I'm not a "cruise person" when planning a trip for myself, but because of my family dynamics I would much prefer a cruise for a big family vacation. We've rented houses a couple of times and it always turns into me or my husband cooking huge meals for everyone, doing all the shopping and 50% of the cleanup, while everyone else just eats and chirps "thanks!" We have younger kids so we have to have food ready at certain times or it will be meltdown o'clock, and since we're cooking here come all the nephews and then siblings pulling out plates and asking what's for lunch -- it's sooooooooooo predictable at this point. We usually get one dinner in the week where some other family unit will "treat" us all at a restaurant, and that's the only thing that doesn't default to our responsibilty.

I would like for what your kids eat to not be my problem 3x a day, and I would particularly like not to think about what you, grownup, are going to eat 3x a day.

A cruise is a great extended family vacation because nobody is in charge of cooking and it’s easy to coordinate what everyone wants to do together or not.

We also did a great multi generational trip to Baha Mar, but food there is very expensive.

I don’t understand why it has to be an all inclusive thing. Why not pick a destination with a nice resort but not necessarily all inclusive, all you can eat. Every family gets their own rooms or room. You plan a few activities togethers and meals and then play it by ear.

One of the reasons a cruise or a beach rental sucks is because it forces everyone together too much. Yes, that’s the dream of the boomer who is always monitoring who is not in the room but its what causes most of the problems.

Anonymous wrote:To each their own but in our family, no one would ever take a cruise.

House rental for the win.

(And for those of us who don’t want to cook, they have these crazy things called restaurants where you can eat there or even take the food back!)

What about when Grandpa wants to eat at 4 pm; small kids need to eat at 6 pm; and the West Coast teens want to watch at 10 pm?

Anonymous wrote:To each their own but in our family, no one would ever take a cruise.

House rental for the win.

(And for those of us who don’t want to cook, they have these crazy things called restaurants where you can eat there or even take the food back!)

When we rent a house saying “oh the kitchen is just for easy breakfasts” there’s always those who don’t want to spent money to eat out often (understandably so) so it ends up being way more cooking. And none of the families eat the same way (health nuts, gourmets, vegetarians, picky eaters, allergies…) and the kitchen may have limited tools. So either it gets dumbed down to the most basic like pasta and burgers, or someone takes over and leaves out everyone else’s preferences and we spend a ton of time planning, cooking, and cleaning.

Cruise all day long. Just not an Alaska one. It sucks not really being able to use the pool.

Anonymous wrote:To each their own but in our family, no one would ever take a cruise.

House rental for the win.

(And for those of us who don’t want to cook, they have these crazy things called restaurants where you can eat there or even take the food back!)

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