Would my 9 yo daughter be lonely on a HAL panama canal cruise during school?

[drbabe]

My sister has offered to take my 4th grader on a Panama Canal cruise during school. I've got no problem with her missing school - she's bright and ahead in everything - but I'm wondering whether she'll be lonely. There is a kids club for her age, so I guess if worst comes to worst, she can play with the counselors, but does anyone have any advice?

[cb at sea]

Because of the length of the cruise, there will be fewer kids--and HAL isn't the most "kid friendly" ship going--is there some pressing reason to take her out of school for such a long trip during the school year?

Whether she'll be "lonely" will be up to your sister!

[ncmomof2]

I hope not as that's exactly what my 9yo DD and 4yo DS will be doing!! Which sailing is your sister proposing? Maybe it's the one we're on! I'm hoping that even if there aren't a lot of kids, that the extra attention from the counselors will make up for it, even for my DD who has entered the age where she really has the best time with kids her age.

[Flipflopsnfrozendrinks]

We take our kids out of school for longer cruises. They are never lonely at the kids club. There has been about 30 kids average on each of their cruises, and they prefer that. With fewer kids, the couselors can tailor the activities to the kids preferences. I would hesitate to take them if they were 2 kids out of 300-400 on the ship. I think they would feel lost, as they are so used to the small groups.

Just my 2 cents..

Kim

[VikkiGarcia]

I sailed a 14 day Panama Canal cruise with my kids on Royal Caribbean in 2004 during the school year. We had 23 kids on board and it worked out great. We were in port with a HAL ship in Huatulco and a club HAL staff member approached us on the beach to ask how many kids on our ship. They had 3 kids on their sailing all under club HAL age. We have always sailed during the school year with very low kid numbers but sail ships that are most likely to attract kids. Not to stir the pot but does the cruiseline have to be HAL?

[kitty9]

I would say that if this were RCCI or Carnival, then the number of kids would be higher. But HAL is a line who's average is quite high already, and a cruise during school time, for that long a period of time, will have an even higher average age. I've cruised the PC 5 times, on Celebrity, Princess and Crystal, and on all those cruises, there were less than 5 school age kids total on board. Celebrity and Princess have a bit younger average age for their passengers, but even then, those 14 day cruises during school on lines like HAL, Celebrity and Princess tend to not attract many, if any, school age kids. Your sister will most likely have to do a lot of entertaining your child during the cruise.

[wrp96]

Darcie, even on Royal Caribbean, my Panama Canal trip had maybe 10-20 under the age of 18. I was in my 20s and felt like I qualified for the kids club based on the average of age of passengers.

 

That being said, the kids that I did meet seemed to be having a great time.

[abitaturbodog]

Not to stir the pot but does the cruiseline have to be HAL?

 

I was thinking the same thing. Any chance of picking a younger cruise line?

[Ula]

My sister has offered to take my 4th grader on a Panama Canal cruise during school. I've got no problem with her missing school - she's bright and ahead in everything - but I'm wondering whether she'll be lonely.

It depends on your daughter. We did a 15 day cruise to Hawaii RT from LA and one of our M&M couples brought their 12 year old daughter. She was put on independent study during the trip by her school. This was late October and total 9 children were on the ship. Most not school age.

I asked her about this and she said as an only child she was used to being alone so she was fine. Saw her doing the crafts and music things with her mom. They did run the kids program for her. But it was designed around her, like formal nights the staff did makeovers on her. She was so excited about that. Heck I would be also. Best looking young woman on the ship those nights.

Honestly I think she was pretty much treated like a Princess that whole trip by staff and passengers. Very nice pre teen. I did nag her about her homework. The Panama Canal is far more port intensive than Hawaii, also the trip of a life time and very educational in itself. You have to know your daughter.

[eyegel]

We just returned from a 13-day cruise of Canada on Celebrity in October with our children ages 6, 7, and 8. We went on HAL on a 10-day Caribbean cruise in November (not Thanksgiving) two years ago and we sojourned on RCCL on a 15-day Hawaii cruise in October of last year. Our children had fun on every trip.

 

The lowest kid count by far was this last trip on Celebrity (only nine kids total). They had a blast because of the combination of the personalities of the kids (ages six to sixteen) and the high ratio of counselors to kids. The counselors started out trying to segregate them into three "age appropriate" groups. Because the groups were so small, however, the parents asked that their younger children be allowed to participate in activities with their older siblings. By the second day, they were down to two groups. By the third day the counselors realized that the parents were cool with all the kids hanging together. For the rest of trip, the kids and counselors were all just a happy swarm. My 'tween wannabe daughters (ages 7 and 8) both thought that the 16 year old boy ( a sweet kid named Anthony) was "dreamy" and they both have plans to marry him.

[Crusin6]

My sister has offered to take my 4th grader on a Panama Canal cruise during school. I've got no problem with her missing school - she's bright and ahead in everything - but I'm wondering whether she'll be lonely. There is a kids club for her age, so I guess if worst comes to worst, she can play with the counselors, but does anyone have any advice?

Why would she be lonely? Is your sister planning on ignoring her? As you can see I am of the school that enjoys being with the kids on cruises and we schedule our days accordingly!;)

[karenem]

We're also thinking of a 14-day Canal cruise for Thanksgiving 2009, with three kids, 4, 6, and 14, most likely on Princess. It's good to hear they'll most likely have a great time even with only a few other kids onboard.

[Cruisin Kay D]

Our 10 yr old grandson would go on that trip in a heartbeat! He's a "cruisin crazy" kid! He has been searching the internet for cruises for months for another cruise! Last Dec he was 1 of the 4 grandkids (15, 14, 13 & 10) we took on Radiance 6 nt trip, and all of them wanted it to be longer -- also none of them wanted to go to kids' programs -- they wanted to hang out with gran & gramps!!

 

We were just on a Viking Riverboat cruise on Rhine River in Europe and there was only 1 boy -- 11 yr old with his grandparents, aunt & uncle & great-grand-mom. He was the center of EVERYTHING -- he got alot of attention from the captain & rest of staff.

[Arubalisa]

HAL isn't the most "kid friendly" ship going--

Absolutely positively true!

 

I was thinking the same thing. Any chance of picking a younger cruise line?

Definitely a consideration, see below.

 

Honestly I think she was pretty much treated like a Princess that whole trip by staff and passengers.

I am very happy for anyone who had children on a HAL cruise whose children were treated with any decency or respect on a HAL cruise. :) On our HAL cruise on the Zaandam our dd then 8 yo was too treated like a Princess and with the utmost respect by the kids club.

 

Having said that, I cannot say the same for the passengers. :mad: AND this was on a Christmas cruise with 250+ kids aboard. :rolleyes: Never in one place did I ever see so many mature :confused: adults pushing and shoving children and treating them disrespectfully.

[Kimjergen]

Hi there,

 

We have taken my 2 children(ages 10 & 12) out of school for cruises three times over the past five years and they have had a wonderful time! There is no better classroom than exploring the world first hand so also keep in mind how much she will grow from her travel experience. Of course there were less children on board when we took cruise during the school year but that also meant they got tons of attention and personalized service and had more focus on learning opportunities in the ports etc instead of being distracted by other children who have less interest and curiousity about the world. Plus if she is a bright child, she will also enjoy conversations with knowledgable and interesting fellow adult passengers who are missing their own children or grandchildren as well who are tablemates etc. There is also a library with various books, games, & dvd rentals onboard that my kids visited daily. We played a board game at least every other day together on the lido deck.

 

Our last cruise was this past April on a 17 transatlantic with HAL, there were only 16 children aboard being it was during the school year. My sons made friends with four of the other children on the ship very early on and enjoyed club hal activities as well as inviting each other to their parents cabins or meeting up for ice cream, movies etc outside of club hal. They even had a kiddie cocktail party with food and sparkling cider on the balcony.

 

We also did a Roman Empire 10 day cruise in the spring of 07 and an Alaskan cruise in 05 and there were less than 30 kids aboard each of these cruises and the boys enjoyed the cruises and the ports very much each of those times as well. They also like participating in activities with adults such as the team trivia in the library, shipbuilding contest, the movies, etc Truthfully they are sometimes quite helpful in the team trivia being it helps the team with multi-generational knowledge.

 

My kids absolutely adore going on long cruises and exploring the world and always always look forward to planning a new adventure.

 

Hope this helps,

Kim

[Kimjergen]

I forgot to state this, HAL is amazingly wonderful with kids. We have sailed with them four times and my boys love Club Hal, the quality of food, the library, the dvd and game library and the general feel of the Holland America ships. We have also sailed carnival and they liked it too but prefer HAL as less crowded, more attention, nicer ships, and better food.