Christmas on a cruise

[karatemom2]

We did Christmas 2009 with 2,000 kids on board. They were all over, day and night. The elevator buttons were pushed for each floor, cabin service menus went missing, Do Not Disturb signs littered the hallways in the mornings, etc. Personally, I would never do it again. And yes, it was $$$$!

 

Fran

 

Sorry, but it is not possible that there were 2,000 kids onboard. Even on our Disney cruise, the number of kids was about 1,000. On one of our Christmas cruises with Princess with the highest number of children, the number was just under 800. 2,000 is just a HUGE exaggeration!

 

We have done four Christmas cruises on Princess with our children who are now 12 and 17. For the most part the families are all enjoying themselves together and the kids are happy, engaged and well behaved. It is a wonderful experience with so much joy to go around from the Caroling in the atrium with "snow" falling, to the special Christmas shows, to the Gingerbread Houses and beautiful decorations. The feeling onboard is special and I would say worth the premium price. Princess does a great job making a festive cruise for all ages!

[texasgirl29]

Wow, started to read this thread to tell all of you what a great Christmas cruise we had in 2009 through the Panama Canal with children. Yes, even brought along two of our own. Didn't realize there are so many Grinches out there.

 

The ship was beautiful (Island Princess), we had a great time, didn't see any annoying children (and believe me, I don't allow my kids to annoy anyone).

 

If any one actually likes Christmas, cruising through the Canal, and kids, please take a look at my rather long review with lots of photos. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1112431

 

JoAnn

[MargoK]

After our 1st Christmas cruise (Ruby 2010) we have decided to repeat! We did not really notice any "extra" kids last year. Yes there were kids on the cruise, but they were well behaved, no running down the halls, screaming from balcony to balcony, etc. Princess did announce daily that "Parents were responsible for keeping their children well behaved" and that seemed to work. Honestly we did not hang out by the pool, nor did we go thru the buffet so maybe the kids were just not at the same places that we were during the cruise. ...

..We had no problems and a great cruise!

 

 

Ditto - we were on the Diamond Princess 2010 and really enjoyed the cruise. Like you we didn't notice any 'annoying' children or have any issues at all. And we didn't hang out by the pool or the buffet. The times we did go to the buffet we had no issues at all.

 

In fact we enjoyed the experience so much we are repeating the cruise this year but on the Celebrity Century. :D

 

As a 'rider' we do not have children and I would class myself as not as tolerent with children as I could be :p

[kdooley]

Another thing that no one has mentioned is that Princess hires a special security guard that "tries" to watch after the kids during the holidays. His main thing was trying to keep the pre-teen set under control and off the elevators and staircases at night.

 

We were on the CB last Christmas and there were kids (don't know how many), but they didn't seem to bother me as much as I thought.

[Mr. Bubble]

I have a low tolerance for kids (admittedly) but I had absolutely no problems with the children on board for two Christmas cruises. Other than an occasional child's errant ping-pong ball hitting me on the head while I was trying to catch a nap on deck, I experienced no child-related annoyances.

 

Read on...

 

I'm certainly the exception to the rule (flame me if you must) but what I found annoying was the piped-in Christmas music for the duration of the trip. It was constant for the 14 days and, wanting to "escape completely", I would have enjoyed Hawaiian music rather than the barrage of Jingle Bells, Rum-pa-pa-pum, Santa Baby, Frosty The Snowman, and the ever-popular Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.

 

Despite this, I still had a great time!

 

MJ

[Gabrielle R.]

I never thought about that - Rats. We are traveling with our 30 year old son who is a teacher. He may have been hoping to get away from kids. Maybe this was a expensive mistake - oh well - too late to change plans - we'll make it fun and it's better than being at home in the cold snow.

 

Does anyone know if there is any information ahead of time on the gingerbread houses? I haven't made one in years - sounds like fun.

I'm a high School teacher, my husband a custodian- Different schools. We really can only cruise at Christmas to escape the cold, and we have the same time off. (at least with in a day or two)

I have little tollerance for wild kids. We are on our 10 Christmas Cruise. We found that if you can pick a longer cruise you have less kids. Princess & RCCL generally do a good job of controlling the kids. WE rarely have had problems.

HAL let the kids run wild- we didn't like that. IF you have a balcony you won't notice kids much at all. If you go to an out of the way pool (Not the main Pool at mid day) it's pretty good too. We could always find a place that we were happy.

Hope you enjoy your trip. I know we can't wait for our next Trip! We're on the Grand!!

[Cruisin' Chick]

Our last two cruises were the holiday cruise RT to Hawaii on Princess.

 

The first time the only misbehaving kids (out of the 250 onboard) were all from the same extended family, and whose parents just ignored them so they could spend all of their time in the casino when it was open. Hanukkah also was during this cruise, and unlike the above poster who seemed to complain about the music, Christmas music was heard, almost exclusively until the 26th. It was really fun celebrating Hanukkah onboard (on the first night, a retired rabbi helped an almost full lounge of celebrants enjoy the candle lighting -- so many families brought on their menorahs -- we left ours at home but hung a foam sticky one in our cabin, along with miniature tree ornaments). The crew members wore Santa hats, there was a party in the lounge for the kids, and a PA announcement tracked the sled on the "radar."

 

The second time, I didn't see any misbehaving kids, but many people complained about some of the seniors who didn't seem to care if they were earning lumps of coal in their stockings. Even heard complaints from some of their peers.

 

As for activities, there were plenty for the adults. In fact, the Golden Princess Hawaiian staff is exemplary. If you are bored on that cruise, you are certainly hard to please.

[Cruisin MarcnFran]

Sorry, but it is not possible that there were 2,000 kids onboard. Even on our Disney cruise, the number of kids was about 1,000. On one of our Christmas cruises with Princess with the highest number of children, the number was just under 800. 2,000 is just a HUGE exaggeration!

 

We have done four Christmas cruises on Princess with our children who are now 12 and 17. For the most part the families are all enjoying themselves together and the kids are happy, engaged and well behaved. It is a wonderful experience with so much joy to go around from the Caroling in the atrium with "snow" falling, to the special Christmas shows, to the Gingerbread Houses and beautiful decorations. The feeling onboard is special and I would say worth the premium price. Princess does a great job making a festive cruise for all ages!

 

We were on the Freedom of the Seas and were told by the cruise director there were 2,000 children on that sailing.

 

Fran

[1 HappyCruiser]

I have a low tolerance for kids (admittedly) but I had absolutely no problems with the children on board for two Christmas cruises. Other than an occasional child's errant ping-pong ball hitting me on the head while I was trying to catch a nap on deck, I experienced no child-related annoyances.

 

Read on...

 

I'm certainly the exception to the rule (flame me if you must) but what I found annoying was the piped-in Christmas music for the duration of the trip. It was constant for the 14 days and, wanting to "escape completely", I would have enjoyed Hawaiian music rather than the barrage of Jingle Bells, Rum-pa-pa-pum, Santa Baby, Frosty The Snowman, and the ever-popular Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.

 

Despite this, I still had a great time!

 

MJ

 

I also can stand Christmas carols and it does add to the season's feelings but even at Thanksgiving when they begin the music, I have had enough of it by the time we get off the ship. There comes a point when it's pure torture no matter how beautiful the song. :(

[karatemom2]

We were on the Freedom of the Seas and were told by the cruise director there were 2,000 children on that sailing.

 

Fran

 

Well given that Freedom of the Seas has a capacity of 3600 I still find this difficult to believe. That means they would have had more children than adults onboard. Most ships, even RCI ships, would not be able to accommodate numbers like that. I still believe that is an exaggerated number and certainly far more kids than one would ever find on a Princess cruise even during peak family travel times.

[Cruisin MarcnFran]

Well given that Freedom of the Seas has a capacity of 3600 I still find this difficult to believe. That means they would have had more children than adults onboard. Most ships, even RCI ships, would not be able to accommodate numbers like that. I still believe that is an exaggerated number and certainly far more kids than one would ever find on a Princess cruise even during peak family travel times.

 

I'm repeating what we were told by staff. I did not exaggerate or embellish, nor do I have a problem with my hearing.

 

I know there are people that live for trouble on these boards but I'm kind of shocked that as a mom you would call another adult out and imply they were lying. Shame on you.

 

double occupancy capacity of 3,634 passengers ...

Year Built 2006 Tonnage 160,000 tons Registry Bahamas Length 1,112 feet Beam 127 feet Passenger Capacity 4,375

[karatemom2]

I'm repeating what we were told by staff. I did not exaggerate or embellish, nor do I have a problem with my hearing.

 

I know there are people that live for trouble on these boards but I'm kind of shocked that as a mom you would call another adult out and imply they were lying. Shame on you.

 

double occupancy capacity of 3,634 passengers ...

Year Built 2006 Tonnage 160,000 tons Registry Bahamas Length 1,112 feet Beam 127 feet Passenger Capacity 4,375

 

Well I do apologize if that is how you took my comments as no offense was intended. My thought was that the staff member who quoted those numbers was exaggerating, not trying to imply anything about your veracity.

 

My concern with your comments regarding the number of children and the resulting problems is that threads here regarding traveling with high numbers of chilren often turn unnecessarily negative toward those of us who like to cruise with our children during vacation periods. The OP asked about cruising at Christmas and was almost immediately warned off of it due to the number of kids onboard, with the implication that children will ruin your cruise. Sorry, but that is a sensitive subject with me. We have been on many Christmas cruises and the children and families onboard have been wonderful and it is a shame that kids get such negative comments here.

 

I did feel that quoting a number of 2,000 children along with all othe "bad" behavior seemed a bit inflammatory, especially since that huge number of kids would never, ever be found on a Princess ship and after all, it is Princess we are talking about here.

 

I'm sorry if I offended you.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I'm certainly the exception to the rule (flame me if you must) but what I found annoying was the piped-in Christmas music for the duration of the trip. It was constant for the 14 days and, wanting to "escape completely", I would have enjoyed Hawaiian music rather than the barrage of Jingle Bells, Rum-pa-pa-pum, Santa Baby, Frosty The Snowman, and the ever-popular Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.

OMG, we had 10 days of that pre-cruise on the Emerald last year and I was ready to jump overboard. We're not talking about the classics; we're talking about horrendous melodies with totally inane lyrics. All Christmas, all the time, 24/7, not the usual elevator music with a few Christmas carols interspersed. This year we'll be on the entire Christmas season, and it's that music, not the kids, that I dread the most.

[Kinkacruiser]

I couldn't think of a better way to spend Christmas. I find it too stressful at home.

Thanks for posting those great photos, caribill.