35 day Cruise with Kids (Voyage of Vikings 7/2010 on HAL)

[Alison1466]

We are lucky enough to be able to cruise on the Voyage of the Vikings with our girls this summer (ages 7 and 9) for 35 days on HAL Maasdam. We have cruised with them before, all 7 day cruises to the Caribbean or Alaska and I have been searching the boards for tips or advice on long cruises with kids. I would welcome any advice, insight or tips. We will be going to 8 countries, Canada, Iceland, Greenland, Ireland, England, Norway, Amsterdam, and the US. The cruise is RT from Boston.

 

Thanks!

[sprockie]

You lucky dogs. I am green with envy. Have a wonderful time.

[Essiesmom]

Have a little learning session about volcanoes, hot springs, etc., and then be sure to take the Golden Circle tour in Iceland. I doubt you overnight in Reykjavik, but if you do, be sure to go to the Blue Lagoon. EM

[MamaParrotHead]

That is awesome. What a neat and unique itinerary with so many educational possibilities! Have fun!

[mary_228]

I imagine your kids will be making good use of Club HAL for their down time. I wanted to let you know that the Youth Staff may well change during your long itinerary and if you wait to tip until the end, some of your kids' favorite counselors may not receive any of your tips. (My DD has worked as Youth Staff on HAL and the staffing can be very fluid.)

 

I doubt this is the advice you are looking for, but it is all I have to offer since our kids' longest cruise was 11 nights. I envy you!

[MyMoses]

I don't have any advice for you either, but wanted to wish you a good time on what sounds like a wonderful cruise. My husband would absolutely love to go on a cruise like that.

[onthelake]

We have done 4 24+ day cruises. The thing you will notice most is that the kids will really bond with their new friends. Also, on the longer cruises there are not very many kids. I know with Princess, you can call and they will tell you how many kids will be on the ship. It is a great experience and the port days offset the sea days and you will be having very different experiences in each country. Don't worry. The ship becomes a second home in all the right ways and you will be amazed how many of the staff will pay attention to your kids. Don't take 'extras' just in case, you will be surprised how much you accumulate along the way.

[Alison1466]

Mary 228:

 

Forgive my ignorance, but I thought that the cruise lines charged a tip per day per person fee and that tip would be distributed amongst the HAL staff, including the kids' club staff. Is that incorrect? Or does the staff that doesn't work the whole time of the cruise lose out on the tips? I would really like more info on this, because I think I didn't fully understand the tipping policy.

[onthelake]

Mary 228:

 

Forgive my ignorance, but I thought that the cruise lines charged a tip per day per person fee and that tip would be distributed amongst the HAL staff, including the kids' club staff. Is that incorrect? Or does the staff that doesn't work the whole time of the cruise lose out on the tips? I would really like more info on this, because I think I didn't fully understand the tipping policy.

 

I am not familiar with HAL but the general rule is that the kid's club staff is not included in the tip pool - they serve only a very limited portion of the passengers. The tip pool goes to the hotel and dining staff. Other folks who serve you should be tipped separately.

[sas80]

Have a little learning session about volcanoes, hot springs, etc., and then be sure to take the Golden Circle tour in Iceland. I doubt you overnight in Reykjavik, but if you do, be sure to go to the Blue Lagoon. EM

 

I agree. Learn together as much as possible about the things that you will be experiencing and seeing on your cruise and then make it a point to be in the moment as you experience them and talk about them later.

 

My family (my mom, dad, sister, brother) did a 3 week NY, Philadelphia, D.C. trip when I was 12. We visited all things relevant to US history that we could. It was an amazing trip because the sights and experiences directly related to us history and what we were studying/had studied/going to study in school.

 

Build the anticipation up and then celebrate it while you are there and talk about it after you leave. You have the opportunity to create some very unique memories for your family. Take advantage of that.

 

Look at it this way - if you were visiting Buckingham Palace or the Eiffel Tower you would tell them all about it beforehand, right? Approach this trip the same way.

 

Happy Sailing!

[sparky-elpaso]

Boy, I'm jealous - I'd love to do that trip. Are they interested in photography? There are usually some pretty good deals on simple digital cameras to be found. Then they could document the trip and put together an album to show when the teacher asks "what did you do during the summer?". I got my first camera when I was 7 - and I've been hooked ever since.

[BirthdayGirl30]

We're considering taking our kids on the same cruise, just not this year - probably more like 2012 (they'll be 8, 10, & 12). I'm paying attention to tips, and hope you'll come update once you come back. I wonder if there will be other little ones on your ship.

[calikak]

OMG, I would LOVE to do something like that with my son! I hope you post a review when you get back, I'd love to hear how it went!

[hansolosmom]

wow - that is awesome! We're doing a 12 day Baltic this summer on DCL - my boys are 11 & 13 currently we're getting books out of the library about each of the cities we're visiting, for example we're reading about the Kon Tiki so we can see it in person at the Viking museum. So you might want to find books or movies about the cities you're visiting & see if you can find the same sites that you've read about

[Alison1466]

I contacted Holland America, and they indicated that the Kids' Club folks are included in the tip pool. I hope that is reliable info.

 

We have been doing prep already for the trip. I found lots of informative books from Dover Books (www.doverpublications.com) and many of the Dover books are also available on Amazon. They have a variety of "little activity books" that are $1.50 each and I bought many that relate to places we will see on the cruise (ex. Viking stencils, Irish activity book, Van Gogh tattoos). We are also recording all the possible travel shows that relate to the countries we will be seeing as well as ordering some of the travel DVDs from Netflix.

 

We took a HAL cruise in 2006 (or '07?) to Alaska and one disappointment was that they did NOT use the retractable dome on the Lido pool when they should have. I hope that they will be using the dome for the trip because I don't think Iceland and Greenland are going to offer open air pool weather. Has anyone else had any experience with a colder weather cruise and the retractable pool dome not being used?

[rgohagan]

We're currently contemplating this cruise with our 16mth old. Took him on a 7-day Alaska cruise last year which worked well for us. We are also wondering if it will end up too long though.

[cantw8togo]

We took a HAL cruise in 2006 (or '07?) to Alaska and one disappointment was that they did NOT use the retractable dome on the Lido pool when they should have. I hope that they will be using the dome for the trip because I don't think Iceland and Greenland are going to offer open air pool weather. Has anyone else had any experience with a colder weather cruise and the retractable pool dome not being used?

 

We were on the Volendam in Alaska last year and they certainly had the dome closed during the cooler times and open when milder. Our kids made good use of the pool. I would speak to the staff if they aren't using it when you think that they should.

 

I did quite a bit of research before our trip and I found some info about glaciers that would probably be applicable even though it is on an Alaskan park website. http://www.fs.fed.us/r10/tongass/forest_facts/resources/geology/icefields.htm

 

Your kids may still be of an age where they might enjoy playing with Playmobil's Viking set. (While looking for a picture of the toys, I stumbled across this website which covers a good chunk of Viking history in point form which might help your kids get a grasp of what they are about to experience. Scroll down to the very bottom for the pics of the Playmobil Vikings.) http://www.yorku.ca/kdenning/+2140%202005-6/2140%20special%20case%20Norse%20in%20Greenland.htm

 

Hope this helps, and do report back when you return. We are living vicariously through your vacation!

 

N.

[tgetz]

Allison,

We are seriously considering taking this cruise with our grandchildren, a girl 9 and a boy 11. We are raising the children and they have been on 7 cruises, one for 12 days to St. Petersburg, and one 20 day to Antartica. This will be their third HAL cruise.

They are both outgoing and do like to go to club HAL. Our nanny will be traveling with us, but if we can 'meet' other children ahead of time it does help. We will probably try to take private excursions in many ports. Do you have any planned that you would like some people to share? I have found on the HAL line, some people really don't like kids around while others enjoy them. Our two are well behaved- around me anyway :-) and they like to take lots of pictures in each port and then we put together an album when we return. Before the South American/ Antartica trip, our secretary started an album with money from various countries and we try to add money from each country we visit also. I try to buy books ahead of time that we can read and study so they know what they are seeing when we go. Any particular books you have found for their ages? my email is rshepley at gopublic if you want to email me about any shore excursions. I am also going to post this on the roll call so, hoplefully you will get one or the other message.

[karatemom2]

We are also considering this cruise for next year for our son's high school graduation. Please do a trip report when you come back! I would love to hear your review. It sounds like an amazing journey.

[tgetz]

I am not real good about posting after a cruise so do not hesitate to email me after the trip at rshepley at gopublic.com and i will send comments or maybe I'll call with info. Next years trip is too late as our kids will actually have tomiss the first week of school this year and next years is much later. THey attend a private school and the class sizes are very small so the teachers ar great about the children missing for an eduactional trip. But the following year oor older one will be in middle schoola nd htne i think it would really be hard for him to miss any school.

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