Children on Christmas/New Year Cruise

[K-Roo-Zers]

Hi All,

 

We will be taking our first Christmas/New Year cruise this year, to the Caribbean, on Regatta. It is our third cruise with O, but our first over that period. I know O doesn't "encourage" children, but just read horror stories from the HAL site (we are doing a HAL cruise straight after the O cruise, departing 2nd Jan, 2011) where some people are quoted as saying "never again" over this period.

 

As we are Aussies, we are not familiar with how long the holiday period lasts, so if anyone out there can enlighten us, we would appreciate it.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Nicki:confused:

[PaulMCO]

G'day Nicki -

 

For most children -- school starts on the 3rd of January after the Christmas break. (at least here in Florida)

 

We did the Christmas Regatta cruise last year. There were some children on board the cruise. Some teens also. They all seemed well behaved.

[K-Roo-Zers]

G'day PaulMCO,

 

Thanks for your reply. Was it special celebrating Christmas and New Year on O? Did they do special menus? Knowing them, they would have gone out of their way.We loved our past 2 cruises with them, and are looking forward to trying Regatta. It must have been a fun cruise.

 

We are in Port on Christmas Day - Tortola, British Virgin Islands. Will much be happening?

 

Thanks for your help mate!! Have you visited Australia?

 

Nicki

[juli2020]

Hi All,

 

We will be taking our first Christmas/New Year cruise this year, to the Caribbean, on Regatta. It is our third cruise with O, but our first over that period. I know O doesn't "encourage" children, but just read horror stories from the HAL site (we are doing a HAL cruise straight after the O cruise, departing 2nd Jan, 2011) where some people are quoted as saying "never again" over this period.

 

As we are Aussies, we are not familiar with how long the holiday period lasts, so if anyone out there can enlighten us, we would appreciate it.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Nicki:confused:

 

I was on the Christmas sailing last year on the Regatta. There were some children/teens on the cruise. All were well behaved.

[quivet c]

I was on the Christmas/New Year sailing on the Regatta two year ago and as others have mentioned, there were a handful of children/teens on the cruise. That said, the children/teens I saw were all well behaved.

 

Regarding your question about special menus yes I believe there were special menus on Christmas. They also had a festive table of cookies and sweets outside the MDR for passengers to snack on throughout the cruise.

 

There were activities to do in Torotola on Christmas and the majority of bars/restaurants/shops in touristy areas were open. The day after Christmas in Antigua was a different story as it seemed like more stuff was closed there than in Tortola.

[pondnana]

Hi All,

 

We will be taking our first Christmas/New Year cruise this year, to the Caribbean, on Regatta. It is our third cruise with O, but our first over that period. I know O doesn't "encourage" children, but just read horror stories from the HAL site (we are doing a HAL cruise straight after the O cruise, departing 2nd Jan, 2011) where some people are quoted as saying "never again" over this period.

 

As we are Aussies, we are not familiar with how long the holiday period lasts, so if anyone out there can enlighten us, we would appreciate it.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Nicki:confused:

 

The one special thing that happened on Regatta last year at Christmas was an appearance by Santa. He arrived with gifts for all the children on board. Unfortunately not many showed up. There were lots of adults and we were served a delicious eggnog. We had fun.

[hondorner]

In '08 we were on Insignia around Cape Horn over the holidays; we were in the Falkland Islands on Christmas Day, and they went all out for us.

 

There were a few children on board, mostly from one South American family that seemed to have several children. They were very well behaved.

 

The ship was gorgeous. The decorations were fabulous. The gingerbread houses looked good enough to eat, and the cookies were refreshed several times a day, every day.

 

One of the waiters played guitar, and he and a couple of the other crew came around to all of the restaurants and sang Christmas Carols.

 

I got a pretty bad cold or something that lasted one day; unfortunately it was over New Year's eve, so I missed the celebration that evening, but I'm told it was a lot of fun.

[De La Cruise]

We were all kids once. But I agree, most kids on the more upscale cruises are well behaved.

[ClaudiaF]

we were on x mas cruise on year and we wanted to jump ship due to the "children".. sorry.. just what it was. They were bored !!

make sure they have things to occupy their time..there is nothing on the ship that will do that or maybe some folks here will think up something.. hopefully some places ( ports) will be open.. if all villages are:( closed due to holidays ..

good luck

truth sorry can't sugar coat it

[alexandra cruiser]

it was a few yrs.ago,,,the 10 or so kids we had,,,,seemed to "occupy" the pool and spa area,,were loud,,,etc....I m a grandma of 3,,,and really not "that bad" for me,,but others complained,nothing done,so really DEPENDS,,,

had a great xmas dinner,lovely decorations thru ship,most ports we went to were open,,but was S.America,,,not sure about yours.

 

Still had great time,,,relax,,,you will too...still better ,no matter what,,than staying at home...my opinion.;)

[JackfromWA]

Hi,

I am taking my 12-year old son on Nautica over the Christmas season. Since I know Oceania doesn't cater to children (no kids club, etc.) I am bringing lots of diversions. We will have 500 movies on a hard drive, books and I've taken care to plan shore excursions, usually separate from the ship, in each port. I also plan to have a serious talk with him about NOT loudly monopolizing the pool!

 

That being said, I think we will have a great time (his grandparents are going too) or I wouldn't take him.

[K-Roo-Zers]

Hi,

I am taking my 12-year old son on Nautica over the Christmas season. Since I know Oceania doesn't cater to children (no kids club, etc.) I am bringing lots of diversions. We will have 500 movies on a hard drive, books and I've taken care to plan shore excursions, usually separate from the ship, in each port. I also plan to have a serious talk with him about NOT loudly monopolizing the pool!

 

That being said, I think we will have a great time (his grandparents are going too) or I wouldn't take him.

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for your response. Sounds as if your 12 year old son is going to have a blast with all those movies.

 

I might just "jump ship" - 500 movies - WOW!.

 

Have fun.

 

Nicki

[YVR-ITA]

If there are enough children on board they will organize things for them to do. Not on the scale of HAL but enough to offer one or two activities each day. That's what they did on Nautica this summer.

[orchestrapal]

If there are enough children on board they will organize things for them to do. Not on the scale of HAL but enough to offer one or two activities each day. That's what they did on Nautica this summer.

 

Those of us who want to travel child-free don't cruise over Xmas-New Years

or in the summer even on mostly child-free Oceania. :D

[jaga04]

We were on last year's Christmas/New Years cruise on Regatta. There were very few children and a small number of adolescents, all of whom were well-behaved. While part of the reason we chose Oceania is that there aren't too many children on board, I do like there being some diversity in ages. We ended up going on several excursions with a family with a wonderful, interesting, generous 13-year-old boy---we had a great time with him and his parents. We were also entertained at dinner one night by eavesdropping as a young adolescent sitting alone with his slightly older sister ordered his food, as all of his food choices involved potatoes.

[Tutuma]

Jack - we will be on your cruise and very much look forward to meeting your son. A dose of youth is energizing. I have no doubt your son will be well behaved. Never in all our sailings did we have a problem with children - just parents that chose to go on vacation and relinquish their parental responsibilities.

 

Christmas will be special with your son to share the season.

[Jancruz]

Hi,

I am taking my 12-year old son on Nautica over the Christmas season. Since I know Oceania doesn't cater to children (no kids club, etc.) I am bringing lots of diversions. We will have 500 movies on a hard drive, books and I've taken care to plan shore excursions, usually separate from the ship, in each port. I also plan to have a serious talk with him about NOT loudly monopolizing the pool!

 

That being said, I think we will have a great time (his grandparents are going too) or I wouldn't take him.

 

Knowing you Jack I am sorry I won't be on board with you , your parents and son..would love to meet your son.. I am sure he will be wonderfully well behaved.

Please give my regards to your folks and I will be watching for your postings this time!!

Jancruz1

[wripro]

I too am sure Jack's son will be very well behaved. Why? Because Jack is caring enough to inquire about peoples' concern and that means he is an attentive parent. Unfortunately, many parents of children aboard ships couldn't care less how much noise their little angels make and how disrupting it may be to their fellow passengers. It's never the kids' fault, always the parents' And obviously, I am speaking of smaller ships which were designed for adults, not the large lines like Disney or RCCL which cater to families. No one who books on those ships has nay right to complain about noisy or ill behaved kids.

[dindovina]

Hello Jack,

 

My husband and I are considering O's Marina for Christmas 11. We are booked on HAL's Rotterdam this year and it will be our first Christmas cruise for our family. Our daughters are 8 (yes twins!) and have travelled a fair bit (NCL to Bermuda last minute and X Solstice and across canada on Via's Canadian just this summer). They do like the Kids Club but by next year they will be nine. Once you are back from this year's holiday, would you be so kind as to let me know how your son enjoyed O and whether you would recommend it for other children?

 

Thank you very much. Enjoy your holiday!

 

Denise