Should I change Christmas Cruise?

[Sue from Canada]

Hello

 

I've just read on another thread about hundreds of children being on cruises over Christmas. I have booked my first cruise on the Eurodam in 2017 to the Caribbean for 14 nights and this is putting me off. I don't know whether to see if I can change the dates to the beginning of December instead or would I have the same problem.

 

Stupidly I though that HAL ship passengers were 50+ and that there would only be a few children if any. Before I get blasted about being a misery, I'm not, but the thought of hundreds of children running amok on a ship fills me with dread. I expected that with some other lines but did not anticipate this with HAL.

 

Any advice would be aprreciated

 

Thank you:(

 

Do not change your cruise. I've done 2 Christmas cruises and even though there were about 200 kids aboard we rarely saw them. And the few that we did see were well behaved. Don't forget to bring decorations for your room/door.

[hpf]

Hello

 

I've just read on another thread about hundreds of children being on cruises over Christmas.

Any advice would be aprreciated

 

Thank you:(

 

We are going on our 4th Hal Christmas cruise and I have never seen over a dozen children on the ones we have been on.

We enjoy getting away for the Holidays and love seeing the small family's that are on and so far they have all been very well behaved and polite.

This year it is the Eurodam tat we are traveling on so I could let you know just how many are on this year.

 

Helen:)

[Tiggipaws]

Thanks hpf that would be great

[igraf]

The archives show your 2015 Prinsendam Holiday cruise as a Christmas/New Year's Cruise that sailed on the 19th. If so, this is an example of a holiday cruise that would not draw large numbers of children for several reasons.

 

I would guess that the effect of children would be much greater on a more economical cruise on a large ship sailing a shorter 7-day itinerary, with most of the sailing days being in the actual holiday period.

 

I would advise the OP to research the user reviews and consider which variables might effect the number of children on board. This is a valid issue for a lot of people.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

Do not change your cruise. I've done 2 Christmas cruises and even though there were about 200 kids aboard we rarely saw them. And the few that we did see were well behaved. Don't forget to bring decorations for your room/door.

Edited September 5, 2016 by igraf

[OlsSalt]

Our Christmas cruises were on the Oosterdam and the Veendam. Agree, the larger the ship the more it absorbed the increased numbers of younger passengers.

 

But consistent reports here show these increased numbers of younger holiday cruise passenger was never a negative and that increased HAL staffers did a terrific job keeping them engaged in their own activities during the sea days.

 

In fact seeing them engaged with the HAL staffers the few times they crossed paths in the public areas of the ship, brought a new and different sort of energy to the cruise experience.

 

It was mainly the sheer volume of the extra passengers filling the cabins to the max, esp on the smaller Veendam, that was the only downside.

[cvpends]

Hello

 

I've just read on another thread about hundreds of children being on cruises over Christmas. I have booked my first cruise on the Eurodam in 2017 to the Caribbean for 14 nights and this is putting me off. I don't know whether to see if I can change the dates to the beginning of December instead or would I have the same problem.

 

Stupidly I though that HAL ship passengers were 50+ and that there would only be a few children if any. Before I get blasted about being a misery, I'm not, but the thought of hundreds of children running amok on a ship fills me with dread. I expected that with some other lines but did not anticipate this with HAL.

 

Any advice would be aprreciated

 

Thank you:(

 

The largest worry you will have will likely have will be all the whooping-it-up teachers on board. I have taken holiday cruises for years and practically everyone I meet is a fellow teacher, and we like to have fun when away from our responsibilities ;) Our cruising options are severely limited by the school year, and so we cruise when we can. As a teacher, my brain automatically notices all the kids on board, and except on Carnival I have never found mobs of children running amok on a cruise ship. In general, they are enjoying the well-run kids' programs, hanging out with their parents, or hanging out with their friends playing games, etc. The largest problem I find is the occasional unaccompanied child in the pool, which always worries me.

 

I have also noticed in the lasts couple of years that all the CCL cruiselines are sending notices to parents telling them that they are responsible for their children, a notice I never received when my kids were underage. So if you do see a little one running amok, report it to security and expect to have it handled.

[igraf]

I am sorry, but I find your conclusions to be highly questionable except for the last one about extra high passenger loads.

 

Fortunately, the folks at cruise critic wrote up a very informative article regarding holiday cruises. Do note that about 1 out of 8 respondents stated that they would never do it again!

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=235

 

The #1 problem was "Too many unruly, unsupervised children and teens. This problem seems to be getting worse each year."

 

There are a few variables that would lessen the effect of children over the holidays, the main one probably being cruises longer than 7 days. Also, there are probably fewer (and possibly better behaved) children on HAL as compared other cruise lines.

 

igraf

 

 

 

 

Our Christmas cruises were on the Oosterdam and the Veendam. Agree, the larger the ship the more it absorbed the increased numbers of younger passengers.

 

But consistent reports here show these increased numbers of younger holiday cruise passenger was never a negative and that increased HAL staffers did a terrific job keeping them engaged in their own activities during the sea days.

 

In fact seeing them engaged with the HAL staffers the few times they crossed paths in the public areas of the ship, brought a new and different sort of energy to the cruise experience.

 

It was mainly the sheer volume of the extra passengers filling the cabins to the max, esp on the smaller Veendam, that was the only downside.

[OlsSalt]

I am sorry, but I find your conclusions to be highly questionable except for the last one about extra high passenger loads.

 

Fortunately, the folks at cruise critic wrote up a very informative article regarding holiday cruises. Do note that about 1 out of 8 respondents stated that they would never do it again!

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=235

 

The #1 problem was "Too many unruly, unsupervised children and teens. This problem seems to be getting worse each year."

 

There are a few variables that would lessen the effect of children over the holidays, the main one probably being cruises longer than 7 days. Also, there are probably fewer (and possibly better behaved) children on HAL as compared other cruise lines.

 

igraf

 

I don't know about the report you were referencing. I was only repeating how many on this particular thread also had the same experience we had - no unruly children.

 

I remember mild shock before the Oosterdam cruise when I learned there would be about 300 children on board that holiday cruise, so I went in expecting this to overwhelm the experience. But it did not, as reported.

 

So it was interesting to me to read --on this thread-- how many other reported pretty much the same experience: great HAL staff and the kids were either good energy when they were around or in well-supervised activities when they were on their own.

[igraf]

There is a web link to the article in my previous post. Just click on it and it will take you to the report. The few posts in this thread are not statistically significant, whereas the author of the article had hundreds of responses.

 

Like I said before, a small older HAL ship may be less prone to the issue.

 

igraf

 

 

 

I don't know about the report you were referencing. I was only repeating how many on this particular thread also had the same experience we had - no unruly children. ....

[hpf]

The archives show your 2015 Prinsendam Holiday cruise as a Christmas/New Year's Cruise that sailed on the 19th. If so, this is an example of a holiday cruise that would not draw large numbers of children for several reasons..

 

igraf

 

We have been on the Noordam the year it first set sail at Christmas time and also on the Stantendam at Christmas and none of them were overrun with children. In fact I don't believe any of them had over 2 dozen.

 

Helen:)

[StartrainDD]

Not sure I can add too much. I absolutely agree that the cruise you on booked on, at least for "One leg" of that cruise, will have a high number (for HAL at least) of children of all ages.

 

If you can change your cruise without breaking the bank, take a look at the Prinsendam over the holidays. I would be surprised if there were 20 children of all ages on that sailing (due to the length).

 

We have cruised twice (the last two years!) over Christmas. First one was a one week on Celebrity. Expected lots of kids and we were not disappointed, but did this to be with friends and family. Last year we did the Zaandam Antarctic cruise and we were told there were ~60 children on board. We hardly ever saw them (except Christmas morning 30 of them came to see Santa). Most children were from Australia / New Zealand as they were on their summer holidays.

[gentlemancruiser]

We did have issues on the Maasdam way back in 2008, it was a 10 night cruise and there were alot of kids and club HAL wasn't well organized in the afternoons and evenings. After that we said we'd NEVER book a short cruise over the holidays.

We've since then made sure we book longer cruises over the holidays. On the last 3 Cunard cruises there were alot of families and kids were well behaved and seemed to be always busy.

 

On the Maasdam it just seemed there were not enough organized activities for the kids or club HAL didn't plan anything so in the late afternoons and evenings they were running around the hallways and filled the pools.

Edited September 7, 2016 by gentlemancruiser
spelling