Cruising with small children....why?

[Warm Breezes]

I agree with the OP. I know enough to not even begin to tread on the illusions of parenthood. It's not about the kids. It's about the parents. What the kids enjoy, or what others enjoy, or what anybody thinks is appropriate or well spent money, the parents live in a dream world and will be offended at any question of what they do as absolute perfect parents and fellow travelers. I think a cruise experience before the age of about 10 or so is a waste of money.

 

My money was not wasted on the vacations I had with my children before they were 10....this included 5 cruises and several land vacations. My children loved cruising from the very first and pushed for cruises whenever we planned family vacations after they had their first one at 4 and 7. In fact they chose to cruise over going to WDW.

 

We never received a single complaint or a dirty look from other cruisers or vacationors on our land vacations about their behavior and in fact were commended several times for their good behavior by complete strangers. By taking them on vacations at a young age they learned what was acceptable behavior early. If a chld has poor behavior, he will miss behave if he is 12 or 5. Raise your child with boundries and enforcement and they will behave...whether they are 12 or 5.

 

Do my kids remember every minute of their vacations when they were younger...no. Did they enjoy their vacations....every minute of them. I know because I was there enjoying those vacations with them. Isn't that what a family vacation is all about. Not whether they remember it later, but that we have fun and enjoy our time together as a family when we are on them. Those memories we built together are in DH and my minds and most are in theirs. My memories are of great times together...I did not waste my money.

[Warm Breezes]

Do you have kids??? I ask because before I booked this most recent one, we sat the kids down and asked them if they wanted to go back to Disney or another cruise. I had a 5 and 7 year old year pick cruise. Why would you say under 10 is a waste of money? or say the parents are in a dream world? when was the last time you asked a little one what they thought of their vacation??? My kids can't wait to get back on a ship!!:D

 

LOL...we must have been posting at the same time. My kids did the same thing at that age. We did our first cruise when they were 4 and 7. A combo WDW/Disney Wonder. When we were planning a vacation 3 years later, after a couple of years of land vacations, we asked them if they wanted to WDW or a cruise....the cruise won. As it did 7 more times after that.

[hubofhockey]

I love kids' date=' have had a few, and am still surrounded with scads of neices, nephews, grandkids but have NEVER cruised with any youngster under the age of 12. Vacations with the younger ones (6 to 12) have always been vacations of the kids type...Disneyland, beach trips, national parks. Anyone under 6 has been left home.

 

I frequently see families with babies (and I mean teeny weeny babies), a couple still in diapers (that can't be fun on vacation) and a preschooler or two. Mom and Dad (and the Grandparents if they are roped into coming along) spend all their time feeding, watching, running after, disciplining, cleaning up after, etc. their brood and don't seem to have any Mommy Daddy time, or adult conversation.

 

Most children don't remember what they did in life before the age of 6 and don't care about a lot until they are 12 as far as "doing" something different on vacation. So why do parents do it? Just wondering....and I'm not complaining as long as they don't cry in my ear, make stinkies during dinner, or don't knock me down as they are running as fast as they can to get away from Daddy. They are someone else's headache, not mine.[/quote']

 

The pet resort will only take my dog.

 

Seriously,what do you think there is to remember about a Caribbean cruise? You go and have fun. It's a great family vacation. Last summer, we did a 9-day cruise in the Med with our kids and they were 13 & 11. They saw what they learned about in school, were exposed to different cultures, and had a great time. Come to think of it, so did I.

 

I think my kids may be more fun to be around than you. Just sayin'. Nobody pissed in her cornflakes. But someone made a stinky in them.

Edited October 19, 2012 by hubofhockey

[jamessemaj]

I violated my own claim that I would know better than to challenge the illusions about what is best for every parent. I don't really care about this issue, and shouldn't have chimed in. Forgive me.

[calliopecruiser]

spend all their time feeding' date=' watching, running after, disciplining, cleaning up after, etc. their brood and don't seem to have any Mommy Daddy time, or adult conversation...... So why do parents do it? [/quote']

 

Probably because they'd spend all their time doing that anyway, so why not do it somewhere with good weather, room service, housekeeping service, and restaurant service?

 

I don't love kids, I don't have any kids, but I understand why someone would take a child or children on vacation with them. I don't like ill-behaved children, but I feel that way whether I'm on vacation or at home.

[Warm Breezes]

Probably because they'd spend all their time doing that anyway, so why not do it somewhere with good weather, room service, housekeeping service, and restaurant service?

 

I don't love kids, I don't have any kids, but I understand why someone would take a child or children on vacation with them. I don't like ill-behaved children, but I feel that way whether I'm on vacation or at home.

 

I agree and I love kids and have 2 of my own who I did take on vacations starting at a very young age. But ill-behaved children get on my nerves. I blame the parents....Discipline should start when they are toddlers. I'm not talking spankings. I'm talking boundries and follow through on consequences. Yes there are some children who have physical or mental issues that can cause a child to act up. But it is still the parent who is responsible for removing the child from a situation they can't handle and allowing the people around them to enjoy the vacation they paid for. DS never caused any scenes even as an infant. DD cried often before she learned to talk. My issue, not the issue of those around me. When she started crying we found a private place to go until she calmed downed or we left. When she was old enough to understand and be disciplined we never had an issue. I appreciate it when other parents use the same courtesy.

[jesron1269]

I violated my own claim that I would know better than to challenge the illusions about what is best for every parent. I don't really care about this issue, and shouldn't have chimed in. Forgive me.

 

That is pretty tasteless if you ask me! Clearly you do not have kids. It was apparent from each of your posts. I will not begin to challenge your illusions of what you think is best for each parents kids too.

[sherilyn70]

My 6 year old has been asking since he was 4 when we're going to take him with us on a cruise. He'd love to go on one with us. I think he'd have a blast too.

 

Kids start forming memories and impressions at very young ages. They don't need to have a specific memory, but they do remember things about the things they did. It's also my belief that it's never too early to start educating them on cultural things and travel and how to behave in restaurants and theaters. They younger they are when they start it the more likely they are to continue that behaviour into becoming an adult. For the most part he is well behaved, but just like any 6 year old child he has bad moments... and when those happen they are not tolerated and he knows he will be removed from what we were doing and the fun will stop, so he stops almost instantly.

[Cruisin' Chick]

I violated my own claim that I would know better than to challenge the illusions about what is best for every parent. I don't really care about this issue, and shouldn't have chimed in. Forgive me.

 

Maybe you should consider skipping threads when you're not going to have any opinions worth posting. Because clearly you have the illusion that your ideas about child rearing are worth the band width here.

[jamessemaj]

I guess the forgive me part fell on the deaf ears of mommy dearest. Give me your e-mail address and I'll send future posts for approval beforehand.

[Doug S]

Honestly, I can see where the op is coming from, and as a parent I am not going to get all puffed up and offended by their comments. I have 3 boys who all turned out great and were loved by both their mom and dad (me). Just because we took two vacations over the 13 years when we had a child under about 5, while the kids were having fun at the grandparents and / or otherwise cared for, it does not somehow make us any less of a loving family. Our kids were not harmed by these experiences. And while we did miss having the kids around those few times, I think the time that my wife and I could spend focused on each other was very good for our marraige.

 

Over the years we've been on all kinds of vacations and different types of outings were more appropriate for them at different stages in their lives. From a Dad's perspective, until they were old enough to enjoy the kid camps on cruises and enjoy interacting with others, I would much prefer to push them around Disney in a stroller, or have them up on my shoulders so they could see a Disney parade. We did feel it was easier and more enjoyable to all to stay in a condo and partake in these types of venues. Cruising had its place, but for me it came after the boys were well past the diaper stage. Hauling and stashing all the diapers we would have needed was reason enough to stay land based with grocery stores full of huggies on every corner.

 

I have seen too many young couples with infants on cruises that look harried and sleep deprived and I felt for them. If I can't go home from a cruise somewhat recharged, I would opt for some other type of vacation. Just recounting my experience here. Not saying nobody could be an exception to what I have seen, so please don't get offended.

 

As Our boys got older, it was dear old Dad's job to try to keep up with them on the ski slopes, scuba diving, deep sea fishing, hunting and lots of other 'Guy stuff' as the wife calls it. We did manage to get all of us on a number of cruises over the years, and they loved them as much as the high adventure stuff. The boys got a well rounded view of what the world had to offer, and as parents, we both love the memories of all these things. Cruising is an important part of this picture, but our cruising memories are not deminished because we chose to wait until the boys were a bit older to involve them in cruising.

 

No one is attacking your status as a Mom or Dad in this thread. But it is not unreasonable to raise the op's question. They don't see the attraction of cruising with infants. Heck, many parents with infants also don't see the attraction of cruising with infants. I'm including myself in that group, and I'm not a bad guy who is mad because somebody whizzed in my Wheaties. No reason to flame anybody here, just answer that you personally love cruising with your really young kids, and why. Both groups are entitled to have an opinion.

[room010]

[puts down popcorn]

 

If you don't want to cruise with your young kids then don't. Easy. If you don't want to cruise with other people's young kids then it gets more complicated as you can see ;)

 

[picks up popcorn again]

[cruiseguy4567]

What's funny is when people mention misbehaving children. Let me tell you, I've run into far more adults who misbehave on vacation then children do. And that is worse because you would think adults would know better.

 

As far as bringing young kids on a cruise, we took our 6 and 7 year old on a cruise awhile ago. They may not have instant recall about the cruise, but let me tell ya, what I feel when I look at pictures from that trip is priceless. At that moment in time they had a fantastic time and so did we even if they don't remember it all.

[Keith1010]

Sometimes parents do this because they have no others who can take care of their children so they must take them along or in other cases they have others who could take care of them but would prefer to have them with them.

 

Keith

Edited October 19, 2012 by Keith1010

[MrPete]

I love kids' date=' have had a few, and am still surrounded with scads of neices, nephews, grandkids but have NEVER cruised with any youngster under the age of 12. Vacations with the younger ones (6 to 12) have always been vacations of the kids type...Disneyland, beach trips, national parks. Anyone under 6 has been left home.

 

I frequently see families with babies (and I mean teeny weeny babies), a couple still in diapers (that can't be fun on vacation) and a preschooler or two. Mom and Dad (and the Grandparents if they are roped into coming along) spend all their time feeding, watching, running after, disciplining, cleaning up after, etc. their brood and don't seem to have any Mommy Daddy time, or adult conversation.

I

Most children don't remember what they did in life before the age of 6 and don't care about a lot until they are 12 as far as "doing" something different on vacation. So why do parents do it? Just wondering....and I'm not complaining as long as they don't cry in my ear, make stinkies during dinner, or don't knock me down as they are running as fast as they can to get away from Daddy. They are someone else's headache, not mine.[/quote']

 

Why would you even focus on what the child would or not remember.

 

It's the parents vacation. And I would only remember NOT having what makes me happiest with me.

 

But certainly it appears you consider having a child with you a "chore". I find that extremely short sighted.

[circuitrider]

We love longer cruises (haven't been on one less than 7 days). Can't imagine leaving our kids behind for that long. If we waited until every child was at least 12...we'd have quite a long wait.

 

I do often get asked "why not wait to do (insert big trip here) until your kids are old enough to remember it?" To which I reply "because we'll be too busy doing (insert another big trip here)."

[Karysa]

I love kids' date=' have had a few, and am still surrounded with scads of neices, nephews, grandkids but have NEVER cruised with any youngster under the age of 12. Vacations with the younger ones (6 to 12) have always been vacations of the kids type...Disneyland, beach trips, national parks. Anyone under 6 has been left home.

 

I frequently see families with babies (and I mean teeny weeny babies), a couple still in diapers (that can't be fun on vacation) and a preschooler or two. Mom and Dad (and the Grandparents if they are roped into coming along) spend all their time feeding, watching, running after, disciplining, cleaning up after, etc. their brood and don't seem to have any Mommy Daddy time, or adult conversation.

 

Most children don't remember what they did in life before the age of 6 and don't care about a lot until they are 12 as far as "doing" something different on vacation. So why do parents do it? Just wondering....and I'm not complaining as long as they don't cry in my ear, make stinkies during dinner, or don't knock me down as they are running as fast as they can to get away from Daddy. They are someone else's headache, not mine.[/quote']

 

I look forward to vacationing with my (way in the future) grand babies. That will be a pleasure and there will be no rope necessary.:rolleyes: Many Grandparents want to be with the grandchildren and many don't live in the same part of the country so a vacation together makes sense.

 

We moved back to be within 2 hours of both sets of Grandparents and almost all aunts and uncles. Family is important so don't pity that grandma pushing the stroller on the deck because she may very well be pitying you, all alone.

Edited October 19, 2012 by Karysa

[calliopecruiser]

What's funny is when people mention misbehaving children. Let me tell you, I've run into far more adults who misbehave on vacation then children do. And that is worse because you would think adults would know better.

 

Actually, IMO it's better because the misbehaving adult can be held responsible for his/her own actions, so a misbehaving adult can more easily be "dealt with" by other people than a misbehaving child. With a misbehaving adult, no one has to work through a proxy (who may or may not be cooperative......if a parent doesn't want to reign in a misbehaving child, there's nothing that can be done about it) and can deal with the offender directly. A restaurant/hotel/cruise ship/amusement park has more options and an easier time in dealing with misbehaving adults than misbehaving children, as do the other patrons/passengers.

[Warm Breezes]

Actually, IMO it's better because the misbehaving adult can be held responsible for his/her own actions, so a misbehaving adult can more easily be "dealt with" by other people than a misbehaving child. With a misbehaving adult, no one has to work through a proxy (who may or may not be cooperative......if a parent doesn't want to reign in a misbehaving child, there's nothing that can be done about it) and can deal with the offender directly. A restaurant/hotel/cruise ship/amusement park has more options and an easier time in dealing with misbehaving adults than misbehaving children, as do the other patrons/passengers.

 

To add to this....misbehaving children are more than likely to be the children of those misbehaving adults. If the adults don't care about their own behavior and blantantly disregard those around them, why would they care what their children are doing and if they are disturbing others. They are on vacation after all. So if you have one, you more than likely will have both. I truly believe that this is not the norm and most children and adults you see act appropriately...but this only makes the bad ones stick out like a sore thumb and thus we tend to remember them more and they tend to irritate more.

[Tapi]

We live in a household where both parents work full time. To make matters more challenging, both parents travel for work (one is an airline pilot, the other one is a sales representative). Both of us spend our share of nights away from home, and we are constantly alternating so that someone is home with the kids.

 

Vacations give us the opportunity of being TOGETHER. It's an absolute treat for us.

 

We don't want to take our kids for granted. We spend enough time as it is away from them. We don't want to spend our vacation time away from them as well...

[lysolqn]

Most children don't remember what they did in life before the age of 6 and don't care about a lot until they are 12 as far as "doing" something different on vacation. So why do parents do it? Just wondering....and I'm not complaining as long as they don't cry in my ear' date=' make stinkies during dinner, or don't knock me down as they are running as fast as they can to get away from Daddy. They are someone else's headache, not mine.[/quote']

 

We've never considered our children a "headache," either on land or at sea, whether at home or away. We've been cruising with them since they were quite young and now enjoy cruising with our children and our grandchildren (who've been cruising since they were infants). Guess it's easy to pass judgment on others from the outside looking in but as they say, don't knock it if you haven't tried it.

 

After 50+ cruises, it's been our experience that it's the adults on any given cruise who are infinitely more of a problem than any of the children we've come across - you know, the loud, obnoxious adults who've had way more than one too many, the rude ones who push their way into elevators, the inconsiderate ones who don't understand the concept of a line, the clueless ones who apparently don't know what tongs are and feel compelled to touch all the rolls at the buffet before finding the one in fifty that makes them happy, the gourmets who find it necessary to stick their fingers in the salad dressing for a taste, the ignorant ones who don't have please, thank you and excuse me in their vocabularies, the holier than thou ones who treat the staff like garbage, the selfish ones who stake out six lounges for three people at 6am but fail to show up until after lunch... And, oh, did I mention the ones who have an issue with kids on a cruise??? I'll take the crying babies any day - they're far less intrusive on my cruise experience.

Edited October 19, 2012 by lysolqn

[hubofhockey]

I guess it's a bit ironic that despite her feeling about kids on cruises, OP's has one soon on the Carnival Magic. If she really cared that much about kids on cruises, she wouldn't be on that line and especially not that ship.

 

Before our youngest was 6, we did land vacations. But since then, we've had great family cruise vacations. Every other year, we cruise with the kids. On years we don't, the two of us take more adult cruises (europe) while the kids are in summer camp. This Spring is a family cruise on the Allure. Can't wait.

[jesron1269]

I guess the forgive me part fell on the deaf ears of mommy dearest. Give me your e-mail address and I'll send future posts for approval beforehand.

 

No it was how you said it. It was very much a backhanded appology! So you you will have to forgive us for no taking your appology seriously!

Edited October 19, 2012 by jesron1269

[Hlitner]

Guess we want to have the final word on this topic (yeah, good luck). We started taking our daughter on cruises at age 5 (she was Diamond on RCL before age 15) and her first cruise was on Sitmar. That same daughter is now in her 30s and can still remember most of the details of that first cruise (it was a fantastic trip). She can remember wearing her floor length formal gown (at age 5), being adopted by the French maitre d....being taken in the galley (during formal night) to meet the chef (who made her a special dessert), etc. So my last word is that well behaved children (and parents) are always welcome on any of our cruises.

 

At this point of our lives we now prefer to cruise with fewer kids.....and do not that by taking longer cruises during the school year. But it is still enjoyable (to us) to see a happy family on our cruises with their well behaved kids.

 

Hank

Edited October 19, 2012 by Hlitner

[ChristieDawn]

We took our children on the Magic last December - DD 9 and DS 3. They had a blast. It was my DD 2nd cruise and my DS 1st. They loved Camp Carnival and all of the activities. They do remember their trip and my DS still talks about the big big ship that he was on. The cruise industry is catering more and more to families. We would never have been able to find a land based trip for 7 nights including food and enterainment for under $2000.