Kids on Seadream

So on SeaDream you need to worry about running into out of control children, the owner and his friends or possibly both groups?

Some here would tell you yes. The good news is that one rarely has to dodge all of those bullets at the same time, so it is a generally a delightful and addictive experience!

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So on SeaDream you need to worry about running into out of control children, the owner and his friends or possibly both groups?

AS Ho-Hum said in his previous post, it is unlikely that your voyage will be interrupted by groups or children, but it can happen, and it has happened. In our dozen or so SD voyages, we have encountered no problems, and we have sailed with the owner a number of times.

So on SeaDream you need to worry about running into out of control children, the owner and his friends or possibly both groups?

My luck has not been so good. Three times for us.

Running around the pool deck, splashing people in the pool, laughing loudly at the dining table, dancing on the tables, being called to the bridge, having tantrums, upsetting guests !

Yes ho hum (and blondie: table dancing) has done all these (in the early years: calmed down a tad these days).

My luck has not been so good. Three times for us.

And the reason is: Karma, Jim !

You were obviously very naughty in previous lives (has'nt changed much in this one either) !

Haha

No, three times would be quite rare in actual fact and HH would'nt want new people reading this and considering a voyage to think this is likely.

It is'nt.

Very unfortunately for Jim, it was (but HH has given you the reason why).

In truth HH & Blondie have only been affected badly once and when blondie travelled with a girlfriend, she was badly affected once.

Poor Club Director, Jeff became the children's activity manager that week on top of all his other duties (when Club Director and Activities Manager were not split).

Miss Jeff so much.

Now some will say "Thats life, get over it" but at $10,000 a voyage ?

No, it is un-acceptable.

Policy required.

Will we get one (policy) ?

In your dreams !

In your sea dreams !

HH and blondie have travelled when kids are onboard and there has been no trouble and in fact it has occasionally been pleasurable meeting them but the parenting was very, very good.

And we have travelled with teens and again, no problem.

There were two handsome, Scandinavian boys, twins in fact, 6'0" tall.

They were bored out of their minds though and they had a mother that fussed over them way too much which just added to their frustration (prefer a mother that takes some control though).

However at the end of the week they were beginning to loosen up and not listen to their controlling mother (so often) and she realised they were behaving very well.

So at the end of the voyage they really enjoyed themselves and were great fun at the disco.

Loved seeing them dance and being happy. Blondie had a good "bop" with one of them.

Would like to see them back in fact.

They behaved very responsibly and only sneeked a few beers (HH the provider: evil influence). The beers were more for show and claiming a sense of maturity (they nursed two beers over three hours).

And personally the teens concern should be dropped in HH's opinion unless there is a large group.

One time a voyage had a load of aristocratic French teens, one of whom was celebrating his 16th birthday: they were a handful.

But really what could Sea Dream have done in this instance.

The ship crew exercised a lot of effort in minimising disruption.

HH was not on the voyage but learned the events from fellow passengers on a subsequent voyage/s.

But if you have an experience. Sorry, experiences. Like Jim, you are unlikely to give SD another go. A shame for him, his lady and us. We wont be able to meet up with the scoundrel and he wont be able to buy HH a beer !

Come on Sea Dream.

Give this man a 40% reduction on his next voyage so that he can enjoy SD without hordes of kids on the proviso he does a daily diary on CC.

 

 

Either Sea Dream shoreside management are simply incompetent of creating a policy or cynically wish to gain revenue by whatever means even ignoring the way they promote the product (couples: and no reference to children).

Most likely it is both.

 

They are un-concerned either by the effect on passengers, paying a lot of money or the problems it creates for the crew !

 

.

Hmmmm..........Should my mother and I pretend we're a *COUPLE*? :rolleyes: LMAO!! All righty then... :D

Running around the pool deck, splashing people in the pool, laughing loudly at the dining table, dancing on the tables, being called to the bridge, having tantrums, upsetting guests !

Yes ho hum (and blondie: table dancing) has done all these (in the early years: calmed down a tad these days).

 

 

 

 

And the reason is: Karma, Jim !

 

You were obviously very naughty in previous lives (has'nt changed much in this one either) !

Haha

 

 

No, three times would be quite rare in actual fact and HH would'nt want new people reading this and considering a voyage to think this is likely.

It is'nt.

Very unfortunately for Jim, it was (but HH has given you the reason why).

 

In truth HH & Blondie have only been affected badly once and when blondie travelled with a girlfriend, she was badly affected once.

 

Poor Club Director, Jeff became the children's activity manager that week on top of all his other duties (when Club Director and Activities Manager were not split).

Miss Jeff so much.

 

Now some will say "Thats life, get over it" but at $10,000 a voyage ?

No, it is un-acceptable.

Policy required.

Will we get one (policy) ?

In your dreams !

In your sea dreams !

 

HH and blondie have travelled when kids are onboard and there has been no trouble and in fact it has occasionally been pleasurable meeting them but the parenting was very, very good.

And we have travelled with teens and again, no problem.

There were two handsome, Scandinavian boys, twins in fact, 6'0" tall.

They were bored out of their minds though and they had a mother that fussed over them way too much which just added to their frustration (prefer a mother that takes some control though).

However at the end of the week they were beginning to loosen up and not listen to their controlling mother (so often) and she realised they were behaving very well.

So at the end of the voyage they really enjoyed themselves and were great fun at the disco.

Loved seeing them dance and being happy. Blondie had a good "bop" with one of them.

Would like to see them back in fact.

They behaved very responsibly and only sneeked a few beers (HH the provider: evil influence). The beers were more for show and claiming a sense of maturity (they nursed two beers over three hours).

 

And personally the teens concern should be dropped in HH's opinion unless there is a large group.

One time a voyage had a load of aristocratic French teens, one of whom was celebrating his 16th birthday: they were a handful.

But really what could Sea Dream have done in this instance.

The ship crew exercised a lot of effort in minimising disruption.

HH was not on the voyage but learned the events from fellow passengers on a subsequent voyage/s.

 

But if you have an experience. Sorry, experiences. Like Jim, you are unlikely to give SD another go. A shame for him, his lady and us. We wont be able to meet up with the scoundrel and he wont be able to buy HH a beer !

 

Come on Sea Dream.

Give this man a 40% reduction on his next voyage so that he can enjoy SD without hordes of kids on the proviso he does a daily diary on CC.

Hey, I sailed SD a little over a year ago in Costa Rica. The passenger mix was fine and the youngest aboard was 34. But yes, the "incidents" we have had is the main reason that 8 of our last 9 have been elsewhere. Even with that, the allure of SD when SD is truly provided has me lurking a December cruise which would also involve my Mother's 90th Birthday. We took Lois's Mom on SD for her 80th in '07. So, you just might have to put up with me yet, Mr. Hum. And yes, I do owe you a premium pint.

Hey, I sailed SD a little over a year ago in Costa Rica. The passenger mix was fine and the youngest aboard was 34. But yes, the "incidents" we have had is the main reason that 8 of our last 9 have been elsewhere. Even with that, the allure of SD when SD is truly provided has me lurking a December cruise which would also involve my Mother's 90th Birthday. We took Lois's Mom on SD for her 80th in '07. So, you just might have to put up with me yet, Mr. Hum. And yes, I do owe you a premium pint.

Glad to know you wont be causing mischief and a nuisance to other guests now that you are considering voyaging with your mother and that there will be some parental control over you, young Jim !

Glad to know you wont be causing mischief and a nuisance to other guests now that you are considering voyaging with your mother and that there will be some parental control over you, young Jim !

Heh, heh, heh.......You don't know me Mum.:eek::D:D

Just remember, Jim, if you bring your mother on SD to celebrate her birthday you'll be the kid on SD.

Just remember, Jim, if you bring your mother on SD to celebrate her birthday you'll be the kid on SD.

Now that you put it that way, cannonballs in the pool!!:eek:

Just remember, Jim, if you bring your mother on SD to celebrate her birthday you'll be the kid on SD.

Haha

AS Ho-Hum said in his previous post, it is unlikely that your voyage will be interrupted by groups or children, but it can happen, and it has happened. In our dozen or so SD voyages, we have encountered no problems, and we have sailed with the owner a number of times.

I think you meant to say that it is likely that your voyage will be interrupted.

I think you meant to say that it is likely that your voyage will be interrupted.

No zqvol.......promise, cross my heart and hope to die. Not likely, really.

HH did say he had an unfortunate experience once and blondie had one too out of quite a few trips on SD.

Have you had an unfortunate experience ?

Rather than further pollute IJ with kiddie rants, and to bring this topic to the top (where it should stay until SD issues an adults-only policy), I'll explain why we are so sensitive to kids on SD.

We did a 10 day cruise on Regent's Mariner, and it was a fine cruise indeed, especially as we were upgraded to a Penthouse Suite due to our originally booked cruise being canceled :D Mariner is a very large ship, despite only accomodating 700 pax. The space per pax is very high. And there are lots of venues for food, drink, and entertainment.

Out of the 700 pax on our cruise, there was one very well-traveled 15 year old (we talked to him several times, great kid) and three monsters loosed from the gates of hell :eek: They appeared to be about ages 3, 5, and 7. They were part of a multi-generational family, where the patriarch seems to have paid the freight.

From the very start of the cruise these demons were let loose to run rampant all over the ship, running screaming everywhere. The adults of the group appeared to sit out on the pool deck morning, noon, and night drinking steadily. They never paid attention to what the kids were doing. Once the kids were causing a major commotion on the pool deck and a crewman said something to the patriarch. He just scowled, shrugged his shoulders, and turned his back on the crewman. Eventually the kids ran off screaming elsewhere on the ship. And doing tumbling on the couches in the lounges, etc. They even ran into the main theater during a soloist's performance and did summersaults in the aisles and screamed at the top of their lungs, until several crew shooed them out.

The crew tried to set up games for then in the conference room, but they bored of that quickly and continued their marauding. Can you blame them, they had an entire ship as their personal jungle-gym, with no supervision.

Almost daily we had to switch venues once or twice to get away from them. Fortunately the Mariner had space to hide...

The odd thing is that in ten days we never saw them or the adults on a tender. I think they sat on the ship for ten days and drank, using the ship as a playpen for the kids.

To add insult to injury, they were on the first leg of our flight home :eek: And true to form, they screamed, kicked the seats in front of them, and ran up and down the aisle. The stewardesses were constantly shooing them back to their seats. The parents just sat there with that far-away stare of people overwhelmed by what they had spawned....

Now imagine this group on a little SeaDream yacht.

PS - after proofreading this I see I failed to convey the magnitude of the disrruption these three kids caused to the hard-earned vacations of 693 other souls... Words are inadequate.

Wow! I've had a few bad experiences on ships and planes with out-of-control kids, but nothing like this. The whole family should have been called before the Captain, given a severe warning, and put off the ship at the next stop if it continued. Cruise lines, especially small ones like SD, need to implement kid policies and enforce them.

Pleased to report no kids issues on our present SD2 voyage. Family of key crew member is on board with no problems. A guest family we've seen before has two teens and an early 20 something all well behaved and a pleasure to have onboard. This is our first SD voyage in two years because the last one was a long one around the Black Sea marred by numerous unruly little monsters and their enabling "adults." We took a gamble this time and so far so good on all counts. See voyage thread here.

What surprised me the most was that such young kids were allowed out of the parents' sight, both by the parents and by the crew. Isn't there some kind of rule on ships that kids under 16 must be under an adult's supervision at all times? If there isn't, there should be. After all, a ship is fraught with many dangers, the ultimate being falling overboard while clowning on a railing.... Jim.

Isn't that exactly what the brig is for?

What surprised me the most was that such young kids were allowed out of the parents' sight, both by the parents and by the crew. Isn't there some kind of rule on ships that kids under 16 must be under an adult's supervision at all times? If there isn't, there should be. After all, a ship is fraught with many dangers, the ultimate being falling overboard while clowning on a railing.... Jim.

Yep, but they did come back and get me.:eek: Oh the kids. The strange thing to me is that the Little B**t**ds (LBs for short) seem to survive quite well in spite of the disconnected "parents". You would think the wakes of cruise ships would be dotted with careless, unsupervised children but not so. They seem to do just fine running amok.:D

Until one of them falls overboard!

No zqvol.......promise, cross my heart and hope to die. Not likely, really.

 

HH did say he had an unfortunate experience once and blondie had one too out of quite a few trips on SD.

 

Have you had an unfortunate experience ?

On about 50% of our SD voyages there are issues with children, so much so that we are now very hesitant to even book SD.

On about 50% of our SD voyages there are issues with children, so much so that we are now very hesitant to even book SD.

That's pretty much our percentage as well (exactly 1 more than 50% have been kid free). Some folks just have better luck than us Philip.:eek: But then, you and Frequent Traveler along with Lois and I hold the (so far) undisputed record for kiddies on a cruise. Aint we just lucky, lucky, lucky?:D:D

That's pretty much our percentage as well (exactly 1 more than 50% have been kid free). Some folks just have better luck than us Philip.:eek: But then, you and Frequent Traveler along with Lois and I hold the (so far) undisputed record for kiddies on a cruise. Aint we just lucky, lucky, lucky?:D:D

You are so right Jim.

That percentage is way more than enough for me to cross Sea Dream of my list. The ships are simply too small to avoid reckless kids.