melski94

There is no registration for the teens. Just make sure they go the first night as that is when the teens meet and sort themselves into groups.

Call again. In RC world, you may get another answer if you speak to someone else.
As for boarding, I’ve read too many stories of friends (even in other staterooms) joining priority boarding lines without question. Worth a try and the worst is they can say no and SO may have to wait 30 more minutes. 

Call again. In RC world, you may get another answer if you speak to someone else.
As for boarding, I’ve read too many stories of friends (even in other staterooms) joining priority boarding lines without question. Worth a try and the worst is they can say no and SO may have to wait 30 more minutes. 

I do agree and I do appreciate his reference to salt.  We also eat a fairly low sodium diet so I would probably like the food on MSC.  
He says they went to Senor Frogs while in Cozumel and Hard Rock...once again this is a huge indicator on type of food he likes.  I personally chose to stay away from chain restaurants and I would probably go wherever Matt went in Cozumel as that is more to my taste.  

I do agree and I do appreciate his reference to salt.  We also eat a fairly low sodium diet so I would probably like the food on MSC.  
He says they went to Senor Frogs while in Cozumel and Hard Rock...once again this is a huge indicator on type of food he likes.  I personally chose to stay away from chain restaurants and I would probably go wherever Matt went in Cozumel as that is more to my taste.  

I just read his review and want to read his review of Liberty next having been on that ship. Just makes me realize how these reviews have to be taken with a grain of salt.  I know food is very subjective but reading where and what he eats in ports makes me realize that I would never take his food recommendations. I'll probably read the Harmony review just to know what he likes so I know what to stay away from!
Now the media file does make me want to try it but as I look at family friendly vacations this isn't going to be the ship for us. The more competition the better for us all ideally.  That being said I think I found a good thing for my family with RC so I'm unwilling to try something new. Our vacation time is precious and I'd hate to spend the time and money on something that we may or may not like. 

Congratulations!  So excited for you. That's on my bucket list but not in the budget!  We have an changing spring break too so while we know 2019, we won't know 2020 until November, hopefully before the Thanksgiving sales!

The AO is indoors for security reasons. There are family activities that are typically listed in the cruise compass...could be family movies or scavenger hunts, etc.  We haven't done these as I remember them being odd times. Sea days the AO is open from 9-12, 2-5 pm and 7-10 pm (8 on first night). After 10 pm, you can pay an hourly rate to leave them until 2 am.  Port days 9-5 and 7-10.
My youngest is now 6 and she been in AO since 3.  She would go after dinner every night until 10.  The daytime activities tend to be small group crafts and the evening will be more group games.  We'd read the kids compass and she would decide if she wanted to go to the daytime activity....(pirate day is a must for her).  Ideally, we'd play at the pool in the morning, eat lunch, she'd go to kids club for an hour or 2, go back to the pool (put a dry bathing suit on under clothes to make it easy), then get ready for dinner, eat dinner and go back to kids club.  Of course if weather is too chilly for pool, she may spend more time in AO or we'll try to find a game to play, etc.  My kids come with us on shore excursions so typically don't do port day activities.  She loves the kids club and would be there more if I didn't force family time too!
 
 

See the same thing for my March Harmony cruise. Can make complimentary reservations or pay to have VIP seating.
While I can understand that some bean counter thinks it is a great idea, the price is just too much.  Why would anyone pay $79 for a meet and greet?  How did they come up with the price...I could see some people paying $20. 
I wonder how may new cruisers will now think they'll have to pay for shows and miss the free reservations.  Luckily for now, the free reservation is the obvious thing to click on the cruise planner but I wonder if that will change.  
As someone who has to drag her DH to the free show, I hope this experiment fails.

I can't imagine paying that much for a family to attend...we don't even do specialty dining as a family.  We won't even pay for DH and myself.  Luckily for me, my kids aren't interested in the shows and they head to the kids/teen club at night.
I typically take complaints about the new upcharges and how it used to be to cruise with a grain of salt but we've only started cruising 4 years ago and I'm seeing more of it every year but this is starting to get ridiculous. Luckily for now, we can chose the free (not really free but at least included in price) options!
Everything listed as an "activity" has a cost so stick to the entertainment side!

Is there a special hand sanitizer to use rather than the ones found in stores?

While norovirus can be airborne, it is only airborne through vomit. Physical contact with the infected person or touching things like infected utensils then touching your mouth is the common way it is spread so using sanitizer before you eat is a good way to protect yourself.  Link from CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/features/norovirus/index.html
Don't forget to wipe down your airplane seat and tray cover on the flight to the cruise!

While I haven't cruised with an infant (youngest was 3 at the time), I'll attempt to answer some questions.
1.  Yes, infants are welcome. The staff tends to love infants as most of them have families at home. Make sure you or your TA ask for a high chair.  Now the question is: do you want to take your infant? This is a personal decision and while I take my kids to MTD and restaurants in general, not everyone does. Some questions to ask yourself: How does he do in restaurants at home? Dinners can be long (90 minutes). Are you willing to just leave if he can't handle it or skip dessert? Do you have MTD so you have a table to yourself? I hope so, (if not try to get MTD) you can try to manage the speed of your order.  Also, you may have to decide on dinner on a daily basis...did he take a good nap and can handle dinner or not?  Another suggestion is to use nursery hours for quiet dinners some nights and other nights eat as a family in the Windjammer (there is a great recent post about dinner in the Windjammer).
2.  Yes, the nursery costs extra. Not sure how much but I've read you need to sign up for limited hours (15?) on a first come basis. After your initial hours, you can sign up for more if available on your sailing.
3.  Infants won't be allowed in pools (must be potty trained).  Bring an inflatable pool and fill with water on your balcony. Bring all food, extra diapers, etc. Make sure you bring medicine.
4. Yes, bathtubs in Jr suites.
As a mom of 4, the biggest key to a great vacation with kids is to be flexible. You may have the best plans for a perfect vacation but your little one will have other ideas. Just go with the flow and you'll have a great time.

We only had 1 set sail pass for the 6 of us across 2 rooms on Liberty. I only printed out one and had no problem but I needed to wait for my DH as he parked the car after dropping us off with luggage as he'd have no way to get in without us. All our names were listed on the Set Sail pass. Never even thought we'd have a problem and we didn't.
I'm reading that your kids are listed on your pass. If I read that right then I wouldn't worry about it.  You could print out the first page 4 times so everyone has their own copy.
If you do a search, there are several images of set sail passes with multiple names on it.

If at a beach club, then I will rent a locker and put stuff in there. However if you look at amazon there are lockable tote bags where you can lock a bag to a beach chair. I haven't tried one yet so can't recommend but they do look like a good option. I typically don't take passports with us but do have a picture of them on my phone and I'll keep minimal cash and put everything else in the locker. If snorkeling at an excursion, I don't worry about it. The tour operators have much more to lose than the minimal cash they could get out of my bag.

I've heard various reports whether the walkie talkies work due to size of ship and others being on same frequency so have a back up plan just in case.
My kids are 17,14,11,6 and have been cruising for almost 4 years. My older 2 have always been able to roam the ship.  At 12, your oldest could be in the teen club and the 11 year old could have check in and out privileges on his own at AO but it sounds like your boys will hang out together...my kids go to the teen club and then hang out at night with their new friends.  We have some strict rules about curfew, never going into anyone's stateroom, never climbing any balcony, etc.
We've only cruised Freedom class ships and on those we decided to get the internet package. Too many times of trying to catch up with them and they moved on. It's expensive but works for us especially for Harmony with it being so much bigger.
 

So @melski94 I did not forget that I said I would keep you posted so here goes. Been watching the airfares on Delta for our Anthem (March 9, 2018) cruise since early October. It was $286pp at the time.  Since then it has gone up and then up again....$313-$400pp.  We ended booking with United in November because I found it one day for about $240pp but I continued to watch Delta prices rise. United then changed the schedules on us twice and finally this past week (Dec 12) they changed our return flight to 8:30am and that was the last straw.  As our good fortune would have it, I checked Delta again out of frustration and the price had dropped back to $298 (just a bit higher than what I originally saw it at). I ended up cancelling our flights with United (no penalty for us because they changed it more than 2hrs from what we originally booked) and booking Delta for $298pp. So about $1200 for all 4 of us from DTW to EWR which I am happy with. 
Long and short of it is that this past week was the 3 month mark.  So just like our flights to MCO it did follow the trend yet again. Prices rose again and again and then dropped considerably right around the 90 day mark. I have been watching it still after I booked it and now it is back to $400pp for the same fare category.  I'll be testing this for July 2019 too. Have not booked those flights yet...

Yes you can but please don't. You are eating 3 meals a day somewhere on this cruise and the wait staff tips are pooled and shared among all wait staff.  You will find staff working in Windjammer for breakfast and lunch and then MDR in the evening or they will work in the Windjammer the entire cruise. Your dining tips go to all those people.    
Tips also go to your room attendants and other hotel services.
 

Yes you can but please don't. You are eating 3 meals a day somewhere on this cruise and the wait staff tips are pooled and shared among all wait staff.  You will find staff working in Windjammer for breakfast and lunch and then MDR in the evening or they will work in the Windjammer the entire cruise. Your dining tips go to all those people.    
Tips also go to your room attendants and other hotel services.
 

1. Depends on how comfortable you feel booking with private tour groups. We've always done private tours. It saves money, you can have more time, and get a more custom tour.  I do a lot of research with trip advisor and cc to pick the right guide. The guides don't want you to miss the ship either as that bad review would kill their business. We do plan to return at least an hour possibly more as I don't need that stress. 
2. Not exactly sure but in balcony and us there aren't enough. The biggest problem is charging electronics so I use a 6 charging station. 
3. There is a variety of dress even on formal nights. My last cruise had a group of costume (1920 ish) dressers and I saw several men in kilts. 
4. Only 1 service charge per order. Food isn't charged. 
5. I can't but I think so. You can get drinks pretty late and have mimosas in the am.

We've done the group lesson twice on different cruises.  It is $69 each.  It is typically offered around dinner times 6 or 7.  If you can get a 6pm slot on the first day, great!  I wouldn't get the 7 pm slot as it wouldn't get your 12 year old to the teen club on time (and they really should try the teen club the first night.) I think because of the teen club we did the lesson on night 2 and skipped the first formal night.
Our first lesson had 8 kids and my kids got several rides.  The second lesson started with 5 kids and 3 of the younger kids (including one of mine) didn't like it and stopped.  My older 2 had the flowrider to themselves for 30 minutes.  They were exhausted after that so I really wouldn't pay for a private session unless it was a bigger group. The lessons were great and they really try to teach the kids "tricks". If they are tall enough to stand they concentrate on that as its harder than the boogie boarding although the boogie boarding tricks are really fun to try too.

I would definitely confirm with RC. If you have time and is possible, I strongly suggest you get the other parent to also do a notarized letter.  While they may not even ask for it, they could deny you and your family boarding since you don't have permission from both parents to take the child out of the country. I would hope it would be easier to get a notarized letter than deal with the disappointment of not cruising. Here's what they say in the FAQ:
What if I'm traveling with a minor and I'm not the parent or legal guardian - Royal Caribbean International Q: What if I'm traveling with a minor and I'm not the parent or legal guardian? A: Adults who are not the parent or legal guardian of a minor traveling with them must present an original notarized letter signed by the child's parent(s), authorizing the adult to take the child on the specific cruise, supervise the child and allow emergency medical treatment to be administered. Please note: An individual's age on the date of sailing determines his or her status for the entire cruise vacation.

Also if you are looking to try specialty restaurants cheaper, your cruise planner will have a BOGO specialty restaurants but the catch is that you have to use it the first 2 nights of the cruise.  For my Harmony cruise in March the BOGO is $30 (thats 2 restaurants for $30).  A regular dinner at Chops is $49.

I go through USAA but you have to be a member. I've heard of many use Insuremytrip.com but I haven't used them (I think I priced it out and USAA had slightly better rates). I also used the cruise line insurance and found it is more expensive for us than other sites. The one thing is for it to cover pre-existing medical reasons the plan needs to be purchased within 30 days of deposit. We are traveling with my MIL on our next trip so really wanted to make sure of this as it wasn't something I ever thought of before for us. Trip insurance shouldn't be thought of as  only cruise insurance but also consider it for all-inclusive vacations and other expensive trips where there is upfront costs. 
OP, sorry to have this happen to you. I really hope that in the next month you can make some progress on your insurance and house where you feel comfortable enough to go and get away from it all.
 

I don't have a teen compass. There will be teen only flowrider, rock climbing, basketball games, scavenger hunts, trivia, etc. The biggest thing for the teens is to be there the first night. They will do get to know you games and from there the teens sort themselves into groups. My teens rarely did any of the teen sponsored activities but used the teen club as a meeting place for their new friends. We've always cruised during Spring Break in March and there are a ton of other teens for them to meet.