Best advice for first time cruisers

[Disney]

Hello.  Hubby and I cruised once, 20 years ago, before kids. We are sailing next summer on the 4 night Navigator cruise, stopping in Coco Cay twice and Nassau once. 

We will be in a two bedroom stateroom. 

We will be traveling with another family, who has an ocean view room.

Four kids between the two families, all are teens.

Please share any helpful advice/pointers that can help us figure it all out.  It’s a lot to figure out!

Thanks in advance for any pointers/suggestions!

[GregD]

These boards will help you tremendously. There are so many people here that can give you great information. My family is doing that cruise (only 1 coco cay stop) in two weeks. I plan on live blogging so you can follow along. Navigator seems to be a great ship for teens with all of the slides and activities. I would suggest reading cruise compasses to see what kind of activities there are. Watch videos @Matt made on the mane page. Most of all enjoy your cruise and make sure to relax and not try to do everything!

[JLMoran]

Hi there @Disney, welcome to the forums!

Since you said you'll have teens with you, be sure to have them all register on the first night at the teen meet-up in Adventure Ocean. Even if they plan to mostly hang out with each other, they'll meet some other teens on board and be able to take part in any AO-hosted teen-specific activities going on each day / night. From my experience, the activities run by AO are rarely attended, and the teens mostly use the first-night meet-up to figure out what groups they'll form, exchange numbers for messaging if they have VOOM internet, and then maybe just use the teen club as a meeting point before going somewhere else.

You'll also get a teen cruise compass in your staterooms each night, in addition to the regular cruise compass. That will list all the teen-only events happening each day, teen access times for places like the sports court, and so on.

Don't feel like you have to do specialty dining. The food in the main dining room and Windjammer is perfectly fine for every night, and on a "smaller" ship like Navigator the staff should have no problem with being attentive and getting your orders out promptly, or making any items in the Windjammer's made-to-order stations. At the same time, there's nothing wrong with wanting to do a specialty restaurant on one or two of the nights if they sound appealing. Just know it's not at all a requirement.

Do arrive at the port around 10:30 AM so you can board as early as possible and start enjoying the ship. And use that first day to explore the ship and get familiar with where everything is located.

Check your carry-on suitcase with the porters, along with the big luggage. No point in dragging those suitcases around and having to watch them! Just make sure to have bathing suits, sunscreen, and any super-important items (camera, iPad, etc) in a small backpack or other bag you can carry around with you. That way you can use the pools or lounge in the sun if that's all you want to do after boarding.

Hope this helps!

[ThyriC]

First of all, you're doing the right thing by ASKING QUESTIONS!  No question is too often asked, no question is too silly.  ASK!  The people on these forums are super nice and really do want you to enjoy your vacation!

Secondly.  Immerse yourself in @Matt 's videos and vlogs.  https://www.youtube.com/user/RoyalCaribbeanBlog/videos  This is a great resource for many commonly asked questions by first time cruisers and Royal Caribbean veterans.  

Thirdly come up with a communication system for all of your people.  Be it postit notes, whiteboards, using wifi calling/instant messaging, smoke signals, whatever.  Come up with a communication system among your people.  That way you can let them know if plans change.  Maybe you want to go to the comedy act but others want to go to the pool deck... and then your plans change to going to karaoke.  Set a postit note in the cabin or on the cabin door saying you're at a different location, or text each other saying the plans have changed.  Set a designated meet up spot.  Be it the pool bar, the windjammer, a restaurant, whatever.  Set a meeting spot so you know where to go to assemble your tribe.  

Fourth, Be organied.   Get a binder to keep you organized.  To keep your receipts for excursions, travel documents, receipts for anything, ideas of things to do onboard, whatever.  But keep your binder and keep it organized.  There are 3 ring folders or sleeves to use as tabs and pockets to organize documentation.   Personally with my cruise documentation I like having in multiple places.  One copy in my checked luggage, the originals in my binder, and pictures or scans of the originals emailed to myself.  That way in case anything happens to the most important documents, copies are readily available.  I like also keeping my packing list in the binder.  That way I know what I packed so I know what I should have when I leave.  I might be a little overorganized when it comes to packing but I'm an organizing nut.  I do the same with my charging cords.  I label them.  I have a little checkin, checkout system in a cable organizer that way I dont leave behind a charging cable.  I use packing cubes to keep my clothing and cosmetics etc organized and separated so packing up everything becomes a breeze with just packing the cubes and then depositing the cubes into my luggage.  

Fifth.  Set a spending limit for the teens.  I'd limit their seapass cards personally but that's up to you how you handle the teens and the seapass cards.  This is just so you dont get any surprise charges on your account due to the arcade or drinks or gifts or whatever.  

Sixth.  Ask questions!  And when you think you've asked too many questions, ask MORE questions!

[wllm1969]

6 hours ago, Disney said:

Hello.  Hubby and I cruised once, 20 years ago, before kids. We are sailing next summer on the 4 night Navigator cruise, stopping in Coco Cay twice and Nassau once. 

We will be in a two bedroom stateroom. 

We will be traveling with another family, who has an ocean view room.

Four kids between the two families, all are teens.

Please share any helpful advice/pointers that can help us figure it all out.  It’s a lot to figure out!

Thanks in advance for any pointers/suggestions!

I am first time cruiser also and I have learned so much by listening to podcast, read message boards post and watching the videos. Matt has live chats on YouTube and on Facebook couple times a week. Great opportunity to ask your questions. 

[ChrisK2793]

If you’re buying the Thrill Waterpark pass for Cococay in the cruise planner, make sure you get the TWO DAY option.  When I purchased ours for Navigator next June, the 2 day was only $79.99 ........... for a 1 day, they were charging $79.99 for the first stop at cococay and $89.99 for the second stop st cococay.

 

 

[WannaCruise]

I just wrote up a report on our 4 night Navigator cruise that you might find useful (in Live Blog section on this site).  We also have kids so may be enjoy similar things.

As upfront advice...if you're interested in the slides or laser tag, go early as the lines can get long.

Enjoy.  Navigator is an amazing ship.

[Stephanie]

One thing I wish I had learned earlier on is that you can eat in the Main Dining Room for breakfast & lunch, too.  It's less hectic and not nearly as crowded as the Windjammer. 

Also, pay attention to the Cruise Compass.  There is so much valuable information provided on it each day - it's not just show times & activities.  It provides the operating hours for various stores, restaurants, etc on the ship.  We went on a cruise with family members a couple of years ago and we were mid-way into the cruise before they asked how we knew so much about what was going on all the time. 

 

[sabarwolf]

Just got back a couple weeks ago from our first sailing on Allure. Awesome time. My advice (to echo what's been said)...

• Relax. Have fun. You're on vacation!
• Try new things! New food, new activities, etc.
• Be social-- cruising is a great chance to make new friends.