Planning a Family Cruise for Ten-Advice?

[martyap]

I am doing preliminary planning for a family cruise either April or June of 2018. There would be three families (A) 2 adults; (B) 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 child; © 2 adults, 2 teens. Not really sure what cabin configurations or options would work the best. My thinking is to get three balcony cabins and

two inside cabins in close proximity. I don't have any experience or knowledge of any family or two bedroom cabins/suites but I am guessing that would be much more costly. The two teenage girls will be almost 15 and the boys will be 15 and 12........wanted to make this enjoyable for everyone so figured 5 cabins in total and not 3.

 

(1) Would the Allure/Oasis offer the most in activities for the teens? How would that compare to the Freedom class ships? My wife and I will actually be on the Allure in a few months......any advantage of booking the family cruise while we are on board?

 

(2) Any particular RCCL promos I should keep my eye open for? WE have also sailed on Carnival and Celebrity but I thought RCCL might be the best for the family cruise.

 

(3) The kids are in VA/MD and I am in NY. Was looking at cruises out of Port Liberty. Not sure if that is a good option. I believe that would be the Anthem. I did take them out of Baltimore in 2010 on the Carnival Pride. That is the most convenient port for everyone.......ships are older with little in the way of bells and whistles.

 

Any suggestions and advice would be well received......thank you.

 

Marty

 

footnote......this April will be my first Allure experience; one family has been on both the Allure and Oasis; one family has not been on either ship

Edited January 2, 2017 by martyap

[lady_cruiser]

Have you considered using a travel agent? They would be more qualified to help you out including finding the best deals. Just make sure you ask them if they charge a fee if anything happens if someone in your group has to cancel. A good travel agent will not charge any fees.

[Clarea]

... any advantage of booking the family cruise while we are on board?

Booking on board will give you a reduced deposit and on board credit. However, the prices may go up enough in a few months such that you would lose any advantage of getting the on board credit.

 

... Any particular RCCL promos I should keep my eye open for?...

Promos are unpredictable, you cannot depend on any specific promo coming back.

Edited January 2, 2017 by clarea

[Paulette3028]

Booking on board will give you a reduced deposit and on board credit. However, the prices may go up enough in a few months such that you would lose any advantage of getting the on board credit.

/QUOTE]

 

I guess I am confused just a little by what you have said. I fully understand about the reduced deposit and OBC given when you book on board a sailing. But what do you mean by: "the prices may go up enough in a few months such that you would lose any advantage of getting the on board credit." The value of an OBC doesn't get reduced if prices 'go up'.

[Paulette3028]

I am doing preliminary planning for a family cruise either April or June of 2018. There would be three families (A) 2 adults; (B) 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 child; © 2 adults, 2 teens. Not really sure what cabin configurations or options would work the best. My thinking is to get three balcony cabins and

two inside cabins in close proximity. I don't have any experience or knowledge of any family or two bedroom cabins/suites but I am guessing that would be much more costly. The two teenage girls will be almost 15 and the boys will be 15 and 12........wanted to make this enjoyable for everyone so figured 5 cabins in total and not 3.

 

(1) Would the Allure/Oasis offer the most in activities for the teens? How would that compare to the Freedom class ships? My wife and I will actually be on the Allure in a few months......any advantage of booking the family cruise while we are on board?

 

(2) Any particular RCCL promos I should keep my eye open for? WE have also sailed on Carnival and Celebrity but I thought RCCL might be the best for the family cruise.

 

(3) The kids are in VA/MD and I am in NY. Was looking at cruises out of Port Liberty. Not sure if that is a good option. I believe that would be the Anthem. I did take them out of Baltimore in 2010 on the Carnival Pride. That is the most convenient port for everyone.......ships are older with little in the way of bells and whistles.

 

Any suggestions and advice would be well received......thank you.

 

Marty

 

footnote......this April will be my first Allure experience; one family has been on both the Allure and Oasis; one family has not been on either ship

 

 

When we have gone with a big group, we left the booking of the individual cabins to the respective families. We were not so concerned nor felt the need to have cabins next to each other. Everyone's budget is different has been our feeling. Same with excursions -- we talked about things we wanted to do, but everyone planned what they liked and we met at dinner. It turned out some people did things together in each port.

 

As far as activities on board -- Oasis class will have plenty to do, as well as Freedom class -- but you are limited if you are only considering Port Liberty or Baltimore. Grandeur sails from Baltimore and as a Vision class ship it is very nice, but doesn't have all the bells and whistles and things to do that the bigger ships have for the kids. Anthem has its own unique things to do on her.

[Clarea]

... I guess I am confused just a little by what you have said. I fully understand about the reduced deposit and OBC given when you book on board a sailing. But what do you mean by: "the prices may go up enough in a few months such that you would lose any advantage of getting the on board credit." The value of an OBC doesn't get reduced if prices 'go up'.

If someone waits to book on board, and during that time the price goes up in excess of the value of OBC, then it would not have been worth it to wait. Better to book now and then cancel and re-book onboard if the price does not go up.

[Paulette3028]

If someone waits to book on board, and during that time the price goes up in excess of the value of OBC, then it would not have been worth it to wait. Better to book now and then cancel and re-book onboard if the price does not go up.

 

Yes indeed.....I did not read the original wording the way you meant it. As we also say, if you feel a price is good....book it, because it could go up at any time.

[mellowmarshmom]

We are going on a trip with 9. I found using a travel agent to be a great experience. If my dad or adult daughter had questions, they could call the travel agent instead of me trying to be the go between. The agent even made us up little packets of our boarding passes and luggage tags and shipped them to us 2 weeks before the cruise with a thank you box of gourmet cookies. I am sure we will have onboard credit awaiting us.

 

 

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[irishgal432]

I am doing preliminary planning for a family cruise either April or June of 2018. There would be three families (A) 2 adults; (B) 2 adults, 1 teen, 1 child; © 2 adults, 2 teens. Not really sure what cabin configurations or options would work the best. My thinking is to get three balcony cabins and

two inside cabins in close proximity. I don't have any experience or knowledge of any family or two bedroom cabins/suites but I am guessing that would be much more costly. The two teenage girls will be almost 15 and the boys will be 15 and 12........wanted to make this enjoyable for everyone so figured 5 cabins in total and not 3.

 

(1) Would the Allure/Oasis offer the most in activities for the teens? How would that compare to the Freedom class ships? My wife and I will actually be on the Allure in a few months......any advantage of booking the family cruise while we are on board?

 

(2) Any particular RCCL promos I should keep my eye open for? WE have also sailed on Carnival and Celebrity but I thought RCCL might be the best for the family cruise.

 

(3) The kids are in VA/MD and I am in NY. Was looking at cruises out of Port Liberty. Not sure if that is a good option. I believe that would be the Anthem. I did take them out of Baltimore in 2010 on the Carnival Pride. That is the most convenient port for everyone.......ships are older with little in the way of bells and whistles.

 

Any suggestions and advice would be well received......thank you.

 

Marty

 

footnote......this April will be my first Allure experience; one family has been on both the Allure and Oasis; one family has not been on either ship

 

I have planned family trips before. I found that if we were close to each other, that helped with communication and whereabouts of all the members. If you have the 5 rooms in the same general area especially for the cousins they could easily get to each others rooms. You will have to book one adult and one child in each room if they are not next to or across the hall.

 

We have also had a general area that we pick out when we board on the pool deck. Sports pool versus swimming pool, port versus starboard, deck number to make it easy for families to meet if they are going to the pool.

[KBD1516]

Freedom has 3 forward oceanview cabins on several decks that will accommodate 6-8. The prices get lower with each person booked into the cabin. Quite a nice option for many families. Minimum 6 people and you have to call or get a TA to book these cabins. They get booked up quickly. Freedom is a nice ship for families, ice rink etc

 

I mean really forward -- right under the bridge!

 

 

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[El Abuelo]

 

(2) Any particular RCCL promos I should keep my eye open for? WE have also sailed on Carnival and Celebrity but I thought RCCL might be the best for the family cruise.

 

 

We're cruising this spring, a group of 8 adults and 4 young children / toddlers across 4 cabins. The one promotion that resulted in a big discount for us was the "kids sail free" or "3rd and 4th person in a room free". One was offered over the labor day weekend, the other over Thanksgiving. They were short lived sales, and I only found out about them through this forum. In each case I contacted our travel agent, who repriced the reservation for a total of around 19% savings over our initial reservation. All the other sales and promotions are really just different ways to the same price.

[andrew2346]

We took Anthem out of Cape Liberty for spring break last year and we are a family of 6. We had 3 cabins (Mom and child aged 7); (Dad and child age 10); 2 teen girls (14 and 13). We had oceanview staterooms all right next to each other. I highly recommend with the age group you have that you choose Anthem over say the Grandeur out of Baltimore. Having sailed both myself I can assure you that the Anthem will win hands down for the kids.

 

Could you get away with 5 staterooms?

Group A =1

Group B =2

Group C =2

[jamesr3939]

We have done three family cruises with 10 -14 members. I highly recommend you find a good TA and let them work with you. If you find booking a connecting cabin for some is a good idea (we did); then to get those you either have to call or use a TA. They go fast so at least reserve those now.

 

Also using a TA they can possible put you into a group with other clients and then you get all the perks of being in a group. We have an October on Oasis with just three cabins and six family. But our TA was able to put us in an agency group. We got better cabin fare and OBC than if I had booked on board in November 2016 when DW and I were on the Allure. In fact, I did book on board, got the OBC, then when my TA put those two connecting cabins in her TA group we got additional OBC.

 

Keep in mind the OBC is equal to your on board booking deposit. I applied our OBC to the future cruise. You can also take the OBC as "instant" OBC for the cruise you are on. But if you cancel you loose your deposit.

 

Two family trips have been on Oasis and I highly recommend an Oasis class for a large family.

 

Cabins at least close are fine, but they don't have to be next to each other. Family does need privacy and alone time.

 

The only rule we had was we tried to all meet for MDR dinner every other night, which worked a couple of times. I also reserved the Flow Rider just for us one night for an hour, which was the most fun. I highly suggest you try to do that, especially with teenagers.

 

Booking cabanas on Labadee was perfect for the large groups, we have done that twice. We also did a walking tour on our own at San Juan. Otherwise everybody was pretty much on their own.

 

Our kids were good about letting one night be boys night out and then a girls night out, so somebody could watch the children. They weren't old enough on the first Mariner trip for kids clubs. Then one night DW and I watch the kids so all the DS and DIL could go out.

 

Bottom line it's a great way to enjoy family. Nobody has to cook, clean, drive, or entertain.

Edited January 2, 2017 by jamesr3939