We leave next Saturday on a Diamond Princess cruise to celebrate our 40th anniversary. We are taking our 2 kids, their spouses, and two grandchildren, ages 3 and 6. Any last minute tips, suggestions, or helpful hints on making it a great family vacation? Our kids and grandkids have never been on a cruise before, and we just want everyone to have a blast.

congratulations!!! I love the Princess line. They have a great kid's program that would be nice for your grandchildren. And the personal choices dining is really nice. If your kids drink a lot of pop you might want to buy a card on board - I forget the price, but it is unlimited. Better would be to bring your own. You can keep some in the refrigerator in your room. Ask for the complimentary bathrobes! Bring binoculars. The trivia games are fun and the pools are great. There is so much to do - it will be a blast!

If you have Personal Choice/Anytime dining - definitely make reservations at the beginning of the week for the entire week. They have a new system and it is not ironed out all the way yet - to prevent long waiting times in the dining room - definitley make reservations.

Have a great time!

What we liked about the Personal Choice dining is that we could go when we wanted, and not at the same time every night. We have never had to wait in line to be seated.

Kadao, was it the Diamond Princess that you sailed with PC dining? Just about every report I've read regarding PC on the Diamond said there were major problems with seating. Thanks.

Thanks for the help. We are concerned about the Personal Choice dining, after reading the comments here. We were on a Renaissance cruise a few years ago, and we loved the anytime dining. Any other tips anyone can offer us to ensure a great time?

The long waiting time on the Diamond's Personal Choice dining's new system is not the problem. The problem is that without a reservation for a specific time you may be turned away even though there may be a number of empty tables.
And that goes for all the dining rooms.
And if you request table sharing you may not get that either and have to settle for a table for two.
There are absolutely NO guarantees even with a reservation. That's too bad!

chicgeek, we have many Diamond Princess links to personal cruise websites, photo albums, reviews, menus, Patters, and the wine list on our personal website, cruiseclues.com. After bringing up our site, just click on the blue Shipstips on the bar at the top, then click on Diamond Princess.