multigenerational cruising - grandparents & teens

[pinma]

We are going on our first (and hopefully not only!) cruise that includes grandparents and grandchildren. We'll be 69, 67, 41, 40, 13, and 11.

 

If you've done a multigenerational group like this, what are the best parts? Anything that doesn't work well? Right now I envision us eating dinner together (and that's arranged). Beyond that.... not sure! I'm just so excited at the prospect of NO ONE having to get the house ready, host, clean up after, shop, cook, do dishes, etc.

[cb at sea]

Just make sure that everyone understands that they are free to do whatever they want, whenever they want....that dinnertime is your "together" time....other than that...no "must do's" at all!

[chipmaster]

The best part: Meals and excursion that we did togather.. builds a bond and experience like no other. Formal night, tea and sit downs without the stress of picking the place, getting there etc. etc.

 

Tips: Make sure that you let everyone know they are free to run their own schedule. Beside formal night I always just let my parents and others traveling with us know what our dining time was, activity plan. Everyone was generally free to choose what they wanted. We loved the morning, lunch and tea sit down, others less so, and prefered the buffet. Ditto for show and other activities.

 

Enjoy that family time!

 

We are going on our first (and hopefully not only!) cruise that includes grandparents and grandchildren. We'll be 69, 67, 41, 40, 13, and 11.

 

If you've done a multigenerational group like this, what are the best parts? Anything that doesn't work well? Right now I envision us eating dinner together (and that's arranged). Beyond that.... not sure! I'm just so excited at the prospect of NO ONE having to get the house ready, host, clean up after, shop, cook, do dishes, etc.

[pinma]

Is that the usual 'big' problem? If so, we should be A-OK. We've vacationed together (land-based) for years and (as far as I know) no one has ever felt like they have to do the same thing at the same time (not even for meals!).

[katyjeka]

A question I can truly answer!!!! Yea!! We've traveled with my inlaws, and brother in-law many times. We've been on cruises, disney, and just returned from a 2 week trip to Puerto Rico in December. I have to say the cruises have been the easiest vacations with such a large group. (My dh, myself, 4 dd's ages 16, 9, 8, and 1, brother inlaw, and mother inlaw, we lost my father inlaw in May of 2011) We did eat a lot of meals together, but a few evenings we went our seperate way. My mil loves the slot machines, so she spends more time in the casino than anyone else. We've done excursions together, from mud baths in St. Lucia, to beaches in Tortola. We travel well together, and have made some wonderful memories. This is not to say we havent had a few spats. We tend to take longer vacations and two weeks is a long time for a family to be together around the clock. I would plan on a few meals together, maybe a couple shows, and let the rest play out as you go. Have a great time.

[Paumavista]

We almost always plan dinner together - we've gone with parents, aunts, brother's family (4) and our family (8) - we usually do our own thing most days and meet up to share stories over dinner.

 

When planning a day or activity it's always fun to find someone else that may want to join in but there's never any pressure or rules. Sometimes after dinner my mom, sister-in-law and daughter liked to play bingo, on one island my brother's family and our's all went to swim with the sting rays (my parents and aunt didn't go). If a couple people were planning to see a show we'd meet up & sit together. We'd run into each other around the ship and sit for awhile or maybe get a bite to eat.

 

I can't imagine traveling with this large a family group any other way! No one cleans up, no one shops or cooks meals & I don't care how messy their rooms are.

 

We've always had wonderful trips (3 times so far).

 

Judy

[sarafinadh]

We will be on a cruise this July with my husband's family. His Parents, an Aunt, Brother with Wife and three Teens. We will be a party of three with our 19 year old Daughter. So that will be 11 at dinner.

 

The expectation is that we will dine together (late seating) but will spend the days in individual activities that may or may not coincide.

 

I think this is a good plan with any large party, family or otherwise.

 

We have traveled extensively with my family and as much as we love each other too much of a good thing can become wearing.

 

Typical day would be everyone rising and getting breakfast in smaller family groups and then gathering if we have planned to do things with each other. I would say we usually broke into parties of 2 to 4 to spend the day, maybe gathered for lunch to shuffle around or split up further, or not as the day allowed.

 

Late afternoon, early evening, everyone would begin to gather and then head to dinner.

 

Sometimes a couple would break off for a special meal apart.

 

What's is most important in my mind is that everyone gets listened to when plans are being made. Not everyone will pipe up for what they want to do and the one who is quiet in the crowd will be disappointed. Paying attention to the quietest person in the crowd pays off ; -)

 

And when you do go in a flock put the slowest walker in the front to set the pace.

[pinma]

Thank you all for your words of advice. It makes me smile to hear how well it has worked for other people.

[nessz79]

We've done it on 2 cruises with my DH's parents. My children are younger than yours at 7 and 9, but it's always gone great. We always had dinner together and some breakfasts and lunches. We have done the same excursions together and then done some of our own things on the ship. Again, your kids are older, but my in-laws would also watch the kids while DH and I went to see a show or 2 as that's not something they wanted to do. And we'd even enjoy some adult beverages together while the kids did Camp Carnival.

 

We're taking our first family cruise without my in-laws in April and it's a little bittersweet as we've gotten used to traveling with them.

[KC from California]

I am putting a family reunion cruise. There will be 14 of us, consists of 4 generations with ages from 3 to 83. Our plan is to dine together for dinner only and we do our own thing at other time. We plan to do early traditional dining (4 is confirmed and the rest has anytime dinning and waitlisted for the early traditional). Assuming we will all cleared for the early dining time, I plan to request for 2 tables to be next to each other. Has anyone has issues with this request and when is the best time to make this request? So much to co-ordinate and really want to nail this logistic down early before we embark.

[pinma]

I don't know if princess is the same but on RC I called and had all 3 reservations linked. The said that would link them for dining. Everyone was able to get 6PM seating though. I'm not sure how that works with some wait listed. In your shoes I would call customer service and see if they can set this up now bc I would imagine a large group is hard to accommodate. We've dealt with dining room issues (we have a child with severe allergies and like to dine 'alone' so we don't drag out other parties' meals dealing with allergies) on embarkation day both times. On both lines the maitre de was available and there was also someone to speak to about making table changes.

[Athankfulheart]

We did an NCL Hawaii cruise a few years back with a group of 23 extended family. We met every night for dinner in the MDR but there were occasions where not everyone made it and that was OK. Out of 10 days in Hawaii and on the ship, we did one excursion together and that was the Polynesian Cultural Center. We enlisted a group guide for that since it would have been otherwise impossible to keep this large group moving.

[TheCalicoCat]

We are going on our first (and hopefully not only!) cruise that includes grandparents and grandchildren. We'll be 69, 67, 41, 40, 13, and 11.

 

If you've done a multigenerational group like this, what are the best parts? Anything that doesn't work well? Right now I envision us eating dinner together (and that's arranged). Beyond that.... not sure! I'm just so excited at the prospect of NO ONE having to get the house ready, host, clean up after, shop, cook, do dishes, etc.

 

You already have it figured out. Plan to eat dinner together - let everyone else make their own plans - club for the youngest, library, pool, etc. for the rest.

[CeeCee70]

We went on a cruise last Thanksgiving with my husband's side of the family. We had kids ranging from 5 -13. We dined together every evening and were on our own during the day EXCEPT my in-laws made a "date" with each grandchild for sometime during the cruise. They met for shuffleboard, ping-pong, mini-golf, etc. and cookies or ice cream. It was really nice because each child got some alone time with grandma & grandpa.