JasonL

Barbados has such perfect white powder sand beaches. I've only done The Boatyard, but we absolutely loved it. The beach is deep and the sand perfect. They have water toys to play on and a rope swing off the pier. Volleyball nets, music ect...  For a beach day we loved it.

Here are my top 3 choices for all-inclusive in Cozumel based on the pool
1. El Cozumeleno
2. Mr. Sanchos
3. Iberostar

As we plan our 2020 cruise, we asked our 9 year old if he wanted to go to new places on our cruise or have cool things on the ship. We explained that not every ship has water slides or laser tag. He said, totally seriously, "What about buffets? Do they all have buffets?" We assured that any ship we take him on will have a buffet.
#priorities

It sounds to me as if you tried to get Traditional dining but couldn't and so you were placed in My Time Dining.
Did you make reservations for My Time Dining?  It doesn't sound like it and you could have done it in the cruise planner 6+ months ago.  I have made reservations for a large group for MTD that way. Just think that if you went to a land based restaurant with your party of 12 and tried to be seated right away as it is no different on a cruise ship.  It can be challenging with such a large group and I'm sure there are many large extended family groups on this cruise.  I'm sorry this isn't working out like you hoped.
To make the best of it, make reservations for small groups for most nights with the time you want and choose 1 or 2 nights with a late dining time of around 8:30 to eat together.  They probably could accommodate everyone later in the evening.  Everyone could have a hearty snack pre dinner at 5ish.  
If that won't work then chose Windjammer for dinner. 
You need to decide if the time, place or being all together is the most important and work towards that.
Good luck and I hope that you don't allow this to ruin your cruise.
  

It’s very difficult to have 12 people together for My Time Dining. I don’t know what happened when you tried to make reservations ahead of time. May I suggest you get two tables of 6 next to each other and maybe rotate the people around. Try to enjoy your cruise and not stress. Even if you aren’t all together at a table at least you are on vacation together 

From experience I can tell you that it’s a fool’s errand to try and coordinate a big group for dinner.  Traditional dining is the best bet so it’s a shame you weren’t able to get that scheduled.  Since that didn’t happen I would just show up with whatever group is there and get as many seated together as you can.  You may have to wait a bit for a big table but I have learned to just let everyone do their own thing. It’s a nightmare trying to coordinate everyone. I never  do it anymore.

Thank you for taking the time to do this. Its a great reference . I was always having to double check ship info. Just printed it and put it in my cruise folder.

Here's a graphic I slapped together since I like to see fleet info with the tonnage listed.  The pictures and below came straight from the RCI website.  I only added the header and the tonnage info.  I've attached a pdf version and also included a ppt version if you want to tweak the image to your liking.  Enjoy! 
RCI SHIP INFO.pdf
RCI SHIP INFO.pptx

I cruise in family suites often with 5 total guests. RCCL should really update their system to allow more than 4 guests in a booking. I don't know if I could bid on upgrades since a party of 5 has 2 separate bookings for the 1 cabin.

Our cruise on Freedom in November just dropped $400 with the new promotion.  ?

Obviously, they saw you coming! 

I am from Nassau, I live in Canada. I am actually currently in Nassau for Christmas vacation. I am very sad, upset to read all the comments on this post. 
Yes the Port needs a serious make over and it was recently announced they are going to fix it up etc etc. 
There are many things to see outside of downtown Nassau. Also is perfectly safe to walk in the downtown area during the day. My father is a lawyer and walks to courthouses almost everyday, in downtown Nassau and had yet to be robbed in 20+ years.
There is a beautiful beach on Paradise Island, called Cabbage Beach (see attached picture) You don’t need to access it though Atlantis Day Pass there is public access for free. I go to it ALL the time.
Nassau is not perfect, yes it has crime. I am sure the town you live in, is not perfect and has crime too. 
 

So does being a Diamond on this site allow me 3 free drinks in the D Lounge?  Or a balcony discount?  C'mon Matt, show us the money...  ?… ?
 

Looks like you've already done that change. What are the new thresholds? 750,000 posts to reach Pinnacle? ? 

https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-release/1349/royal-caribbean-to-invest-900-million-in-modernizing-award-winning-ships/
A Look Ahead at Royal Amplified
Freedom Class – Independence of the Seas will be the first ship in the Royal Amplified program to reveal multimillion-dollar upgrades, including Sky Pad, Battle for Planet Z, a glow-in-the-dark laser tag experience; The Perfect Storm trio of waterslides and a new Escape Room: The Observatorium challenge, where competitors can solve a series of high-tech riddles to unravel a mystery. Not to mention the addition of new dining venues, from Fish and Ships – a seaside seafood spot with freshly battered fish and chips and other guest favorites – to Playmakers Sports Bar & Arcade, Izumi Hibachi and Sushi and Sugar Beach. Independence will offer 3- to 14-night sailings from Southampton, England beginning in May 2018, before she heads across the pond in Nov. 2018 to sail from Ft. Lauderdale, FL on 4- to 5-night Caribbean cruises. Freedom of the Seas will be up next, debuting new features in 2020, followed by Liberty of the Seas in 2021. Voyager Class – In summer 2018, the transformation of Royal Caribbean’s short Caribbean cruises will begin with the $90 million amp-up of Mariner of the Seas. Mariner will redefine the quick getaway by giving guests the chance to take their weekends to new heights with the addition of new thrills, such as Sky Pad and laser tag; The Bamboo Room, a retro lounge with its tiki-chic décor; and the fun and vibrant Playmakers Sports Bar & Arcade. The program will continue in 2019 on sister ship Navigator of the Seas, which also will be redesigned to specifically cater to those who seek a quick getaway. Oasis Class – Oasis of the Seas will be completely reimagined in fall 2019, ten years after her revolutionary debut. The ship will gain new thrills, pools, bars and culinary creations, as well as introduce new restaurants and onboard adventures found on the newest Oasis Class ship, Symphony of the Seas. These enhancements will cascade to Allure of the Seas in spring 2020, making every ship in the class more adventurous than ever.

Yes.  That sounds right to me

I've been charged, occasionally, but it's sort of random.  Same thing on other cruise lines too, sometimes they charge, sometimes they don't.
If they don't charge me, I just add it to the cash tip I give them at the end of the cruise.  So in my case, either the cruise line gets the cash, or the wait staff does.
 

these promotions mean nothing when it comes to best prices.  They could do a 99% off promo and I guarantee magically the prices would still come out to be similar to what you see on any other day.  Their pricing is based on time of year (for far out bookings) & how well the ship is filling up.  Beyond that these promotions are just ways to say "Hey come look this new sale we have going on". 
What i would recommend is to price out which cruise you think you want to go on then over the following days or weeks keep looking at the prices.  With the same 60% off sale or whatever the sale may be you will see the prices change within a sale.  You just have to find a price you find to be of value.  With the non refundable deposits it makes the YOLO book-it a little harder to swallow these days if you are just looking to HOLD a cruise.  Yes you can reprice before final payment but in the past many of us would book 2 - 3 and pick the one we found to the the best value and cancelled the others before the final payment.

Because I'm lazy and cheap.

The Royal Poker Tour (RPT) satellite tournaments are held on all of the RC ships during most, if not all, cruises (not sure about the "shorty" cruises).  Depending upon how many entrants they get (more importantly, how much MONEY they generate from the satellites), they will either give away a free cruise and entrance into the RPT "finals" which are held every year the first or second week in December, or they will give away cash prizes if they do not earn enough entrant money to fully fund the free cruise and tournament entry.
The cost of entering the satellite tournaments varies from ship-to-ship.  Originally the entrance fee was always $100 plus any re-buys.  A few years ago they cut the entrance fee back to $75 plus rebuys (hoping to entice more people to participate, I presume) and then on the last cruise we were on, we noted that it had gone back up to $100 so it should be either $75 or $100, I would guess.  You can enter as many of the satellite tournaments you want (with a separate entrance fee, of course) and there are opportunities to rebuy up to a certain point in the satellite tournament but only 1 person will win the free cruise at the satellite finals, which are generally held the last sea night of the cruise.  If they award cash in lieu of the free cruise, they will pay between 2-4 places, depending on how many entrants they had and how much money they have to distribute.
If you are going on a cruise in the near future, my guess is that your satellite tournaments will be working towards the December 2019 event.  They generally cut off the date for the December event a number of months before December.

To be fair, let me say that my agent will always check my fares when a new sale comes along to see if I will save any money BUT she does not (nor do I expect her to) check daily to see if there has been a random price fluctuation.  It would be virtually impossible for any agent to do that.  There have been many times when I have found a random fair reduction and contacted Michelle.  She has always responded very promptly to let me know how the change would affect my fare.  Sometimes it works out to be a real savings but more often it does not.
So, if you are looking for someone to check every day to see if your fare could possibly be reduced, I think you will be sorely disappointed.  No agent has the time to do that for every client and every cruise.  If, on the other hand, you have an agent who is not responsive, then I say find a new one.  Even travel agents have personal lives !!  ...so it is possible that something in the "real world" can affect an agent's responsiveness but if it is a behavior that is repeated then it's time to find someone new.
Just remember that YOU are your best advocate and NOBODY is going to care more about finding price reductions than YOU.  For some people, saving a little money isn't worth the requirement to track prices every single day (sometimes more than once ?) and then there are those of us who make an obsession out of checking prices and we are a TA's worst nightmare !!

So, we brought our kids on a cruise with us for the first time a couple years ago. They were 9,5 & 1 at the time. We love cruising because it's such a lazy vacation, where we don't have to do anything that resembles work. Taking the kids was a completely different experience, even on Allure that has a great childcare program. It is still a great vacation, but you need to get your mindset right before you go. It isn't going to be what you are used when cruising alone. After that cruise we said "we will never bring the kids again" because there was far more work involved than we had planned. Then a couple weeks went by and we realized we set ourselves up for disappointment with unreal expectations. We still had a great time, but we didn't get our mindset right that there will still have to be parenting involved and dealing with an unreasonable toddler and so on. 
After thinking about it, I changed my mind about bringing the kids. I now have 2 more cruises booked with the kids again. I just know that the day time is going to be focused on family activity and in the evening we'll drop them at the kids club while we get some alone time for shows and dinner. When it's all said and done, where else can you keep the kids so easily entertained and have the ability to drop them off pretty much any time you want?
There is never a doubt that the kids will have an amazing time, it's whether it will still feel like vacation(totally relaxing) and not a family trip(not very relaxing, but still worthwhile). I think it's a good mix of both.
I know this doesn't all apply if the adventure doesn't have child care, but I just want to share my thoughts on cruising with kids and having the right state of mind.
 

With 591 days until the trip, my wife and I spent the entire evening last night looking at details of Anchorage....so yeah, we are kind of excited.  Already figured out where we want to stay and where we want dinner!  Already have  a rough idea what we want for excursions and knowing that they can fill fast I have bookmarked several tour companies and will monitor for when 2020 dates become available.  Only thing I havent decided is if we ever want to try 2 excursions in one day....

Ovation to Alaska 2020 booked!