One child in stateroom with grandparents...what should we know?

[Chica1581]

We are planning a cruise out of San Diego. We are unable to book a stateroom for 4, as they are sold out. So we have to book a room for my parents with my DS7 and a room for my DH, myself and our infant. They are booking and paying separately because they are going through Costco for the 2% cash back. So we will have two different reservations.

What should we know?

How do we connect for dining?

How do we include my DS for pictures if I buy a package?

My DS is silver but my parents are new cruisers, can they check in with my daughter? Will they have silver perks? When can they do port adventure reservations?

Thanks!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We are planning a cruise out of San Diego. We are unable to book a stateroom for 4, as they are sold out. So we have to book a room for my parents with my DS7 and a room for my DH, myself and our infant. They are booking and paying separately because they are going through Costco for the 2% cash back. So we will have two different reservations.

What should we know?

How do we connect for dining?

How do we include my DS for pictures if I buy a package?

My DS is silver but my parents are new cruisers, can they check in with my daughter? Will they have silver perks? When can they do port adventure reservations?

Thanks!

The grandparents are going to have to fill out a form allowing you to take your son off the ship. Yes, even if it's YOUR son, the adults in the room the child is actually booked in must give permission for other adults (in a different room) to take a minor child off the ship without them. Plus, your son must attend the muster station for the room he's actually booked into.

Call DCL, and have both reservations linked.

Once you board, you go to Shutters and have them add your son to your package.

Yes, they can check in with your daughter (isn't it your son in their room?). Yes, they will get the silver perks. That means they can book activities and all at 90 days out.

 

[nearlyfallinstar]

All of your minor children are covered with one photo package no matter what room they are in.

 

[cmph]

If you have the reservation numbers, you may be able to link them yourself online. I'm not sure if there is a difference b/c of the Costco part.

Once your reservations are linked, you can do pretty much everything online in advance. This is relatively new, I believe, as I do not remember it from 2016/17 but was the case for our cruise this June: you can even take care of granting permissions for minors when you go through the online check-in process. You can designate which adults in the linked cabins are allowed to take the children off the ship, which linked cabin members 13yo and older can check the kids out of the club/lab, everything! I went to guest services to confirm it was all good to go (as we were taking my niece, who wasn't in our room, with us on an excursion without her parents). It was all set, literally nothing to do on-board. You e-sign and choose a password for making changes when you go through the process. It was all very easy. I did everything related to online check-in and activities booking for our 3 linked staterooms, simply b/c I'm the one most familiar with it all, and I do recommend having one person do everything. It simplifies activities bookings, really, and everyone in your parents' cabin has silver level booking abilities b/c of your child in there. You can also designate who is in charge of each person's room charges, and that includes designating the lead in your own cabin as in charge of your child's charges. While this may seem pointless if they don't have charging privileges - remember that gratuities, paid activities, DCL excursions, and the club/lab magic band will all be charged to the child. This was mostly seamless for us, although one charge went to the wrong place for my niece (who was also in her grandparents' room for space reasons).

If your staterooms are linked, DCL ought to pick up that you want a table together, but if you want a table for just the 6 of you - you need to tell them that, so a call is definitely in order anyway. That's the only other issue I'm thinking of.

Any questions, let me know. I did all of this recently for our extended family group. Like I said, these are pretty recent changes (regarding the minors), within the last 18mo, so not everyone is aware of the new online way to do much of this. I'm sure you can still fill out papers onboard, but it was so easy to do it online that that would be a waste of your time.

 

[Dug720]

Also, if the grandparents' cabin is in a different muster station from yours, the kid has to go with them to their muster station for drill AND in the unlikely event of an emergency requiring a trip to the muster stations.

 

[tigerchic89]

one or 2 of our kids always stays in the cabin with grandmother. We get connecting rooms and leave the door open, so it feels like our children are in our room, we know when they (miss) curfew, we all get ready at the same time and leave for dinner/excursions together. I gives us 2 bathrooms to use if one is occupied. and once our rooms are right next to each other, usually the muster stations are the same. SO try to move your rooms to connecting

Anyway, definitely get the res number and link them, you can do that your self, you just need the number and the DOB of person in the room. We always check off that any adult in our party can walk off any kid in our party.. just makes walking off the ship easier.

Also your newbie parents wont be able to book excursions until their windows open but your kid in their room can boon earlier. But chances are you'l be able to add them to the same time as yours once their window opens.. if not I'd call or check onboard

 

[Chica1581]

Thank you all so much! We are definitely getting connecting staterooms so we will hopefully get the same muster station.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Connecting staterooms will be helpful. Is your infant going to be in a playpen or on the bed with rails? I wondered if your older one could actually sleep in your room if the infant is in a playpen.

 

[Chica1581]

well, i just checked the website again and now there is availability for a 4 person cabin. So we won't need her to be with my parents. Thanks for the info!

 

[lanejudy]

Also your newbie parents wont be able to book excursions until their windows open but your kid in their room can boon earlier.

For the purposes of online check-in and booking activities, the whole stateroom is considered to be the highest CC level of the occupants. So the newbie parents’ stateroom will have Silver status due to the child booked into that room. Many people intentionally book a child into another stateroom for that very reason, but then the child can usually sleep in the parents’ stateroom if that is what everyone wants.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[Cake4]

Bring a nightlight. The rooms are completely dark at night