Do more kids stay on ship while in port on Alaskan cruise?

[VikkiGarcia]

My extended family will be sailing on the Sun in July 2008 and are starting to think about shore excursions. We sailed on the Sun in March 2007 Western Caribbean with 300 kids aboard. On port days I noticed a very small handful of kids staying at the kids club (1-3). Do you think more stay aboard in Alaska? I want to talk my sister into at least one special shore excursion (no kids) and thought their older boys would enjoy the train in Skagway much more without the 3 year old (difficult child). I think she would consider leaving them for a few hours at these ports if she felt it was "normal". How many kids were on your ship in port in Alaska? These numbers will give me a good guideline. THANKS!!!!

[salty dingo]

I also have a question about our Pearl cruise to Alaska in early August. How many kids are typically on Alaska cruises in the summer? Is this the sort of trip families with kids like to do, or do they usually prefer warmer locales?

[Don Haynes]

Lots of kids during June through August, no so many in May and September. When school is out plan on up to a thousand kids aboard. The kids look forward to the shore excursions as much as the adults. Families tend to stick together, not break up. With younger children, its been my experience they would rather be with their families than with strangers at the Kids club. Why anyone brings a younger child less than 5 years in age is beyond me. Usually after a year or so they have no memory of the trip.

[The Nice Family]

Lots of kids during June through August, no so many in May and September. When school is out plan on up to a thousand kids aboard. The kids look forward to the shore excursions as much as the adults. Families tend to stick together, not break up. With younger children, its been my experience they would rather be with their families than with strangers at the Kids club. Why anyone brings a younger child less than 5 years in age is beyond me. Usually after a year or so they have no memory of the trip.

 

Are you offering to babysit for a week :) ?

 

In response to your comment and to clear things up for you since it's beyond you, Don, in our experience, we take children on holiday (at any age) so that a) WE can have a holiday and, b) we really couldn't imagine leaving our DD out of a vacation.

 

I'm afraid I can't answer the OPs direct question, as we've done Alaska twice with our DD but once was September and once was May. Very, very few kids aboard (about 20). The "thousand kids" estimate sounds WAY high to me though, even in the summer. Our DD has been going to the NCL Kids Clubs since we started cruising 3 years ago (so, since she was 6), and has only stayed on board once on a port day. On that one occasion she was the only kid to stay and she had a blast! She begs to stay each and every port day now - but we're determined to include her in our fun, damn it!, whether she likes it or not:) . Just kidding. My point is, if your niece seems to get on well with the Kids Crew Counsellors, and I'd be surprised if she doesn't, I wouldn't hesitate to suggest to your sister that she may be happier staying behind on excursion day.

 

Oh, in closing, Don. We took our DD around the world for 6 months when she was 2. Does she remember? No. Does she love hearing stories, reading the journal and looking at the pictures of that trip? Absolutely.

[DAGVBSB]

When we cruised the Star to Alaska in 2005 (same itinerary as the Pearl does now), we had several children in our group age 6 months to 15 years. My daughter did the train ride (she was 8) and loved it. My nephew, 4 at the time, slept through a good portion of it (well so did I.....lol) but still remembers many parts of the trip to this day.

 

There are many, many family friendly excursions on the Alaska itineraries and as a result very few children stay behind. (It seemed Juneau had less children ashore and Skagway had the most children who went ashore.)

 

The other thing to remember is that the Kids Club is not really Kids Club while in port. It is "Group Babysitting." They do not divide it by ages and they do not have planned activities like evening times. The port babysitting also is a per child, per hour fee. All children must be potty trained and if they are not, they cannot be left while you go ashore because the "diaper" beepers don't reach off the ship.

 

There is so much to see, do and enjoy in a once in a lifetime trip like Alaska and it is so Educational, that I couldn't imagine leaving a child on board to miss it.

 

And to refute Don: My daughter first visited Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma when she was 4....to this day she recounts many of the things that she saw. She also talks about her first cruise to Hawaii when she was 5 and still has vivid memories of that as well. Like I stated above, my nephew still tells about his trip to Alaska (and the fun train) and he was only 3 at the time. As far as prior to when my daughter was 4....heck, I can't even remember that trip...lol

[whale-watcher]

My middle child was only 10months old when we vacationed in central america...even if they don't remember the experience, it helps them grow up to be well-rounded adults with an appreciation of the world around them.

 

I think it would be less likely for families to leave younger children on board in Alaska than on other cruises. Alaska cruises are more about the destination, and less about the cruise itself (as a general rule).

[PattyW]

I don't know if it is "normal" or not, but I think the kids like it when the groups are very small. We sailed on RCCL in May with our 4 year old and 1 year old. We were always back on the ship around lunchtime so that our 1 year old could nap. It was too cold to swim outside and the solarium had posted family hours, and it worked out that one day she couldn't swim during her brother's nap and so she asked to go to the kids club. She had a wonderful time even though there were only 4 -5 kids up there. They took a "field trip" to the buffet for ice cream cones, they all got their faces painted, etc. I kept checking on her thinking she would want to come out of the kids club, but she kept telling me she wanted to stay.

 

It's a little different because her father and I were actually on the ship and not on an excursion, but all of the kids seemed to be having a great time and I don't know what the rest of the parents were doing.

[VikkiGarcia]

Thanks for the responses. Since my sisters family lives in Seattle and my BIL family lived in Alaska, the destination seems to be farther down the list than most families. My sister is really looking forward to doing adult dinners, seeing a show, gambling, and just not having her kids stuck to her. I think 4 or 5 kids would be a fine number and they would have a great time no matter how it ends up. I just think she might feel a bit awkward if her kids are the only ones. She had mentioned taking the whole family off in port and doing something like the lumberjack show. Then returning to the ship for lunch, drop off the kids, then her and hubby shopping and having a local brew. I am hoping that this can be as much a vacation for them as it is for the kids. If they enjoy themselves I can see them joining us every few years. So I am not looking at this as a once in a lifetime vacation....Any insight is appreciated!

[DAGVBSB]

Thanks for the responses. Since my sisters family lives in Seattle and my BIL family lived in Alaska, the destination seems to be farther down the list than most families. My sister is really looking forward to doing adult dinners, seeing a show, gambling, and just not having her kids stuck to her. I think 4 or 5 kids would be a fine number and they would have a great time no matter how it ends up. I just think she might feel a bit awkward if her kids are the only ones. She had mentioned taking the whole family off in port and doing something like the lumberjack show. Then returning to the ship for lunch, drop off the kids, then her and hubby shopping and having a local brew. I am hoping that this can be as much a vacation for them as it is for the kids. If they enjoy themselves I can see them joining us every few years. So I am not looking at this as a once in a lifetime vacation....Any insight is appreciated!

 

May I also suggest the Family Gold Rush in Skagway. Great short trip for the whole family. We did that as a group and then when we got back, we split up and each group of us did our own thing. (some of us went on the train. If you take the 12:15 train, you can fit both in.)

 

Also, does your sister know that Kids Club is closed between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m.?? It is then open between 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.. After 10:00 p.m., it becomes group babysitting again with a per hour, per child fee.

 

Make sure you sister knows the sign up times for the group babysitting which is usually 24 hours prior.

[Don Haynes]

Are you offering to babysit for a week :) ?

 

In response to your comment and to clear things up for you since it's beyond you, Don, in our experience, we take children on holiday (at any age) so that a) WE can have a holiday and, b) we really couldn't imagine leaving our DD out of a vacation.

 

I'm afraid I can't answer the OPs direct question, as we've done Alaska twice with our DD but once was September and once was May. Very, very few kids aboard (about 20). The "thousand kids" estimate sounds WAY high to me though, even in the summer. Our DD has been going to the NCL Kids Clubs since we started cruising 3 years ago (so, since she was 6), and has only stayed on board once on a port day. On that one occasion she was the only kid to stay and she had a blast! She begs to stay each and every port day now - but we're determined to include her in our fun, damn it!, whether she likes it or not:) . Just kidding. My point is, if your niece seems to get on well with the Kids Crew Counsellors, and I'd be surprised if she doesn't, I wouldn't hesitate to suggest to your sister that she may be happier staying behind on excursion day.

 

Oh, in closing, Don. We took our DD around the world for 6 months when she was 2. Does she remember? No. Does she love hearing stories, reading the journal and looking at the pictures of that trip? Absolutely.

 

Its been my experience with children that they enjoy much more talking about the vacations they remember. Anything before their memory is ancient history for their parents. You might as well talk about their grand parents picture album.

 

Its the same with going to a party and discussing a trip of your friend with someone you don't know. They find the discussion interesting, and you find the discussion unentertaining. You are out of the picture, entirely.

[The Nice Family]

Its been my experience with children that they enjoy much more talking about the vacations they remember. Anything before their memory is ancient history for their parents. You might as well talk about their grand parents picture album.

 

Its the same with going to a party and discussing a trip of your friend with someone you don't know. They find the discussion interesting, and you find the discussion unentertaining. You are out of the picture, entirely.

 

Well, as with most of the posts I read from you, our experiences and opinions differ dramatically. I'm assuming, since you speak in such an authoritative manner, that you DO have children, Don?

 

As you can tell from my post, and others here, many of our children LOVE to hear tales of their travels. My DD even loves to hear about trips her father and I took while she was merely a bump.

 

Perhaps you just need to meet more engaging and engaged children?

[The Nice Family]

Its been my experience with children that they enjoy much more talking about the vacations they remember. Anything before their memory is ancient history for their parents. You might as well talk about their grand parents picture album.

 

Its the same with going to a party and discussing a trip of your friend with someone you don't know. They find the discussion interesting, and you find the discussion unentertaining. You are out of the picture, entirely.

 

Well, as with most of the posts I read from you, our experiences and opinions differ dramatically. I'm assuming, since you speak in such an authoritative manner, that you DO have children, Don?

 

As you can tell from my post, and others here, many of our children LOVE to hear tales of their travels. My DD even loves to hear about trips her father and I took while she was merely a bump. My DH and I also always enjoy hearing traveller's tales - even third-hand. It's the best kind of party talk to us!

 

Perhaps you just need to meet more engaging and engaged children/people?

 

As for the OP - as I said before, I can only speak from our experience and from what I have gathered on this board but, the staff at the Kids Clubs, whether they are doing "club" or "group babysitting" duties, are amazing and I think that your sister will be more than impressed with cruising with kids!

[The Nice Family]

Oops, sorry everyone, that was my first sort-of double post! (the second one actually addressed the thread's topic in the closing paragraph;) ).

[bunnyt]

I used to work for Carnival kids club program. I did a 4-5 day cruise to a few places in Mexico. Even with only one port stop on the cruise we would get 2-8 kids during port days, and as the day went on we would get more and more. Your sister should not feel awkward dropping of her kid at the program as that is what it is there for. Also if he is a difficult child then the small group size may be great for him. The only time I saw a kid not having fun during those days was a child who got dropped of at 6am and did not get picked dup till 4pm when we closed and then was dropped of again from 6pm to 2pm that night, poor kid.

[GORDONCHICK]

Lots of kids during June through August, no so many in May and September. When school is out plan on up to a thousand kids aboard. The kids look forward to the shore excursions as much as the adults. Families tend to stick together, not break up. With younger children, its been my experience they would rather be with their families than with strangers at the Kids club. Why anyone brings a younger child less than 5 years in age is beyond me. Usually after a year or so they have no memory of the trip.

 

Well, your last statement is not true. My DS, who is 6 now, remembers a lot from our first cruise through the Panama Canal and he was only 3 1/2. He remembers very vividly meeting the captain, and him scooping him up in his arms to have a face to face chat. When the captain went on stage, he took our son by the finger and led him up there with him. He distinctly remembers being told countless times how handsome he was in his suit and tie. And he can name all of our dining room servers and their assistants from the previous four cruises.

 

And as for children rather being with their families, sometimes that is true, but younger children also like to play with others near their own ages and in settings that are child-friendly. Doing both family time and kids' area time can be a great balance not only for the children, but sometimes the adults as wll.

 

To the OP - the only time we've left our DS on the ship is if we are in a port that we aren't sure about (safety-wise). We don't take him off the ship in Jamaica (and I don't fell the need to get off there myself anymore). We didn't in Belize because we had little info on the port.

 

Our goal has to always been to set our child up for success. By that I mean that we try not to put him in an impossible situation for him. Parents should know the limits of their children and try to set them up for good outcomes (good behavior). I wouldn't do it for convenience because it is a family vacation, but that's just me.

[zqvol]

My extended family will be sailing on the Sun in July 2008 and are starting to think about shore excursions. We sailed on the Sun in March 2007 Western Caribbean with 300 kids aboard. On port days I noticed a very small handful of kids staying at the kids club (1-3). Do you think more stay aboard in Alaska? I want to talk my sister into at least one special shore excursion (no kids) and thought their older boys would enjoy the train in Skagway much more without the 3 year old (difficult child). I think she would consider leaving them for a few hours at these ports if she felt it was "normal". How many kids were on your ship in port in Alaska? These numbers will give me a good guideline. THANKS!!!!

 

IMO you are foolish to leave your children on board the ship while you are ashore. Too many things could happen, both to you and to them.

 

A normal number should be less than zero.

[Janet19]

IMO you are foolish to leave your children on board the ship while you are ashore. Too many things could happen, both to you and to them.

 

A normal number should be less than zero.

 

I absolutely agree.