Family Cruising Slideshow: We Want Your Stories!

[Erica@cruisecritic]

Hey family cruisers! Cruise Critic wants to put together a multigenerational family cruise slideshow, featuring your stories and photos. Please post your favorite photo from a family cruise (that you're OK with us publishing) with a short, one-paragraph caption, and we'll use the best ones in our slideshow.

 

Here are some questions to inspire your creative caption-writing!

 

1. Why did you decide to go on a cruise with your extended family? Was it a reunion or special occasion?

2. What was your favorite family moment onboard?

3. What was your favorite family moment onshore?

4. How did a multigenerational cruise bring you closer to your family?

5. What was your favorite cruise memory, related to your family?

6. What new experience did you share with your family on the cruise?

7. What did you learn about your family on the cruise that you didn't know before?

8. What was your strategy for together time?

 

We can't wait to read your stories and see your photos!

[Erica@cruisecritic]

P.S. Good stories or tips without photos are acceptable, too!

[Ay Caramba]

Here is our whole clan on the Spirit. We couldn't only do your regular formal night pics. We just had to let it hang loose!

[CCShayne]

Myriam, that picture is classic!

[tmitchell82]

Cruising with the family.

 

We decided to take a cruise and bring our daughter along. Not wanting to miss the fun, gamma and papa decided to join us. It was great to watch a 5 year run into the cabin and out to the balcony and exclaim "Nice Balcony". Taking a 5 year old on a cruise does change your cruising habits. There are no late nights at the disco, but rather early mornings of swimming, trips to the buffet, and the anticipation of when the kids club opens. What can be better than swimming with stingrays in Grand Cayman and getting kissed for a stringray (7 years of good luck, so she will be good till she is 12.....) Getting dressed up for dinner and eating lots of yummy food all week (particularly the chocolate volcano dessert every night in the dinning room). We spent more time together as an extended family on the cruise in 7 days than we would have in months at home. When asked if she liked the cruise, our daughter responded "Yes, can we go back next Thursday and bring gamma and papa along"

 

 

 

 

 

Only down side to bringing a 5 year on a cruise.......she wants to back!!!!

 

Tim

[MamaParrotHead]

Hey family cruisers! Cruise Critic wants to put together a multigenerational family cruise slideshow, featuring your stories and photos. Please post your favorite photo from a family cruise (that you're OK with us publishing) with a short, one-paragraph caption, and we'll use the best ones in our slideshow.

 

Here are some questions to inspire your creative caption-writing!

 

1. Why did you decide to go on a cruise with your extended family? Was it a reunion or special occasion?

2. What was your favorite family moment onboard?

3. What was your favorite family moment onshore?

4. How did a multigenerational cruise bring you closer to your family?

5. What was your favorite cruise memory, related to your family?

6. What new experience did you share with your family on the cruise?

7. What did you learn about your family on the cruise that you didn't know before?

8. What was your strategy for together time?

 

We can't wait to read your stories and see your photos!

 

We had a group of about 50 of us...from ages 2-86, from all over the US and Europe. A few of us had met on previous cruise/s, and each of us brought along some family and friends. Just for fun.

 

My favorite family moment onboard was at the "Family Dance Party" the first night of the cruise put on by Camp Carnival. We had all saved for so long and waited for so long...we were all just so HAPPY to have the adventure finally start. My daughter, normally reserved (and had been refusing to dance at this party from the time I told her about it months before) was "popping and locking" and a girl possessed on the dancefoor! My husband, who normally doesn't let loose in front of strangers, ended up winning the "ship on a stick" trophy for "Best Dad Dancer".

 

My favorite family moment onshore was standing on Tabayana Beach in Roatan, watching my kids pure and undilulted joy just playing in the ocean and the sun. I got a bit teary-eyed and sentimental in that I realized how lucky we were to be able to provide these opportunities for our kids.

 

Cruising together as a multi-generational family (it was my 86 year old grandmother, my dad, me and my kids, along with other family members) let us all have room to do our "own thing" (my grandma opted to stay onboard and find a quiet place to dig into her novels on some port days) and the rest of us went snorkeling in Belize. Then we could all meet up at dinner and share our days' adventures. It was wonderful for all of us in different ways.

 

One of my favorite cruise memories was seeing the whole experience through my children's eyes. It was their first trip out of the country (they're 6 and 10) and making the "world bigger" for them was an amazing opportunity for me as a parent. Everything from world politics to conservation came up in the course of one day's conversation as we experienced new cultures first hand, together as a family.

 

Strategies for spending time together was simple...we all had chosen excursions prior to boarding, so we spent some amazing days together on various adventures. On sea days, the kids BEGGED to go to Camp, and therefore my husband and I had some relaxation time just vegging on deck in the sun. Dinners were always spent together, followed by more begging by the children for a few additional hours in Camp (where the rest of us would take in shows or do some karaoke).

 

I can't imagine a more relaxed way to vacation. Can't wait to go again in January!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[suzy1212]

We cruised on the Carnival Conquest in October of 2007. Along with my husband and myself, our son, my mother, and my sister went. We had cruised once before with my mother and once before with our son, but this was my sister's first cruise.

 

This is a picture of my sister Sherry, our mother and me with our ship-on-a-stick we won playing trivia. My sister passed away last week, one week after her 53rd birthday. This picture reminds me of one of the best days of my life.

 

[CCShayne]

Thank you so much for sharing with us, Suzy. Your photo is very sweet. Our condolences to you and your family.