Others complaining about children on the cruise

[Cruisin' Chick]

IMO it is not the children that are the problem. I have never had a problem with people vacation with children of all ages. My problem is parents taking a vacation from parenting while bring their children on vacation. It is the children who's parents cop the attitude of well they deserve a vacation as an excuse for rude unacceptable behavior. Now our first cruise was a prime example some kids started a food fight I got a hamburger to the lap. Although I was in the pool area I was not in a swimsuit. A man I assumed was the dad said well they are on vacation. No apologies, no offers to have my clothes cleaned. That behavior is not acceptable at anytime or place. Go on your cruise with you child and have a great time just don't stop parenting.

 

Out of the ten cruises I've been on, only once was there a group of kids out of control -- and they were all from the same extended family. Throwing things overboard, running through halls in the middle of the night and knocking on cabin doors, hanging out on the stairwells, etc. One of the youth security staff tried to talk to one of the fathers and was told by him, "I'm on vacation." Basically saying that he wasn't going to supervise his kids. And the kids were involved in the kids' program (according to my daughter, who was 8 on that cruise). I'm thinking that they were bored, besides being rich brats (some others on my roll call said that these parents spent a lot of time and $ in the casino). This happened with the same group on the cruise on the same ship exactly the year before. A couple of years later, someone reported that they were on their cruise but there was a nanny with the kids so maybe passengers complained enough to Princess.

 

Before I became a parent, I was always pleasantly surprised when I saw kids onboard and busy doing activities. We would see them in the lido working on some crafts or they would come around for "Passenger Scavenger Hunt" (they would be given a list of traits to look for and get passengers to sign off on). I wasn't into kids at all, but I didn't feel that being on a ship with kids would damage my vacation at all. I think that's a tribute to a well-run kids' program and parents who are willing to let their kids participate.

 

After seeing how much work kids have in schools nowadays, I feel they have every right to a great vacation too. And hearing my girl ask in the morning if "ship's school" is open yet so she can go, I can see that little kids enjoy the activities and hanging out with the other kids.

 

On the last cruise, at age 13, she was feeling the teen activities were "lame," but she's at that age.:rolleyes: She did enjoy her meals (and she's a picky eater), the shows, the movies (she saw more of the movies under the stars than we did) and hanging out with new friends (she's still in Facebook contact with a few of them). As it turned out, despite the many kids onboard, much of the complaining was about some elderly people (even some of their peers were commenting about how rude the senior set tended to be). A few of them actually went up to some teens and started commenting on their dress (one harped on my daughter's hairstyle, which was none of this woman's business -- I would love to see that biddy's look now as my daughter started coloring her hair strange colors). This was a holiday cruise when kids are out of school so if anyone had a problem with kids onboard, they should have booked their cruise for early December.

 

So I strongly suggest that any parent takes their kids to the first night meeting and sign up. Have your child read the daily list of activities and encourage them to take part. Even if you think this is a "family vacation," don't assume that your child wants to spend every minute with you. Especially when there's a lot of fun to be had in the program with the other kids. We didn't insist our daughter spend the entire time with us on our last cruise, not even meals (except for port days, she was with us). A few times she did hang with us when she wanted to (the first time we went to a MUTS screening at night, she sat down with us, told us where to get the popcorn, then she curled up and fell asleep after saying she had already seen the movie).

[Sugar*Magnolia]

I agree, dont worry about what you have read on your past roll call or any for that matter in regards to some folks not wanting kids on board "their" cruise. Online forums make up a small percentage of cruisers, and just like in real life offline, some people will always find things to complain about, especially when they are online. You just cant get the nasty out of some!

 

Go. Enjoy making memories with your family!

 

:):D

[tactic]

I work with kids, go on holiday in school holidays and cruise when there are no doubt more children on a ship than at other times.

 

Do kids bother me? No - Kids are part of our society too and have every right to be on holiday the same as adults - what does bother me is the parents who forget about their responsibilities when they are on holiday - and must add this is a minority and not a majority. The behaviour of most kids is far better than some adults, especially when they have had too much sun and too much alcohol.

 

Cruise with your kids, it is a vital part of their education too :)

[Sugar*Magnolia]

I work with kids, go on holiday in school holidays and cruise when there are no doubt more children on a ship than at other times.

 

Do kids bother me? No - Kids are part of our society too and have every right to be on holiday the same as adults - what does bother me is the parents who forget about their responsibilities when they are on holiday - and must add this is a minority and not a majority. The behaviour of most kids is far better than some adults, especially when they have had too much sun and too much alcohol.

 

Cruise with your kids, it is a vital part of their education too :)

 

What a wonderful, wonderful post!!

 

[Daisyloo]

I think that most people's complaints about kids on a cruiseship are actually complaints only about the poorly behaved kids, not kids in general. (other than a few crabs that are only happy when they are complaining).

I have 3 kids and while we never took them on a cruise when they were young, we did take them several times to land based resorts. It was a vacation for all of us, so bed times were relaxed, they chose freely from menus, meal times were relaxed etc. One thing that wasn't relaxed was proper behaviour. Good manners , respect for fellow travellers and the resort staff was strictly enforced. They didn't run wild, do damage, scream and yell etc etc. We were on a family vacation, but we never took a vacation from parenting. Unfortunately some parents do think they can take a parenting vacation and let their kids do whatever they want. This is what most of the complainers are referring to and I agree. Who wants to have to put up with unruly behaviour.

[JP4GA]

Don't feel bad about taking your kids on the boat. People will ALWAYS complain. Like others have said, people who make comments are most likely not talking about ALL kids, but the unruly ones.

 

Our last crusie we left the kids at home. For the most part it was a great cruise. However, the people next to us had a 4 or 5 year old kid that was LOUD and seemed to not sleep. He also went on the balcony everytime he heard our door open and would cock his head around the barrier to talk to us. I felt bad for the kid... all he wanted was a little attention that his self absorbed parents would not give him. We hardly noticed any other kids on the cruise and were surprised when they announced that they had 800 children on board that week. Kids were well behaved in public areas, dinning areas and the pool area.

 

For our upcoming cruise we are taking the kids DS (15) and DD (3). They are well behaved at home and we expect the same behavior on board. I know the first few days will be a challenge with DD since it will be new and exciting for her. But this will not be an excuse to let her run wild.

[Warmer Climes]

Most people like kids and unless the kids are obnoxious they get plenty of positive attention on the cruise and the younger they are the more the staff enjoys them. Some people don't like kids or assume that all kids are poorly behaved. When my older three kids were young we lived in California and I flew alone with them to New England in the summer. I know how it feels to have people want to move away from you or say hings about kids, even though I had mine under control. Oh, well. Let it roll off your back and focus on all the people who are nice instead.

[dsrdsrdsr]

Why are you bothered what people on the internet say? You've cruised with your child on NCL, you know what it's like. Don't believe the opinions of someone you have never met or heard of, when you've got your own experiences to rely on.

[cubbysan]

I am thinking when people are complaining about too many kids, they are talking about a no school week, like Thanksgiving or Christmas week when the child population multilpies from a normal cruise week. I have never been on a cruise during a busy "kid" week, but I do know my last cruise on RCL was the week before Thanksgiving and my waiter was telling me that they were preparing for all the extra children that were going to be aboard.

 

I know when I went to Walt Disney World Park, I saw more disruptive parents than children. ;) Never saw so many parents arguing with each other in my life.

[mikesteg]

We were at McDonald's playland yesterday. An older guy comes into the play area and then proceeds to complain about the noise the kids were making. His issue (aside from being a moron) was that he couldn't hear the video that he was playing on his laptop. However, he wasn't using headphones as any reasonable person would do in a restaurant, he was playing it over the speakers so we could all "enjoy" it. :eek:

 

It takes all kinds, and some of them do board cruise ships.

 

On the flip side, we go to McDs at that time just about every week and there are 7 or 8 grandparent-aged people who love to see the kids. The numbers are in our favor. :D

 

Of course, you don't need to participate on the roll call, but I'd guess that as soon as you announced yourself and that you were bringing a 4YO you'd get a welcoming response. And they'd probably mean it too. ;)

[circuitrider]

Reminds me of the time I had my two kids (3 and 1 I believe) on a flight from Seattle to Fairbanks (or maybe to Anchorage first, I don't remember). Woman sitting in front was pitching a mini-fit, wondering why I'd take my kids on a red-eye flight like that, and going on about how she'd better be able to get some sleep.

 

Well, my kids did fine, except the oldest when the plane was descending (ears hurt, and he didn't understand how eating candy would fix it). Never heard anything from that woman, because apparently she had ended up on the wrong plane! If it hadn't been for me explaining that my kids and I had been flying all day, and her getting confused as to how you could fly all day and not be anywhere near the east coast (her destination), she would have settled right in and not known what happened when she woke up in Alaska.

 

On the flip side...I want to sincerely apologize to anyone on our flight from New York to Ireland a couple years prior to that.

[lucigo]

My son with autism was 19 months when we took our first cruise with him on the Holiday, a small Carnival ship. We also had kids with us ages 10, 13 and 15. We had a wonderful time. The staff would stop and talk to our son, we were just tickled that he would repeat the numbers in the elevator, and with all the people who would say hi to him and demand his attention. At dinner we brought tabletop toys and a DVD player. The waiter would stop and watch bits of Nemo with him and talk to him. It was such an awesome social experience that at age 8 he is going on his 14th cruise next month.

 

So imagine my surprise when I came on Cruise Critic and found that people don't really like my child, think its appalling that we would have a DVD player in the dining room, and can't imagine why we wouldn't just leave him at home!

 

The internet is an interesting place. Somewhere I saw a post re: cruise critic cruise versus real life cruise. They definitely are not the same thing!