10 day Panama Canal on Jewel - opinions wanted

[josask]

I'm new here and so far see a ton of very helpful people on the forum.

 

We are thinking of doing a 10 day Panama cruise on RCCL Jewel in January. My children are 13, 9 & 7. I'd love some opinions. Are we crazy do such a long trip for our first family cruise (we cruised twice pre-kids) and will the length & destination possibly mean there will be a lot fewer kids on board for ours to chum with. Because of their ages, they will have to be split into 3 different kids clubs but they are all very social kids so don't see that as much of a problem.

 

Any other suggestions would also be appreciated - things to do & see at ports, etc.

[cb at sea]

On that trip, there are 6 sea days---drove my hubby crazy....it was 4 too many for him.

There will be some kids...there always are...but not too many, since X-mas break will have just finished.

We didn't do ANY excursions on our panama trip....went to the beach on our own at every port (except Panama, of course!) Ours was a "partial" transit, so there was no need to take an excursion, since the ship went into the canal and locks. I don't think your ship will do that, so you'll need an excursion if you want the "flavor" of the Panama Canal.

[boulders]

I don't think you're crazy. My kids hate getting off the ship after the 7 days are up. My ds4 has his suitcase packed for his next cruise. He wants to LIVE on a ship. He doesn't believe me that his next cruise is a year away. We just cruised on Jewel's sister ship, the Radiance, and it really flamed ds4's and dd11's love of cruising. Dd11 requested that the next cruise not involve too many ports or shore excursions. Her favorite part about cruising is the ship. We were on an Alaskan cruise and although there some kids, there weren't too many - maybe 300? It was plenty for my kids though.

[Kerry's Girls]

We did a 14 day cruise in January with lots of sea days (LA to Hawaii and back) and there were kids of all ages on board having a great time - granted, many fewer than usual, but I really don't think they necessarily need a crowd. My parents actually took me and my sister on a Panama Canal cruise when I was a young teenager (way back in the day before there were kid programs) and we had a great time. My cruises with my family are some of my fondest memories - which is a big reason why I love it with my girls.

 

Have a great time!

 

Best,

Mia

[2112]

We did this exact cruise without our son. On our cruise, Labadee was cancelled so yet another sea day was added. Honestly, there were too many sea days to keep most kids interested. In addition, on our cruise (January-February) there were almost no kids at all. The only kids I saw were a couple infants. I would say the average age on our cruise was well over 70. I thought that we might have gotten on a Holland America ship by accident. You know you kids better than I do, but I would not consider this a good family cruise at all. We were glad we didn't bring our son (even though we missed him terribly) and even for us we wouldn't do this cruise again as there were just too many sea days and too many old (and much of the time grumpy) people.

[josask]

Thanks for your opinions.

There are actually only 4 days at sea and I suspect the kids will love those days. I just don't know how fun the kids club will be if there are only a few in it. Hard to have a karoake contest with only a couple of entries - although they may have a better shot at winning!!

I have been to Labadee & Grand Cayman before and they'll love those ports. In fact, swimming with the sting rays was one of my favorite activities of all time so I want them to experience that. I know the older 2 will love the history etc. of the canal and the 6 yr will love seeing the rainforest in Costa Rica.

They are good kids so they won't be terrorizing older travellers, but I don't want them to think cruising is only for old people.

[2112]

Thanks for your opinions.

There are actually only 4 days at sea and I suspect the kids will love those days. I just don't know how fun the kids club will be if there are only a few in it. Hard to have a karoake contest with only a couple of entries - although they may have a better shot at winning!!

I have been to Labadee & Grand Cayman before and they'll love those ports. In fact, swimming with the sting rays was one of my favorite activities of all time so I want them to experience that. I know the older 2 will love the history etc. of the canal and the 6 yr will love seeing the rainforest in Costa Rica.

They are good kids so they won't be terrorizing older travellers, but I don't want them to think cruising is only for old people.

 

Keep in mind that both Labadee and Grand Cayman are often cancelled due to weather. Labadee was cancelled on my trip so that made three consecutive sea days with rough seas. Just thought I'd through that out there. As you may know, Grand Cayman is also an often missed port, so if that is missed you would have 3 consecutive sea days as well. For me, it's not just the total number of sea days it was the consecutive number of sea days (and the poor weather didn't help either as the pools were drained for a couple of the days due to rough seas.

[Keith1010]

I truly think this is a wonderful cruise for the entire family. The children will have a great time and a ten day cruise is quite nice.

 

Keith

[SelectSys]

We did this exact cruise last December over the holidays and enjoyed the Jewel. We have done cruises up to 2 weeks in length and our kids have never been bored or wanted to leave early. I don't believe you are at all crazy. On the contrary, you'll be creating memories that both you and your kids will remember for a long time.

 

Have fun!

[DevinScott]

We took our 3 boys on a NCL panama canal cruise last year and it was a nightmare. The average age was close to 70 (verified by cruise staff) and there were 13 children on board of any age including our 3. We thought this would be good, because that meant more workers per child but it was actually worse. The child workers see that time as a vacation and they do not want to put any effort into making it fun for your kids. Our 3 boys were all under 5 and they were put with teenagers. The teenagers complained about our boys and our boys were kicked out of the child areas. We kept the boys in the cabin on canal day, so they wouldn't disturb the elderly and security came to our door, because the people below us were complaing that the boys were running in the cabin. It was a nightmare and we thought we would be kicked off the ship the whole time. Good luck.

[josask]

We took our 3 boys on a NCL panama canal cruise last year and it was a nightmare. The average age was close to 70 (verified by cruise staff) and there were 13 children on board of any age including our 3. We thought this would be good, because that meant more workers per child but it was actually worse. The child workers see that time as a vacation and they do not want to put any effort into making it fun for your kids. Our 3 boys were all under 5 and they were put with teenagers. The teenagers complained about our boys and our boys were kicked out of the child areas. We kept the boys in the cabin on canal day, so they wouldn't disturb the elderly and security came to our door, because the people below us were complaing that the boys were running in the cabin. It was a nightmare and we thought we would be kicked off the ship the whole time. Good luck.

 

I sure hope we have a better time than you!! Did they not have the kids pool to themselves? I would also assume the dining staff would treat them pretty special if they were 'rare'

Our kids are older so I hope that helps. We have no intention of hanging out much in our room, but if need be we can always order a movie or two. We do plan on doing excursions when at port.

[DevinScott]

The port days were the best days for us. Unfortunately, we didn't have as many on this type of cruise. We are looking, next, at the hawaii cruise, because the ship is in port every day. The kids pool area is in the same area as the adults. Whenever we took the kids there they were stared at and anytime they made noise, the whole deck turned and looked at us. The ship staff knew where we were at all times and followed us by camera. We had to have several meetings with the cruise staff and finally they put us in an empty room next to the dining room to spend our days away from other people to give the boys a place to play. It just depends on if your kids are happy being alone reading quietly or if they are looking for loud companionship. The staff told us we had picked the wrong cruise.