Do cruiselines even think?!?

we have just received our travel documents and find that we have been allocated a late seating for dinner. Why in Hades would a family with a young child eat as late as 8.30pm?!? that was thoughtful of them! we were not even asked if we wanted a particular time.

I'm really shitty about many other things associated with this particular cruise and feel like I am venturing on to the Titanic!

after MUCH messing around the 3 of us are actually on the same flight together. At one point my husband and son were on one flight and I was flying the next day!!! terrific when you have to fly from the US to Australia...what a fantastic vacation huh? did the cruise company fix up the problem for us?? NO, we had to go through Qantas ourselves!

ever had a feeling it might be "safer" to stay home?

I'm sorry to hear about the complications. Which line are you cruising on? Is this your first cruise? In the future, make sure you tell your travel agent that you want first seating at the time of your booking. The travel agent or company that booked your cruise really should have asked you that a long time ago and not assumed you wanted late seating (which many people without young kids want). My best advice is to go to the main dining room as soon as you get on the ship and ask the matre 'd there if there is space for you to switch to the first seating. They generally have personnel there on embarkation day for that reason and often they do accommodate you.
I'm sure once you get that straightened out, you'll have a wonderful cruise. We're about to cruise with our 8 year old (her 10th cruise) and 7 month old (his first cruise) on Sat. on the Disney MAgic. There is so much preparation involved when cruising with an infant however after 9 cruises with my daughter, we know that once you get to the ship, it's all worth it....
Smooth Sailing!
Luisa Frey Gaynor
Family Cruise Editor

now that my hormones have settled down I feel much better

we managed to fix this up today with Carnival. The rep admitted that she just didn't notice the 4 year old and agreed that late seating wouldn't be "ideal"

we leave Australia next week and I think I am just stressing about everything because we are taking our little guy so far away from home