What do you and the kids do on a cruise?

[Gettysburg]

Got a 1 week cruise booked with 2 eight year old boys.

 

They are keen to go to the club and do swimming etc

 

How do others plan days at sea and shore?

[Mom2B&Z]

I have an 8 year old boy and he is never bored on a cruise :) It would help to know what ship you are on before making suggestions.

In general, we take a look at the kids club programing before we go, as well as pictures of the pool, waterslides, sports areas etc and get him excited about those options. Then once we are on board, we go over the kids club activities as well as the general ship activities and go from there. Often there are more things to do than time in the day :D

(DS2 is helping me type this and insisting on the use of lots of smiley faces lol:))

[Gettysburg]

I have an 8 year old boy and he is never bored on a cruise :) It would help to know what ship you are on before making suggestions.

In general' date=' we take a look at the kids club programing before we go, as well as pictures of the pool, waterslides, sports areas etc and get him excited about those options. Then once we are on board, we go over the kids club activities as well as the general ship activities and go from there. Often there are more things to do than time in the day :D

(DS2 is helping me type this and insisting on the use of lots of smiley faces lol:))[/quote']

 

We are on P&O Azura. Where can you find out a daily program of activities for your cruise.?

[DISNEY1975]

This is from my 8 year old daughter..Im just typing for her. These are the things she does...

 

1) Have fun

2) Play sports

3) Swim

4) Have fun at the kids club

5) Play games

6) Go in the stateroom

7) Get fresh air

8) Dance

9) Read a book

10) Write in journal

11) Have ice cream all day

12) Meet new friends

13) Go to the shows

14) Go to the ports

15) Seeing different countries

16) Doing water sports like kayaking and parasailing

17) Kids karaoke

18) Digital Scavenger hunts

19) Treasure hunts

20) Buy souveniers

21) Sleep on a bed that comes out of the ceiling

22) Talent Show

23) Mini Golf

24) Water slide

25) Outdoor Movies

26) Build a Bear

27) Themed party nights at the kids club

28) Coloring / Dye T Shirts

29) Getting to try different foods from different places

30) Shuffleboard

31) Basketball

32) Ping Pong in the wind! Not!!:D

 

"Thats all I got" !! :)

[snorkelman]

We have 8 year old daughters who have been on 6 cruises. They LOVE the kids program on RCL. Prior to our first cruise we talked it up and got them excited, and they loved it. I always feel bad for the parents who have kids who refuse to go in the kids program. My wife and I enjoy the break from the kids, but we always pick them up for lunch and eat lunch as a family. on the first 2 cruises with the kids, we tried eating dinner with them but they hated the boring dining room, so we let them go into the kids program for dinner. They are much happier.

 

We take them off the ship at every port.

 

Since the kids program is closed from noon-2 usually (unless you pay) it gives us a nice bit of time with the kids besides just eating. They almost always go on the rockwall or merry-go-round or pool area.

[ilovemom]

We pretty much do the same thing as you with the exception of our Alaskan cruise where since we had limited time and it was at night we left our son(6) in the kids club while we explored Victoria. Also we give him the option to dine with us at dinner we leave early enough to check in on him and if he wants stay he stays. We believe it's his vacation as well and should have some say on how he enjoys it.

[xmaslady]

We are cruising with my 3 year old grandson in May. This will be his first cruise and he is very excited about it my worry is that there is not going to be any other children for him to play with in the kids club because are going on May 19th while kids are still in school. We are going to be on the Carnival Pride. What do you all think about him having any playmates? We will also be with our 13 year old granddaughter but I don't worry as much about her because she won't get bored like he will because he has so much energy.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We are on P&O Azura. Where can you find out a daily program of activities for your cruise.?

 

Since it sounds like the others are ignoring which ship you're on, I would suggest posting on the P&O board and ask if anyone has some daily programs they can post or at least give you an idea of what activities you might find on board. You may also want to check out the website for that cruiseline and see what it says about their kids' activities.

 

I would guess that the regular newsletter won't list what is going on in the kids' program. I know that on Carnival and Princess (the lines we've been on) and some other cruise lines, there's a separate packet of info for the kids and a listing of day-by-day activities.

 

But you may not get the exact info you're looking for ahead of the cruise, just a general idea. And that's usually good for me. I'll get the newsletter the night before and look through for things I might want to do the next day.

 

As for the ports, I read up on them in guide books (Fodor's, etc) and also google each port and check out various websites. Then I tell my hubby and teen what I found and we decide what we might do in port.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We are cruising with my 3 year old grandson in May. This will be his first cruise and he is very excited about it my worry is that there is not going to be any other children for him to play with in the kids club because are going on May 19th while kids are still in school. We are going to be on the Carnival Pride. What do you all think about him having any playmates? We will also be with our 13 year old granddaughter but I don't worry as much about her because she won't get bored like he will because he has so much energy.

 

You might get more answers if you started your own thread, but here's my answers: there could be some families on board with kids not yet in school. Or families that home school. I think mid-May would be more iffy for many families as school will still be in session until late May at the very earliest. If you could wait a few weeks, the odds will go up.

[giselleacttwo]

We last cruised when my sons were 6 and 8. They had a great time, and when asked, said they'd prefer to go on another cruise rather than go back to Disney World. A rave review, indeed! :cool: We were on a 14 day RT to Hawaii on the Golden Princess and had a total of 8 sea days. During our days in the islands we would rent a car and drive around to various pre-researched kid friendly places. On our sea days, we got into a bit of a schedule. The boys would ask to go to the kids' club upon waking up. We'd feed them breakfast at the buffet first, then take them to the club. Then we'd pick them up for lunch. (We usually took them to the MDR) They'd ask to go back to the kids club after eating lunch, so my husband and I spent our afternoons lounging at the pool. Then we'd pick them up again for dinner. They'd have pizza by the pool and we'd go swimming as a family. Then they wanted to go back to the kids club again after dinner, while my husband and I enjoyed dinner alone in the MDR. It was a perfect family vacation! We enjoyed meals together but my husband and I got plenty of time alone as well!

[askimdog]

We have cruised with our 8 year old. She does not care for Camp Carnival ( and we are not impressed with it either), so she hangs with us. So, everything we do, she does.

 

On the ship she eats with us and does board games, relaxing, book reading, ice cream, trivia etc. We mostly cruise for Ports, and each port she has work sheets for that we make. She gets to eat local foods, spend time with locals, we try to avoid beaches but try to hit museums, schools, orphanages with her. And we always wander a grocery store looking for odd items.

 

We find that keeping everything time-wise as normal as home makes it all easier. We try to eat dinner at 5 like at home, her bedtime of 8/8:30 is the same and her homework time continues...but her free time is more fun.

 

There are no neighbor kids her age and she only plays with kids her age at school m-f, so hanging with her old parents comes normal to her.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We last cruised when my sons were 6 and 8. They had a great time, and when asked, said they'd prefer to go on another cruise rather than go back to Disney World. A rave review, indeed! :cool: We were on a 14 day RT to Hawaii on the Golden Princess and had a total of 8 sea days. During our days in the islands we would rent a car and drive around to various pre-researched kid friendly places. On our sea days, we got into a bit of a schedule. The boys would ask to go to the kids' club upon waking up. We'd feed them breakfast at the buffet first, then take them to the club. Then we'd pick them up for lunch. (We usually took them to the MDR) They'd ask to go back to the kids club after eating lunch, so my husband and I spent our afternoons lounging at the pool. Then we'd pick them up again for dinner. They'd have pizza by the pool and we'd go swimming as a family. Then they wanted to go back to the kids club again after dinner, while my husband and I enjoyed dinner alone in the MDR. It was a perfect family vacation! We enjoyed meals together but my husband and I got plenty of time alone as well!

 

Our last two cruises were the Hawaiian RT on the Golden (12/22/10 and 12/19/12). We love those sea days!

[Prinycesa07]

We are cruising with my 3 year old grandson in May. This will be his first cruise and he is very excited about it my worry is that there is not going to be any other children for him to play with in the kids club because are going on May 19th while kids are still in school. We are going to be on the Carnival Pride. What do you all think about him having any playmates? We will also be with our 13 year old granddaughter but I don't worry as much about her because she won't get bored like he will because he has so much energy.

 

We sailed on the pride in October. My daughter was (almost) 3, my niece was 4. There were a decent amount of kids on board. There were always around 10 kids in the kids club when we would drop them off. We are actually also thinking of sailing on the pride next month as well Without my niece this time so im hoping there will be a good amount of kids like last time :)

[SUSIEK]

Our son is 7 and has been on 9 cruises thus far. He has experienced most of the kids clubs on various lines. So far his favorite has been on Princess. He doesn't do well with large groups of kids and the chaos. Princess had fewer kids in it's programs, when we sail, which allowed for more personal attention.

 

Stuff he likes to do while cruising: scavenger hunts, swimming, ping-pong, mini-golf, games played in kids club - arts/crafts - Wii - ...... he is NEVER bored.