TimeRacer

I've recently booked my family's first cruise ever for this summer. We've wanted to do this for a couple of years now, and after much research, we decided to pull the metaphorical trigger. I absolutely love planning our family vacations, and I tend to do deep dives on everything, especially if it's a totally new experience. I just wanted to thank everyone here. I've been reading, lurking, searching, watching the YouTube videos, and doing all the things to make sure we have a good experience. Thanks to everyone who has posted tips and tricks for newbies like me to search and learn. Thanks for sharing your packing tips. I never would have known that my magnetic clips on my fridge will be useful on my cruise if not for things I've learned through this community. I didn't understand how genius it is to pre-pay gratuities. That's one less thing I have to worry about now. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and for being straightforward with pros and cons. It's helped so much, having people be real with things instead of being all positive or all negative.

I'm hoping that MTD works better for my family than traditional dining times. We're a late dinner family (8ish on weeknights, later on weekends). I did MTD so we wouldn't have to eat at 5pm, because that is just way too early for any of us to want a big meal. MTD seemed like the only way to get main dining room dinner after 7pm. Related question: Is the Windjammer open past 8pm? I haven't found anything pertaining to hours of that or the bars yet and it's driving my over-researching self bonkers. If it matters, we're sailing Serenade in July.

So, I haven't even gone on my first cruise (booked for our first in July! Can't wait!) BUT I do travel fairly regularly, and OP, this entire situation seems to be strictly your own doing and that of your friend. The staff seemed to be exceedingly accommodating. From what I can see, the only fault on the part of the cruise staff would be to not have a terribly good plan in place for those who experience an unexpected mental health crisis while on board. Although with your vague and selfish focus, it could also just be that you're more focused on poor you instead of the potential health and safety of another human being.