Kids on Ships

[Sumisid]

Dear all

 

To make sure that nobody misunderstands this thread, I like to give you a little insight of my experience on our cruise on Oasis in November 2012. We (DH and I) are from Switzerland and when we booked our Oasis Cruise in April 2012 for November 2012, we did not know, that it will be Thanksgiving Week. We are a couple, married for 17 years, no children. We are both diving instructors, love fun but also a quiet time during our vacation. So, bingo, we were informed that on our cruise, 2'000 children were on board. First, we were pretty shocked! :eek:

Once on board, our experience was just great. The kids were at the H2O-Zone (cute to see that they even offer small loungers for kids), we had a quiet space in the Solarium, we had a balcony (with a screaming child next door, but we were cool about that), they were marvelous at My Time Dining, always giving us a table with no toddlers around etc.

 

The only thing that was annoying was our experience in the 150 Central Park Restaurant. We booked that to celebrate our wedding-anniversary and at 7.30pm there were people with a screaming toddler in the restaurant. Not so romantic... :(

 

The staff was very understanding and gave us a table that was really far away from the screaming child... still, other guests complained, too.

 

I know that RCCL is doing great for families. But they also advertise for couples to have a great time on their ships. And compared with land-resorts, they really did a good job.

 

My question now is: Why is it so difficult to accept the rule, that little kids do not belong to specialty-restaurants like 150 Central Park after 7pm?

 

I'm not somebody who hates kids, just somebody who does nod understand parents who think they are above every rule.

[setsail]

Children have to be booked before 7pm. So, if a family comes in with children at 630 pm and it takes 2 hours to do the meal, then .............

[Jon in the ATL]

As a parent of two boys, I would not had my kids sit through a dinner at 150. If you wanted to guarantee a kid free atmosphere, the Oasis class ships during the Thanksgiving is about the last place someone looking for that would want to be.

[Sumisid]

As a parent of two boys, I would not had my kids sit through a dinner at 150. If you wanted to guarantee a kid free atmosphere, the Oasis class ships during the Thanksgiving is about the last place someone looking for that would want to be.

 

I was NOT looking for a kid-free atmosphere! Read again my post, please! I thought even if my main language is not English, I could hopefully explain myself. :rolleyes:

 

And as everybody can see, we booked Oasis and also Allure again. No problem at all. It was just a question about the 150 Central Park Restaurant. And actually, you answered it yourself! Thanks for that!

[aurelius180]

I was NOT looking for a kid-free atmosphere! Read again my post, please! I thought even if my main language is not English, I could hopefully explain myself. :rolleyes:

 

 

Your point was well conveyed. I do not have children so I can't comment on the thought process of those like you experienced or that specific scenario. Although, whether it be rules related to children or something else, you'll always find someone to break them.

[sunnysavannah]

Children have to be booked before 7pm. So, if a family comes in with children at 630 pm and it takes 2 hours to do the meal, then .............

 

This is what I was thinking, too. But that means that it would take an 8pm or later reservation to avoid them. Maybe they should make the cut off earlier, so those who wish to dine without children could do so earlier as well. (Or maybe even and adults only night.)

 

Granted, if my toddler was misbehaving, I would take him/her out, no matter the time.

 

 

OP, thanks for bringing this up in a well mannered way. It is a valid point.

[Sumisid]

Thank you, sunnysavannah! :)

[Xina143]

And quite frankly, if I pay for a vacation, I'll take my kids to whatever restaurant, I want to!

 

 

 

Just kidding. You explained yourself, very well.

 

Seriously, we do have five boys-19, 17, 14, 9 and 5. And the only one I would take to a nicer restaurant is our oldest. Not because he older, but because he would appreciate the food.

 

That being said, even though we have kids, I dislike the above mindset that many parents have. If they pay for something, everyone else around them can just suck it up.

 

Nope, not this mom. A restaurant (though we have not yet sailed on the Allure) like 150 should be a romantic, special occasion. Hard to do with unruly children. Thinking of others isn't hard to do.

 

Glad to see you didn't let this spoil your trip though!

[RSLeesburg]

I agree - many people would have addressed this in a more negative light. I guess this is what comes from being "neutral" all these years :D

 

But I think it is a difficult position for the cruise line - on one hand, they want to ensure that everyone can enjoy the ship (or else they will have parents railing about how they were unfairly treated). Also, for every screaming toddler, there may be dozens of well-mannered, well-behaved children who would not bother anyone during dinner.

 

I love the idea of having one or two nights set aside as "adults only" - this would give families an option to bring their children on the "open" nights, and give those traveling without children their time too. No one wants to wait till 8pm or later to start dinner. As the parent of a toddler, I am usually planning to turn in about that time.

[Salat13]

Dear all

 

To make sure that nobody misunderstands this thread, I like to give you a little insight of my experience on our cruise on Oasis in November 2012. We (DH and I) are from Switzerland and when we booked our Oasis Cruise in April 2012 for November 2012, we did not know, that it will be Thanksgiving Week. We are a couple, married for 17 years, no children. We are both diving instructors, love fun but also a quiet time during our vacation. So, bingo, we were informed that on our cruise, 2'000 children were on board. First, we were pretty shocked! :eek:

Once on board, our experience was just great. The kids were at the H2O-Zone (cute to see that they even offer small loungers for kids), we had a quiet space in the Solarium, we had a balcony (with a screaming child next door, but we were cool about that), they were marvelous at My Time Dining, always giving us a table with no toddlers around etc.

 

The only thing that was annoying was our experience in the 150 Central Park Restaurant. We booked that to celebrate our wedding-anniversary and at 7.30pm there were people with a screaming toddler in the restaurant. Not so romantic... :(

 

The staff was very understanding and gave us a table that was really far away from the screaming child... still, other guests complained, too.

 

I know that RCCL is doing great for families. But they also advertise for couples to have a great time on their ships. And compared with land-resorts, they really did a good job.

 

My question now is: Why is it so difficult to accept the rule, that little kids do not belong to specialty-restaurants like 150 Central Park after 7pm?

 

I'm not somebody who hates kids, just somebody who does nod understand parents who think they are above every rule.

 

Grüezi :)

 

We have also a little girl and love to cruise, but I don't understand parents who take their kid to restaurants like that. I still remember the time when we were without kids... ;)

 

I think for us non american, would help a schedule with the most popular holidays in US.

[George C]

I wish there were some adult only cruises, we are carefull to book when kids are normally in school, and like Hal since they tend not to have too many kids. We most likely will start doing more adult only vacations such as Sandally which is very relaxing adults only.

[Sumisid]

Grüezi :)

 

We have also a little girl and love to cruise, but I don't understand parents who take their kid to restaurants like that. I still remember the time when we were without kids... ;)

 

I think for us non american, would help a schedule with the most popular holidays in US.

 

Grüezi au! :)

 

Yes, this would help, but honestly, it's probably our job to inform ourselves. All in all, it was not a negative experience at all. I would sail during Thanksgiving-Week again, we had a blast. :)

[RSLeesburg]

Not just non-americans, I am american (but my great grandparents came from Switzerland) and I try to avoid our holidays too! :D

[Salat13]

Yeah you are right.

As we don't have to look for school holiday yet, we are doing transatlantic cruises as we love the sea days.

But I def. have to check the web for us school holidays. I can imagine that the price will be higher in this time.

[Onessa]

Our DD (now 17YO) might have accompanied us to a nicer restaurant when she was younger, but I can tell you from experience that we kept an eye on her to try to foretell whether an outburst might be on the way but if we could not re-direct her she'd be on her way out with one of us before she could cause a disturbance. I think most parents are that way, so much so that we all fixate on the bad parents/kids because we don't even notice the good ones.

 

I think for us non american, would help a schedule with the most popular holidays in US.

There are the standard holidays but unfortunately many others are state or regional. The easy ones are Independence Day (4th of July - always on the 4th of July :)) But then there are the rules-based "Monday" holidays giving people long weekends -- Memorial Day (last Monday in May?) and Labor day (Monday late in August/early in September) and Thanksgiving are pretty much nation wide. Then the "lesser" Monday holidays (President's Day, Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Day, etc) that some places celebrate with a day off and others really do not. But for every one of those there are the obscure days off (not even holidays) which will vary greatly from place to place-- Spring break is the best known. Here in Wisconsin, in late October public schools have 2-3 days off for Teacher In-service -- and a lot of folks take that opportunity to go on vacation.

 

My family and I travel extensively overseas and always go to local sites and boards like these for advice. May day is not really celebrated in the US, but is a big deal in most European cities. My DH and DD are OCA (Orthodox Church in America) so we understand that while Western-rites Easter was the last weekend in March this year, Eastern-rites Pascha was the first weekend in May -- while the US would have been no problem that first weekend in May, going to Greece or Serbia over Pascha there may have been some disruption in plans.

[johneeo]

I was NOT looking for a kid-free atmosphere! Read again my post, please! I thought even if my main language is not English, I could hopefully explain myself. :rolleyes:

 

 

You explained yourself very well.

 

A screaming child should be removed from any restaurant, whether it be morning, noon, or night.

 

The parents were the ones that were incredibly ignorant.

[xxHadleyxx]

OP--it is too bad that you accidentally booked a major holiday week for the US. It

 

It is really too bad that the staff did not ask the family to remove the child. I think they should--especially at a higher priced specialty restaurant.

 

Funny, everyone thinks of Disney as being THE ship that caters to kids, kids, kids but they are the ones who have 1-2 specialty dining places per ship in which no one under 18 is allowed. They really enforce that too. It's a popular idea--it can be difficult to snag a reservation at these venues ;)

[Dharma517]

Someone did mention Disney and actually if you don't want to be bothered by kids...its a great cruiseline! Weird I know. I have taken about 4 DCL cruises and two were without kids. No kids in the speciality rest...no kids in the cafe cove (coffee shop)...no kids in the adults only areas..period. End of story. The officers on the ship will tell you in a nice way to get out! You might consider Disney! It is the best out of the 3 cruise lines I have taken (RCL and X).

[xxHadleyxx]

Someone did mention Disney and actually if you don't want to be bothered by kids...its a great cruiseline! Weird I know. I have taken about 4 DCL cruises and two were without kids. No kids in the speciality rest...no kids in the cafe cove (coffee shop)...no kids in the adults only areas..period. End of story. The officers on the ship will tell you in a nice way to get out! You might consider Disney! It is the best out of the 3 cruise lines I have taken (RCL and X).

 

Yep! We have many friends without kids or grandkids who only sail Disney. They do the best job of keeping the adult areas ADULT and the kids entertained elsewhere.

 

Nightclub "districts" with 3 or more clues and the entire area is adults only after 10:00ish, the spa, adult pool, coffee shop, 1-2 restaurants and many activities throughout the day are adults only.

 

They are quite a bit pricier than RCI though and still have primarily very boring ports. Deals can be had in low season though (when there will also be fewer kids). September, October, early November and early December as well as January (excluding Martin Luther King weekend or sailings that include Jan 1) seem to best.

 

OP--the above listed times would be the best times to have a smaller number of kids on ANY sailing out of the US on any line.

[spookwife]

Dear all

 

 

My question now is: Why is it so difficult to accept the rule, that little kids do not belong to specialty-restaurants like 150 Central Park after 7pm?.

 

 

they were seated prior to 7 I assume. if so they are within the letter( and spirit) of the regulation. for this reason we tend to make our reservations for after 830, giving those families who were seated by 7 plenty of time to get through their meal and out.

[gerif]

You explained yourself very well.

 

A screaming child should be removed from any restaurant, whether it be morning, noon, or night.

 

The parents were the ones that were incredibly ignorant.

 

You're absolutely correct - there was no excuse for the parents not removing the child immediately - but, as noted by many on these boards, we are dealing with the "me" generation. Had I been present, I might have pointed out to the staff that, while children are permitted to book prior to 7 p.m., the rule states "well-behaved" children and that one certainly was NOT and should have been asked to leave. If they were not asked to remove the child, then my feeling would be that my "agreement" with the cruiseline was violated and doubt I'd be paying for that experience.

[VK3DQ]

Hi

 

Perhaps the thread needs to be changed to "parents on ships"

 

After all its the parents to are supposed to take responsibility for their children

 

so if you are a "bad parent" should you be allowed to cruise :p

 

 

For Girls the pathway should be from wet nurse to governess and not being seen in the adult world until they have "come out"

 

For Boys the same path but a coming of age party at 21

 

 

Thats they way it was done in the time of Jayne Austin , I wonder if we have advanced socially sine that time :)

 

Best regards

 

John

[bplazo]

We have changed from royal to celebrity and I think that on our cruise last month I may have seen maybe about 15 children at the most. It was so nice.

[Mimajo]

This is what I was thinking, too. But that means that it would take an 8pm or later reservation to avoid them. Maybe they should make the cut off earlier, so those who wish to dine without children could do so earlier as well. (Or maybe even and adults only night.)

 

Granted, if my toddler was misbehaving, I would take him/her out, no matter the time.

 

 

OP, thanks for bringing this up in a well mannered way. It is a valid point.

 

I agree, we will be traveling with my daughter and her husband and two granddaughters (10 and 21 months). We wouldn't even consider taking them to one of the specialty restaurants only because they would've bored and antsy. But most definitely they would be taken out of the venue if making a raucous.

[Akitkat118]

The right thing for those parents to do would be to take your screaming child out of the friggin restaurant! I have a 1 year old son... the little monkey is pretty good. But he would get antsy on a long formal dinner... we'd NEVER take him there. Or if we did, one of us would be guaranteed to leave the moment he started acting out.

 

Then again, we also know our son and at the moment he is a 5 pm eater so we are now early birds at age 30! haha. Generally we have no issues right now with him in restaurants since we're out before most people are in.