Grand 14-night Mediterranean in Jul/Aug 2011 - enough kids on board?

[Cruisers from MA]

Hi and thanks in advance - hoping experienced Princess cruisers can help - I haven't been able to find an answer by searching....

 

My wife and I have taken 7-night Princess cruises with our son in the Caribbean (twice) and Alaska. Having previously cruised Celebrity (a 15-night as a couple) and Disney (a 7-night with our son), we find our family is a great fit with Princess right now; in particular the kids' activities are a huge hit on the 3 larger ships (Golden, Diamond, Crown) we've cruised.

 

Our family would like to cruise for longer than a week on Princess. One option that would assure plenty of kid-friends would be to do a back-to-back in the Caribbean. For this next time, though, we'd prefer to cruise elsewhere.

 

We're considering a 2-week Mediterranean cruise with our son (who will be 10 years old) in July or August of 2011. There are a few trips on Grand out of Southampton that look good - several At Sea days, and ports that we might not have a chance to see with land-based trips we'd take.

 

The wisdom on the boards (which matches our reality over the handful of cruises we've done) is that there are fewer kids on ships (1) During the school year (!), and (2) On voyages longer than 7 nights. My question for folks who may have done a similar trip is - Will our son find a good number of fellow kid cruisers if we take a Grand Princess 14-night Med sailing next July or August?

 

 

Thanks! (And please, if there's a thread somewhere with all this answered, post the link.)

[scubababy]

We did the 12 day Mediterrean on the Ruby last year during May. Our daughter (who was 6 at that time) had a minimum of 6 kids close to her age to play with/hang around with.

 

We did the 15 day European Explorer on the Crown this past June (early part of June). There were many many more kids on this cruise since it was closer to schools being out for the summer. Keep in mind that a 7 day Caribbean cruise will be "fully loaded" with kids during the summer.

 

He will be in the Shock Waves age group, and normally there are more kids in this group than in the Pelican Club group (up to age 7).

 

I don't think you need to worry. He'll have plenty of new friends to meet!

[onthelake]

We did western and eastern Med b2b a couple of years ago with our DS. There were many families from Europe, Australia, SA and NA. There are plenty of children. Although there are some sea days, the Med is port intensive and can be tiring. Choose the cruise itinerary you prefer, don't base your choice on 'will there be kids?' There will be kids! Also, it is too far out now for a good answer, but you can call Princess before final payment and they will be able to tell you how many kids are on board.

[bugsy1968]

Hi and thanks in advance - hoping experienced Princess cruisers can help - I haven't been able to find an answer by searching....

 

My wife and I have taken 7-night Princess cruises with our son in the Caribbean (twice) and Alaska. Having previously cruised Celebrity (a 15-night as a couple) and Disney (a 7-night with our son), we find our family is a great fit with Princess right now; in particular the kids' activities are a huge hit on the 3 larger ships (Golden, Diamond, Crown) we've cruised.

 

Our family would like to cruise for longer than a week on Princess. One option that would assure plenty of kid-friends would be to do a back-to-back in the Caribbean. For this next time, though, we'd prefer to cruise elsewhere.

 

We're considering a 2-week Mediterranean cruise with our son (who will be 10 years old) in July or August of 2011. There are a few trips on Grand out of Southampton that look good - several At Sea days, and ports that we might not have a chance to see with land-based trips we'd take.

 

The wisdom on the boards (which matches our reality over the handful of cruises we've done) is that there are fewer kids on ships (1) During the school year (!), and (2) On voyages longer than 7 nights. My question for folks who may have done a similar trip is - Will our son find a good number of fellow kid cruisers if we take a Grand Princess 14-night Med sailing next July or August?

 

 

Thanks! (And please, if there's a thread somewhere with all this answered, post the link.)

 

Hi There!

 

We just came back from the 2 Week Med. Medley on the Grand out of Southampton and had an absolutely fantastic time. It was teh perfect blend of sea days and ports.

 

Our sailing was absolutely filled to capacity (99% of passengers were British which was a bit of an adjustment for us) and there were a lot of kids of every age range (and I do mean a lot!). Fortunately for us, they were mostly well behaved. :)

 

I'm sure you and your son will have a great time. The ship will have also just come out of DryDock in April and will likely look fantastic.

 

Have Fun!

[lancashire_cruisers]

Hi

 

July and August are school summer holidays here in the UK so your son will have plenty of friends to choose from.

 

Debbie:)

[vandalayceo]

We did the 14 day Med. on the Grand this year in early June. There were quite a few children on board. Like a previous poster, we found the percentage of British passengers was very high (90% plus), and we also found the young people were very well behaved, compared to say Caribbean cruises, where there are many more North Americans-like us. Don't know if there is a correlation.

[robanddiane]

We did the Grand from Southampton in August last year and will never do it again. Approx 400 kids onboard with a lot of badly behaved ones among them. Our 7 year old grandson was petrified in the pool as they kept jumping and diving around him. The pool attendants tried to sort things out without success. On a couple of occasions golf balls were thrown from the princess links onto the pool area which could have been so dangerous. We love princess but never again school hols from Southampton.

[cruisedad521]

We were on the 12 Day Ruby in July and my daughter (8) had a great time in the kids program. There were many kids of all ages ( I heard 1000 under the age of 18 on board) and they all seemed to have a good time and were mostly behaved.

[Scrapchick]

You should have no problem with playmates for your son. We have done this voyage with our DD, now 9, and there were always plenty of kids on board.

 

Things to remember... UK schools for the most part do not get out until late July, so there will be a lot less English kids on board in early July than early August. You won't find as any Americans as you might think, on these long voyages in the Med. There will be more of a European slant to it with the kids. Also... We found lots of European kids on board, especially Italians and Spanish, and not to denigrate them in any way, but they tended to keep themselves to their own language groups and did not mingle with the other kids as DD expected and hoped. DD is very social and friendly but did not find it reciprocated. Probably the language barrier was the problem. She much preferred English speaking kids, regardless of where they came from. Personally, I found the European kids to be the worst behaved and most poorly supervised by their parents.

 

We have done this part of the world in summer on Princess and HAL and have found there to be 300-400 kids on board on some of the ships, so there will definitely be plenty of potential playmates on board. It's all in the timing of when you go...

[Springmartin]

Try this website. Lots of pros & cons on here.:)

 

http://www.cruise.co.uk/cruise-reviews/princess-cruises/grand-princess/

[spongerob]

Personally, I found the European kids to be the worst behaved and most poorly supervised by their parents.

I second that observation.

 

We went the same itinerary at the end of July 2009. It's a great cruise but be prepared for some very warm weather. Schools in the UK were on the summer break and there were lots of children on board. Unfortunately, there were also enough of "those" parents on board who seemed to think that it was more appropriate for their young children to be out causing trouble at all hours of the night than being safely tucked into their beds.

 

 

So yes, there were plenty of children of that age, perhaps a few too many.

[Iamcruzin]

Is it me or does anyone else see this turning into another kid bashing thread? For the record children are products of their upbringing no matter what continent they live on. To the OP we always sail when school is in session. There were only 19 teens onboard on our last trip. Two were mine and one was my friend’s daughter. All of them had a great time even though the group was small. They were well behaved. My 17year old has a girl friend as a result of the trip. It is a long distance relationship but they still manage to see each other on weekends. I thought it would be done by now but between texting and Facebook it seems to be going strong. My point is even if there are only a few children, which I think works out better because they have more supervision your child will still make a friend or two.

[chipmaster]

Two years ago we did this cruise, tons of kids.

 

Only possibly thing to consider is that I'd venture 1/2 to maybe 2/3s were European and seem to be in large groups and spoke something other than English. Not a problem for Children of the world but not so good for those from the US for who don't embrace learning several languages :o

 

Regardless 2 of my 3 kids did enjoy the clubs and met some friends.

 

Hi and thanks in advance - hoping experienced Princess cruisers can help - I haven't been able to find an answer by searching....

 

My wife and I have taken 7-night Princess cruises with our son in the Caribbean (twice) and Alaska. Having previously cruised Celebrity (a 15-night as a couple) and Disney (a 7-night with our son), we find our family is a great fit with Princess right now; in particular the kids' activities are a huge hit on the 3 larger ships (Golden, Diamond, Crown) we've cruised.

 

Our family would like to cruise for longer than a week on Princess. One option that would assure plenty of kid-friends would be to do a back-to-back in the Caribbean. For this next time, though, we'd prefer to cruise elsewhere.

 

We're considering a 2-week Mediterranean cruise with our son (who will be 10 years old) in July or August of 2011. There are a few trips on Grand out of Southampton that look good - several At Sea days, and ports that we might not have a chance to see with land-based trips we'd take.

 

The wisdom on the boards (which matches our reality over the handful of cruises we've done) is that there are fewer kids on ships (1) During the school year (!), and (2) On voyages longer than 7 nights. My question for folks who may have done a similar trip is - Will our son find a good number of fellow kid cruisers if we take a Grand Princess 14-night Med sailing next July or August?

 

 

Thanks! (And please, if there's a thread somewhere with all this answered, post the link.)

[Cruisers from MA]

Everyone - these are really helpful (and we've just applied our Future Cruise Deposits to one of next summer's 2-week itineraries :cool: ).

 

It's interesting to read others' impressions of kid behavior on the cruises - we haven't found much to complain about with OPK (Other People's Kids) on Princess. On the other hand, though it may be unfair to generalize (proceeds to generalize), our first cruise with our son was a 7-day Disney. That ship was PACKED with kids, and so many parents seemed eager to dump them in the kids club and pass a wine bottle around the theatre among their friends :mad: .

 

We vacation with our son and enjoy his company, and Princess seems to offer good choices for our family whether we're spending time together, or when one or another of us has found something (kids club for him, spa for us, say) to do alone.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Up until about a year ago, we always took our sons on our cruises with us. Our youngest son has been on 19 cruises since he was 7 yrs. old. These vacations as a family have been some of our very favorite memories. Believe me, at that time of year, there will be plenty of kids.

 

Make sure you bring his Nintendo DS, iPod or whatever he enjoys doing because there will be some 'down' time like when you're getting ready for dinner or on the flight to Europe. Spend family time together watching MUTS or playing board games. It'll be a memory to last a lifetime. :)