Just got back from RCCL cruise with kids any ???

[Bribrittmom]

The gambling age is 18.

 

[kajohn]

Sorry I haven't been back to the computer, but thanks debabe for helping me answer!

The menus in the main dining room just changed the week we sailed. They had been slowing changing them fleetwide, and we had the first week on the Explorer, which had the waiters slightly frazzled since they couldn't make recomendations. The food was the best we had ever had on any of our cruises. everything was very flavorful, fresh and well prepared. I liked the variety available.

The children's menu that was available every night was the same all week, but had a lot to choose from. My 7 year old loves steak and mashed potatoes and they had a minute steak and mashed potatoes and carrots that he ordered a few times. It was a thin piece of steak, so i thought yuk, but I tried a piece and couldn't believe how good it was.

Johnny rockets does charge now $3.95 per person to eat there. We are repeat cruisers so we got a coupon for a free meal there, but I had to pay for the kids.

The casino is 18 to gamble. That is our weakness while cruising, so we missed that a lot when on DCL.

The missinformation on the web for the charge for activities is due to the fact that when the Voyager first sailed in late 1999 they did charge for those activities. I was on about the 11th sailing of the Voyager in 1/2000 and they charged for the rock wall, skating, etc. After alot of bad surveys they dropped the charge for all the activities. There are still some people on the web with bad information.

As far as cabin choices, we had a Cat 4 on DCL, but since there are only a few 6 person cabins on Voyager class, which are hard to get and expensive, we chose 2 cat. H which were outside staterooms with a large porthole. We wanted connecting cabins, so we had to book early as there aren't a ton of them.

I loved having two cabins, it made life so much easier, when the boys wanted a break in the afternoon, before dinner, we could be in our cabin chilling out watching tv, or reading while they could be watching cartoons in their room, playing gameboy etc. and of course 2 showers helped getting ready for dinner. I also have boys so I didn't have to change in the bathroom this time, which helped considerably!

as far as ports, we went on the Western, explorer alternates eastern and western. We sailed to Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Grand Cayman.

We stayed on the ship and considered it a sea day in Belize, I couldn't find anything I wanted to do there, as far as excursions, the cave tubing is very popular, but my 7 year old would hate it, and the ruins tours included a 1 hour bus trip each way, so we chose nothing. There aren't really beaches to just go hang out on from what I had read they are all crushed shells instead of sand. That turned out to be a wonderful day, we hung out, swam in the pools when there weren't a ton of people around, played in the arcade, etc.

The main pool area is very nice, with two pools next to each other each about the same size as the goofy pool, but the nice part is that they are surrounded by large areas of about 6 inches of water, so you could sit in the shallow water and dangle your feet in, or sit on the benches that surround the whole pool area and keep your feet in the 6 inches of water.

Yes they are salt water, but they drain and scrub them often during the week, so they stay very clean.

They do have a kiddy pool area on the back of the Explorer as well as the Adventure and the Voyager. It is shaded and does have a slide, but my boys went down it a couple of times, declared it too slow, and we never went back. They have very cute little tables around the area and very small lounge chairs all sized for kids under five. If you have little ones that age this would be a perfect area, and it was never crowded, even on sea days.

Sorry back to the ports, the second port was costa maya. We took a taxi from there and went to Mahaula (something like that), which is a small fishing village, very rustic, with sand street, and shacks selling food and drink, and villagers selling things along the road. We stopped and rented chairs and an umbrella. Taking the taxi back to the port the taxi driver was very nice and explained that Costa Maya was basically 4 families living in a jungle area there 3 years ago, someone, whether it was the cruise lines, the goverment of Mexico or joint, decided they needed another port, so they basically created this location. They built a wonderful port with a huge pool, entertainment, restaurants, bathrooms, entertainment etc. It is extremely clean and well managed. Everything was in English, the taxis to the town had regulated prices, $3pp to the town and $2pp back. They are really trying to make it a very nice place. We drove by a lot of construction on our couple mile drive to the town. I suspect that in another 5-10 years this will be another cozumel.

Cozumel, we went to Paradise beach and had an amazing day!

Grande Cayman we went with Captain Bryan's and went snorkeling and to Stingray City.

I spend a lot of time on cruisecritic checking out info on each port of call, so I usually don't book excursions through the cruiseline.

We sailed out of Miami, which isn't my favorite port, but what can you do. We had a big problem in boarding that week, which is very unusual, we were told that customs had decided to check every bag that went off the ship, so we could see passengers still waiting to go through customs until 1:30 pm that day. We had gotten to the port around 11:00 am. Usually they are boarding by noon, but with the hold up they didn't let people start boarding till almost 2:00pm. There was a huge line of people waiting to get onboard. They had waiters serving cookies and they had lemonade set up, so they tried their best, luckily it is a very large terminal, so they had us looped all over it trying to keep people in lines to board. We did not find this when we got off, so apparently customs had targeted another ship to harrass that week! It took us about an hour to get off the ship because we were eating breakfast when our color was called, so when we finished we had to get in line to get off. Immigration is tough in Miami, and they took quite a while with each family so that is what the hold up was. We have a very generic last name, so I don't know if that is the reason, but even with passports it seems we take forever in immegration since 9/11.

Hope I answered everything I could, feel free to ask anything else!

 

[kajohn]

What about excursions available when you were in port? And what ports did you visit?

One thing nice about RCCL is that you can book all your excursions through their website I beleive 90 days out (could be more though, I didn't book any, so I wasn't too concerned about it). You can search through all that is available, and then book them on their website. You can also book them from your room on the interactive TV once you get onboard.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Wow, thanks for all the detailed information. Also, thanks for clearing up the activity fee for onboard activities. I'm glad that RCCL changed their policy concerning that since the rock wall, ice skating, etc would be something that my kids would want to do and would be a big reason that we'd cruise that line.

I'll let my DD know of the gambling age. She'd like that, but will be a poor college student so she'd better start saving her change now.

The ports look nice, for the most part. We'd probably be doing the 5 day Bermuda, though. Does anyone know anything about Bermuda? My in-laws honeymooned in Bermuda so we thought they might like going back. Also, it's less expensive, which would be a selling point with them.

T&B

 

[kajohn]

I'm not sure what ships sail burmuda, but i don't think it is the Voyager class ships, they all sail the carribean, 7 or longer itineraries. The other ships are adding rock walls, but they won't have ice skating or inline skating.

 

[DeeCeeSW]

Voyager of the Seas leaves from Bayonne, NJ to Bermuda as well as to the Western Carribean from May to November.

 

[kajohn]

thanks, good to know, when I had looked into Burmuda a year or two ago they only had older ships going there.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

We'd love to leave out of Baltimore, but Grandeur Of The Seas sails out of there, which isn't a Voyager class. If we were all adults then it might be fine, but traveling with kids I want activities that they will enjoy.

So if we go to Bermuda we'll need to make the trip to NJ (still a heck of a lot closer than Florida!).

T&B

 

[simba928]

How leneant (sp?) are they on the ages? We will be sailing in June. The boys will be 9 (turning 10 in November) , 10, and 12 (turned 12 in May). I will be 15 (turned 15 in May) and my cousin will be 14 (turning 15 in November). The 9 and 10 year olds will be together, but could I join the 12-14 year olds to be with my cousin and the 12 year old or could the 14 year old join the 15-17 year olds to be with me?

 

[kaykels]

Can anyone else suggest a travel agency with prices as good as AS or DU? Is the Explorer just like the Mariner and Voyager? Do ANY of the RCCL pools have fresh water or are all of their ships using salt water?
Thanks for the info. I want to do this in 06. My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE DCL but we want to try something else next time. The girls are getting older (they will be 10 & 12 in the fall of 06) and my little guy will be 5. I think they'll LOVE RCCL.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Is the Explorer just like the Mariner and Voyager?

I'm not sure of the differences in the ships, but they are all in the Voyager family so should be similiar with the rock-climbing, ice skating, etc.

T&B