to the drop off area. The middle lane was also used as a drop off lane and the lane all the way to the left by the building is suppose to be the drive through lane. Some of the traffic problems were # 1 some were not following the staff directing them and they stopped in the drive through lane. # 2 passengers were trying to get off and then a lot of us trying to get on the ship. # 3 There should be a sign so everyone knows what lanes to get into. I say this cause our second time around after dropping off are bags I didn’t see any staff at this time directing anyone and it seemed more confusing. My main tip here is, at this port DO NOT arrive early, give time for the ship to empty.

 

We checked in and were giving a boarding number I think we were # 16 and then went into the holding room waiting for our number to be called. When we got there they were already calling I think # 6 and it went real quick we didn’t wait that long. Then on a big bus to the ship. We entered the ship on first deck # 1 and I found this unusual and didn’t like it much. I’m sure it’s due to the size of the ship. All the other ships I’ve been on CCL, DCL and NCL all had you enter into the Grand Atrium, the center of the ship so you get the “WOW†feeling when you walk on, I missed that here. It was also very confusing and you couldn’t get an elevator. We walked up one deck, it wasn’t possible for my mother to walk up to deck 9. We then got on the elevator going back down and then went up to 9. There were no signs or any help at all to get you to your cabin. If this would have been my first cruise I would have been lost. To compare I liked the way NCL has staff member escort you to your cabin it’s a nice touch.

 

Cabin:

 

As I stated above we booked last minute for this cruise. I think 3 weeks ahead. I was very surprised when I did the check in online that we were assigned cabin # 9553. It was a handicapped cabin and it was very roomy. We had 2 beds and a couch that could sleep 1-2 people also. The shower was big and lots of room in the bathroom. Big glass cabin above the sinks with plenty of room. In the main area we had a desk with 4-5 drawers on each side with a hairdryer in the top drawer and glass doors with more shelves one on each side of the mirror. There was a huge closet with shelves and lots of hangers. It was split up funny do to an extra bar for the handicapped room. Only complaint was there was no outlet in the bathroom. This was the biggest cabin we've ever had on any of the lines we've sailed on.

 

Our room steward was great and I asked him the first night if there were bathrobes available for use and the next night there were two on our beds. I was surprised due to this was our first RCCL cruise. I had read here on the boards to ask and it did work out great. I saw online that our room was close to the elevators and was worried about noise but we had no problems with noise at all it was a great location. We enjoyed our cabin and it’s location, the cabins are set up to make it easy to get around with plenty of room.

 

Friday First Day:

 

After we found our cabin checked it out and dropping off our stuff we headed for lunch. This was the only time I saw a long line, we were directly to go back to the Island Grill, which we did, but after wards wish we didn’t. It had hot dogs & Hamburgers and some other stuff but there were more choices in the Windjammer but we missed that not knowing any better.

 

Then we just explored the ship and heard an announcement that we would be leaving late. We sat up on deck 11 to watch the sail away and the ship going under the bridge it was a neat sight. The ship sailed at about 7:30 pm. Then we realized due to watching the ship sail away we missed the first night comedy show at 7:45. We went to our room to get ready for dinner we had late seating. Our bags were in our cabin early before muster drill and many of the passengers didn’t get their bags till 11-12 that night. With dinner not getting over till 10:15 we went to get a seat for the parade, we sat at the Pig and Whistle and it was a good location. The parade was great! One of the highlights of the cruise was the 2 parades, one Bon Voyage on Friday and Mardi Gras on Tuesday, do not miss them we had lots of fun. We did miss the Welcome aboard Dance Party due to late seating and the parade so we missed 2 of the first night events.

 

After this day I really can’t remember what we did each day so I will do the rest of the report in topics.

 

Meet & Mingle

 

We had our Meet & Mingle on Sat. in High Notes at 11:45 am. We met a lot of nice CC’s and ran into them during the cruise it was nice. Due to the early time I know a few couldn’t make it, I think they had late nights the evening before or so I heard.

 

 

Food & Dining Room:

 

We found the food to be great and always available. We only ate breakfast in the dining room on one morning and it was good. Most of the sea days we ate at the Windjammer buffet and it was good. On port days we had room service it was great! This is one big advantage of the RCCL it had a full breakfast menu which most if not all of the other lines I’ve been on only had a continental breakfast available through room service. We had lunch in the dining room 3 days including the last day arriving back, which was really nice due to the late arrival time.

 

I got the veggie or chicken dishes most nights and they were very good. My mother had beef most nights and she seemed to like them even though she never finished a plate, not one night. She said it was just too much food for her to eat. Now I didn’t have any problem finishing my plate. I can't say the food was any better on any of the lines we've been on they were all good.

 

We were in the Magic Flute dining room for late seating. I booked early seating on our April Inspiration cruise and we didn’t like the early seating at all. I didn’t like being in the dining room eating while it was still light out. We missed the sail away from the ports due to early dinner and all the sunsets. Our tablemates were great, they were a couple from Israel and we had a wonderful time. We were at a table for six but the other couple never showed up. Our table was straight ahead as you entered and we were by the railing to look down and see the captain’s table.

 

We missed the viewing for the grand midnight buffet by about 5 minutes cause we were at a show. We just wanted to look in and they wouldn’t let us. We didn’t want to eat just wanted to look down and take a picture. If you did want to eat the line was the length of the ship almost about 15 minutes before it would start.

 

Café Promenade was great this is another big plus for RCCL. They had cookies, pizza, sandwiches and desserts available 24 hours, along with coffee tea and bar service all in the same location, it was great.

 

Service:

 

I touched on this some already but thought it was worth a topic of it’s own. We found the service to be excellent, always had our room done up as soon as we left and ice bucket was always full. Dining room staff was great and very friendly. All the staff members smiled and were polite and went out of their way to make our cruise special. We noticed this especially in the Windjammer.

 

Ship:

 

RCCL Voyager was what I expected. The ship was clean and there was always someone cleaning something. We found the ship easy to navigate and I was worried about this due to the size. The only section that was tricky was forward by the theater and Studio B. We found it was easiest to go to deck 5 on the Promenade and then go from there. This worked for us. We got lost in the halls our first port day. So after that we always went to deck 5 and it was so easy to get to our cabin from there and the theater, studio B, pictures and our dining room. We loved the Voyager and would definitely sail on her again if the price is right.

 

Pool, Hot Tubs & Chairs

 

Here’s my major complaint, the chair hogs!!!! We were on deck one day for well over 4-5 hours and the whole time rows of the lounge chairs stayed empty with only a towel, shoe, suntan lotion or a book on them for over 5 hours! The pool guy would come and take the towels if that’s all that was on the chair but if there was an article on them they were left alone. We went in the hot tub more then on any other cruise, I think this was due to there was more of them available not to mention 4 days at sea. We even used the one in the spa area one day. I like the shower they have by the pool and hot tubs to rinse off.

 

Entertainment:

 

Richard Spacey our cruise director was funny, he was great and we enjoyed having him as our CD. This was his last cruise and it’s a shame that RCCL is losing him.

 

We saw every show except the first comedy show, Rhythm & Rhyme and Dreamscape were great. Dreamscape being the better of the two. The Knudsen Brothers were really something different and we enjoyed them and even had the chance to talk to one of the brothers in line while boarding the ship in Labadee and he was very nice off stage too. He told us they were on the Canada cruise before ours and they were flying out of Jamaica the next day. Do not miss the Ice Jammin show! We got to see it twice, we waited in line and got tickets for Tuesday night and then on Thursday while waiting in line at the information desk, we got tickets again for Thursday due to there was still tickets available. Tuesday show was packed we had to sit in two different rows to get seats and at Thursdays show the theater was about half full. The comedy shows we saw were good, I like the stand up comedy of Rick Star better then the Impressions of Joey Van and my mother liked the Impressions better. The late night show was also good and this was the same guy we missed on Friday. On Tuesday night there was no show available.

 

Now for my observations on RCCL entertainment vs NCL, CCL and DCL. I was a little disappointed in RCCL entertainment schedule. First there should be a show everyday, on our 14 day NCL there’s was something every night. On a 9-day cruise only one night was there an adult comedy show, I was very disappointed in this. On our last 7 nights we had I think 3 nights a midnight comedy show and I can’t remember how many on the 14 nights but there was a lot. IMO there wasn’t enough entertainment available in the evenings unless you liked the disco at The Vault. We also missed some of the few things there was scheduled to do as the Love and Marriage Show & Battle of the Sexes due to these were held in Studio B which I’m not sure but I think I read it seats around 1000 guests. Every time we went to go after our dinner that ended about 10:15 pm the Studio B was already packed and you couldn’t get in. On the night of the Quest we really wanted to see this show, so we asked our waiter to rush and we were able to get a seat, this was only cause we were first in line and the seats were gone in less then 10 minutes unbelievable and we were in the back of the theater. These events need to be held in a larger area so all guests can have the opportunity to enjoy them.

 

Another problem I had with the entertainment and remember I’m comparing this to other ships I’ve been on and it’s not that many but just my observations were the bars and lounges. Other ships I was on there was 5-6 different bars and lounges with different types of music playing every night and each one had a dance floor and we got to choice which one we liked and they played all night long, well most of it anyway. On the Voyager there were a lot of bars, but no dance floors, you had to be in the promenade to see and dance a lot of times. I didn’t like this. The exceptions to this was The Vault, which I never went to, not my thing and High Notes was a big area but again not my style and by 12:00-12:30 am most all were done. I also didn’t like the captains reception was in the Promenade and most everyone had to stand up and there was no room and we never even got a drink where we were. On the other lines this is held in a lounge and you sit down and are served drinks and snacks, much more elegant.

 

Weather:

 

The weather wasn’t bad it didn’t rain on any sea days just real windy so much so you couldn’t sit on deck 12 for very long at all. It rained our day in Jamaica but in the afternoon after most tours were done already. It started at about 2:30 ship time.

 

Age Group & Children on the Cruise:

 

I was surprised there were so many children this cruise while most schools are still in session. With saying this we never had any problems with children, we only knew how many there was by a show the kids did for the captain in the dining room. We never had a problem. The age of the passengers was very diverse all age groups were on this cruise. I did notice much more elderly then on other cruises I’ve been on, lots wheel chairs but this was never a problem just something I noticed. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

 

Afternoon Tea & Galley Tour:

 

Neither was available on this cruise. At least I didn’t noticed any listed.

 

24 hour Pizza & Snacks:

 

The pizza was great and the cookies were to die for but I was good and didn’t have too many, near the end of the cruise there wasn’t any cookies left. There were also small sandwiches available at Cafe Promenade.

 

Hidden Spot:

 

We couldn’t really find a secret spot on this ship as we have on others. Deck 11 & 12 forward were nice but it was way to windy to enjoy them. On other ships we always found a spot in the aft of the ship with chairs to relax and watch as we sailed away from port and watched the sunset. Deck 4 aft was good and we stayed there and took pictures as we left Jamaica and Turtle Island was on our left but no chairs and the railing are so high you can’t really see when you do sit down. We never saw a sunset on the ship due to we never really found a spot to sit and enjoy it.

 

Debarkation

 

Much has already been posted on the debarkation of this cruise so I don’t need to go into the details. One thing I said was that if we left 2 ½ hours late due to bags not getting on the ship in time what did everyone thing was going to happening getting off? It was no surprise to me and I expected delays due to it being a new pier and also one of the first sailings from it. Another thing we do and I’m sure many, many passengers due is pack an extra bag in the bottom of our suitcase to bring things back we buy. If you think about it we checked 2 bags each getting on and 3 bags each getting off so if almost everyone does this they have 3000 more bags to take off then they brought on. Of all the ships I’ve been on RCCL was the best it providing things to do and places to be and eat while we waiting to get off. If everyone followed the color tags and went only when their color was called and not before I think it would go much smoother but that’s like barking up a wrong tree.

 

Ports

 

Labadee-We was happy that we were going to Labadee after all the unconfirmed info we were reading on the boards and from RCCL. We arrived on time and anchored just little ways off shore. I believe we were the first ship to stop there after the lift, Locals confirmed this. We had a great time in Labadee. We were one of the first tenders off the ship. I had read about Hidden Beach or something like that and I thought that would be a nice quiet spot to spend the day. This beach is to your left as you get off the tender. Turn left and just follow the dirt road as far as you can go. There’s a pavilion straight ahead turn left and there’s the beach. There was only like 3 couples there when we arrived, some men on the beach carried our chairs to where ever we wanted them. We went on the other side of the hammock pavilion. This was the first time either of us sat in a hammock and we enjoyed the day relaxing in the shade. I tried to snorkel but it wasn’t good in this area. At lunchtime we went to the pavilion for lunch and we weren’t impressed. We grabbed a hamburger. Then I went to the "Dragon's Breath" it wasn’t a long walk at all and the steps are real easy to climb, I even saw a lady with those metal crutches climb to the top and back. My mother didn’t try the climb due to her breathing she was afraid to try it. If she took her time and we had plenty of it, I think she would have been fine so don’t let this stop you from trying to get to the top it is well worth it. “Dragon Breath†was neat to see. When the water comes up by the side of the hill it makes a sound in this one rock that sounds just like a dragon’s breath. We gathered all our stuff and started to walk back to the tender area, please note there’s a trolley shuttle you can take also. We went to the flea market area and I’ll tell you these people are aggressive to sell you stuff, we couldn’t wait to get through the building. If they weren’t so aggressive we might have purchased more stuff. After the flea market building there’s another smaller building and the merchants in here were not aggressive at all, they just let you shop and compare prices, this building had prices on everything. We purchased a lot of things in here. We weren’t going to but after a slower pace in this building we did walk through the other side of the flea market, due to I wanted a wooded chest. I ended up getting a good deal on one and we made it out the other end of the flea market. One reason I thing the merchants were so aggressive was due to we were the first tourists they’ve seen in months. Now it’s about 2:30pm with last tender at 3pm so we got in the tender line, it looked long but it moved fast. We were in line with one of the guys from the headliner show the night before “The Knudsen Brothers†and we talked while waiting and he was a nice guy. He told us he was on the 5-Day Canada cruise before ours and they were flying out of Jamaica tomorrow. If you ever get the chance to see these brothers don’t miss it they were great. IMO the best show on the cruise.

 

Ocho Rios- I loved this port! From all I read I wasn’t sure about this port. I’ve got to say the people were real polite and friendly here and I can’t say that about the other ports we visited. We booked a tour with Peat Taylor for a half hour after docking. Room service was a little later today, it was in between the times we had to choose from but not as early as we received it the day before. We arrived at the pier about 9:45am and the dispatchers are great here to get you on your right tour. Peat had brought the group to Dunn’s Falls and then came back for us. He arrived and we were the only ones in the van I felt bad he had to come back for just us. It sure proved he’s a good tour operator to book with cause he didn’t just leave us hanging. Our tour was to be $30.00 for the Dunn’s Falls climb, a tour including Fern Gully and a pottery shop. Climbing the falls was great!!!! My mother didn’t climb but there’s steps they walk up along side the falls and get to see the falls and the people climbing. She wouldn’t have been able to make the climb. She said at one point as we were climbing and got close to the stairs a few climbers got out and walked up the stairs. I was the first in line by the guide who walked bear footed, he was great guide his name was Big Foot. I gave him a good tip at the end he was so good. We were told to be at the meeting location by 11:30am and we finished climbing the falls about this time so we rush up to meet Peat through the pushy merchants but IMO not as bad as the flea market in Labadee. I got the I survived the Dunn’s Falls t-shirt and off to meet Peat. To our surprise we had Peat’s son waiting for us and he is a nice young man. He explained all the plants to me as we waited for Peat to come back for us and again we were the only ones on the van to the pottery place. A quick tour and we finally met up with our group, we were so glad to be with the group. Now we go to fern gully and Peat asked us and we voted to stop at a guy dressed up in a fern get up. Peat warned us it would be a dollar to get a pictures and everyone agreed we wanted to stop. This was different. Back in the van and a little tour of the area. Now Peat asked all of us were we wanted to go for lunch we had a choice of 3 stops, 1-back to the ship, 2-a local restaurant. 3- Margaritaville. I think most choose the restaurant, a few back to the ship and we decided along with another couple to go to Margaritaville. Peat set up a time he would pick us back up to go downtown for shopping. We weren’t in Jamaica to shop so we decided our tour was done at this time but Peat left it open if we changed our minds to just be there at 2:30 pm for the shopping part of the tour. Peat didn’t have our tickets for the falls so we had to pay the $10.00 entrance fee but he took it off his tour price. We pay $20.00 for the tour and I tipped Peat and also his son who was great with us. We were glad we didn’t go shopping cause it did rain hard in the afternoon. We went into Magaritaville and sat outside near the beach and order some food and drinks. As we were eating the sky opened up and let lose. It was nice sitting under the porch and watch in rain. People were standing in the water with those bead necklaces to sell. We stayed here all afternoon till it was time to board the ship and we had a blast. I even went down the slide by the pool bar. I want to return to Jamaica someday and get to do more.

 

Grand Cayman- We were here Easter week on a Carnival ship, and we did the String ray tour with Soto’s and had a great time. Don’t miss the string rays if it’s your first first and Soto’s only charges $24.00 pp for 3 stops it was great. So this trip we deiced to do something different. We got one of the first tenders in and at this time about 8:00am there were no crowds. We just went to a taxi van and got the Turtle Farm and Hell tour for $15.00. The turtle farm was nice and we only had to pay $4.50 each due to our van driver got us a discount, there was a total of 8 of us. Hell was okay and it was something to see once but don’t go out of your way to see it. Then we asked to be dropped off at Treasure Island thanks to the port section of the boards. We wanted this cruise to just be a relaxing one. We walked right in and went to the beach and found lounge chairs in the shade and had a wonderful day. I went in the get wet to cool down and was going to go back in later to snorkel and never got the chance. I carried my water shoes in Labadee and didn’t need them so I decided not to carry them here and I sure could have used them. I would have loved to snorkel but there was a lot of rocks and it was hard getting in and out the first time, but what really stopped me was as we were eating our lunch up by the pool, it started to rain. We left our lunch there while we walked back to the beach to get out stuff, I was worried about my digital camera. By the time we were back at the bar it stopped raining but at this time we decided to just stay in the pool area by the swim up bar. Got a cab back to the tender area and looked around some and then back to the ship. We noticed that there was mostly gold shops here not much else. Also note that if you go away from the tender area and buy something you will not get US change this happened to my mother twice and I gave change to another couple from the ship so they didn’t get back like $18.00 in Cayman money. At dinner this night we heard a rumor about a tender hitting the ship. The next day we talked to a couple who were on the tender and they said it hit hard and put a scrape on the Voyager down to metal and then the tender drifted for about an hour and came within 100 feet of the Carnival Ship before another tender brought them in.

 

Freeport- I had read on the boards about Lucaya Market and beach area. We got a cab for $5.00 pp and we were early not many shops were open yet but a few were setting up. I got my shot glass and then we headed to the beach across the street. We walked up to the beach and got a chair from a pile and placed it under a palm tree and the hair-braiding ladies told my mother not me that they would come take the chairs and you had to pay $20.00 per chair. When my mother told me this I said when they come and tell me I will pay them. I go and get changed and when I return my mother is sitting on the steps of the hair braiding hut and she said the guy was coming around and taking everyone’s chairs and he wasn’t nice about it and a few people started arguing with him. The other passengers stated that they wouldn’t pay now for a chair due to the way he treated them. Well, I sat in my chair waiting for him to come and tell me and he never did. I have no idea why unless he thought I was with the resort. Now the lady in the hut all of a sudden said to my mother and the 2 others that were there something about if you’re not getting your hair braided leave. So she wouldn’t stay there and walked up to the small restaurant area with chairs and umbrellas and spent the day there in the shade. We ate there and then heading back to the ship. We did a little shopping right there by the ship. We found Freeport to be the most unfriendly island.

 

All in all we had a great time in all the ports. We had decided that this was going to be a more relaxing cruise and mostly just beach days except Jamaica.

 

Any questions please just ask.

 

Judy

RCCL Voyager 5/21-5/30/04

CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04

NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03

DCL Wonder 5/16-5/19/02

DCL Wonder 5/3-5/8/01

CCL Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

 

[Host Walt]

This thread has been relocated from the Carnival Message Board to the Royal Caribbean International Message Board.

 

Walt Tuthill

Cruise Board Moderator

 

Contact at Shiptender@aol.com

[hdawson]

I'm not sure why this is on the RCI board now since it was a Carnival cruiser posting his impression and comparison on the Carnival board.

I've always felt that most people should try the Voyager class ships at least once. I have and now back to a smaller ship. They are amazing ships. Anyone that limits themself to a single cruiseline or only one vessel deprives themselves of a chance to find something they MAY like better. Or just maybe confirmed that they have found their idea of heaven of a cruiseline. Maybe the thread should be on both boards.

[hdawson]

BTW. A very complete and well written review.

[yarlenna]

Nice review. Schools are out at different times. Some parents elect to take their kids out of school when they can get time off from work. Some elect to take cruises when they are affordable. I know I may get flamed for this, but I believe there is very little that a kid can learn in grade or middle school that could be more important than spending some quality time with the family. I KNOW this doesn't have to be on a cruise, but if you wait for the kids to be out of school to cruise with them, they may already have left the nest. If you wait until you can afford a cruise during a school vacation period, it may never every come.

 

Work like a dog. Live like a pauper. Save all your money. Then Cruise!

My gif kitties have gone to cyber heaven so that dial up cruisers don't have a problem getting their posts read.

[Merion_Mom]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by judyf:

RCCL Voyager 9 day Cruise from Cape Liberty 5/21/04 to 5/30/04 to

Labadee, Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman and Freeport.

Mother & Daughter cruise

 

Age Group & Children on the Cruise:

 

I was surprised there were so many children this cruise while most schools are still in session. With saying this we never had any problems with children, we only knew how many there was by a show the kids did for the captain in the dining room. We never had a problem. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Something many Northeasterners may not be aware of is that in the south and the southwest, many school districts are closed by the end of May. We are accustomed to a school year that starts after Labor Day and ends roughly in mid-June. Not so in many other parts of the U.S.

 

Carol

[Ocean Boy]

It is too bad that they are using deck 1 to board the ship in NJ. When Voyager is down in Miami they use deck 4 which provides a much better first impression of what is to come. Deck 1 is usually just used at the ports of call. It must have to do with the way the terminal is set up in NJ. It is not due to the size of the ship as the original poster speculated.

 

Quite an excellent review that you posted Judyf.

[judyf]

Thanks hdawson I did post this review on both boards already so I'm sorry for the double post here on the RCCL board of this review.

 

I also agree that children of this age can learn a lot on a cruise to different locations so if I did have small children I would also take them out for a week if it was the only way to have family time togther. Most teachers will work with you too.

 

Entering from Deck 1 did that a lot away from first enterinf=g the ship. I'm glad to hear that in other ports it's different.

 

I can't wait till my next cruise now. I will have to start planning! LOL It will be next spring and I think Hawaii but we might do a land vacation there instead.

 

Judy

RCCL Voyager 5/21-5/30/04

CCL Inspiration 4/4-4/11/04

NCL Sea 4/14-4/27/03

DCL Wonder 5/16-5/19/02

DCL Wonder 5/3-5/8/01

CCL Fantasy 2/15-2/18/01

 

[Onessa]

I find the concept that the children on board were "not a problem" somewhat disturbing. Why not have a section of the review that states that you did not find the 40-50 year olds to be a "problem".

 

I have discovered when traveling or entertaining in public, that many folks are a lot more forgiving about the behavior of adults than of kids. If a group of old army buddies are half-drunk, loud, and rowdy - no one thinks twice. If a group of teens are even half as loud, not drunk, and not physically rowdy, they get disapproving looks and management will kick them out.

 

I travel extensively with my 9-year old daughter. RCCL does have outstanding childrens' programs which I appreciate (and she REALLY appreciates). She and I have sailed on both Radiance and Voyager class RCCL cruises. We have both enjoyed all of our trips.

 

I am thrilled that our table-mates welcomed my daughter on all of our cruises (seven in all, she has been ages 5 to 9). They have gone out of their way to include her in conversations and did not seem to be at all "bothered" that a child dared to be included in their dining.

 

The staff - cabin stewards, wait staff, childrens' program staff, and others - have always been very accommodating to my child.

 

The kids are paying either full-fare (in my case, she is my "double occupancy") or the reduced third or fourth person fare on these cruises.

 

No matter what time of year, there is a "healthy" number of kids of all ages on cruises. I have spoken to home schoolers, folks whose school districts are on an "all year" calendar causing off-time school breaks, as well as those folks who choose to take their kids out of school.

 

Travel is educational and there is nothing better than to travel with your kids. Try it! If you aren't lucky enough to have a kid or two of your own, borrow one. A kid has his/her own perspective and you can learn a lot by having one around.:)

[Kcruiser2014]

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