snacks for excursions?

[old skater]

Traveling with young kids - 6 and 3. They constantly will ask for snacks through the day. While we're at sea I'm not too worried as it sounds like we can flit in and out of various dining areas to grab something to eat whenever they're hungry. But during shore excursions can I take food from the ship to bring with us? Are there any foods served (pretzels, crackers, etc) that I could just toss into a ziplock and carry with us? I'd like to say we could buy something offshore, but one excursion is six hours total, a portion of which is on a bus so I don't want to risk having cranky hungry kids when we can't easily purchase something.

 

Thanks!

[cb at sea]

You can bring pre-packaged items off the ship (Cheerios, crackers, etc...) or you can bring some "port snacks" on the ship with you, if there are particular things your kids like.

[Mom2B&Z]

We grab a box of Cheerios for each child, but also bring granola bars and other pre-packaged foods that we know travel well and that can easily satisfy a hungry child. On our last cruise we went to Lamanai in Belize, which is well known to be at least a 7 hour excursion, with a 6.5 and 4 yo. The Cheerios, granola bars and fruit gummies were all gone by the end of the day. Don't forget a small container for water that the children can carry themselves, if your children are anything like mine, as soon as they start eating they also want something to drink :)

[gerif]

Just remember that anything taken off the ship must be prepackaged, so you can't just put something in a ziplock bags. Available from the ship would be boxes of cereal and packets of crackers. Anything else you would have to bring.

[Kerry's Girls]

You're smart to think ahead about bringing snacks. I know that having lots of snacks have made our long excursion days much easier for my kids. I always pack little snack packages of cereal bars, trail mix, fruit snacks, goldfish, etc. As the others have said - must be sealed to be brought off the ship. We also bring re-fillable water bottles.

 

Best,

Mia

[old skater]

I didn't even think about prepackaged! Thanks!

 

So it sounds like I can get cereal boxes and crackers on the boat, but otherwise I need to bring my own? That should suffice for us, but just checking to see if I should bring some granola and candy bars just in case.

 

Thank you all so much!

[alj1208]

I brought some pre-packaged snacks in our suitcase for our son, and I am glad that I did. On the ship, there was no problem finding food for him. But, I didn't trust the food at some of the Caribbean shore destinations, and it was great to have snacks to tide him over until we got back to the ship.

[Mom2B&Z]

I didn't even think about prepackaged! Thanks!

 

So it sounds like I can get cereal boxes and crackers on the boat, but otherwise I need to bring my own? That should suffice for us, but just checking to see if I should bring some granola and candy bars just in case.

 

Thank you all so much!

 

That's right, at least on NCL the cereal is in single portion boxes so easy to carry ashore. I never saw prepackaged crackers, so you may want to bring your own. I know what we've done in the past is hit the grocery store once we arrive at the port, so we don't have to lug extra groceries on airplanes :). A box of individually packaged goldfish, some granola bars and a little treat usually do the trick for us.

Cruising is much more fun when you've thought of (almost) everything in advance!

[old skater]

Cruising is much more fun when you've thought of (almost) everything in advance!

 

I know I seem obsessive about these details, and we've never cruised before - but AMEN to your comment! I've found that to be true of EVERY vacation :D

[Mom2B&Z]

I know I seem obsessive about these details, and we've never cruised before - but AMEN to your comment! I've found that to be true of EVERY vacation :D

 

Yup, especially when said vacation involves young children and going further than you can drive in a few hours to get home ;)

[Cruisin' Chick]

Definitely pad in some pre-cruise time if you're flying to your embarkation port (you should be doing avoiding flying in the day of your cruise anyway) for some shopping. Get factory sealed snacks -- many crackers and goldfish are in single serving bags. When my girl was very young, I brought Blues Clues fruit snacks as well as a single serve boxes of Cheerios (just in case the ship didn't have that type of cereal).

 

And don't forget that carrying off items from the buffet/dining rooms, especially fruit is considered a major no-no in some ports. Some countries will even issue fines or at least toss the food into garbage cans.