Were there times you insisted your family do things together?

[imgoingtodisney]

any ideas? dinner may not be a possibility because of the pants issue and Palos
breakfast will most likely let DS sleep when possible to catch up
ports - st marten & st thomas we're all together
castaway cay - i really want to get over to the adult beach w/DH and the boys (DH&DS) want some time for snorkeling

Was there any special time of the day that you insisted you were all together? Or did you just go with the flow?

[disneyholic family]

we ate all meals together (including sit down breakfast at Tritons each morning.....i just love being served breakfast)....
and the excursion was together....
we didn't insist on anything else, but my son also met us in the walt disney theatre for the evening shows and snorkeled with us on CC before heading over to the teen beach....

[wovenwonder]

The evening meal time on the cruise was ALWAYS family time for us. A nice time to reflect on the day. If I would ask my kids their most memorable time on our 3 cruises -- I am almost certain that they would say our meal times.
:D

[Lumiere999]

I would like to have breakfast and dinner together. DD and DS are really looking forward to Oceaneers Club so I hope I can drag them away...at least for the photos so we look like we were together!!!!!;) ;) ;)

[Katesdad]

The only requirement we made on the children was that they have dinner with us. It gave us a chance to catch up and find out how their day was going. We did see them infrequently during the day just to make sure they didn't jump overboard, but other than that, we let them do their own thing (they were DD18, DD16 and DS14 on that trip). Dinner was special. They didn't have a problem dressing properly and I think that they enjoyed the company of the family as well as our dinner companions.

[CRB#33]

Except for Palos, I wanted our children to eat dinner with us. It worked out okay. The children went to Tritons without us. (age 11,12,13) Our servers took great care of them. I also wanted us together when we got off the ship in Nassau. I wanted to experience another country together.

What's the pants issue?

[TootyJane]

Dinner time (with the exception of Palo) was the time we were all together. There were a few excursions we did all together. Other than those things, the kids pretty much did their own thing.

[peagreenid]

They were told what time dinner was......They had to be there on time. They always made it.... and our head Server Sandra- always made a point of meeting us at the door, to tell us that she appreciated them being on time. They were always the first ones to arrive.
They were both 13 at the time.

smiles Patty

[dylan'smom]

Originally posted by peagreenid
They were told what time dinner was......They had to be there on time. They always made it.... and our head Server Sandra- always made a point of meeting us at the door, to tell us that she appreciated them being on time.

Hi Patty!!
(thanks for all of your help w/ the TA stuff!)

Dinners were a great time for us & everyone was there to enjoy it together - especially on our first cruise when we had Jelidi & William as our servers.:)

We also had Sandra as our head server on the second cruise. She was wonderful - really made up for the servers, in this case!!!

[TeensMom]

We always had breakfast together except one day when kids and I had early excursion and hubby had later one and slept in. I'm an early riser so occasionally got up early, had coffee, visited exercise room and joined family at TopSiders. (We did TopSiders every morning except last when we wanted to say goodbye to David and Anita).

At breakfast we discussed plans for day, if we wanted to see shows, etc. About half the time, one or other kid joined us at a show or lecture.

We also had dinner together everynight except night of teen sail/cruise/dance and night we went to Palos.

We did excursions together but let the kids go back to the ship earlier than we did if we wanted to walk around after excursion.

At CC, we went ashore together and set up "home base" in a couple of chairs so kids would know where we were. Kids then went over to teen beach. DH and I biked, snorkled, visited adult beach, occasionally checking back to home base to see if kids needed us (they never did).

[llachance]

dinner was mandatory (my daughter is 15). Went to Palos (both years we have gone) while the teen cruise was going on in the evening. If I didn't see her at dinner I probably wouldn't see her.:)

[FantasticDisFamily]

Dinner was a must. And generally not a problem. Although we do have a family pic from our first cruise where DS looks a bit on the glum side. This was not from going to dinner but having to stand next to his sister for a picture!

We also usually had breakfast together, some excursions, but beyond that we went with the flow. DD spent more time with us than DD. Probably because DS was in the lab so much she didn't have to compete for attention!;)

Deb

[mmouse37]

We always have dinner with the kids. This past cruise on 8/3 we were in different cabins than all three of our children and they all dressed themselves properly and made it to dinner each night on time looking great.

They are DD18 DS17 DD14

MJ

[hokie5cruiser]

We were a multi-generational group of 12 and dinner was the only requirement to do things together. My 3 sons ate breakfast with us and went ashore with us, but did their own activities on sea days. We did the Palo's brunch (with 7 adults) because we did not want to miss any dinners.

[Nutsoverdisney]

On our first cruise DD then 14 had to have all meals with us and go into Nassau and Freeport with us.

The second cruise DD, then 15 only had to come with us for the island excursions. All meals she either skipped because she was sleeping in or ate with friends at one of the fast food places.