H and I have been saying for a few years that we'd like to explore taking a family cruise vacation once our youngest son was old enough for a cruise kid's club. It seems like a good compromise for a vacation that would allow the kids to have a blast but also give H and I some time to enjoy a meal alone or do something else without the kids. Anyway, my youngest is now 3yo and I'm starting to very casually look into a cruise for next year.
We would have a newly 4yo, a 6.5yo, and an almost 14yo if we were looking into a mid-winter vacation. Although I'm not even sure that would be possible for us without pulling the kids, or at least one kid, out of school (SS and the kindergartner are in different school districts with different spring breaks every single year). So would I be hitting scary hurricane season if I had to wait until June?
Anyway, are there any seasoned cruise fans that have some resources to begin my research? Best ships or itineraries for kids? Ways to save money on the budget? Favorite ports to visit?
My kids haven't been on an airplane yet, so this would be their first "real" vacation.
DS has been on 2 cruises and is about to go on his 3rd with XH. We have only done the kids area on RCCL and love it.
DS preferred the bigger ship; he has been on Oasis and Empress. I don't think you can go wrong, honestly. He was 4 when he was on Oasis, 6 when he was on Empress.
June will be hot, but you'll be fine. Use cruisecompete.com to compare prices/get estimates. I always go that route now and have gotten some really great deals. I don't like Nassau, but that's just personal preference. It really depends on where you are looking to cruise out of to get an idea of ports.
June will be fine for cruising. Hurricane season in the gulf doesn't really get going until early and mid August. It can happen earlier of course but I wouldn't let that threat stop me. Just get travel insurance.
We took a cruise last summer on Royal Caribbean. It was fine. DD loved it and the highlight for her was the kids club. I, however, am not in a big hurry to do another. The main dining room food was only adequate at best and for the best food you had to upgrade. Lunch options were abysmal. The excursions were a cluster. The ship always felt crowded and there weren't a ton of places to escape to. By day 4 I felt trapped and couldn't wait to get off the ship. We are definitely more fly to an island and explore it at our own pace kind of people.
I mean we go to Disney often and love it so I am not crowd adverse but this was a whole different level.
We’ve only done one cruise and it was through Disney. We all loved it and the kids club cannot be beat. C was four at the time and hesitant to go. We walked in and there stood Peter Pan who looked at her almost crying face and said, “No time for tears, Cassidy. I need you on this adventure!” And off they ran.
That said, there are far less expensive cruise lines.
We have done several cruises with our kids - mostly RCCL. We were just on the Independence of the Seas, and there was so much to do for the kids. Water slides, kids splash area, rock climbing wall, ice skating rink. Even though it was not one of the biggest ships, there was still plenty to do.
With 5 people, I would look into the prices for 2 adjoining rooms. The rooms are small and we had two inside promenade view rooms, and the extra bathroom and space was so much nicer.
Another recommendation - get travel insurance for your cruise, especially if you are going during hurricane season.
Post by dcrunnergirl52 on Feb 20, 2019 19:29:30 GMT -5
We've taken 3 cruises with our kids, two on Disney (2015 and a few weeks ago) and one on Royal Caribbean (2017). We have said we won't do anything but Disney again until the kids are older. The kids club on Disney is amazing, the service was incredible, etc. We have another DCL cruise booked for next January.
DH and I have always loved cruises and went on several before we had kids, including for our honeymoon. It's the perfect mix of getting to do stuff and down time, especially with the kids clubs and nursery for the baby (for our latest cruise, our kids were 8, 8, 5, and 12 months). On this last cruise, we got two connecting balcony rooms b/c there are very few rooms large enough for 6 people. When it was just the 5 of us, we did one room and it was perfect.
I have reviews up on our first two cruises in our family's blog if you want to see what we did: