Kids on Longer Cruises

[the2ofus]

Just had a thought. We have taken several cruises of ten days or longer. There have usually been a few younger children aboard with an occasional 'tween ager. I think many of them are children of lecturers or ship's officers. However, on two 14+ day cruises, one to the Southern Caribbean and one to Hawaii, there were one or two families who were home-schooling their children and using the cruise for geography, math and history lessons especially. The children seemed to develop good rapport with the Club HAL staff, got involved in activities like the passengers' Rockin Roldies show and generally were a pleasure to have around.

 

Anyone have similar observations or experiences.

 

RevNeal, I think you might even enjoy having these kids around.:)

[RuthC]

It's just over ten years now since I took my first long cruise---it was a 34-day South Pacific cruise on the old ss Rotterdam. Every morning as I headed through the Ambassador Lounge on the way to the lecture I would pass a man sitting with two children. They had their books out---obviously doing their "school" work. I never thought about home-schooling, just thought they were keeping up with their studies.

There was no established Club HAL in those days. I don't remember seeing those kids around the ship any other time or place, either. I don't know if they missed the company of other children, but can only think what a great opportunity they had. Wonder if they thought that at the time. Or even today?

[c.crawford]

On a fifteen day Circle Hawaii cruise there was only one young person abord. During the long disembarcation Immigration delay, Lord TuFu was called for. A muffeled chuckle went through the ship. Is that a Star Wars or a Stargate character?

[wdw1972]

In 2003 or 2004 my son & I did a 10-day Panama Canal HAL cruise during his spring break. He was one of 5 teens on board, and there were only 21 kids of all ages on the ship (Rotterdam). He was 16 at the time, and never really met the other teens - 2 of them were a smoking boy/girl pair of relatives from Canada, and I met a 15yr old boy on deck once - but my son never met him. He missed the teen gathering on first night because we were in the Pinnacle Grill. He enjoyed the cruise, but would have had more fun if there were more teens (not smokers) his age to hang around with.

 

As a contrast, we did a 7-day Alaska on the Amsterdam and there were about 20 teens on the ship - all really nice kids, who had fun without getting into trouble. We did the Zuiderdam 7-day one summer and there were a lot more kids, and many who were a bad element (underage drinking, for example). I wasn't as comfortable with his "friends" on that cruise!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Have done quite a few long cruises and had very few children on board. Rarely did we see those few children. The parents kept them busy especially in the days when Club HAL wasn't around.

[Druke I]

We also like longer trips - and see few kids - just an occasional "home-schooled" student.

 

I should think most youngsters would not be happy on a longer trip with few of their peers aboard.

[kryos]

I hate to stereotype people ...

 

But the kids you generally get who are homeschooled tend to be from very religious (or Christian) families. Their parents tend to be very active in their children's education and take their parenting duties seriously. You generally won't find these types of homeschooled kids running amok around the ship. They are a joy to sail with ... are very mature and considerate ... and certainly do not adversely affect anyone's cruise experience. They are an absolute joy to be around.

 

And ... their fine behavior is just as much a testament to their parents' skills in raising them as it is to their own good manners and oftentimes religious upbringing. You can see that those good behavior traits are the result of the strong parenting they've received throughout their lives.

 

Only wish more parents cared enough about spending quality family time with their kids on a cruise ... instead of just keeping the kids busy so that they (the parents) could concentrate on having great time. Then you wouldn't read so many horror stories about holiday cruises that you do on these boards.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

 

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita