Family Friendly Cruises Departing from CA

[esmeet7cc]

My extended family is considering a family reunion on a cruise leaving from California in May, June, or July 2012. We have 14 adults and 12 children (most kids are between 3 and 9 years old).

 

We've never tried a cruise before, and we're trying to identify any cruises leaving from a CA city next (May, June, or July that have entertainment and appeal for families and younger children (3-9 years of age).

 

If anyone has experience with cruises that they would (or would not) recommend meeting our criteria, please let me know.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Essiesmom]

Your choices will be very limited. Other than Carnival Splendor doing 7 days to Mexico, and Inspiration 3/4 days to Mex., most cruises will be repositionings to Canada for the Alaska season. Princess does have a series of r/t cruises from San Francisco to Alaska. It all depends on what you want to spend. Go to this website, http://www.cruisetimetables.com/

Plug in your departure port in the top list and see what is available. EM

[6rugrats]

You have been provided with a great link to use for your research. Personally, I would not book a cruise to Mexico. Many cruise ships are changing port stops there, or pulling out of the area entirely, and your itinerary is more likely to be changed.

 

But, my main reason is that I don't feel comfortable visiting this area because of the increased violence due to the drug cartels. I know others don't agree with me, but you should consider this.

[Kerry's Girls]

I've booked the Carnival Splendor because it's affordable and we pretty much figure the ship is our destination - though I have no problem visiting any of these ports (and I'm a single mom cruising with my kids).

 

Isn't Disney starting Mexico cruises next year as well - though when I looked at prices, they're about double what Carnival charges for what we were looking at.

 

All the best,

Mia

[Scrapchick]

I think you're going to have a hard time finding ANY West Coast Cruises, regardless of who they cater to..... All the major lines are pulling out or have pulled out. There are limited places to go, there's a lot of Mexico fatigue out there and crime concerns... Pickings were never great but have become slimmer in the last few months. I think Carnival is still there, but RCCL and HAL have pulled out or are going to pull out. The Mexico run was heavily discounted and not very profitable, and crime has become a major issue down there.

 

Best option is Princess out of LA to Hawaii and back. It's a great, family friendly trip, but it's two weeks with 10 sea days. I personally love this voyage, but not everyone likes that much time at sea. Princess is great for families, however.

[6rugrats]

I lived in Mexico for a while and thought it was bad enough with problems 20+ years ago; I would not travel there at all unless they can get this mess cleaned up. Seems doubful this will happen anytime in the near future. You may want to visit the Dept. of State webpage for the lastest travel warnings to Mexico:

 

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_5440.html

 

An excerpt from the above about Mazatlan:

 

In the last year, the city of Mazatlan has experienced a level of violence, primarily confrontations between TCOs, not seen before. In 2010 there were over 300 narcotics-related murders within the city, compared to fewer than 100 in 2009. You are encouraged to visit Mazatlan during daylight hours and limit the time you spend outside tourist centers. Exercise caution during late night and early morning hours when most violent crimes occur.

 

About Alcapulco:

Downtown Acapulco and surrounding areas have seen a significant increase in narcotics-related violence in the last year. Incidents have included daylight gunfights and murders of law enforcement personnel and some have resulted in the deaths of innocent bystanders. Due to the unpredictable nature of this violence, you should exercise extreme caution when visiting downtown Acapulco. To reduce risks, tourists should not visit the downtown area at night and should remain in clearly identifiable tourist areas. In general, the popular tourist area of Diamante just south of the city has not been affected by the increasing violence.

 

But as posted, we all make our own choices.

[Kerry's Girls]

You're right, I also wouldn't do Mazatlan or Acapulco at this point, but the ships aren't going there anyway. It's Puerto Vallarta (where there are great family resorts right next to the port) and Cabo, which also has lots to do right at the port and hasn't had any problems that I've heard of.

 

Princess does have the Sapphire there for some weeklong cruises, which we've done and loved - we booked Carnival next just because of the price.

 

Also the Disney Wonder will be in Mexico at the end of 2011 and into 2012, but only until April next year (it starts getting too hot as it gets more toward summer and the ships move to other itineraries).

 

And we did absolutely love the Princess Hawaii route suggested. But you may want to consider an Alaska cruise leaving out of Seattle if possible - inexpensive flight on Southwest and the cruises are less expensive in May and early June - and would be a fantastic family holiday.

 

Best,

Mia

[cb at sea]

I think any of the mass-market lines will be plenty "family friendly"....the "luxury" lines, less so as there's not much for children on those ships.

[purplekisses]

We did the 7 day Splendor cruise last year(2010) and will be doing it again May 2012. We had two 12 year olds with us and never felt unsafe. We had a great time. In May we are taking my now 13 year and my grandson who will be 2 1/2 at the time. Carnival has a great kids program and we really enjoy cruising with Carnival for the laid back style, we are a jeans and tee shirt family, except for formal nights. We loved stone island in Mazatlan and plan on doing that again. I hope that helps.

[SadieN]

Sailed last year and have booked for 2012 going to Mexico. All out of Southern California.

We cruise to Mexico but we haven't driven across the border in 15 years.

 

 

Carnival will return to Mazatlan in the fall

 

By Gay Nagle Myers

Carnival Cruise Lines will resume calling in Mexico’s Pacific port of Mazatlan, beginning with the Carnival Splendor’s series of seven-day Mexican Riviera sailings from Los Angeles that run from Sept. 4 through Jan. 6.

 

The Carnival Spirit will resume calls in Mazatlan on nine-day sailings from Los Angeles from Sept. 23 to Dec. 23.

 

The cruise line pulled its ships out of Mazatlan in March in the wake of crimes against tourists near the port and a fatal shooting in a hotel parking lot.

 

In a statement at the time, Carnival said that calls were canceled through August, and that it hoped “the current situation will be addressed and that we will be able to return to Mazatlan in the near future.”

 

Mazatlan Tourism Trust, the destination’s tourism marketer, reached out to agents in response to Carnival’s pullout, which followed cancellations by Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess and Disney.

 

After the incident, Mazatlan initiated new security measures, including extra personnel in the main tourist areas and shore excursion sites and additional bilingual staff to assist visitors.

 

 

http://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Carnival-will-return-to-Mazatlan-in-the-fall/

[koalagurl]

We love doing the 7 day Mexico cruise, but we consider the ship the vacation. We don't get off the ship. (We LOVE LOVE LOVE the "empty" ship on port days.)

 

We did the RCI Mariner before it left, but the Splendor also looks pretty cool.

[Keith1010]

As mentioned, the only cruise line sailing beginning its cruise from Los Angeles during the time frame is Carnival.

 

As to Mexico as is the case in most places there are the good and the bad locations. We have visited ports in Mexico on two cruises over the past six months. They were Cabo San Lucas, Huatulco and Puerto Vallarta and we felt perfectly safe there. Like any city in Puerto Vallarta, for example, there are areas I would avoid but that would be the same as in Los Angeles for example.

 

Our ship was originally scheduled for Acapulco and the port was canceled. If it wasn't we would have just stayed on the ship.

 

Keith