As my kids get older and we start to cruise more with grandparents, friends, and my kids' friends, it's become abundantly clear I can't cruise the same way I did when we first started.
One thing I love about going on a cruise versus a land vacation is we can be together, without spending every minute together.
When I've rented an Airbnb or toured a city with family, it feels like if we don't do everything together, then something is missing. But it's different on a cruise.
I find that's the beauty of a cruise, however, I've had to adjust my cruising style lately. And with that, I've found dinner time is the anchor for what makes the vacation work so well.
Evolving wants and ways to relax
When my kids were little, we did everything together with them. It was as much necessary for them, as it was for us.
But with the kids getting older, hanging out with mom and dad isn't as high on their priority list. Putting my ego aside, the truth is they deserve to have time to do the things they want as much as I do.
They've gone from hanging out in Adventure Ocean to hanging out with the friends, enjoying time by the pool, and even talking with friends at home. Ultimately, I want them to enjoy cruising, and there are things I want to do without them as well.
Plus, we've started to cruise more with family and friends. When you add more people and personalities to the mix, we don't all want to do the same thing at the same time.
With that reality in mind, I made a change to how I plan my day onboard.
Planning around dinner
I found the best idea for fostering a sense of togetherness on a cruise is to plan to have dinner together each night.
In general, the schedule on a Royal Caribbean cruise seems to have a focal point each evening. Whether your ship is in port or on a sea day, I find the culmination of the schedule tends to coincide with the evening activities.
To that point, I would ensure that while everyone is free to pursue various activities during the day, meeting up for dinner is the most important strategy.
Ideally, you can have dinner together in the Main Dining Room.
There's a few reasons why I think dinner works best.
First, everyone is on the ship for dinner in most cases. If you have shore excursions, there's a good chance they are complete by dinner time.
If you're at sea, then the draw of going to the pool and laying out or enjoying activities on the top decks is complete by evening.
Second, meeting for dinner works better than breakfast or lunch. With breakfast, some people may not be awake and breakfast service is only available in the Main Dining Room for a couple of hours. Lunch is only served on sea days.
Third, coming together in the evening allows everyone to talk about what they did that day already, and make plans for the evening.
Each evening there are shows, bars to hit, or parties to plan around. There are also themed nights, in which you may want to have everyone dress up to match and take family photos together.
Dinner just seems to me to be the natural fit for synching up with everyone in your group and talking about what happened that day, and what's to come the next day.
One other recommendation is don't always sit in the same seats each night.
Mix up who you are sitting next to and on which side of the table you're on so you can vary the conversations.
I recommend traditional dinner for large groups
I'd pick the traditional dinner option and try to have either one large table for everyone, or a few tables near each other.
While the flexibility of having different times with My Time Dining is nice, I think it makes coordinating times and getting a large table too troublesome.
Before your cruise, have your travel agent coordinate this by linking reservations together.
Then when you get on the ship, I'd recommend heading down to the Main Dining Room on embarkation day to verify your table assignment is correct.
If it's not, ask to speak to the Head Waiter to help get everyone together.
Keep in mind there's a limit of how large a table you can have. Depending on the ship, tables in the Main Dining Room may max out at 10 or so.
More tips for cruising with large groups
There are a few more tips and pieces of advice I have for anyone going on a cruise with a large group, or multiple parties.
To begin with, I'd recommend booking everyone with the same travel agent.
You love your family and enjoy the company of your friends, but the last thing you want to do is be hounding them for money to make final payment or being their liaison sitting on hold with Royal Caribbean to fix a clerical issue.
A good travel agent will take care of the mundane tasks related to all of that. Plus, if you have enough cabins, they could create a group and get you better prices or freebies onboard.
If you have at least 8 cabins, you could create a group and then take advantage of certain benefits. Royal Caribbean provides discounts and amenities to the group and the "group leader", so speak to your travel agent about this for further information.
Speaking of cabins, I would not place that much emphasis on getting staterooms near each other.
Sure, it's nice to have, but I don't think it should be a major priority. While I'm sure your kids would enjoy being down the hall from grandma or their cousins, it may be troublesome to find rooms that work.
Be sure to also come up with a way to communicate pre-cruise and onboard the ship.
Some families or groups will create a Facebook group, or you could use an app such as GroupMe to do this. The key is good communication before the sailing begins so everyone feels welcome and part of the excitement.
Then once onboard the ship, pick an app or way to easily communicate.
Royal Caribbean's app has a group chat feature and it's free. But if everyone is buying an internet package, then using a group chat in your iMessage, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger might be simplest. Pick one and ensure everyone knows it before the sailing commences.
