Favorite Cruise with Family

[CozGurl]

We're thinking about taking a big family cruise next year with age ranges 4-66 years.

 

Tell me about your great family cruise! What made the vacation so great?  Ship? itinerary? I need someplace to start my search.

[flamingos]

Oasis, with both adult children and their spouses. We had consecutive balcony cabins (not connecting) and were able to open up the separations for one big balcony.

 

I learned a lot here about what to do, what expectations to have.  We asked for them to eat dinner with us every night - they both asked off one night for a specialty restaurant, which was great.  We had white boards on the doors (before the app) and we had a general idea of who wanted to do what at each port stop. So we did some things together, some things they were on their own. 

 

The hardest part was pinning down a week, a year in advance, and then no one getting pregnant.    🙂

[mac_tlc]

We have been doing a family cruise every August since 2014. Started out with 6 of us, then the grandkids came along and we are up to 8, age range 4-63. 
 

We have done the two bedroom Aquatheatre suite twice, once on Oasis once on Allure. When you average the cost out across 8 folks it’s not quite as heart-stopping. 😜

 

Our next one is in two weeks and we will have the 4-bedroom Villa Suite on Harmony. The Oasis class has a lot for everyone. The itinerary is not important. More so is the embarkation point. Port Canaveral is about 45 minutes from our house in Orlando. It allows everyone to go there ahead of time, do some Disney, and go back to the house afterwards if schedules permit. My daughter is a teacher so August is the best choice of time. 
 

For 2023, we will do a 9 nighter on Oasis since it’s easy to get to from CT. We have four adjacent balcony cabins ( two of which are connecting). For 2024, we are eyeing Alaska, which requires much more planning and travel headaches. 
 

Best one? The most recent one……. We aren’t getting any younger and you never know when we won’t be able to pull it off.  
 

mac_tlc

[DaniDanielle]

We took our entire family on a five day to Bermuda cruise.  It was on Anthem out of Bayonne, so convenient for us all.  It was great being together, rooms were all in a row with a connecting room so we could babysit.  There were fifteen of us and we met for dinner every night, no issues.  During the day we went our own ways except when we all went to Horseshoe Bay.  The kids were amazed at the shows, loved We Will Rock You and Spectras.  They can’t wait to do another family cruise!

[OCSC Mike]

The most recent one because my generous in-laws got us all suites and an OTW cabana on Cococay. 🤣

 

Joking aside, I think this will be hard to answer not knowing more details. How big is big? Will you all actually do an excursion together making the ports matter? Is one port more convenient than another?

[westcoastvecs]

Alaska is a fantastic cruise for families.  It's so beautiful with something for all ages. 

[Norwich Cruiser]

To keep everyone happy I’d suggest an “ o “ class ship.

[jp2746]

The Allure was our favorite (we take a family cruise with 8 of us every year before Covid).  We stopped in Roatan to hold a sloth and went to West Beach for some snorkeling from the shore.  That was my favorite port and we will be there next week!  I can't wait.  Aruba was super fun too but those ports are on smaller ships.  We went on a snorkeling pirate cruise in Aruba and didn't realize it was a booze cruise.  The kids still had fun jumping off the ship and swinging off the rope into the ocean.  Curacao was amazing too.  We have so many great cruising memories.  

 

I like the Oasis class ships because there is so much to do.  Yes, there are a lot of people but it is such a huge ship that you really don't notice.  The shows are awesome  and most are family friendly.  We like family friendly as we don't get be together too often with the kids and NO CELL PHONES!  Don't buy the internet package for the kids.  They will live. I love watching them actually talk to each other face to face instead of texting.  

[kitkat343]

3 hours ago, westcoastvecs said:

Alaska is a fantastic cruise for families.  It's so beautiful with something for all ages. 

Alaska is great for families, with the added advantage that even people who don't like cruises seemed happy on their cruise to Alaska.  

 

The other destinations I'd recommend considering (if your family likes visiting cities) would be the Mediterranean (could be hot), the Baltics (but note that St. Petersburg was amazing, but even without that Stockholm, Copenhagen and Tallinn are very special) or if you are on the East Coast the 10 day roundtrip Panama Canal (don't know if RC has that, but I did it with Princess and its great for families.  Cartagena is gorgeous, and we also stopped at Aruba and Jamaica which had lots for kids).