OT: Cousin getting married on a RC cruise. Help!

[AlwaysEeyore]

Hi All!

I have dilemma and I need some opinions. Sorry it's a little long. I have two cousins that I am close with, they grew up in Florida, my sisters and I in New York. We would see each other every year and we feel more like sisters than cousins.

Cousin #1 got married last November at Disney and had all of us in her wedding party. The wedding cost us a decent amount of money but it was at Disney World. So we could justify it. I am very close with this cousin and helped her plan her wedding.

Cousin #2 decided she wants to get married on a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Caribbean October 2008. We have never done a cruise before because we are not the type of family that can sit and do nothing on vacation. We hate the hot weather, the beach and crowds and nothing on the promo DVD really looks like fun to us.

This wedding will cost us twice as much as Cousin #1's wedding last year. Cousin #2 made sure to plan it around my DD school schedule and even told me she knew the trip would be expensive and she would love to have us in her wedding party but could not expect us to have to pay for expensive dresses, she just want's us there.

I don't know what to do, the trip will be close to $5000 for something I don't know that I'll like. We had some problems at cousin #1's wedding having so much family together at once, at least there we could escape each other, once we are on the ship we are kind of stuck there. Not to mention we will not get to tour one of the Islands the ship stops at becuase of the wedding.

I love my cousin but I just feel like it makes no sense to go to the wedding. We booked a balcony room figuring we will be spending a lot of time in our air conditioned room. My kids are 6 & 3 so it will be difficult to find things to do as a family since they are so young and the amount DH & work we like to take family vacations to spend time with out kids.

Can someone convince me we will have a blast on the cruise and it will be money well spent?

 

[LadyShea]

I can't convince you that you will like cruising to the Carribean, it certainly isn't for everyone. The question comes down to, are you willing to spend the money to be there for your cousin? If so, then just try to find something of interest onboard and at each port and try to make the best of it.

You can get away from family on a ship...they're large. They should have multiple pools, a kids club of some kind, daily activities, a library, arcade etc. ask about special tours of the ship . If you don't like just hanging at a beach, see what interesting activities or excursions are available in each port...a museum, gallery, kayak tour, rafting, etc.

 

[bumbershoot]

Have you spent any time on cruise critic dot com? Go to their families forum, and read about all there is to do on cruise ships, and go to the RCCL forum. Read read and read.

We went on a RCCL cruise for our honeymoon, and it was incredible. We absolutely plan on taking a family cruise as soon as we get this Disney "thing" out of our systems, LOL.

You guys will likely have much more fun than you think you will. Have you checked out the excursions, the ports of call, etc? On our cruise we only did one "official" excursion, and the other ports we just got off the ship and roamed around, went up to the glaciers on our own, went to a bookstore, found a Mexican restaurant in Juneau and ate there, just had fun! Check out your ports, to see if that sort of thing is possible without paying an arm and a leg for official excursions.

As for the balcony, I see very little point in a balcony, especially with small children. It would be more frightening to me than anything else. And I bet you will be wrong wrong wrong that you will be spending scads of time in the room! If money is an issue with this, look at downgrading yourself to an ocean view (but no balcony) room. If no one is claustrophobic, you could even think about an inside room, but that might be a bit scary for you, thinking you'll be in the room all the time.

If you get the Travel Channel, look up the shows about cruising, especially the RCCL specific ones.

Also, if you booked with a Travel Agent, see if they will lower the price if RCCL lowers it. If you booked directly through RCCL, check the price of your cruise often. Every day even. If the price goes down, you can call and get the price you'll pay lowered as well. TAs should do this, but some TAs (especially the internet exclusive ones) won't, or will only do it a few times, or will charge you for the change. Which is really a shame, because except for TAs who put you in blocks of rooms, TAs can't really get you a lower price on RCCL than if you booked through them, so when they won't match the policies that RC has, it's a bummer.


Anyway, check out cruise critic and the Travel Channel shows, and I hope you'll find it's a very exciting thing!

I wish one of our relatives would get married on a cruise. And invite us.

 

[okeydokey]

If it is going to be a hardship for your family, tell you would love to be there, but just can't make it. Then she can plan for other dates if she wants to. It was nice of her to plan around your schedule, but did she ask you if you go before she planned that week?

 

[DevilDuckie]

People who throw expensive destination weddings need to accept graciously, "I'm so sorry, we cannot make it." Spending $5000 for a vacation of someone else's choosing would not appeal to me.

 

[chcmama]

We have been on 4 cruises the last one was RCL we loved it. You can easily get away from your family as most of the ships are quite large with many activites. I don't think a balcony room is really necessary and it can save you quite a bit of money to get just on oceanview room. We would love to take a famliy cruise sometime, but with 3 kids it puts us at having to book 2 rooms. We took our oldest when she was 3 and she had a blast, she spent some time in the kids program, but most of the time she spent with us on the islands, at the pool, or other activities. But, really it all comes down to whether you want to spend the money to do it. Good luck with your decision

 

[Floridagal23]

I have been on probably 6 RCCL cruises and they are extremely family friendly. Not only do they have activities going on all day (even inside), they have kids clubs where the parents can drop off the children or play inside. I think that anything you would normally do on a regular vacation you can do on a cruise (with the exception of going on WDW rides) and it is really nice to have all your family in one place and not have to worry about going anywhere for meals,etc. You can even bring walkie talkies on the cruise if you need a little alone time or want to split up amongst your family. We are big cruisers and love it - especially the newer RCCL ships. Do you know which one you will be going on?

 

[AlwaysEeyore]

Thank you for the replys.

Will we be okay with the kids at the ports, (San Juan, St. Thomas, & St. Marteen) I would hope we could find some free or cheap things to do.

Have you spent any time on cruise critic dot com? Go to their families forum, and read about all there is to do on cruise ships, and go to the RCCL forum. Read read and read.

I never heard of this so I will check it out tonight with DH. Thank you. I am claustrophbic so an inside room was out of the question from the beginning. They have promanade view rooms but they said we had to book 2 rooms with the kids and it came out to more money then the balcony.
I have been checking online every week and unfortuanlety the price has gone up not down due to fuel surcharges (go figure)

If it is going to be a hardship for your family, tell you would love to be there, but just can't make it. Then she can plan for other dates if she wants to. It was nice of her to plan around your schedule, but did she ask you if you go before she planned that week?

She did ask before she planned it but she also told the family how cheap it was going to be. They live in Florida so they just drive to the port, they always get interior rooms, they never needed passports before, and their parents also paid for most of their cruise. I think she lives in la, la land. But then again her father is giving her $25,000 for her wedding to spend as she wishes and her cruise wedding will only cost her about $8,000. So that is one of the main reasons she picked this.

You can get away from family on a ship...they're large. They should have multiple pools, a kids club of some kind, daily activities, a library, arcade etc. ask about special tours of the ship . If you don't like just hanging at a beach, see what interesting activities or excursions are available in each port...a museum, gallery, kayak tour, rafting, etc.

Where can I find out what will be at each port?



I feel like if I don't go I'll be missing out on a once in a lifetime family trip with my parents and stuff. Money is somewhat of an issue, I mean I don't exactly have $5000 sitting around collecting dust, but I can figure out how to make it work.

Thank you again everyone, it helps getting opinions other than family sometimes.

 

[Floridagal23]

St Thomas - there is a ton to do. Even just walking around the downtown is fun. It will cost approx $4 per person in St Thomas for you to take an open air taxi (kind of like a truck cab with a wagon in the bag, it has 4 or 5 rows that seat 4 or 5 across ea) to the downtown area, depending on where you dock - if you dock at Havensight, there are stores there and you can just walk around. In St Thomas, there is a lot of shopping (great prices, duty free) and it is beautiful to walk around. There is also a gorgeous synagogue if you feel like getting a history lesson that is free to walk into..it has sand floors as a reminder of when the Jewish people had to have the sand muffle the sounds of prayer during the spanish inquisition. It is safe to walk around there, just be careful as always. You can also take a cab directly to a public beach.

St Martin - you will need to take a water taxi to the town on the dutch side, or an actual taxi to the french side (the french side is extremely expensive). The water taxi is $6/adult round trip - I am not sure how much for a child. Nice little ride to the dutch side, but there is also a new shopping area depending on where you dock right at the port - no water taxi necessary. Again, duty free shopping, the same as St thomas - luxury items, electronics,etc. Also safe.

San Juan has everything within walking distance - mostly US outlet shopping type stores, and it is just a nice place to take a walk (but very far for little kids, depending on where you dock).



Personally, if money is tight and you do not care to get off the boat, it is always fun to enjoy the pool area because it will be practically empty during the days when you are in port - it is nice to have it all to yourselves.



Promenade view-you must be on the explorer/navigator/voyager/liberty/freedom...which one? I have been on most of those. Those are great ships!

 

[katerkat]

Cousin #2 decided she wants to get married on a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Caribbean October 2008. We have never done a cruise before because we are not the type of family that can sit and do nothing on vacation. We hate the hot weather, the beach and crowds and nothing on the promo DVD really looks like fun to us.

I don't know what to do, the trip will be close to $5000 for something I don't know that I'll like. We had some problems at cousin #1's wedding having so much family together at once, at least there we could escape each other, once we are on the ship we are kind of stuck there. Not to mention we will not get to tour one of the Islands the ship stops at becuase of the wedding.

I love my cousin but I just feel like it makes no sense to go to the wedding. We booked a balcony room figuring we will be spending a lot of time in our air conditioned room. My kids are 6 & 3 so it will be difficult to find things to do as a family since they are so young and the amount DH & work we like to take family vacations to spend time with out kids.

Can someone convince me we will have a blast on the cruise and it will be money well spent?

Well, I'm a bit biased. My parents started cruising with us when I was 12, and since then I've been on about 10 cruises, most RCL. Russ did his first RCL cruise in January. There's SOOOOO much to do on the ships, for every different age group! Russ was a bit difficult, as he's not potty trained so no kids club or pool, but we played mini golf, basketball, and just basically wandered through the ship with him. We had four ports and one day at sea, so the ports, we did stuff he would like (cave tubing in Belize, a beach in Cozumel.) The last day, our at sea day, the poor tyke collapsed after lunch and took a four hour nap.

The kids clubs look awesome, though we haven't used the new ones. I remember when *I* was a kid (12 years ago), there were activities all day for us - my parents had to force us to join them for dinner. But, plenty of the activities are kid friendly - Russ and my niece "did" trivia games with us, did the morning and afternoon "walk a mile" with us, etc.

If you don't like the ports or don't want to spend the money, just stay on the ship. It's quiet but there's still activities to do. Or the pool - there's plenty of covered seating if you want to hide in the shade between pool dips.

Oh, and we went with 9 people, 4 rooms in a row, and I still couldn't find the family half the time. And this was a medium size ship - on the bigger ships with the promenades like you mentioned, I'd be so lost I'd never find anyone.

I think a cruise is ALWAYS money worth spent. But I did say I was biased. And, for what it's worth, I didn't go to two cousins' weddings because they were destination and not convenient with Russ.

 

[LadyShea]

Where can I find out what will be at each port?

I would just Google the ports as if you were going there without the cruise, such as "St. Thomas tourism". I do all my travel planning this way and usually can find a map of the place, a list of attractions and places of interest, even taxi costs etc.

 

[janets]

Cruise Critic also has links to each of the ports so you can see posts by others who have visited the ports you're thinking of visiting.

We are cruising on Mariner of the Seas in just under 2 weeks doing this exact itinerary. My kids are 10 and 5.5. We took my oldest when he was just 3.5. These ships are floating hotels. I think that you would find plenty of enjoyable things to do if you were to go. The issue is not whether you would like the cruise (IMO), it's whether you want to spend a substantial amount of money and your vacation time going to a wedding like this. We had a family "destination" wedding when DS#1 was just 2. DH went and we did not. I might consider an oceanview rather than a balcony (get light and outside view w/o the expense of a balcony) but that's a personal preference. Through cruisecritic, you will find links to the compasses for that itinerary (and ship). You can see what things are offered each day. My kids love the clubs, spend several hours there in the evenings. They play in the water and meet new friends during the day.

On our cruise, I don't think we'll do much in San Juan, plan on hitting beaches on St. Thomas and St. Maarten (wanted to go over to St. Johns but not sure we want to spend the time); there is shopping and restaurants to check out in each port. Or as another poster said, enjoy the almost empty ship while everyone else goes ashore.

Only you can decide if you want to do this. Don't let the ages of your kids stop you...RC has tons of families cruising and there will be lots to do. I think you need to reconcile the money issue and decide if it's worth it to you.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I definitely wouldn't count out the whole thing. There are ways to cut down your budget. First skip the balcony! That adds a huge amount to the cost. (It's equivalent to refusing to go to WDW unless you can stay at the Poly.) We like a window for natural light and it's the perfect compromise between a balcony and an inside cabin and I don't have to worry about my kids leaning over trying to see. Also, don't book any excursions thru the ship, they add a profit in there for themselves and most things you can do on your own. You could look at their website and it will list excursions in each port so you have an idea of what there is to do.

My boys are 11 and 7 and have been on 4 cruises and they can't wait for another. You can be very active or just veg. by the pool. You really can't fathom how huge it is until you see for yourself. You can easily do as much walking as a WDW vacation.

It's also easy to escape other family members if necessary.

My kids love Magens Bay in St. Thomas. It's a beautiful beach and you can rent tubes or floats to lay on. It was heavenly. This can easily be done low budget with a taxi.

If you can swing it financially I think it would be nice that you can be there for your cousin and you can see for yourself if cruising is or isn't something your family likes. Forget the dvd, you have to actually see it for yourself.

otoh, if you know for certain you don't want any part of it, just tell your cousin it's out of your budget.
You could also post this question on the cruise boards here on the dis and I'll bet overwhelmingly people will say, "Try it, you'll like it!!!"

eta: Don't wait a long time to decide. Most cruises only go up in price so the longer you wait, the more it costs. Many people book 1-2 years in advance. We booked our Thanksgiving cruise while on board the Magic in Feb. 07 for best pricing. Good luck!!!

 

[jodifla]

Hi All!

I have dilemma and I need some opinions. Sorry it's a little long. I have two cousins that I am close with, they grew up in Florida, my sisters and I in New York. We would see each other every year and we feel more like sisters than cousins.

Cousin #1 got married last November at Disney and had all of us in her wedding party. The wedding cost us a decent amount of money but it was at Disney World. So we could justify it. I am very close with this cousin and helped her plan her wedding.

Cousin #2 decided she wants to get married on a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Caribbean October 2008. We have never done a cruise before because we are not the type of family that can sit and do nothing on vacation. We hate the hot weather, the beach and crowds and nothing on the promo DVD really looks like fun to us.

This wedding will cost us twice as much as Cousin #1's wedding last year. Cousin #2 made sure to plan it around my DD school schedule and even told me she knew the trip would be expensive and she would love to have us in her wedding party but could not expect us to have to pay for expensive dresses, she just want's us there.

I don't know what to do, the trip will be close to $5000 for something I don't know that I'll like. We had some problems at cousin #1's wedding having so much family together at once, at least there we could escape each other, once we are on the ship we are kind of stuck there. Not to mention we will not get to tour one of the Islands the ship stops at becuase of the wedding.

I love my cousin but I just feel like it makes no sense to go to the wedding. We booked a balcony room figuring we will be spending a lot of time in our air conditioned room. My kids are 6 & 3 so it will be difficult to find things to do as a family since they are so young and the amount DH & work we like to take family vacations to spend time with out kids.

Can someone convince me we will have a blast on the cruise and it will be money well spent?

For most people. cruises are an awful lot of fun. Especially with families. We just got back from a DCL cruise, and can't stop talking about how terrific it was.

You seem to have such a down attitude on it though..what kind of vacations do you really like that you think a cruise won't offer?

I would suggest cruisecritic as others have done, and I'd look at RCL's web site at your boat and the amenities it offers.

Which boat is it?

 

[ldo]

Well, assuming you are going---

4 CAN fit in an outside room. Get the lowest level, midship outside cabin--it should be a lot cheaper. We spent little to no time on our balcony (1st cruise) and have done lowest level, midship outside cabin 5X since then (also claustrophobic). Also, with young kids--you really don't want the balcony IMHO.

NExt, the kids' clubs are great--we love them, our kids love them--you can come and go as much as you like. And, as others said, there are TONS of places to "get away" from other on a ship--they are BIG boats.

For St. Thomas, we like taking the ferry on our own over to St. John and then taking the open air safari bus (many waiting for you) to Trunk Bay--we take our own snorkel gear. You can also do the boat excursion--but it's cheaper and easy to do on your own.

At PR--we love to go to the Old Towne and walk around--take the kids to El Morro--very cool fort.

 

[mjantz]

RCL should have a kids club that your kids can do. We did DCL a few years back & the kids spent a lot of time at the club. Looking at the RC website, if your 3YO will be potty-trained by the time you cruise he/she can spend time in the kids club.
And, as others have said, there's tons of room on those ships. We spent a lot of time with other family while we were there but when we did slip away it was not hard at all to feel away from them.

I say try it because I have a feeling you'd like it.

 

[Snow_White]

4 CAN fit in an outside room. Get the lowest level, midship outside cabin--it should be a lot cheaper. We spent little to no time on our balcony (1st cruise) and have done lowest level, midship outside cabin 5X since then (also claustrophobic). Also, with young kids--you really don't want the balcony IMHO.

Good advice, that is exactly what I was going to say.

 

[Minniemouse07]

Dh and I were married in Ocho Rios, Jamaica while on a Western Caribbean cruise back in 2000.

Twenty of our family and friends came with us...only two had cruised previously! Our families are spread out all over (at the time... PA, NJ, DE, OH, FL, GA, and sis flew in from a business trip in BANGKOK!!) so they were going to have to fly in somewhere anyway. This way we also got to know each other, which would have never happened at a traditional wedding.

We had some family members that were lukewarm about the cruise, namely my dad.. and my brother. The day after the wedding (which was wonderful...next to a waterfall in a botanical garden ) dad and I were walking back to the ship in Grand Cayman and he turned and said, "This was one of the best decisions you have ever made...other than marrying your husband of course!" LOL He really felt that way, said it was the best of all worlds. My brother loved it too, he totally thought cruising wasn't for him until he ended up being one of the few guys on the ship that was in his early 20's and single!

Honestly, everyone had a great time. We received compliments about the trip all week long...and then after we got home.

Two weeks after the cruise we had a large picnic for all our family and friends that couldn't come with us.... about 125 people. It was at a local state park and it was relaxed and fun. We had a photo album of pictures from the trip and the wedding there to share.

I guess I'm sharing this because we all did have a great time. I would talk to your cousin about a different cabin class (I concur w/ the least expensive outside cabin...then book it as a guarantee which means that you are willing to be upgraded )...also, if she is working with a TA for a group rate, your cost should even be lower. Generally for every 8 people booked you get one free berth... we applied that across the board for all of our guests.

 

[AlwaysEeyore]

As always the Dis is amazing! Thank you so much everyone, you have really put my mind at ease about some things. Here's some info to fill in the blanks
Ship: Freedom of the Seas,
Leaves Miami 10/5/08, we booked a balcony on the the tenth floor mid ship
DS will be 3 on 8/20/08 and he better be potty trained by October.

Do the ocean view rooms have windows that open or are they just a view?

I booked directly with Royal Caribbean during a promotion they were having (1/2 price deposit & $100 ship credit) Should I have booked with a TA instead?

Is gratuity voluntary or is is automatically charged to you?

 

[AlwaysEeyore]

Stupid Computer. Double Post!