WHOLE family wants to go on a cruise

[CruisinLynette]

My whole family includes 4 adult children, spouses and all their children. Right now that would be 6 kids and 10 adults!! I told the kids it would have to wait till after our Alaskan Cruise in Sept 2007 so who know HOW many children that will be then. I'm thinking of maybe June 2008 when the kids are all out of school. I know prices aren't out yet but just trying to get some ideas as to what lines are more agreeable to this. Also it can't be real expensive as my kids are rich and MOM AND DAD are NOT paying for it!!!! ;) Figured if it's a ways away it gives them time to pay on it also!! Any suggestions and tips before I agree to doing this??

[wrp96]

As soon as the cruises for 2008 come out, plan and book. Many times the lowest prices on cruises will be when bookings first open. Also, this will give you a choice of rooms and ships especially if you guys want to have rooms close together.

 

Depending on how many people you have in a room, you may qualify for a group booking so you may want to contact a travel agent now to see what they recommend.

 

If you can travel at one of the less popular times of the year, you may be able to get some good deals. Remember most families travel during spring, summer, and the holidays so the cruiselines don't have that many incentives to discount cruises during those time.

 

Some lines like NCL have specials where kids under a certain age travel free except for port taxes and fees so look for specials like that. I know RCCL ran a special in the past year where 3rd and 4th passengers were only $99 per person.

 

Also, remember to consider airfare when looking at cruises. If everybody in your family is in Texas, for example, even if a cruise from Galveston is more than a cruise from Florida, it may be cheaper when you consider airfare.

 

Whatever you do, don't assume that one option will be more expensive than others. Sometimes 7 night cruises are less expensive than 5 night cruises. Sometimes having 2 people in each room costs the same as having 4 people in a room. Sometimes the family staterooms and suites that some of the lines have are less expensive than getting 2 inside rooms.

[bruce-r]

With a group that large, you should also check into doing this as a group cruise. A good TA should be able to help you understand this more.

[wa.mama]

It was a piece of cake and the best family vacation yet. Nobody had to cook, clean, or arrange entertainment. Kids were occupied. Adults enjoyed real conversation.

 

We had 21 people, but only 7 cabins, so did not qualify for Celebrity's group rate. However, they were great about linking the reservations for dining. We arranged our own travel and excursions.

 

Liked it so much that our second family reunion cruise is in 2 months!

[LoveMyBabies]

Sounds like a lot of fun. My first cruise was with a family group of 13 (7 adults and 6 kids). We were all seated together for dinner. We all agreed to come together at dinner every night, other than that, we were on our own. We had a great time!

[murrayhaven]

LoveMyBabies - You touched on what I've been wondering. There will be 18 of us cruising on NCL Spirit 7/21/07 - 7/29/07. I'm pretty sure (I know) we don't all want to do the same things at the same times. How do you decide about meal times, shore excursions, night time fun, etc. With freestyle dining, I'm thinking we better make ressies every night even if eating in main dining rooms. I would think it rather hard to just walk up and expect seating for 18. How do you all keep in touch, i.e., post-it notes, dry eraser boards, etc. Feel free to email.

 

Wa.Mama - We wanted to try a cruise for the same reasons. Please tell me how it worked for you.

 

Thanks,

Barbara, TN

murrayhaven@comcast.net

[Arubalisa]

Hi Barbara- I am not either of the posters that you have mentioned nor have I sailed on NCL, but I have sailed with our family of 11. You are correct in your assumption that not everyone wants to do the same thing or at the same time.

 

Having booked the ship, prior to the cruise a few of the adults researched excursions and exchanged ideas. There were some excursions we did as a group, such as the Silver Moon II in Barbados and others such as a trip to the Baths which my parents, grandmother and husband were not interested in. We went to the beach instead.

 

The majoirty had chosen late seating dinner and with the 11 of us wanting to eat together that is what we went with. Besides sharing experiences of our day we also discussed the next day's activities. Generally most nights we met for drinks before dinner, agreeing on a time and location the night before. If someone was late getting ready, so be it, no one was ever alone :D With late seating dinner our dd at 8 was the youngest so we just made sure she had a nap late every afternoon so that she would be able to make it through dessert and it worked perfectly. After dinner again, everyone was on their own free to do whatever they liked my brother and SIL, headed to the disco, my parents and grandmother off to a show and the kids, dh and myself back to our cabins.

 

We sailed on Princess with a group of friends and dined together. It was a hassle making a reservation at precisely 8:30 each morning so if you can get a reserved table definitely do so.

 

Most of us ate breakfast at the buffet and though we did not always eat at the same time, generally tried to sit in the same general area each day (when at all possible) so any family memeber arriving would be able to spot us. During days at sea everyone went their own way, but again those of us who spent time at the pool were nearly always in the same spot so anyone in the family knew where we could be found.

 

There were 4 children in our group and they were instructed to make contact with a parent at a specified spot at a specified time. Our dd spends a lot of her time in the kid's club so no problem finding her :) We had 4 balcony cabins though not adjoining were all next to one another. This made for easy chatting over the railings :) past the partitions, but not far enough out to put anyone in danger :eek:

 

All in all it worked well and we are doing it all over again this year. We have 7 ports and thus far have agreed on 2 joint excursions.

[murrayhaven]

Arubalisa - Thanks for the great tips. I do love the idea of having drinks and dinner together every night to share the days events and to plan the next days events. And the suggestion of sitting in the same general pool area and same general breakfast area every day makes great sense. Our six rooms are near each other, also.

 

I see you're GA by way of NJ.

 

Thanks,

Barbara

East TN by way of South East PA and Northern NY

[Arubalisa]

I had one more thought about dining. If you have an assigned seating in the dining room (don't know does NCL do that?) decide whether you want to break your group into one table of adults and one table of children.

 

If not, or there are no kids cruising, why not try to come up with some kind of fun rotation with a different seat each night. Read this on another thread yesterday, being a large group, this way everyone gets to catch up with the others at least once.

 

Was also thinking your idea of dry eraser boards on cabin doors would work as long as hooligans :rolleyes: did not erase messages and they were attached with an adhesive which would not damage the door. I know at Christmas time lots of people put wreaths and such on their doors so there has to be a way to do it.

[AZPam]

I would tell you not to do the dry erase board idea. We did that a few years ago. First the pens would disappear, then we'd have our messages erased and/or have very nasty messages left by others. We had to take them down quickly. It's very easy to use the phone and leave a message that way. On Princess ships they have a place where the patters are left every night next to your door and we've left written notes in there too.

 

I've been in charge of putting together a couple of large groups. Last year we had 16 cabins, 42 people. Friends, family and whoever. We pretty much just met every night for dinner but even then a few did their own thing. We rotated tables every night so we sat with different people all the time. One night it was a table of ladies, table of men, table of kids. Another we split it more by ages/generations. Just don't exclude the kids to their own table every night. I also second the idea of "staking out" an area in the buffet to sit at every morning and those that might want company will always know where to look.

 

Good luck and have fun!

[suezyq50]

AZPam:How did you come up with your rotation for dinner?

 

Arubialisa: Just curious, where in GA?

[Arubalisa]

Arubialisa: Just curious, where in GA?

Dawsonville/Forsyth line...not far enough north for me :( Dh is a teacher in Woodstock.

[AZPam]

AZPam:How did you come up with your rotation for dinner?

I just wanted to make sure that nobody was "stuck" at any one table all week. Our very first cruise we were kind of the odd couple out and were left with the kids all week. Nobody wanted to switch. Now, I love my kids, neices and nephews, but it would have been nice to have at least one night of adult converstation. On the flip side of that, we really got to see how the kids feel left out too when they are "stuck" at the kiddy table all week. They like to feel like part of the crowd too.

 

You could put cruise cards in a hat and draw tables, you could just fill up the tables with those who come and sit down first, there are lots of ways to mix it up. The hardest part will be getting a large group sitting together in the same area. We've done the personal choice dining with Princess the past few years and just make an early reservation. They kind of complain when we tell them for how many, but a gentle reminder that we are the customer and the customer is always rights helps. A tip never hurts either! Good luck!

[CruisinLynette]

So reading all this you think this is a doable thing. I've done groups before but NOT with kids. Do the lines fill up with alot of kids at Spring Break in April?? Or is that not a good time to go? I was thinking of June so we didn't have to take any of the kids out of school but a week at sea would be very educational in my book. I figured if we booked well in advance at least then the kids would have lots of time to be paying on it.

 

Thanks folks.

[Arubalisa]

So reading all this you think this is a doable thing. I've done groups before but NOT with kids. Do the lines fill up with alot of kids at Spring Break in April?? Or is that not a good time to go? I was thinking of June so we didn't have to take any of the kids out of school but a week at sea would be very educational in my book. I figured if we booked well in advance at least then the kids would have lots of time to be paying on it.

 

Thanks folks.

I would begin by looking along the lines of budget and types of activities for what cruise line would be a "good fit" for the majority. Once you have narrowed it down to the cruise line you may want to begin narrowing selection by destination. Then decide on the ship and April OR June.

 

What I am trying to say is if you want to do Caribbean or Hawaii, there are only a limited number of ships sailing those waters in June. If you are looking at Alaska you can rule out April and for the most part, if not all of April, Europe. I hope that makes some semblence of sense :rolleyes:

 

For example, this year for Christmas we looked at Princess, HAL and Celebrity. Carnival is not a consideration because my grandmother will not do one of "those" ships. :eek: She won't do NCL either, been there done that, she hated it. She is paying so we abide by her wishes. :D

 

We were looking for something 11 -14 nights which RCCL doesn't offer. The longer Princess itineraries were sold out of balconies. Grandmother will only do balconies, kids included Again, at her age of 93, we abide by her wishes. :cool:

 

The only HAL sailing which fit into the kid's holiday schedule departed on Christmas Eve which was not to any of our liking since we celebrate Christmas that night rather than the following morning.

 

So...that left Celebrity. The Galaxy's dates fit in to the kid's school schedule and my grandmother thought their itinerary would be the most "enriching" for the kids (last year it was the Panama Canal for "enrichment"), so that is how we ended up on the same ship 2 Christmas' in a row. I am NOT complaining. :D