Onessa

Reminds me of a family trip we took 20+ years ago. My parents paid for a cruise for all us adult kids, spouses, and grandkids to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. My older sister and her husband were a pain! Bristled at any 'family' time but were more than happy to have my parents babysit their son (and let my parents pay their expenses).

Most of the rest of the family still harbor resentment toward them.

Other than that it was a great trip and good memories. The rest of us worked to balance time. We did dinners together every night and by choice hung out as a group afterwards. Were not too interested in shows - better times just talking among ourselves. Young kids had option to go to kids clubs after dinner.

We did talk through excursions pre-trip and planned some that we all (less sister and BIL) went on as a family.

Mostly we did our own thing, but ended up spending a lot of time together or in subgroups.

Italy was my daughter's favorite when she was young -- some longer trips from port to cities, but she was surprisingly fascinated by Venice's canals and the Roman ruins in various spots. The older Italian women love little kids :).  Greece and Turkey was great as well when she was young, but we tend to cruise early spring or late autumn so the weather was bearable -- Turkey regularly gets into the high 100's and even over 110 in mid summer.

On 10/31/2022 at 2:59 PM, woostergirl said:

@Onessa How wonderful for her and your whole family! I will keep this in mind for the future. Traveling is so good for kids. My daughter has a few more years in middle school so maybe I can squeeze a long cruise in!

Middle school was a perfect time -- she really appreciated everything.  High school was a problem because she was involved in a very active marching band and several sports -- so our trips were primarily chaperoning her band trips!

Our daughter had major issues with smaller ships and car sickness prior to trying a short RCCI cruise.  Surprisingly she had no problems on-board the ship.  Only once did she have any issue when on the ship and that was general nausea during a full-out storm at sea (weather was so bad that the ship responded to an at-sea rescue operation for a commercial fishing vessel that went down).
We bring various OTC anti-nausea meds "just in case" but find candied ginger is enough when doing smaller ship-based excursions or land tours that start getting too twisty.

On 6/16/2020 at 12:10 AM, Traveling Mike said:

...How old do I need to be before i feel old enough for the Adult table at Thanksgiving Dinner?

Mike, the adult table is grossly over-rated (all that not chewing with your mouth open, keeping elbows off the table, and besides someone might catch you hiding your Brussel Sprouts and make you eat them at the adult table)

On 8/3/2022 at 3:05 PM, gunnywife said:

My family is very caring and helpful.  They know they will have to help with luggage, etc. Since I'm the most experienced traveler they will be depending on me for all the planning and guidance along the way.  So helping each other will be a two way street..

Your family sounds delightful and I hope you go and all have a marvelous time!

My husband, daughter and I did a great deal of travel that included my parents (when they were in their late 70's and my mother was suffering from mobility issues).  We all travelled very well together and really enjoy the memories.

We did do one "family" land trip which also included my sister, her husband and their son -- that was NO fun.  Sister and her family did not want to have to spend all that much time with us, chose to stay at a different hotel and my parents (who paid for the trips) had to pre-schedule time with them.  Mom and Dad were just the bank and they did not want to be "saddled" (their word!) dealing with Mom's slowness.  I am still disgusted.  But I would not change a thing about any of the other trips we took with them over the years.

we did a 14-day Celebrity Mediterranean cruise with our middle schooler.  It was November and the Thanksgiving break mitigated the time out of school. 

We worked very closely (and very early) with all of her teachers.  She did all of her math lessons on the plane on the way over (thank goodness she is great in Math, because I was looking over her shoulder and was mystified).  Her social studies class was doing a unit on ancient cultures and was scheduled to do Greece -- her teacher gave her a pass.  She had to do a report on volcanoes for science. No problems reading her book for English for a few hours one at-sea day when it was a bit too chilly and rough to do much of anything with her friends.  We had two stops in France and started in Spain, so her foreign language teachers also gave her a pass (she brought back some treats with Spanish and with French labels as a bonus).  She is really very good at managing her time, and is a good student so the teachers knew she wouldn't be just sitting by the pool.

It was a great experience (Spain, France, Monaco, Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Turkey).  She met a bunch of girls her age -- an American girl whose parents worked at the embassy in London, another whose mother was stationed with NATO at The Hauge, and sisters whose father worked for the Italian office of a US manufacturer on the first leg of our trip.  And then made friends with a brother and sister from Portugal in the second leg. 

I've done several AK cruises on various lines.  The Princess and NCL specialize a bit more with the glacier cruise-bys.  But with global warming issues I've seen more distance on that part of the trips across all cruise lines.

Research the ports you want to visit, and book based upon the itinerary and what you want to do on-shore. 

I would be concerned about good kid clubs options since there does seem to be a bit more "as sea" time and less pool time.  (we are from the northern midwest and the number of really good pool days even by our standards are pretty few).

We bought a collapsible travel stroller for our then 4YO for our Italian land/cruise vacation.  We spent considerable time "test strolling" - both husband and I are tall - travel strollers tend to be too short, and also to make certain it was comfortable for our DD. 

It travelled very easily, and we could fold it easily for transport in taxi/bus, storage in hotel rooms/state room, could fold up when in restaurants. Worked like a charm.

Our DD was 5YO for her first cruise - RCCI Radiance.  Just a three day out of Seattle to Victoria and Vancouver to see if she'd do ok at sea (she had motion sickness issues)  No problem cruising and she loved it all -- kids club, exploring the ports, eating at the "fancy" restaurant
Next we did a round trip AK cruise out of Vancouver -- great time hiking, dog sledding on a glacier, doing the Jr Ranger program at Skagway, totems, witnessing a rescue at sea.
Over the years we done about a cruise a year.  Other memorable were HI (snorkeling with sea turtles, watching land being created from the lava flow from sea at night).  Various Med and Baltic cruises (ancient ruins, medieval ramparts, fancy shopping districts, running a race at Olympia, Pompeii, gondola rides, art museums, etc.)  
Through the kids programs, she has met kids from all over and still keeps in touch with several.  Loved having dinner in the dining room every evening having participating more and more in conversations with the adults, charming the waiters, trying dishes she never would have tried back home.

On 2/6/2019 at 9:24 AM, kitkat343 said:

Santorini is gorgeous, but a bit logistically difficult to access.  If you are traveling independently, you need to tender to a spot where you can either ride a donkey up a hill (really might be a bit dangerous for small children, as I was scraped up and bleeding by mine and my brother lost a sandal on his way up- unsurprisingly there's a store that sells shoes at the top) or wait on line for a funicular.  You can walk up the donkey path, but need to be very careful since there's a lot of very slippery donkey poop on the cobblestones.  The lines can be quite long for both possibly going up and down.  There have at various times been a ferry that can take you to the tourist parts of Santorini, but its been in existence some years and not in others.  Try to see if you can get a private tour operator to pick you up directly from where you tender, but I'm not sure if that will be possible.    

Some of the ship's excursions may tender to a different area where there is road access for tour buses.  We took this for a quick excursion.  the tour bus took us to Oia for a few hours and then to Fieria where we could take the funicular down to the regular place.  Lines for the funicular down are not as bad as up.  Or we could have met back up with the excursion for bus back to the alternate docking area.

Apart from the bus transportation, our excursion was on-our-own.  It met our needs perfectly and took the stress out of the whole "getting up there" part.  (I hate lines!)

On 2/13/2019 at 8:57 PM, NayaSantaFe said:

Do you have any tips on helping them manage the long flights and helping them sleep through the overnight flights? This has me a little crazy just thinking about it!

I've had limited success getting good quality rest on long flights (for me and for my daughter 🙂 ).

I purchased sleep headphones - tiny flat speakers sewn into a comfy headband designed for listening while sleeping - (on-line at www.sleepphones.com).  Combined with an audio book or calming music or white-noise, and other comforting things and use the headband as a sleep mask or find another way to block light -- to eliminate outside stimulus and distractions.

Shoes off (bring some heavy socks or use slip-on shoes for trips to the bathroom), a nice bedtime snack (dairy combined with a carb) and some comfort item.  I'd limit any type of sleep med other than maybe melatonin myself.  Most sleep med have carryover effects or side effects.

While awake, most long-flightaircraftt are supplied with personalized in-flight electronic entertainment.  Head phones.  

Books with travel games/puzzles/madlibs; and miniaturee versions of toys.  I have had a lot of luck with the tiny "party" sized containers of pla-doh - they are fun, cheap, versatile (and disposable when they get yucky)  -- use in free play, but also come prepared with some doh "games"  -- for pre-schoolers, have them make doh snakes and outline simple shapes drawn on paper, for older ones sculpt different shapes or other challenges (make a chain, use other stuff to make impressions into the doh, etc).

Have some fun snacks.  A couple of dollar store surprises.  Come armed with word games.  

Watch the carts, and plan a few get up and walk the aisle trips to coincide with the food or bev service's down-times.  

Have fun!  Getting there should be part of the adventure.

On 1/11/2019 at 9:04 PM, mom2oneXY said:

Carnival Camp Ocean is not open the first night.  They have a family open house for registration and tours, but it doesn't open for drop off until the next day!

Yup, go to the open house to get the kids familiar and maybe meet some other kids there for the tour. 

Goring to the club for an hour or so the first "time" open is the key -- everyone is "new" at that time

On 1/22/2019 at 12:39 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

I don't know how old your kids are, but magna carts have been around for a very loooooong time. 🙂 It's just a hand truck. . . . .

DD is now 23YO, but I traveled alone with her for years.  When she was an infant, I'd buy her a seat (even though she could have flied for free on my lap).  In the airport she traveled in a front pack, and I strapped her diaper bag and her carseat onto a similar cart to just roll behind me, but as she got older, I discovered the same trick you use with the magna carts.  She thought it was great fun and I made my life SO much easier!

Great info!

On 1/17/2019 at 9:41 PM, cbiles33 said:

Wow!  You really don't need to be snippy or rude with me, I simply asked a question that I was unsure of as I hadn't heard of it before and as my daughter is my first child, and we had 4 other kids on cruises before and not known about it as it isn't exactly advertised.  I can understand the reasoning I just hadn't heard of it before.

I did not read any of the prior responses as "snippy" or "rude" -- just honest.  

Swim diapers are not allowed in most pools and splash pads on most cruise ships.  There are notices posted, there are notices in cruise documentation, there are good reasons why they are not allowed, and yes (sadly) many pax "get away" with it because cruise employees will likely not push the rules unless there is an issue or if someone else complains.

Also if you are cruising outside of North America/Caribbean, the regulation as to acceptable frequencies can vary from those used / available in N.America.

We did a couple of European adventures with our DD when she was close to your kids ages. She was a pretty chill kid, so we were able to do a lot of sightseeing without her getting too antsy.  But I'd set up daily visual scavenger hunts for her every day -- a list of about 10 or 12 things -- some specific to where you will be that day -  Venice, winged lion for example.  And others more generic - like an orange baseball hat, or a round window.  If she saw something, she'd point it out and we'd cross it off.  If she got all of them, she get a prize -- very often a Kinder Egg (she loved those things).  It would keep her more interested in looking around!  We also did a daily search of US and Canadian flags -- doing a daily count.  

As far as packing is concerned, Europe tourist areas can be a bit "dressier" than US tourist areas, so I might go a bit heavier on collared shirts for boys, sundresses for girls. With as long as a trip you are planning, you must be planning for laundry -- so I'd be comfortable packing lighter than usual.  May will be cool in some of your destinations - so at least one basic cardigan and a light water resistant jacket for each is a must have, but there again, resist the temptation to overpack.

First night of kids club is key if the kids want to use kids club -- it is when they are most likely to meet new friends -- there are a lot of games that encourage kids to meet and since everyone is new there is not the awkwardness.  

Some familiar snacks and pack a few "comfort" things.  Keep an eye out for potential melt-down moments and retreat to somewhere with a familiar snack 

A budget for extras - souvenirs, treats, game tokens, etc.

Most kids programs will have a pajama night (in addition to those mentioned elsewhere) so some "cool" PJs are generally a good idea.

I always brought a bag of cheapo toys and stickers and stuff, for impromptu entertainment / surprises.  

I'd work out a daily scavenger hunt -- 10-12 items from the mundane -- like an umbrella or a NY Giant's tshirt or an orange purse; and then things that we should be "on the lookout for" because of the location we were in (a statue of a lion in Venice, or the French flag or whatever)  It keeps the kids more involved in their surroundings.  a separate list of 5-6 for each kid  and then 5-6 that are "joint"

Dress for your activities -- nothing is more miserable than having a kid who is too cold or who keeps stubbing a toe because they can't keep their flip-flops on.

I'd also take a look at the rest of the itinerary.  We've done a variety of cruise lines to AK -- our last we chose a smaller ship that stopped at some of the smaller (less congested and less commercialized) ports - Love Sitka and St. Pete.  Some of the other ports have just gotten crazy!

On 3/16/2018 at 9:43 PM, WAMarathoner said:

Back in the days when they only had fixed dining we were at our table for 8 the first night when one of the other men says please bow your heads for grace! We were moved the next night! As we're two other couples. Unreal.

Why is that "unreal" when <80% of Americans consider themselves Christian? If it had been a Shinto, Hindu, Muslim or Flying Spaghetti Monster adherent, I simply would've remained silent for a moment. It's about respect. Would that one minute of your life have affected your cruise all that much? THAT is what's unreal to me. I'm sure he was as glad you moved as you were to move.

Tolerance and respect goes both ways.  I am not going to "bow my head" but I would remain silent for a moment.  I would be uncomfortable if anyone of any religion expected me to join them or if they felt it necessary to "speak" their prayer.

Many of the approximately 75% of Americans who consider themselves to be Christians also admit to not be "religious".  And among even the devout Christians there are widely different practices and prayers.  An Orthodox Christian's prayer may "offend" a Baptist (or vice versa).  And for those of us who are not Christians, being asked to participate in another religion's rites is sacrilegious both to my belief's and to the other religion.

As others have suggested, a moment of silence - to be used however everyone wishes - is fine.  Even the least religious of us could use a few seconds of silence before beginning a meal.

Cruise to where? Standard Caribbean may be a bit more difficult. I've never had any issues but during the school year for cruises - we've done Panama Canal (Language, History and physics), Hawai'i (History and natural science/geology), and three different Med cruises.

If there are US ports, look into trips to National Parks, their kid's programs are excellent

They liked swimming in the pool and the beach but they also enjoyed wandering around the forts at San Juan and seeing the different animals and nature on the other islands.

 

Are the swimming pools on the ships in Alaska open for swimming?

Both of our AK cruises were very early June - the pools were open but particularly on at sea times could be a bit chilly (but we are from up on Lake Superior and so chilly is a very relative term)

There are a lot of opportunities to hike in AK - Juneau, Skagway, and Sitka in particular. Ketichan is pretty cool with the lumberjack stuff and the totem museum. The opportunity to visit a glacier is also pretty gosh darn interesting.

Med - you've got a lot of cool spots, Roman and Greek ruins, beaches, etc. A Greek cruise could be interesting - some beach opportunities but the ancient olympics site from Kotocolon, exploring Santorini, lots of new adventures, but many spots in Europe do require a bit of a trip from the port to the sights

Depends upon what made your carib cruises "fun" for your kids.

We did two AK and three Med cruises with our DD while she was in elementary and middle school (+ one HI, one Maritime, and one Baltic). DD is NOT a fan of beaches, or amusement rides, but likes impressionist art, hiking, and photography.

She really liked all of our cruises -- we balanced some museums with national parks and her father tolerated our shopping. She always liked the various kids club and still keeps in touch with some of the kids she hung with.

Now that she is out of middle school, she has spent most of her travel time with marching band trips and sports trips. No time for cruising!

No personal experience with Carnival. But typically kids programming starts after sail away on all lines on which I have travelled.

As far as Step-D's reluctance to "leave" her kids anywhere, while kids personality vary, most kids prefer hanging out with other kids for at least a part of the day. And most will prefer the programs aimed for kids at the kid's programs more than the stuff we adults usually do. Give the kids some time to be kids every day and then they will be more likely to try other family-oriented stuff that includes the adults The staff is very well vetted and the program procedures ensure safety The kid's club counselors tend to be among the more highly paid regular employees on board so they aren't just there for the tip money. They tend to really like working with kids so they make the programs fun places to be. She should check them out and let her kids participate if they want to.

With an 8/19 sail date, I would go Baltic. Many of the Med ports are uncomfortably hot in late July and August. Whereas mid-August is near the end of the comfortable temps in the northern Baltic ports.