How tired/cranky will my kids be???

[Rachel4daughters]

Hi, first time cruiser here. I have 4 girls, ages will be 14, 12, 5, 3 next July when we go on the Mariner, July 6, 2008. We're going w/my family and sis has 2 girls who will be 7 and 4.

 

If my little ones are in AO for the evening activities, then up at 7 and playing hard all day (hopefully w/some napping, and their Daddy likes to nap :) ) will I have the crankiest kids ever?

 

Do your kids end up sleeping later than they would at home? If they're at AO 'til 10pm, then they won't be asleep until, what, 10:30/11?

 

Ok, of course we won't keep them up late every night.

 

And, those w/tweens/teens, do yours sleep late and then stay up late?

 

Thanks everyone!

[crusinmama06]

It just depends on your children. ;)

 

My 3 and 7 year old will CRY on the way down from the kid's club. I know it's late for them (10pm) and they are just over tired. Then they crash. But they are up and at it again at 7am the next morning.

 

My friend's kids on our last cruise whined and whined the whole cruise. They were really over tired. They are 6 and 7. They cried at dinner, cried at having to go to the kid's club...didn't want to ride the rides at DISNEY WORLD :eek: ...and didn't want to do the water slides at ATLANTIS :eek:

 

They were just over stimulated the entire cruise. My friend kept saying over and over again "How do go on so many cruises with the kids????"

 

The answer is simple, my kids go with the flow. :)

[ajrs]

hello! i am a first time cruiser also (feb 08) BUT, have done disney many many times with daughters. the only trip that was ever awful was the one where we stuck to the "schedule". after we ditched the schedule, we'd pick 2 or 3 things a day that we just had to do, and anything else was just the icing on the cake. every afternoon on vacation we have some down time. and keep the snacks coming. something about that fresh air, they eat twice as much. hope this helps. just be flexible and keep expectations in check. you will have a great time!

[reallyitsmema]

From the teen side of it, my 16 yr old stayed up until 12 or 1 depending on if we had a port day next day. He would have slept until noon or later if I let him but came out of his sleep coma pretty quickly. On sea days, I did let him sleep in until around ten. He did catch a power nap on the catamatan back from snorkeling and on a bus tour but that was fine with us:p I didn't schedule any excursion that was more than half a day and I didn't expect him to deal with shopping for an extended period of time.

[mcfam5]

On any vacation with the kids, we have found, like another poster said, if we just play it by ear the kids usually remain pretty happy. When we try to stick to a rigid schedule, that is when we hear whining!

 

I honestly learned to lower my expectiations. I used to feel like ~ we are on this great trip and should be doing this and seeing this and eating here, blah, blah, blah.... Now any day we make it through where we had fun and little bickering among the kids ~ is truly a great day of vacation!

 

Enjoy your trip and your kids!

[azbaby8062]

I agree the best thing to do when traveling with kids is to go with the flow.

[obx_fintoo]

Do your kids end up sleeping later than they would at home? If they're at AO 'til 10pm, then they won't be asleep until, what, 10:30/11?

 

On the first night, I picked my DD up from Camp Carnival at 10pm (after checking in several times with her not being ready to go). We went straight to the room, changed into her jammies, and she was literally asleep before her head hit the pillow. No later than 10:20pm!:)

 

She did wake up as normal and we had some quiet rest times during the day, but she was up until 10-10:30 when her normal bedtime is 8:30. She did take a nap one day. She was also quick to recover and get back to normal once we were home. After a late night or two, she was back on track.

 

As others have said, go with the flow. Adjust as you need to and all will be fine. Enjoy your adult time while the girls are in the kids' club!

[larronry]

My son will be two in a week and a first time cruiser in December. His daddy and I just couldn't leave him behind this time. :) Anyway, in August we went to Disney World and other then a light schedule or maybe I should say plan of attack of must see rides and what order to see them in based on which ones get crowded our schedule was fairly lax and other then one dinner reservation, a couple of lunch reservations, and a breakfast reservations we basically had no afternoon or evening plans. Other then the fact that being in a hotel freaked him out and he is a slow to warm up kid I would say he did well. He alternated days in terms of napping so if he didn't nap yesterday he needed to nap today.

 

Last week we were in Jacksonville, FL and he did great. He did nap everyday except the first was an angel in restaurants, except the first (but we were dining with a baby two months older who started acting up and you know when one does the other will too LOL.)

 

For the cruise I do plan to dine in the dining room, but I am prepared to walk out or change my plans if he is too cranky. Unfortunetly the cruise I'm on doesn't have buffet dinner so I'll be stuck with room service or Pizza because I won't have a reservation from casual dining. We're going with friends and they will be in the dining room and he is capable of lasting in the dining room if we walk around between courses. We have worked hard preparing for this. I think the trick is know your child(ren) and go with the flow. We are skipping the shore excursions because my son is happy just walking around a bit so that's all we'll be doing.

[SelectSys]

I have 4 girls, ages will be 14, 12, 5, 3 ... will I have the crankiest kids ever? ...

 

Do your kids end up sleeping later than they would at home? If they're at AO 'til 10pm, then they won't be asleep until, what, 10:30/11?

...

 

And, those w/tweens/teens, do yours sleep late and then stay up late?

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Our kids, currently 14 and 12, stay up much later on the ship than they would at home on cruises. This has been true since we started going on cruises as a family at ages 7 and 5. As such they also tend to sleep in later than when we are at home.

 

This summer, they even stayed out later in the evening than my wife and I participating in kids activities and hanging out with their fellow ship mates.

 

The only time our kids have been cranky during a cruise was during a couple of all day shore execursions when they were younger that were heavy on culture with long bus riders.

[Rachel4daughters]

Thanks All! I love these boards, everyone's so helpful.

 

I will remember to 'go with the flow' and not schedule my kids too tightly and to keep my expectations low (will have to be my mantra!). My husband is really good at relaxing so...

 

I'm thinking we will do the excursions but we'll keep them kid-friendly. We could always leave the kids w/the dads at the beach while my sis and I shop!

 

Our mom is one for planning and doing but I know she doesn't expect all of us to do all the same things the whole week. She's very good about everyone doing what works best.

[Newtonrose]

We cruised with my 14 year old daughter last August and at home she's out no later than 9.30pm. She met up with other teens and hung out at the teen club or the Promenade cafe but there was a 1am curfew for teenagers so she wasn't able to be out any later than that (and yes - teens are very safe onboard). She struggled as the week went on - losing out on regular beauty sleep - but didn't grump too much - every day brought another exciting experience. Last morning was hard cos we had to be up early to disembark. Your 14 year old will love it - mine did.:)

[mjmalino]

We did our first cruise this past June to Alaska and our 2 DS (ages 9 and 8) had a blast. On the first night, we actually picked our kids up from the camp at 9:00, because it was already past their bedtime--we were probably the only parents who did so (at least in this age group). The other nights we let them stay in the camp until 10, and my kids were up early, this was Alaska after all, and it was light at 3:30 am! Anyway, the way we handled them, and their different schedule was on port days, we chose excursions that were no longer than a 2-4 hours, including drive time, and that we thought our kids would like. Other than that, we were pretty open as to what we did in port, and usually did not spend the entire time in port but returned in time to get ready for an earlyish dinner. As for sea days, my DH and I had the frame of mind that other than the first morning of camp (when everyone was meeting and making friends) it was totally up to them whether or not they wanted to go (and they almost always did). This way, if they decided that they wanted to go swimming, they could, if they wanted to play ping pong, they could, if they just wanted to hang out with dear old mom and dady, they could. Pretty much, we were just flexible, and they did fine.