DukeASUGirl

Thanks for the update!

I'm a Disney addict. I LOVE Disney world. We've been 3 times in the last 5 years. But I refuse to pay Disney cruise line prices. I've priced it and for the price of a 4 night Disney cruise my family can go on 2 seven night cruises on other lines.

 

I would look into royal carribean or even carnival. Just research the ships as not all ships are created equal. I think you would have a better time and save money on one of the newer ships from royal or carnival. You would possible save enough to also have a couple days at Disney pre or post cruise if that's what you wanted.

 

 

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My kids keep wanting to do a Disney cruise (6-yr-old and 8-yr-old) but I pointed out that with what we're saving by going on Carnival, we can go to Disneyland at the end of this cruise, and then do another cruise+Disneyland at Spring Break. Put that way, it was a no brainer. One Disney cruise or two cruises and two trips to Disneyland?

Fair enough to the folks whose kids were old enough to want to do kids activities. I get that. I was more referring to parents of younger children. And I certainly didn't think I came across as judgy, just making observations.

But how could anyone know you were referring only to parents of younger children? You didn't specify that. Also, you choice of the phrase "pawn off" is very judgy. Word choice is important on a forum.

I'm sure you didn't mean to be rude, but not hard to see why it came off that way.

FWIW, I went on my first cruise when I was 9 and my brother was 7. We were cruising with my mom, grandparents, aunt, and two cousins (the dads stayed behind to work since it was a 15-day cruise). And I LOVED the kids club so much. To this day, I still remember and speak of it fondly. And I'm 41 now! :'):'):')

I work full-time now, as does my DH. We do use family vacations as our opportunity to have dedicated family time. But I still intend to use the kids club if the kids want it -- for one important reason: to let them blow off some steam and have some fun kids' time. My kiddos are 6 and 8 and they're very much in that bickering stage. Also, the 8-yr-old thinks she's a teenager, and although most of the time she's absolutely lovely, occasionally she can get moody and everything is BOR-ING. So I think being able to go and do crafts and hang out with kids her age for an hour or two each day will be a good thing. There's still 23 hours for us to be a family.

I don’t. We cruise or take vacations over the summer. Plus for summer camp, you don’t pay when you are not there so I end up saving money when we travel in the summer. Dh and I work full time so summer camp costs are inevitable.

Yes! Very good point. 10 weeks of day camp for two kids during the summer, plus a week for Fall Break, 2 weeks for Winter Break, and a week for Spring Break. Plenty of opportunities for travel during any of those weeks, and then I don't have to pay for camp that week.

I find that it's hot and crowded when vacationing in the summer, so I prefer to do Fall Break and Spring Break (our spring week is early compared to most) when the crowds are much smaller. And I still get the benefit of saving the cost of the camp!

If we went during the school year, I'd be losing the cost of their aftercare for those days, not to mention would have to figure out how/when to do makeups for dance, skating, etc. And then would need to pay for camp during the school breaks.

As an elementary school teacher let me first say that elementary is just as important as middle and high school. Taking your kids out of school makes more work for the teacher. In some districts, not mine, the teacher will have give give all of the missing work (extra work), the teacher will then have to grade all of the work (extra work) and then the teacher might have to remediate the kids on what they are struggle with (extra work that might not have needed to be done if they didn't miss the week). Already over worked teachers having to do more work. Your decision to pull your kids out does not just impact you and your child.

 

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This. The only time I pull the kids out for vacation is Friday of a family wedding weekend so we can fly to wherever we need to go before rehearsal dinner.

I'm considering signing the kids out an hour early before our cruise this fall so we can get on the road to drive to the cruise port, and if we wait until 2:30 dismissal we'll be in major traffic. But I figure the last hour of the day before week-long Fall Break begins is probably filler time anyway, so I'm not too terribly concerned.

Definitely would not sign them out for a week.

Thanks in advance!

Very helpful!

My daughter is peanut/tree nut, which I feel like is the only allergy most places know how to accommodate. I'm chick pea and sesame, which is never, ever labeled. :(

95 days until our first time on Carnival!

I read in a thread that another cruiser had gotten free admission to tour the QM because of her Carnival Sign and Sail card about 3 years ago. Is that still a thing?