Kids sailing RC in Alaska??

[lilrere]

We are planning a large family cruise next summer and the grandparents really want RC but we will have a 4 and a 2 year old and there will be a 6 year old, 4 year old, and another 2 year old coming, so for us with young children we want to find a cruise that is kid friendly. We have sailed Royal Caribbean with our son before but we were on the Independence and we had a pool. So my question is do they open the Solarium pool in Alaska and do they have a kids/toddler program. I have found conflicting information we even asked the booking rep on our cruise in May and they could not tell us if they had a kid's program on the Radiance/Rhapsody they said the ships were being updated and she did not have the improvements being made to the ships for 2012. Anyone cruised RC with young children??? Would love suggestions!

[cb at sea]

Radiance class have the enclosed Solarium pools....if it's really inclement weather, they will open it to kids, but only at certain times....

You may find (especially in late spring/ summer!) that's it's quite warm...and the kids will be able to use the regular pools.

I don't think there's a pool at all if the 2 year old isn't potty-trained and out of diapers.

[chipmaster]

I have never sailed RC, but IMHO all the major lines during summer will have kids clubs and kids in them.

 

I for one always do consider kids, but if you are doing Alaska and it comes down to choice of ship and / or ports/scenic, I'd say you really should consider the scenic cruising as a higher priority. Princess and HAL do have the most sailings to Glacier Bay and I highly recommend you make the scenic crusing a priority over pool.

 

Good luck,

 

We are planning a large family cruise next summer and the grandparents really want RC but we will have a 4 and a 2 year old and there will be a 6 year old, 4 year old, and another 2 year old coming, so for us with young children we want to find a cruise that is kid friendly. We have sailed Royal Caribbean with our son before but we were on the Independence and we had a pool. So my question is do they open the Solarium pool in Alaska and do they have a kids/toddler program. I have found conflicting information we even asked the booking rep on our cruise in May and they could not tell us if they had a kid's program on the Radiance/Rhapsody they said the ships were being updated and she did not have the improvements being made to the ships for 2012. Anyone cruised RC with young children??? Would love suggestions!

[boulders]

We sailed Radiance to Alaska two years ago. They had the solarium pool open for "family times". The family time totalled about 6-8 hours a day. Radiance should currently have in cabin babysitting which may or may not be available. The cost is $19/hour. Adventure Ocean is open to potty trained children aged 3 and up.

[curiouser123]

We were on the Rhapsody in June with a 7,5,1 year old. The solarium pool was open from I think 12-2 and 4-8 for kids. For the 1 year old, they had a small room open all day for kids up to 36 months and their parents with every imaginable Fisher Price toy. You could also rent toys for a few days, which we did. My 7 & 5 year old also had a great time, but they refused to go to the kids club (which always seemed busy & fun when we went by). There were about 400 kids on board, and everyone was very kind to our kids. I do wish we had done a cruise with a better itinerary but for the price (lower b/c we were able to put all 5 of us in one family oceanview stateroom), it was a great first cruise for us.