Some Suggestions for Polite Crusing

[vacationman]

Please use this thread to post suggestions for all of the folks who cruise so they may treat their fellow guests with respect.

 

Polite Suggestion #1: If you take children on board, they are your responsibility for the entire trip. If the child is a baby, please understand that your fellow passengers are on vacation and may not appreciate a crying baby at the dinner table next to them or in the theater. Plan your activities around the baby's tolerence levels and do not expect the baby to adjust to an adult level of activity. If the child is an adolecent, please understand that your fellow passengers may not enjoy them playing in the elevators or running around the ship (unsupervised). If you do not enjoy being around your kids for the entire trip (or have them in ship sponsored care), why would you think your fellow passengers would enjoy their vacations with your unsupervised children around? Either make it a family trip or leave the kids at home. Once they are grown up and out of the house, you can go on all of the cruises and do all of the "adult" cruise activities you want.

 

As for me, the main purpose of our vacations is to have the family all together without all of the distractions of home life.

[NJcruiser21]

#2 - Don't be a chair or hammock hog! You know who you are!!! :p

[KarlaC]

# 3: Please be polite and smile and of course don't sweat the small stuff. Life and cruising is not perfect.:rolleyes:

[Dolphins]

#4- Don't take children out of school to go on a cruise. There are more than enough holidays during the year.

[calee]

:) When encountering people from other lands, you know who you are, who don't understand the concept of waiting ones turn in line and rudely move to the front...........throw them overboard.:mad: :D

[smeyer418]

Don't be pompous. Don't use your motorized chair to run over people's feet and at least say excuse me if you do.

[ts01854]

Take the kids out of school and have fun. Don't worry about stuffy other passagngers. It's your family vacation too.

[seahorse]

OH NO:eek:

 

I see a pattern developing here.

[greenie]

This is a great idea for a thread--I hope we can keep it helpful and not nasty!

 

If you go in the pool in the spa, please keep in mind that it is a lap pool--ie, a pool in which to do laps--and if there is someone there trying to do exactly that, PLEASE don't don't hang around in bunches by the ladders, don't hang onto the side with your legs outstretched towards the center of the pool.

 

Do be considerate.

[smeyer418]

Don't be pompous. Don't use your motorized chair to run over people's feet and at least say excuse me if you do.

cruising is spelled with two i's

[tinsel57]

I will echo the 'children are your responsibility' phrase. Please do not ignore your screaming child at the dinner table. Out of consideration for others, please remove them from the room.

 

Adults, when you stagger to the dinner table sloshing your drink all over, and FALL ASLEEP at the dinner table, dinner uneaten, several of your tablemates would have appreciated it if you'd had a little less or had the courtesy to skip the dining room and and pass out in your cabin instead. We were all tempted to draw a mustache on your face and only the presence of your wife prevented it! Ok, I was just kidding here but it would have served you right!

 

We all want to have a good time, but let's face it, there's alot of people in a limited amount of space so let's try and be considerate of others.

[2Cruise4Ever]

Please be patient and understanding with families traveling with small children. Most parents do everything they can to plan meals and activities around their childrens' schedules (at least I do) only to have the littlest one become tired, frustrated, or scared and must put up with screaming and tears at meal time. It's hard enough for parents to deal with that without having others snear, make rude comments, or cause a scene. The world is filled with children and you will not be able to avoid them. Listening to a child express fear or frustration during a meal is not the end of the world. This, too, shall pass. Those who frequent restaurants would never ask a family to leave the establishment just because a child is having a bad day. Why would a cruise be any different?

 

 

Secondly, I echo the poster who said to not let your children run around unsupervised. I plan to keep both eyes completely glued on mine. I purposely did not plan a vacation with my children until my daughter turned 2. I made the mistake of traveling with my son when he was 18 months old (what a disaster!!!!). We are finally able to get away as a family and I'm sure we'll enjoy every minute of it. :D

[NJBill]

Please be patient and understanding with families traveling with small children. Most parents do everything they can to plan meals and activities around their childrens' schedules (at least I do) only to have the littlest one become tired, frustrated, or scared and must put up with screaming and tears at meal time. It's hard enough for parents to deal with that without having others snear, make rude comments, or cause a scene. The world is filled with children and you will not be able to avoid them. Listening to a child express fear or frustration during a meal is not the end of the world. This, too, shall pass. Those who frequent restaurants would never ask a family to leave the establishment just because a child is having a bad day. Why would a cruise be any different?

 

 

I agree with2Cruise$ever. The people who cruise without children need to remember that it is a "reasonable and probable occurence" that children will cry,so if it happens,then it should not be an issue. If a child is screaming or continues to be disruptive,I fully agree to leave the room. I have always supervised my children, and I believe most do,but clearly some do not... If you embark on a "family" type cruise and do not expect these types of things, you are fooling yourself....and should opt for an adult only cruise..

[seahorse]

Please be patient and understanding with families traveling with small children. Most parents do everything they can to plan meals and activities around their childrens' schedules (at least I do) only to have the littlest one become tired, frustrated, or scared and must put up with screaming and tears at meal time. It's hard enough for parents to deal with that without having others snear, make rude comments, or cause a scene. The world is filled with children and you will not be able to avoid them. Listening to a child express fear or frustration during a meal is not the end of the world. This, too, shall pass. Those who frequent restaurants would never ask a family to leave the establishment just because a child is having a bad day. Why would a cruise be any different?

 

 

Secondly, I echo the poster who said to not let your children run around unsupervised. I plan to keep both eyes completely glued on mine. I purposely did not plan a vacation with my children until my daughter turned 2. I made the mistake of traveling with my son when he was 18 months old (what a disaster!!!!). We are finally able to get away as a family and I'm sure we'll enjoy every minute of it. :D

 

Sorry I disagree with the you on not taking your screaming child away from the dinner table. One of the parents should leave the table with the fussy child. This IS done in restaurants on land. It would be easier on a ship if one of the parents would do this.......a lot of other places to take the child without driving:)

 

You are not being considerate of 100`s of people that want to have a pleasurable experience let alone the servers that feel it is their responsibility to try and calm the child down.

 

Flame me if you want to, but step back and think about it as if it weren`t your child.

[vacationman]

Please be patient and understanding with families traveling with small children. Most parents do everything they can to plan meals and activities around their childrens' schedules (at least I do) only to have the littlest one become tired, frustrated, or scared and must put up with screaming and tears at meal time. It's hard enough for parents to deal with that without having others snear, make rude comments, or cause a scene. The world is filled with children and you will not be able to avoid them. Listening to a child express fear or frustration during a meal is not the end of the world. This, too, shall pass. Those who frequent restaurants would never ask a family to leave the establishment just because a child is having a bad day. Why would a cruise be any different?

 

With all due respect (and I sincerely mean that), if a child is tired, frustrated or scared, the dining room is not the place for them. While you may be OK with putting up with your own child's screaming and tears, it is certainly no joy to those around you - this goes for land and sea. Heck, I never liked my own children's crying and screaming, but I did feel a responsibility to those around me to remove them from restaurants until they calmed down.

 

When dining, I do not care for screaming children and - call me crazy - I think it is rude for someone to subject others to that.

[luvwater]

When at the buffet...remember to use the utensils that are there. I can not believe how many people I saw on the last cruise using their hands to pick up food.

[2Cruise4Ever]

When at the buffet...remember to use the utensils that are there. I can not believe how many people I saw on the last cruise using their hands to pick up food.

 

eeeeewwwwww! That is sooo true. I've heard of some cruise lines now offering hand-sanitizer stations at each end of the buffet tables. I hope it's that way on the Dawn :)

[claudie]

Yes, to taking screaming, unhappy children out of the dining room. Room service is available or take your plate and your child to your room or outside somewhere. That's what my husband and I did when our girls were small.

 

Yes, please do use utensils. Do people think that because they just disinfected their hands with the lotion they provide it's ok to use your hands rather than utensils to pick up food? If you touch it take it. I don't care whether you eat it or not.

 

When on the private island, please pick up your napkin, etc. instead of watching it fly away in the breeze.

 

Please don't try to get away with smoking in a non-smoking area.

[Charlestongirl]

eeeeewwwwww! That is sooo true. I've heard of some cruise lines now offering hand-sanitizer stations at each end of the buffet tables. I hope it's that way on the Dawn :)

 

 

Make sure your children do the same. I've seen many-a-child rubbing their hands through the food like it's playdoh, or some fun toy. I've seen them cough over the food, lick the salt-shakers, etc. You may be old enough to know better and not think of it, but you never know what they do when you turn your back!

[Charlestongirl]

Ooops, double-post! Computer error. Sorry. :o

[MrsBoo]

Please don't carry on complete conversations during the show in the theater, either in person or via walkie-talkie.

[zimmerjulie]

When you are walking the cabin passageways late at night, remember that people may be sleeping. Please don't yell and slam doors, etc. if you can help it:) . Your neighbors are close:) .

[cruisingfromMN]

Please don't eat your food off your plate as you are proceeding down the buffet line filling your plate with more food.

[tinsel57]

I am sure this is going to be a hot topic! But here goes...

 

I do understand what is like to have young children, however I never felt I had any right to ask others to have tolerance for their behavior.

 

I raised three children, all grown up now. We limited their expose at young ages to what they could tolerate, including where we took them.

 

I always left the dining room with the child if they became disruptive to other's enjoyment, as well as left the grocery store if they also cut

up and threw a fit, etc. No one expects children to be mute but the kids we're talking about are largely ignored by their familes, are wailing away,

being very loud, getting in and out of their chairs, and overall are a total disruption to all BUT their parents.

 

We taught our childen that these activities were priviliges and if they wanted to participate they had to be on their best behavior. If they're too young to understand that, then perhaps it's not the best environment for them to be in.

 

I've sailed several cruises and seen many variations on this, from families so well behaved I had to comment on what a delightful and well behaved family they had, to the couple last week who ignored their child through dinner except to supply him with FOUR desserts.

 

That child was terribly disruptive and carried on each evening to the frustration of all in the dining room. The waiters took it upon themselves to try and occupy the child to quiet him down and interestingly, parents ignored their attempts. This also meant the waiters were taken away from their usual dining responsibilities so we all got a double whammy on that one.

 

It was horrible and the best night in that dining room was the night that family wasn't there. STAFF and Cruisers were thrilled!

[KarlaC]

UH OHHH!!!

 

My crystal ball is telling me that this thread is about to get very nasty.

Everyone quick take cover as the "dirty diapers" are about to hit the fan.:D