Sailing with kids who love the pool

[mommamiller04]

Hello! My husband and I are taking my parents on their dream cruise to Alaska along with our two children who will be 11 & 8. We have done 10 cruises but all on RCI, and I understand we won't be taking them since we want to visit Glacier Bay (my mom NEEDS to see a glacier).

 

My kids love cruising, but their favorite part is swimming in the pool. We are planning on going the end of July, so I was wondering if they would be able to swim, and if there is an indoor pool on most cruise ships. I know on RCI there is a covered pool, but it is adults only. They are not fond of the kid's programs (Adventure Ocean on RCI) because they are in separate age groups, and they would prefer to go to together. Is it possible to bump up my 8 year old to the 9-11 group?

 

We are experienced cruises, but I feel like Alaska is completely foreign to us. So, I am feeling a little nervous about it. Any feedback about cruising with kids would be appreciated! Thank you!!

 

Angela

[Coral]

Are you looking at one way cruises or round trip cruises?

 

On Princess one way trips - you get 2 glacier days (YEA!) and all of the 3 ships have covered pools (Coral Princess, Island Princess and Star Princess).

 

Usually the 2 ships out of Seattle with Princess have pools, but none are covered. Not sure of the other lines.

[shadowmeboy]

In July the weather can be cool but it can be warm, but having sailed AK twice you can still use the pool. Having an outdoor pool allows you to see the scenery while enjoying the pool & deck.

[RaiderCruiser]

Nothing to be worried about. It is a great trip. It is very different from the Caribbean in that your priorities change, IMHO. Food and long dinners are not as important, same thing with the shows. The ships features are less a priority, while site seeing and touring take the spot light.

 

Still time for the kids to swim some, but while sea days on a Caribbean cruise mean find something to do on the ship since there is nothing to see but water, in Alaska there is always the opportunity to see sites and wildlife.

[chipmaster]

Pool was open on my last two Alaska cruise, lots of kids in the hot tubs... funny what kids think is fun.

 

I'd pick the cruise for the stops/scenic cruising and other things.

[Coral]

In July the weather can be cool but it can be warm, but having sailed AK twice you can still use the pool. Having an outdoor pool allows you to see the scenery while enjoying the pool & deck.

 

The ships I mentioned have both an inside and outside pools.

 

There are benefits to a covered pool, if the weather is not cooperating.

 

I prefer the ships with both covered and uncovered pools.

[sherryf]

There have always been plenty of kids in the pools when we've cruised end of July.

 

As for kids clubs, not all have the same age ranges. Princess Shockwaves is 8-12 years old, so your kids could be together. However, when we went in 2011, there were enough kids in that group to split them 8-10 and 11-12.

[CaribbeanIsland]

I like the option of having an indoor pool due to cooler/wet climate possibilities. Also warmer for the little ones.

[OCruisers]

Consider Holland America! HAL along with Princess has a long time reputation of providing wonderful Alaskan cruises.

HAL has wonderful covered/heated pools and does way much better with their programs for children than you might expect.

Certainly, Princess would be one to consider as well.

 

LuLu

[sherryf]

I like the option of having an indoor pool due to cooler/wet climate possibilities. Also warmer for the little ones.

 

You'd think so, but it's not always true. There have been times on my cruises when the outdoor pool has been warmer, perhaps because they are making more of an effort to heat it.

[lupaglupa]

Consider Holland America! HAL along with Princess has a long time reputation of providing wonderful Alaskan cruises.

HAL has wonderful covered/heated pools and does way much better with their programs for children than you might expect.

Certainly, Princess would be one to consider as well.

 

LuLu

 

I second this - my son (11 years old) loves Club HAL and the retractable roof over Holland America ships means you can swim in almost all weathers. We loved our HAL cruise for other reasons too - much more than NCL

[etoilefj]

We went on the Crown Princess in 2014 at the end of June/beginning of July and had great weather. My (then) 5 year old loved the pools and like most kids doesn't really care if it's too cold for adults to swim (I watched from the sidelines a few times). This year we're sailing on Celebrity and she's already told us she wants to swim everyday...we'll be going in May :o so I will watch from the hot tub!

[CaribbeanIsland]

I second this - my son (11 years old) loves Club HAL and the retractable roof over Holland America ships means you can swim in almost all weathers. We loved our HAL cruise for other reasons too - much more than NCL

 

I also agree. Prefer the ships with pools that have retractable roofs.

[TheCalicoCat]

 

My kids love cruising, but their favorite part is swimming in the pool. We are planning on going the end of July, so I was wondering if they would be able to swim, and if there is an indoor pool on most cruise ships.

 

Any feedback about cruising with kids would be appreciated! Thank you!!

 

Angela

 

Not about RCCL, we chose HAL, but or 4.5 year old loved the AK cruise that we took a couple years ago in June.

 

There were people in the pools & hot tubs. (We didn't pack swim gear.)

 

We are going back in 2017 for a 14-night cruise & will bring swim gear this time.:)