MeaganA

Oh ok awesome we love about an hour away from Gwinnett. We live in Toccoa. Husband works in Cumming though

We actually live in Toccoa ?

Yes!! We will have our two teenage daughters with us! Btw I’m in Georgia as well. Northeast.

Great tips! How far away is the Krazy Lobster?

Hi Cruisers! We are sailing on April 1st! We are wanting to do a beach day that is not far from the port and that make have massages on the beach. I have looked at Blue Reef but not sure if there is a better option. Has any one done any that are really great and did you book through the boat or on your own? TIA!

I think where I am confused is I thought that gratuities are charged per room not per individual guest. So for example I have me, my SO, and my 2DD linked to my card. At the end of the cruise you mean they will charge my card for gratuities for all 4 of us regardless of the room we are in? So I already paid for them in the room I am in for 4 people. But I didn't realize by pre- paying gratuities that I was actually paying for my step mom and step brother and not just the room as a whole.

Yes! OUr TA actually set it up this way to give the most discount since my parents and grandparents are platinum. We are able to go ask for a room key only that will work for our doors so we plan to do that.

Thanks Jedi! We actually sail out in 2 weeks. Here is my issue - My step mom is lead guest in our room. I went ahead and pre paid gratuities on that room. She has now decided that she is going to be in that room and I will be in another room. So now I will get another bill for gratuities in the other room when I have already paid them. So my thing is how do they bill the gratuities? Do you get a bill at the end and then you give them your credit card information, or how does that work? How is the bill paid?

Hi cruisers! Some more questions for you: On the final night I know you receive your room bill - how does this work exactly? We are traveling with a group of 16 and once we get on the boat we will be switching up rooms ect to better fit everyones needs. So on the last night do you receive a bill that will show the gratities that are due along with any purchases charged to the room? What types of charges actually are charged for the rooms anyways, I thought everything is charged to the sea pass card. For example my children are booked in a different room than myself so I set up their seapass card to charge my credit card for anything they purchase. On another note, my step mom is booked as the main guest in our room to give us a bigger discount, however, she will not actually be staying in our room. So if she orders room service for her room that she is staying in who is charged? I know this is very confusing so feel free to ask any other questions that may help you to better understand my question. Thank you in advance!

But I think you can only cash in the OBC on a recently (like 10 days or less) booked cruise, correct? You cant use it for an already booked cruise I thought? Also, can you stack them? Meaning if I have enough for 3 $50 OBC I can only use one per cruise? Correct?

Thanks for all the tips everyone. I imagine my kids will carry their phones with them. We wont be doing the onboard wifi (on Indy). BUt Im sure they will want to take pictures. So I think I will buy some lanyards as well as get the sticky wallet that will stick on the back of their phones to hold the card. Anyone had any good recommendations for ones you have purchased that stick on good? Amazon has a million options. That way they will have both options once we get on board and they figure out what is most convenient for them.

Hi cruise lovers! Traveling with two teenagers and wondering if you guys have any tips on keeping up with the Seapass cards? Also, they plan to hang out in the teen areas a lot of the time. Wondering if they should carry some type of bag or something. How do they keep up with their belongings? TIA

We are leaving next month for our cruise and we booked May 1st last year and had the kids sail free. So hang in there, there will be another soon.

Thanks so much for all the responses. Glad Im not the only one that is concerned about this. And @melski94 those are some awesome guidelines that we will def enforce. I hadn't thought of all of this. So thank you! Our goal is to try to avoid getting the VOOM package. Only because we know Id they have it then they will not truly disconnect they will continue to be on electronics ect. But if I cant think of another way to make contact that may be the only option.

Hi fellow cruisers! This is only my second cruise and it will be my first traveling with my two teenage daughters. They are very outgoing and will want to explore on their own and meet new friends. They plan on hanging out in the teens club, ect. My concern is their safety and them being allowed to roam the ship alone. How can I contact them? Anything you guys have done in the past? At what ages do you allow your teenagers to explore on their own? Any safety concerns I should be concerned with? Side note- We are on the IOS which sadly does not have the app up where we can message each other on the boat yet. Any advice to help this overly anxious momma feel a little better will be appreciated.

Hi fellow cruisers! I have a possibly complicated question. I have a 12 year old daughter with my ex husband. We share custody although she lives with me full time and has not seen her father in over a year. The decision to not see him has been her decision. And he does not push to see her because all the do is fuss and honestly she is at an age where she has made the decision that she does not want him as part of her life. Its a long story, but he has anger issues and has not been there for pretty much anything important in her life although always invited ect. (sorry just wanted to give a little info). Anyways, I am remarried and therefore, I do not have the same last name as my 12 year old daughter. My TA said that because we are sailing to Mexico that I will have to get my ex husband to sign consent for her to travel. This is the first ive heard of this and we are traveling in April. My ex is the type that he would refuse to sign it, not because he really is concerned but in order to feel like he has some power over my daughter and would basically be his way of punishing her for deciding to not see him anymore. Do they really require these papers? What would a child do if they didn't even know their biological parent? If we cant get him to sign them does that mean we would just need to stay on the boat when we are at port? What are my options here? Any suggestions or experience would be very helpful. Thanks so much in advance!

Thank you Matt! These things seem impossible to find!

Hi all! Taking my two teen daughters on our cruise IOS in April and wondering if there is somewhere I can find an example of the Teen Cruise Compass. I've heard they have different theme nights ect. So they want to be prepared and make sure they pack for the events. Thank you for any help or advice!

Perfect! This is exactly what I was hoping you would say. I don't know if we will use it enough to cover every penny, however, the paying ahead in case we do and not having a large bill on the last night of the cruise certainly is appealing.

Hi everyone! I was wondering if I were to buy the deluxe drink package is the tip/ gratuity included in the pre bought package price? Im sure this question has been asked a million times, I just couldn't seem to find a direct answer. Thank you in advance! :)

Yes! Thank you everyone. I went online and was able to go ahead and check them in and put them on my credit card and I will just go get extra keys at the guest services on board. Thank you all!

Ok great! I think this is what I needed to know. So when we go online to do the online check in? The kids obviously wont go online individually and check themselves in. So I wasn't sure where we would make this change. Would we go to guest services on the boat when we board and have them link the seapass cards to the cards of my children?

I'm not sure what you are saying might happen if its not a fully booked cruise. I'm confused!

Hi Cruise Lovers! I have been following this board for a couple months now and want to say thank you to everyone that contributes to this blog! Everyone is so friendly and I love living through you all until our next cruise. This will be my second cruise on RC. So still a newbie here. However, we are traveling with a party of 15 on the IOS in April! My grandparents, my dad and step mom and my sisters family as well as my family of 4. My grandparents are Diamond and my parents are Platinum. Therefore, in order to get the biggest bang for our buck our TA split the 4 of them up and put one in each of our rooms in order to help split the discount among all 4 rooms. Although it saved us money it has certainly made things complicated to figure out. I have a 12DD and a 15DD that are booked under another room. And my husband and I are in a separate room. I understand that where you end up sleeping doesn't matter and we finally figured out how much each family owed, but, now I'm trying to figure out how to fix things so that my two DDs are not charging things to another persons room while on the boat. Has anyone else done this, what can we do to make this less complicated? Can I buy the kids prepaid cards or something to use on the boat or what are my options? Any advice on this would be appreciated. Thank you in advance!