How to AVOID children on cruises?

[schoolinmy3]

We took our first cruise in 2008. We chose HAL because of sentimental reasons (I "cruised" with HAL at 11 months old on a transatlantic from the Netherlands to America on the SS Rotterdam). It was an Alaskan cruise on the Westerdam in August and I did not notice the kids. I am sure there were some but certainly none playing on the elevators or running down the hallways.:rolleyes: I did notice one interior room across the hall from our room that had a family with young children but any children I saw were supervised. We are in our 40s and although love kids (we have 3) ours were not the noisy type and they were homeschooled so HAL seems to suit our taste. We are all going with HAL on the Eurodam to the Mediterranean in May. Although HAL has Club Hall and the Loft area for teens I would say they would for the most part not be overrun with children.:eek:

diane

[Onessa]

I have 2 teens and am not offended by his post in the least.

I was not offended by the original post but by some of his intermediate posts.

 

If you travel on a ship that caters to the family demographic over spring break, you'll run into a disproportionate number of rude kids (and their accompanying adults). No one wants to travel where there are a number of unruly, unaccompanied kids - we were at Mesa Verde once about 10 years ago and a group of high schoolers were at our hotel -- they set off the sprinkler system. Turns out there were TWO chaperones. :eek:

 

When my DD sets off this summer on her first high school band trip (from WI to CO with stops in SD) I'm hoping she behaves -- but knowing the band director, they all will behave! There is one chaperone for each 8 kids in addition to the band director, and the two assistant directors, and one of the school's vice-principals. -- And I'll know that my DD knows better than to bang on walls or hop around while dancing or run down the halls because she has been "spoiled" all of her life and knows how to behave in a hotel -- unlike all of those "unspoiled" kids who are clueless as to how their behavior can impact others.

[RoadTripFanatic]

Thanks for the replies. I guess in my ignorance, based on my own life experience, my parents wouldn't have taken me on a luxurious cruise vacation in a million years... I'd be left with grandma for the week. The kids don't appreciate it at all and by growing up with such vacations will never appreciate it as adults, either. I went on my first Europe trip at age 33 and if I had done it at age 16, as some do, I wouldn't have appreciated what I was really experiencing.

 

Nonetheless, some parents spoil their kids and take them on cruises... lesson learned :) It doesn't turn me off of cruising, but will make me look into planning more closely or just accepting the number of teens aboard.

 

P.S., this still doesn't excuse the packs of unsupervised kids below age 12, which were common sightings.

 

EXCUSE ME??? I'm sorry but I do take your comments to heart. As a parent I enjoy taking my child to different places. Is she spoiled because I have the money to take her to foreign lands on vacation? NO. She isn't spoiled. Spoiled is a state of mind. It's not being grateful for what you have. It's all about attitude. If you are a brat and don't appreciate anything you have than you are spoiled. My DD doesn't get a lot of expensive toys. She doesn't live in a supersized house with all sorts of "stuff." We don't even own a flat screen TV. She gets to see the world. You say you are a teacher. Don't you think that taking a child to a foreign country to explore different cultures is educational? Why wouldn't you want them exposed to that? Think about what you saw in Europe? Think about what you learned? I just took my 9 YEAR OLD on an 11 day cruise to Greece, Egypt and Israel. She loved it. She was already well versed on the Greek gods and had a blast at the Acropolis and all of the ruins we visited. In fact one of her favorite things was the Parthenon. You can not tell me that you wouldn't want your children or your students to have that kind of experience.

 

As for leaving my child w/ Grandma. Every once in a while I do. I usually leave her with Grandma when I go to Las Vegas. (Though my DD usually spends one weekend a year in Vegas with me hanging out at the pool.) I do refuse to leave my child when I leave the country. I need to be able to get back home quickly just in case there is a medical emergency. I'm also not going to go for 7 days without contact from my child.

 

I'm also going to say this. I SUPERVISE MY CHILD. You will not see my child being a hooligan on the ship. She is MY CHILD. I will watch her. I do not expect other adults around the pool to make sure she doesn't drown. My child/my responsibility. It really makes me mad when people assume that everyone lets their children run amok on cruise ships. My child also knows the rules. You don't run down the hallway or make a peep before 10am or after 9p. She is well trained on how to behave on a cruise ship and in a hotel room. There are MANY ADULTS who are not as well behaved as my child. Heaven only knows how many times I've wanted to send an adult to their room on a cruiseship for bad behavior. Or I've wanted to stick my head outside of my cabin door and ask for silence. I'm sorry but I don't want a noisy adult waking my child up during the middle of the night. I'm usually mad that they woke me up! :)

If you don't want kids on a ship then use your personal days and go then. Or book a Crystal cruise or a "luxury" cruise lines. There shouldn't be too many kids on those ships at 5k-25k a person.

[Warm Breezes]

My first suggestion to you would be to try an AI Adult only resort. 100% child-free.

 

If you insist on cruising, then do not book peak, out of school times on family friendly cruises - if you do, you only have yourself to blame for putting yourself amoung all the children and you will get no sympathy from people who post on a Family Cruising Board. Try Hal, Regent or other more exclusive cruiseline and you will see fewer children, but not child-free.

 

I would also suggest when coming on a Family Cruising Board you not call cruising children "spoiled" brats who will not appreciate a cruise vacation. As a mother of 2 of those children I a take offense to your post. Not all children run wild on-board a ship and lack appreciation for the gift of travel. Some of them have parents who supervise and set limits. Some of them have parents who instill a sense of wonder at traveling to foreign countries, learning about different cultures and doing excursions to things they could never experience at home. Some of them appreciate the family time spent together that a cruise allows them to have their parents. My children are part of the "Some of them" and I will continue to take them on cruises, not because they are spoiled brats, but because it is a family vacation that we all enjoy together and can afford to do.

[Asil65]

I had a feeling this was going to be an interesting post. :) Seems like CC needs an adult only board. He didn't know where to post his question.

[RoadTripFanatic]

I had a feeling this was going to be an interesting post. :) Seems like CC needs an adult only board. He didn't know where to post his question.

That is true. Posting that question on the family forum is a tough audience. I know I went off because it really upsets me when someone says my child is spoiled because I take her on family vacations. UGH! I'm sorry I love to travel and where we go...she goes.

[Kidsx5]

I do not think this is the right forum for your question. Children should not be being referred to as "ankle-biters" and "spoiled" at all, but especially on a family forum. If your job does not allow you flexibility with traveling, then I'd suggest one of the more expensive lines, like a prior poster suggested. But you will still have children on board. Many ships have an adult only deck, you can also take advantage of that. Or you could go to an adults only resort. But seriously, ships like Carnival, RCI, Disney have SO much for kids....and to go during Spring break, what did you expect?

 

My 5 spoiled ankle biters and I will be on Carnival in a few weeks :)

[Kidsx5]

I also take issue with you posting this on a board specifically oriented towards families and think it is the wrong place to be asking such a question. I also hate traveling with hordes and hordes of kids but we do have a child and travel during vacation time because it's the only time we CAN travel, just like you... While there is such a thing as too many kids on board, there is also nothing worse than passengers who resent children being on board at all.

 

As others have said, lines such as HAL and Celebrity, plus the gourmet lines like Silverseas and Crystal will attract less kids as they cater to an older, more well heeled crowd than the likes of Carnival and RCCL. The longer the cruise, the less kids will be on it.

 

However, just to warn you... We LIKE sailing with HAL and Celebrity and wish we could afford Silverseas and Crystal. You won't find me on Carnival again.

 

Please keep the anti kid posts to the main boards and leave the families alone here to be supportive of each other. Imagine if I posted on the main boards about how to avoid traveling with all those nasty, drooling old people in their scooters and wheelchairs hogging the hallways and taking forever to move around the ship.... I would rightly be castigated. Intolerance is ugly in whatever form it takes. Children should not be described on these boards as "ankle biters" or depicted as "spoiled" because they go on a cruise with their families.

It looks like you are very new to CC from the number of posts you have on these boards and I would respectfully suggest that a little more tact be employed in your future posts. This seems like the wrong board for you in any case...

 

Well said!

[Asil65]

The ankle biters comment killed me too. I find it so interesting that so many people see so many children misbehaving on cruises. I have been on 5 cruises, only two of them with my kids and I have never seen children doing crazy, unsupervised things.

[reallyitsmema]

I had a feeling this was going to be an interesting post. :) Seems like CC needs an adult only board. He didn't know where to post his question.

I don't think anyone had any issues with the original post, I take issue with his post calling all children spoiled and saying they don't appreciate their vacations. We have had wonderful times as a family on our cruises. I just hope we are able to get a few more cruises in before he moves out on his own.

[TupeloHoney]

I had a feeling this was going to be an interesting post. :) Seems like CC needs an adult only board. He didn't know where to post his question.

 

Actually, I think the question itself is fine. I mean we probably know which cruises have more kids because we look into that kind of thing. We're likely to know which ones cater to kids and where to find the kids, so therefore we would probably know which ones don't. It was the way in which the question was asked, and more importantly his follow up that was problematic.

 

I think it's totally fine to want to vacation without kids. And maybe that is especially true if you are a teacher. (I'm a college professor and I'd rather not vacation with a bunch of college spring breakers - though I probably will next week...) That's totally his right. But duh, don't go on the family cruising forum and say people who cruise with their kids are spoiling them. Use your noodle, dude.

[WisconsinFan]

The OP I think didn't know he was going to get such a response.

 

We did the Voyager last year over spring break. My parents in an inside and my family of 4 in a large ocean view (at time of sailing 10 & 15 year old boys). Our spring break was over Holy week and there were lots of kids and teens on board. However, I didn't notice what you are afraid of having happen.

 

The kids in the dinning room? Not an issue, didn't notice them (and we had early seating). Elevator buttons? Not an issue- I try to take the stairs as much as possible to offset the amount of food I eat. No big mobs of high-schoolers with nothing to do. Fun people. We met a number of people on CC that were going on our same crew who had chosen to leave their kids home. They weren't bothered by the kids on the ship and were happy to say hi to mine when they would stop to check in on us at the Pig and Whistle. The only kids that bothered me were mine :p

 

Our biggest issue could have been at the end of the cruise, disembarking. As I mentioned it was Holy Week and we had over 1,800 Mexican nationals on the ship (had great fun one day speaking with a man from Mexico who had brought his extended family of 22 along!). Clearing customs for them was a nightmare. We know of several who weren't able to clear for hours. We carried off our luggage and got right through and hit the road. If your spring break is over Holy Week- this would be my biggest concern.

 

As far as an expensive vacation, the expense comes in the 1st & 2nd passenger fair. Our kids were LESS than $75 per day to take along- for entertainment and food! Plus we tend to only drive to ports (hence Galveston, yes we drove from Wisconsin) and we had six in the truck so air costs were not there.

 

I know you are teachers and don't want to go on a bus man's holiday, but I really think you have either had very bad experiences (which are not normal) or people have told you the biggest horror stories they can find. Good luck, I hope you can find a vacation that will fit you and your wife where you can find the quiet and relaxation we all want on a trip.

[usha]

If the only time you can cruise is when school is not in session, I'd suggest a longer cruise.

It's been our experience that the longer the cruise, the less children are onboard.

(BTW, I'm not a kid-hater:o)

[sngleme121]

I don't know what ship you were on but I've been on Liberty twice and both times there were plenty of children and I never witnessed any lines for the elevators ever. I did not witness any children playing on the elevators. Liberty is a very large ship and I didn't feel like there were ever any crowds to contend with.

 

I was surprised at the number of children on the ship because we cruised in November both times and there were lots of children.

 

Sorry you had that experience.

[Scrapchick]

I had a feeling this was going to be an interesting post. :) Seems like CC needs an adult only board. He didn't know where to post his question.

 

 

I can see that, but really, this is not the place for that particular question.... It's right up there with going to the Gay/Lesbian board and asking when the best time to cruise is to avoid all the butch women and effeminate men holding hands... it really is that offensive... There are enough snarky comments on the main boards about kids on ships. It's enough to make you feel under siege some of the time.

 

Thankfully, the prejudice on the boards is usually completely absent from the ships themselves. I rarely encounter any hostility on board, which is a relief!

[CruizinMom2c]

I agree...doing a little research before hand would of been best..and you could of "avoided" so many teens/children.

 

 

 

But I don't understand how taking your child on a cruise is spoiling them?? The vacation costs just the same as a week down at the beach..which living in the south is a ritual around here. So I wouldn't call them spoiled...it's just called a Family vacation :)

[crusinmama06]

I won't bash you because I've heard it all before. Actually, I've heard a lot worse before. ;)

 

So, to answer your question, seriously.

 

To cruise without kids. And yes, that's your perogative, I can respect that. We can't all love to cruise with 2,000 children. Even I AVOID SPRING BREAK LIKE THE PLAGUE :eek:

 

RULE #1 - AVOID SPRING BREAK ;) -- I think you learned that one already...lol

 

RULE #2 - Avoid any holiday, Christmas, Presidents Day, Summer Break Thanksgiving

 

RULE #3 - Stay away from mainstream cruise lines and shorter itineraries - the longer and more exotic the itinerary, the better. Don't expect to step on Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas to the Caribbean during Spring Break and expect not to be met by 1500 kids. ;) (common sense goes a LONG way)

 

You'll find less kids on a 14 day Panama cruise the week AFTER New Years. Why? Because most kids (not all, some are still home schooled) have to return to school and their parents won't keep them out that long.

 

RULE #4 - Try Celebrity, HAL, Azmara, etc -- I am not saying you won't find any kids on those ships, that would just be silly, but you will find less kids on those ships. Especially if its not SPRING BREAK (sensing a theme here?)

 

You just REALLY needed to do your homework on this one. So now you know. Stay away from spring break. But don't think my kids are spoiled because they cruise. And I won't think you are dense for for thinking spring break wouldn't have kids onboard. :cool:

[Laulipop]

I would rather be with 500 5th grade "ankle biters" than 100 drunk college students/adults. Kids who are well brought up and travel well don't cause the problems that drunk idiots do. We all have our preferences.

 

We all understood your point until you got nasty. You have no idea what a big deal it is for some of us to be able to take our family on a vacation (NOT a luxury cruise - it's a "mass-market" cruise) and for some of us it is a one shot deal. Not a way of life. Don't call names when you don't know what you are talking about.

 

We'll be on Royal Caribbean. I'm guessing you won't be, and I'm ok with that. :)

[quincytoo]

crusingmama06 and all others had such good points and rules :)

 

Might I just add that almost all of the Princess ships are very children friendly, except for the smaller Princess ships where I believe the clientile catered is that of an older crowd.

 

My spoiled :rolleyes:, but very watched over by his concerned parents, teenage loves Princess and his mama doesn't like the idea of crusing over Spring break or major holidays so we tend to cruise when it is a little quieter, that said both our Diamond and Caribbean cruises had over 600 children and teens on them but we hardly noticed them.

[firsttimers08]

Thanks for the replies. I guess in my ignorance, based on my own life experience, my parents wouldn't have taken me on a luxurious cruise vacation in a million years... I'd be left with grandma for the week. The kids don't appreciate it at all and by growing up with such vacations will never appreciate it as adults, either. I went on my first Europe trip at age 33 and if I had done it at age 16, as some do, I wouldn't have appreciated what I was really experiencing.

 

Nonetheless, some parents spoil their kids and take them on cruises... lesson learned :) It doesn't turn me off of cruising, but will make me look into planning more closely or just accepting the number of teens aboard.

 

P.S., this still doesn't excuse the packs of unsupervised kids below age 12, which were common sightings.

 

Well just want to say my kids are very well behaved because we as parents teach and require our children to be nothing but . But I dont think that it is spoling my children I take them now while there youg DD's 4 & 9, DS 10 so that when they are older they know how to behave. We save our money and my kids do little things to earn extras on cruise time or where ever we go. I also take my children to 4 and 5 star hotels because I want them to know how to behave in these type of places. So its not the kids its the parents who dont have control over there children.

[junglejane]

But I don't understand how taking your child on a cruise is spoiling them?? The vacation costs just the same as a week down at the beach..which living in the south is a ritual around here. So I wouldn't call them spoiled...it's just called a Family vacation :)

 

I think lots of people formed their impression of cruising based on what it was like 20+ years ago. Back then it really was seen as a luxury vacation and kids probably were rare. But it's a totally different industry now (hence much of the moaning from old timers and yearning for the way it used to be). Hopefully the OP can reset his expectations now that he's actually been on a cruise -- and discovered Cruise Critic.

[imsulin]

I agree...doing a little research before hand would of been best..and you could of "avoided" so many teens/children.

 

 

 

But I don't understand how taking your child on a cruise is spoiling them?? The vacation costs just the same as a week down at the beach..which living in the south is a ritual around here. So I wouldn't call them spoiled...it's just called a Family vacation :)

 

Actually, it's sometimes cheaper to cruise than rent a Gulf beach condo for a week, because of what's included in a cruise! I live in the South, too, and am no longer willing to pay outrageous weekly prices for a 12-story high-rise condo in a building with a 100' beach for the use of over a hundred people and ONE beach chair allocated per condo. And slow elevators. Forget about finding a luggage cart. I've done this a couple of times, and will never do it again. Overpriced, overrated, and overbuilt. And - you bring your own drinks and cook your own food. And clean up afterwards. Forget the ritual! It's all about the money down here! Unless Uncle Bubba owns the condo, you pay through the nose. This past summer, our local TV station reported a sharp decrease in Gulf beach rentals for the last two years. I'll cruise or fly to an AI before I ever rent a beach condo again. That being said, I don't think that kids are "spoiled" if they are fortunate enough to go on a cruise. They are only "spoiled" if they act like they are. Same goes for adults.

[CruizinMom2c]

imsulin,

 

 

I know what you mean...some of those condos are crazy priced..lol So when I explain to my friends and family how much of a value a cruise is, they can't believe it. We are the only "cruisers" in our family and friends....but we finally convinced my BIL to go on a cruise on his honeymoon...so maybe the will understand now.. lol

 

 

ETA: we never get the condos...but in Destin...even the hotels are going to be anywhere from 130-160 a night on the beach (and that is usually the lowest I have seen)

[imsulin]

imsulin,

 

 

I know what you mean...some of those condos are crazy priced..lol So when I explain to my friends and family how much of a value a cruise is, they can't believe it. We are the only "cruisers" in our family and friends....but we finally convinced my BIL to go on a cruise on his honeymoon...so maybe the will understand now.. lol

 

 

ETA: we never get the condos...but in Destin...even the hotels are going to be anywhere from 130-160 a night on the beach (and that is usually the lowest I have seen)

 

I know exactly what you're talking about! We even stayed 3 nights at the Holiday Inn Navarre Beach, FL., and it was half the price of a 2BR/2BA condo....but we had to eat out and had one King bed. No coffee maker or microwave. Cruising is definitely the better deal! Factor in the price to drive to the beach or to an embarkation port, and it's about the same, and you get SO MUCH more! Keep working on your family and friends, and you'll gain some cruising converts!

[MnAsMom]

I love that this poster came... tried to ruffle a bunch of peoples feathers by posting a child bashing thread on the "Family" board and has now disappeared!

 

He should have posted on the RCCL board or ??? Maybe they need a 'I don't like kids on cruise ships" board so people who have forgotten that they were once children too can go on ranting about how children ruined their vacation rather than finding the positives and enjoying themselves! Your vacation is what you make of it!!!

 

Find an all inclusive resort that doesn't allow children ... it is the only way to have a truly child free vacation.