Brilliance 12nt Med Venice - too port intensive for small children?

[BWP]

Hi! We are thinking of booking the 12nt Med Venice cruise, Brilliance, June '11. The itinerary seems fabulous, ticking so many dream ports... but we'll be travelling with three small children - 18mnth, 6yr and 7yr old. Will it be manageable, or is it just a little too ambitious with small children? Would really appreciate advice/feedback from any other families who may have done this trip with small children.

 

(Alternatively, we are also considering the 14nt Italian Med cruise, Independence, June '11. Just wondering which cruise/ship would be more child-friendly?)

 

Many thanks!

[NH Cruiser]

We're also doing the Med in 2011 (August) with our then 13-year old granddaughter. This is a repeat for us and we decided when she was little to wait until she's at least 13. There's a lot of walking over uneven surfaces (pushing a stroller will be very difficult). The two older children may become bored with what you want to see. The heat may also tire them easily. There is a children's program that usually keeps the children on port days so you can tour without them; however, the younger one is too young for that program. Check with RCCL about their children's program in Europe.

 

We were on the Brilliance and she's a beautiful ship. Independence will have a larger children's program because of her size. There is also the ice rink and the promenade. The two older children would probably prefer the Independence.

[leoandhugh]

One of the reasons the Med itinerary is so interesting and so port-intensive is that the shore excursions cover lots of antiquity - Rome and the Vatican, Florence and its museums, Athens and the Acropolis, old walled cities like Dubrovnik. They all involve a lot of walking and time; I would think that children as young as yours would find it exhausting and you would be stessed. To benefit most from exposure to old Med cities (or cities anywhere) I feel children should be at least in their early teens - any younger is a waste of time and money. Just my opinion however:)

[marci22]

My kids were teens. The biggest obstacle to me is the walking and the heat, but if you did private tours, it would be more doable. You have to approach it with a certain perspective: don't expect to do things that are not child-friendly (like a long museum tour), don't overbook yourself, & do private tours where possible.

 

We did see several families doing the cruise with children in strollers.

 

The Independence would be more entertaining for your children.

 

You should also ask your question on the Family boards.

[Jolimont]

I did a similar cruise with a 9yo and she complained so much walking up the acropolis I thought I was going to kill her. We left her on the ship (at camp) twice because dragging her around was torture for all of us.

 

I wouldn't do it with 3 children as young as yours, especially the 18mths old. 6 and 7 you could make work, but only if you're comfortable leaving them on the ship while you tour, and if you're a more patient woman than I am.

 

BTW, if you're thinking this will be the cultural event of a lifetime, it won't for the kids. Mine was preparing a report on the acropolis for school last month and was quite surprised when I produced a picture of her in front of the caryatids. She didn't remember being there at all while I will never forget how mad at her I got that day. So there you have it.

 

Europe will still be here in a few years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi! We are thinking of booking the 12nt Med Venice cruise, Brilliance, June '11. The itinerary seems fabulous, ticking so many dream ports... but we'll be travelling with three small children - 18mnth, 6yr and 7yr old. Will it be manageable, or is it just a little too ambitious with small children? Would really appreciate advice/feedback from any other families who may have done this trip with small children.

 

(Alternatively, we are also considering the 14nt Italian Med cruise, Independence, June '11. Just wondering which cruise/ship would be more child-friendly?)

 

Many thanks!

[mfantasia]

I did a similar itenerary two years ago, when my daughter was 2. it was late September and the heat was not a big problem, we took her to every port, she did Ephessus and Pompey in her stroller, with uneven pavement and all. We have to carry that stroller a lot of times too, but was OK. She did the Parthenon without stroller (not allowed) and was OK too. For the older kids, I think that you can use the Kids club in some ports, if you do that, I recommend to take that ship excursions instead of a private one. The clubs are very safe and they will have a blast. You can take them in the "easy" ports (don't know your itenerary, but the greek islands and Croacia ports are good examples, depending of what you want)

 

We took her last year to the Holy land cruise and did just that, she was 4 and we left her some days in the cruise and took with us in other days. In those days, she wanted to come back to the club, so she went half day with us and half day in the club.

[MMsteffey]

It's ambitous -- I was exhausted after our fourth port day in a row. We used the kids club a little and booked our own excursions, saving museums and art for the future and instead hiking the volcano at Pompeii, going to the leaning tower of Pisa, etc. If your kids are good travelers, it can be a lot of fun.

[marci22]

BTW, if you're thinking this will be the cultural event of a lifetime, it won't for the kids. Mine was preparing a report on the acropolis for school last month and was quite surprised when I produced a picture of her in front of the caryatids. She didn't remember being there at all while I will never forget how mad at her I got that day. So there you have it.

 

 

That is priceless, I must say lol. Have to say that the one thing my kids all remembered, no matter the age, was The Mouse. So much for culture, lol.

[BobbyD]

My kids were teens. The biggest obstacle to me is the walking and the heat, but if you did private tours, it would be more doable. You have to approach it with a certain perspective: don't expect to do things that are not child-friendly (like a long museum tour), don't overbook yourself, & do private tours where possible.

 

We did see several families doing the cruise with children in strollers.

 

The Independence would be more entertaining for your children.

 

You should also ask your question on the Family boards.

 

We are looking into the Med also for next summer. Our sons will be 22 so I think they should be ok!! Why do you recommend private tours when possible (compared to the ship tours)? Thanks.

[marci22]

We are looking into the Med also for next summer. Our sons will be 22 so I think they should be ok!! Why do you recommend private tours when possible (compared to the ship tours)? Thanks.

 

In the OP's case, because of flexibility.

 

In general, I would recommend them because you can see a lot more in the limited time you have. You are not waiting for people to board a bus, you are not walking from the bus drop off to your point of interest, you can change plans if needed, etc.

 

Some ports are easy to do on your own (Santorini, Mykonos, even Athens) but for someplace like Rome or the Naples area, a private tour lets you see a lot more. Also, if you can fill a van, it works out to be a comparable cost to the overcrowded cruise tours.

 

Check out the Ports of Call boards for lots of info.

[krisko]

I think all the walking will be tough on kids that young. And they wouldn't appreciate it, they'd probably rather stay on the ship than see a 1000 year old church.

 

I may be doing Brilliance in summer 2011 when my kids will be 10 and 12. Even that may be too young, I might bump the trip back a year.

[tobes]

Hi! We are thinking of booking the 12nt Med Venice cruise, Brilliance, June '11. The itinerary seems fabulous, ticking so many dream ports... but we'll be travelling with three small children - 18mnth, 6yr and 7yr old. Will it be manageable, or is it just a little too ambitious with small children? Would really appreciate advice/feedback from any other families who may have done this trip with small children.

 

(Alternatively, we are also considering the 14nt Italian Med cruise, Independence, June '11. Just wondering which cruise/ship would be more child-friendly?)

 

Many thanks!

 

I admire your courage!:)

[marci22]

I am giving advice based on the assumption that the OP is determined to go. I wouldn't do it myself, but everyone has different levels of adventurousness and patience.

[kyriecat]

I would also recommend booking private tours. I took the Amalfi Coast & Pompeii tour a few years ago. It was an all-day tour (I think 9 or 10 hours) and involved a bus ride along the Amalfi coastline followed by a tour of Pompeii. We had a couple with their 5-yr old daughter on our bus. The girl was obviously bored the whole trip and made sure that EVERYONE on the tour know it. She got tired of the scenery along the coast so wanted to run around inside the bus. The guide asked the couple to keep the girl in her seat. That didn't go over well. She screamed and pitched a fit - kicking and hitting the seat in front of her. Everyone on board breathed a sign of relief when she finally quieted and took a nap about 45 minutes later. When we made stops, she was constantly running off so we had to stop the tour and wait for one of her parents to drag her back, screaming. We were lucky to only have the one tour with her. We heard from some friends that she behaved the same way on a tour they had with her. Once we switched tours because we found out the girl was on the tour we were taking. She probably would have been fine if her parents had taken her on 2-3 hour tours and let her go back to the ship for a nap or taken her to a park to let her run and scream for a while. She was not ready for organized tours.

[BWP]

Thanks for all the feedback. It seems the general concensus is that it will be a little too stressful with the kids still being so young. :(

 

(Thanks, Marci22 - I have just posted a similar msg on the family board.)

[marci22]

If this was a cheap trip I'd say go for it but you're going to pay 2k per child just to get them on the ship for a 12-14 night. Med prices are steep unless you can go in the off season. Add in the private drivers and it adds up very quickly.

 

I would consider a 7 night cruise if you really want to go, and check out the Ports of Call boards to see which ports people recommend as 'on your own' (much cheaper that way).

[madforcruising]

I did a similar cruise with a 9yo and she complained so much walking up the acropolis I thought I was going to kill her. We left her on the ship (at camp) twice because dragging her around was torture for all of us.

 

I wouldn't do it with 3 children as young as yours, especially the 18mths old. 6 and 7 you could make work, but only if you're comfortable leaving them on the ship while you tour, and if you're a more patient woman than I am.

 

BTW, if you're thinking this will be the cultural event of a lifetime, it won't for the kids. Mine was preparing a report on the acropolis for school last month and was quite surprised when I produced a picture of her in front of the caryatids. She didn't remember being there at all while I will never forget how mad at her I got that day. So there you have it.

 

Europe will still be here in a few years.

 

 

I have to agree with this. I don´t have kids, but looking back and remembering the family trips we´ve done when I was a kid / teen, I have to say I appreciated sightseeing trips when I was older but definitely would have complained all the way at the age the OP´s kids are.

Now I realize all kids are different and the OP will certainly know their kids better.

[Nebr.cruiser]

I know this isn't a good comparison, as it was just a one day--half a day really--tour, but we did a private tour in Jamaica with kids 3,4 5&5. There were 8 adults and a 13 year old along too, so there was plenty of help.

 

The kids loved the tubing and playing at the beach near Dunn's Falls. The quite small amount of touring we did in a mini-bus was not a big hit at all. Kids that young just don't, normally, appreciate sights and commentary from tour guides. And our guide (Phil Lafayette) was very entertaining and good with the kids. We probably were touring on the bus for an hour or less and they got very restless.

 

I get exhausted just thinking about going on a port-intensive cruise like this with kids as young as years--if you go, be prepared to adjust your touring radically, take private tours if at all possible, and store up a lot of patience in advance.

 

Being on a ship tour usually means riding on a huge bus with 40-50 other people, little to no flexibility and nothing airmed at or accomodating for kids. With a private tour you can change/shorten/stop to let kids run around/get snacks/bathroom breaks, etc. on your schedule. And if the kids have meltdowns you won't be affecting dozens of other people.

 

The two five-year olds are now 10, and I still wouldn't want to take them on such a tour-heavy trip, even though they both show a lot of interest in history right now.

[English_in_Spain]

My advice is either leave the kids with grandparents or wait a few years before you attempt this.

A med cruise is really not suitable for young children. They will be bored and will not appreciate the experience.

[xpcdoojk]

My advice is either leave the kids with grandparents or wait a few years before you attempt this.

 

A med cruise is really not suitable for young children. They will be bored and will not appreciate the experience.

 

I completely agree.

 

A med cruise is exhausting for adults. I can't imagine how tired I would be with 3 small children. (full disclaimer I am 51 and been married 29 years and we have zero children) We did a 12 night med cruise 10 years ago. It was a great cruise, instead of children we took our at that time mid 70s mothers. It was exhausting keeping them omn track, they were in some ways like small children but I didn't have to take care of their physical needs just mine. Example, one night we had late dining and when we finished dinner we took them to the show, when we left the show it was after 11 am. The next day we were in the port for Olympia (the original olympic site in Greece from classical times) and I booked them on a ships excursion that was only a half day excursion while the wife and I and friends booked a more ambitious full day tour. I knew our tours would cross paths at the Olympia site, and I looked for them the whole time there a few hours. So, we get back to the ship, and find them in their cabin. Turns out the room steward showed up at noon to clean the room, and my mother chewed him out for waking him at midnight (inside cabin so they couldn't tell it was noon). Turns out they slept straight thru for 12 hours, and missed their 10 am excursion, because they were so tired.

 

So, do the Med on your own or when the oldest child is in high school... just my opinion. Have fun, and remember only you can decide what is best for you and your family and my and others advice is truly just noise. The med is great.

 

jc

[sas80]

Hi! We are thinking of booking the 12nt Med Venice cruise, Brilliance, June '11. The itinerary seems fabulous, ticking so many dream ports... but we'll be travelling with three small children - 18mnth, 6yr and 7yr old. Will it be manageable, or is it just a little too ambitious with small children? Would really appreciate advice/feedback from any other families who may have done this trip with small children.

 

(Alternatively, we are also considering the 14nt Italian Med cruise, Independence, June '11. Just wondering which cruise/ship would be more child-friendly?)

 

Many thanks!

 

Some thoughts...

 

If it becomes obvious that your kids cant handle the itinerary you can always leave the older ones with AO for the day. AO takes 3 years and up.

 

We are thinking of doing a med itin and we are seriously considering hiring a babysitter for every day as an "on call" thing. If it becomes apparent that the kids shouldnt be drug off the ship into port then we would let the babysitter have them for the day. Our oldest could go to AO but our youngest wont quite be 3.

[Happy ks]

The trip would be doable only if you have a built in babysitter along. When we were on our Med cruise, there was a family with one 3 year old boy and he was having the time of his life! Of course, he had 4 doting grandparents, plus his parents to share the care and entertainment. They had a great time and he was the cutest little guy.

 

We are looking into the Med also for next summer. Our sons will be 22 so I think they should be ok!! Why do you recommend private tours when possible (compared to the ship tours)? Thanks.

 

 

We did mostly private tours, our group had 7 people, so it was actually less expensive for us than ship sponsored tours.

 

The advantages are: you are not on a hot, crowded bus that moves slowly. You won't have to run into a situation with a whiney 5 year old on that hot, crowded bus. You have more time to spend at your destination, mostly since you will get there a lot faster. You have (depending on personality) your own private tour guide instead of trying to listen to static through a loud speaker over other peoples talking.

 

Let's see, what else. You have the advantage of not going to the crowded restaurants the buses frequent and your driver knows great places that are more authentic. You can make impromtu stops for photo ops or shopping.

 

Plus, much more. While we have gone on a ship tour once or twice that we actually enjoyed, the majority of them have been pretty boring and what we consider to be a waste of money, since they cost so much. We don't care to hang out and wait for 48 other people to finally make it back to the bus at each stop, we don't want to go to touristy tchochke shops, we don't want to be limited with our time if we are at a place we are enjoying, on the flip side, if we find we don't like a place, we can get out quicker.

[Bobal]

I'm sure it's not what you want to hear but I'm with those who say it won't be good taking such young children along. Whilst the Med ports are fascinating and full of history and culture they will be long, boring (and hot in June) days for little ones. The point about rough road and path surfaces is a good one too, not just for strollers but for little feet.

 

The itinerary is a fabulous one but, even if you decided to build in a few beach days, it doesn't offer much in the way of beach experiences or 'fun' things for little ones. We did a similar cruise on Legend last summer with 2 teen boys (both of whom are not adverse to a bit of culture), but we still chose to leave them on ship for a couple of the ports.

 

I certainly wouldn't do ships excursions - too much hanging around waiting for other people. You could choose a private tour but if all you're doing is taking a short stop at a number of places you're not really experiencing much and for places like the Acropolis it would still involve a lot of walking on very uneven surfaces, surrounded by many people - just not ideal with 3 little ones in tow.

 

If you're happy to leave them in the kids club you could do it, but personally I would wait until they're older to do such an itinerary.

[cclarke12]

If you are travelling a long way (i.e. from outside Europe) to do the cruise it is a bit of a risk to go so far and find you don’t enjoy it as you can’t do as much as you would like with young children. We are based in the UK and have done Western med a couple of times already (and will be doing it again on P&O next month, and then a 4 night sailing from Barcelona in June). These are ideal breaks for us as there is not a huge amount of travelling to get to the port for departure, and we have chosen ships where we know there is sufficient onboard entertainment if we don’t want to go ashore. In other words, we are going for the cruise experience (which makes for a really easy holiday with young children) and the destination is just incidental to some respect.

 

Some of the med ports are easy to do, e.g. Barcelona. However, the issue with many of the Med cruises is not the fact they are port intensive, rather that a lot of places you want to visit are a good distance from the port itself, so it makes for long days, e.g. Livorno for Florence, and Civitaveccia (sp?) for Rome are much harder work. That said, we did Rome with my son when he was a toddler in a pushchair and it was easy. He’s now 4 and to be honest we won’t be visiting Rome again next month as he is obviously too big to go in a pushchair now and I think there is too much walking involved for him.

 

I would love to do one of the Baltic cruises but with 2 young children I don’t think I could realistically do and see all the things I would like to so it would be a waste of time.

If you are travelling thousands of miles and are doing a cruise round the Med, it really is a whistle stop tour and you won’t want to miss anything. On balance, I would hold off making this trip as there are some wonderful things to see (and we are very lucky to be only a short plane ride from most of them if we want to go back, so if we don’t manage a port it’s no big deal) and you will want to really enjoy it.

[BWP]

Ours is a tricky situation. Ordinarily I would never dream of taking such small children on a European tour - I agree that the kids will be too young to appreciate the cultural value, and they will probably tire easily and be a little bored with the sightseeing of the ports.... But this trip is the opportunity of a lifetime - it's being sponsored by my parents, who are cruise fanatics and want us to join them on their 40th wedding anniversary. :) It's really hard to be practical when facing such a generous gift - and it will be lovely to have the whole family together to celebrate my parent's great union. My sister and her two children (2 and 4yrs old) will be joining us too.

 

BUT - the logistics of travelling with an 18mnth, 2yr, 4yr, 6yr and 7yr old is freaking me out a little! :eek: Not to mention that we will be starting our journey in Cape Town, South Africa, so will first have to endure a 12hr flight to London, and then a connecting flight to Barcelona!

 

Thank you for raising some valid points though - I guess we're not obliged to visit every port just because the ship is docking there... we can be selective and determine which ones will be more child-friendly, and tour those ports privately rather, so that we can dictate the pace etc in terms of the kids... And it sounds as if while onboard the older children will have a blast in the kids clubs. (Incidentally, does anyone know how strictly the age groups are adhered to? Ideally would want the 4, 6 and 7yr old cousins all together in one group.)

 

One thing's for sure: I will be spending many hours researching these forums in a bid to gain every piece of advice to help make the journey more "smooth sailing"!