XP from ML: Royal Carribbean Cruise advice?

[susiebw]

I haven't been on a cruise since before we had kids, but we recently booked one for later this year with a few other families (7 adults and 8 kids total). The kids range in age from 8-14. My two are 10 and 13. We'll be on RC Symphony OTS, stopping in Canaveral FL, CocoCay, and Nassau. My family of 4 booked 2 interior balcony rooms (requested adjoining, but we'll see what we get). Oh, and we're all pulling our kids from school for this, so it's not during a school break or other "peak" time.

I'm looking for general advice, I guess, but also have a few specific Qs.

We booked drink packages for DH and I already. Should I do beverage packages for the kids? I anticipate that they will spend a good deal of time away from us, between kids club, or just off doing their thing during sea days, so I wasn't sure if it was necessary/worth it, or if I could just get them drinks with my package, or if the freely available drinks were sufficient. I may see what others in our group are doing about their kids here, but experiences would be appreciated.

If I book a cabana or daybed on CocoCay, can the whole group use it or are they strict about the 8-10 people limit? I doubt we'd all be there at once, but I was thinking it would be nice to have a "home base" on the island for the day for all of us.

Also on CocoCay, I've read that the water park can be super crowded and you spend more time in lines than riding slides, so for the $94/person price tag, it's often not worth it. Are any of the big extras there really worth it (zipline, water park, hot air balloon)?

What to do in Nassau?
My friend and I were saying the other day that Atlantis has always been somewhere we've wanted to go, and we're thinking about doing the day pass excursion through the cruiseline - is that the best way? Is a daypass there not worth it because of crowds or anything? Other things we should know?

Thanks everyone!