We never thought we'd be "cruise people", but we have found cruising to be the easiest way to travel to faraway places with a young child. Being aboard a floating hotel means that though we visit multiple countries, we don't have to schlep our luggage from place to place. Plus, we know we have potable water and recognizable meal options anywhere we go.
We've now been on 4 cruises, and I can safely say that we are always the youngest family on board. By several decades. It's ok with us, we actually prefer the shuffle boarders to the party atmosphere. We select our cruises specifically for the itineraries, but I'd be lying if I didn't say it was for the Kid's Club, too. We love traveling with our boy, but having the option to drop him off at the play center while we enjoy dinner together is awesome! An added bonus, the kid's program and the fancy dinner are both included in the cost of the cruise. I'm by no means a cruising expert, but these are some reasons why it can be a great way to travel with a child.
1. Kid's Club Most cruise lines have a Kid's program. This option is included in the cruise cost but requires that a child be potty trained and at least 3. Typically during days when the ship is at sea they offer morning and afternoon drop-off hours as well as a block of time every evening. A total of 9-12 hours a day of unadulterated Kid's Club time, if you so choose. The programs we've encountered are impressive, they're not run by bored adults checking their phones but are planned kid's programming. Teague's recent experience included cooking classes in the Culinary Center, treasure hunts and arts and crafts projects. Many cruise lines offer kid's programs during port days, too--great if there are excursions, like scuba diving, which don't allow children. When selecting a sail date, the adult to child ratio is key. We like kids, however, the thought of a cruise FULL of kids doesn't appeal to us. For this reason, we choose cruise dates before or after major school holidays. Our last cruise had 4 children in the Kid's Club and 2 adult attendants. Thus, there were 3 kids his age to play with and he received crazy amounts of playtime/help/attention from the staff. The attendants told us that the cruise after ours, over Christmas expected over 200 kids. Yikes.
2. Non-ship excursions can be tailored to your family's needs The ships do make it easy--they offer plenty of packaged port tours which can be booked and charged to your ship account. However, these trips are at a minimum 4 hours in length. For a young child in a group setting, this can be an eternity! The ship tours are limited to the ability level of the others in the group (think walkers and canes) and cannot end early/start late to work around a child's eating schedules and naps. Researching each port prior to your cruise allows you to book alternative excursions with local companies. We've found that we can plan out exactly what we want to do, rather than what the ship's tours think we want to do. This enables us to decide the length of time spent at each activity and to find more kid-friendly/adventurous alternatives. Prices with locals are almost always less expensive than the ship's packages.
3. On board activities Before my first cruise, the images I had were of endless buffets and smoky casinos. Not necessarily. Ships offer a variety of options, they have a gym, a spa, comedy shows, cooking classes, Broadway-style shows and, surprisingly, a huge library complete with librarian and current NY Times bestsellers. I actually stopped bringing my Kindle aboard because there were so many great books I wanted to read. They also have a decent kid's book section along with puzzles and board games. In addition, our ships have had "ShipFlicks", a dvd catalog of recent movies and tv series for check out. And if you want to smoke like a chimney and gamble, there's that, too.
4. Pools Our kid is part fish. He's also high energy. For this reason, we love having access to a pool when we travel. Many ships offer a family pool and an adult pool, and some have splash pads, too. We've yet to find one that isn't heated. Our Costa cruise had a fantastic water slide which made it difficult to do pretty much anything else with our son. He spent hours on that slide!
5. Seeing several countries without flying Airport travel with a child is not for the weak. I often wonder why game shows like Fear Factor don't have this as a category-- I know I'd much rather sit in a container of hissing cockroaches than take a child through 24 hours of plane travel! The benefit to cruising is that you can visit several different cities without any of the airport time. On a boat, the traveling is done mainly while you're sleeping. Each morning, a beautiful new location greets you, minus the TSA pat downs and flight cancellations.
Tacky decor and bland mass-produced meals are no longer the norm. I think as destinations are becoming more exotic, the diversity of the passengers and programming will continue to change. We'll standby, with our shuffleboard sticks poised and ready.
Cruising through the Panama Canal (age 6)
1 comment:
Great post. We did a Baltic one while stationed in England and decided it wasn't for us. Now that kids are in the picture it definitely looks a lot more appealing.
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