A lot of children aboard the Riviera over Christmas?

[dcsam]

We’re considering the Riviera cruise for next Christmas.  It’s a 14 night cruise, so that may help keep the numbers of kids down.  I’m just curious if anybody is on the ship now and can give me a feel for the number of kids?  Are there a lot of kids in the pool? If so, we may opt for an earlier cruise. 

Thank you

[Jancruz]

Its way to early to know about Christmas 2019 but there are usually a lot of kids on over Christmas..Definitely not my first choice..

Jancruz1

[pinotlover]

US school calendars are typically fairly predictable. One will find very few Oceania cruises that are aligned to facilitate those schedules during the holidays. I don’t believe it is done by accident. Children are more typically seen during the summer months.

[dcsam]

Thank you.  I think we’ll look at an earlier cruise.  Between risk of loads of kids and higher cost (Christmas cruise), we’ll be better off booking a non-holiday cruise. 

Thank you

[GeezerCouple]

We were on a Riviera Christmas & New Year's cruise a couple of years ago, and we were surprised how few children we saw... and certainly no mis-behaving children.

(This was *so* different from a larger cruise line/ship the year before, where there were literally marauding bands of children charging out of elevators, seemingly deliberately running right into anyone nearby waiting to get on - even if there was space open to depart.  And in the hallways, and in the public areas. NEVER again.  But NOTHING like that on the Riviera!)

 

There seemed to be a "children" (maybe "teen"?) area on the little patio area (opposite side of the ship from the Sanctuary area), and we almost never saw anyone in there.

 

IF there were lots of children, we didn't notice them.  However, we tended to spend our "water time" in the Spa therapy pool, so we can't speak to the main pool usage.

 

But we've stopped traveling on the major holidays now that DH can easily schedule his trips at other times.  Just about everything/place is less crowded in general (including availability of private excursions), and the prices are, as mentioned, usually a bit better, too.

But this was *not* because of "problems with children" on our holiday cruise on the Riviera. 

Perhaps we were just lucky (or somehow oblivious!?).

GC

 

 

[Andee]

We're on the Marina now, boarded Dec 14. I've seen 6 children, but they're hardly ever visible.

[LHT28]

On our July cruise apparently  there were 40 children  I counted 10  so not sure where they hid the rest 😉

[KS&JW]

I am on the Riviera now.  There are quite a few young people, teenagers or early twenties. However,  I think I have only seen two children. 

[pinotlover]

This has been a entertaining read. The OP started out by asking about “lots”(???) of children, The jumped in post #3 to “loads” (???) of children. Then recently followed up by “ a few” being currently on board.

 

While realizing some posters here consider any number above zero (0)  as being to large, I can say I have never seen “ lots” or “ loads” of under 20 year old passengers on any Oceania cruise . I have witnessed a “ few”, with that being defined as 20 or less on one cruise. Typically, the number has been less  than 5. It should be added that there were zero issues witnessed by us with the children and the overall conduct of those ~20 young passengers was better than that of several adults.

[Nachosdelux]

Just throw the unruly kids overboard when no one is looking.

 

Problem solved.

[BarbaraM]

23 hours ago, pinotlover said:

 

 

While realizing some posters here consider any number above zero (0)  as being to large, I can say I have never seen “ lots” or “ loads” of under 20 year old passengers on any Oceania cruise . I have witnessed a “ few”, with that being defined as 20 or less on one cruise. Typically, the number has been less  than 5. It should be added that there were zero issues witnessed by us with the children and the overall conduct of those ~20 young passengers was better than that of several adults.

Our experience on the Riviera this past summer -- 100 + children for back to back cruises in the Med.  Babies to under age 21 -- tables of 4-6 in specialties with children only under the age of 10-- under 3's dining with parents and grandparents.  Luckily, it was a port intensive cruise.   There was a large group from a wine organization on one segment , closing some venues for their get togethers, maybe that was the source of the families with young children?? The kids weren't all well behaved -- we had kids running in the hallways screaming after 10pm.  I felt sorry for the staff in the specialties trying to keep the kids controlled.  This was more than we have experienced on Celebrity during the same time in the Med.  Last time for us with Oceania in the Med in the summer.  Fortunately, we can now travel at other times of the year.  

[dcsam]

We ended up booking the December 5 (10 night) cruise aboard the Riviera.  Love the Christmas itinerary.  But cost and chance of loads of kids convinced me earlier was better.  

[cbb]

Geez, I love kids but now BarbaraM has me concerned about our Baltic/NEurope/Greenland-Iceland b2b summer of 2019.   

 

Edited December 29, 2018 by cbb

[LHT28]

2 minutes ago, cbb said:

Geez, I love kids but now BarbaraM has me concerned about our Baltic/NEurope/Greenland-Iceland b2b summer of 2019.   

 

Hopefully  there will not be  a problem

We did Norway in July as I said  I only saw 10 kids but the GM said there were 40 

Those we saw were  well behaved & with responsible parents

 

[cbb]

we chose to sail the Med in May or Sept/Oct just to avoid those darn tourists in the cities--Greece in May...gorgeous, Lisbon in Sept--wonderful!   And I'd travel with our Munchkin anywhere, anytime--excellent kid with manners ....and whispers in corridors!!! 

[orchestrapal]

3 hours ago, BarbaraM said:

Our experience on the Riviera this past summer -- 100 + children for back to back cruises in the Med.  Babies to under age 21 -- tables of 4-6 in specialties with children only under the age of 10-- under 3's dining with parents and grandparents.  Luckily, it was a port intensive cruise.   There was a large group from a wine organization on one segment , closing some venues for their get togethers, maybe that was the source of the families with young children?? The kids weren't all well behaved -- we had kids running in the hallways screaming after 10pm.  I felt sorry for the staff in the specialties trying to keep the kids controlled.  This was more than we have experienced on Celebrity during the same time in the Med.  Last time for us with Oceania in the Med in the summer.  Fortunately, we can now travel at other times of the year.  

 

Sounds dreadful...

We have been very lucky on Oceania off season and will continue traveling while  the little darlings are in school.

[minirottie]

 

On 12/29/2018 at 3:01 PM, BarbaraM said:

Our experience on the Riviera this past summer -- 100 + children for back to back cruises in the Med.  Babies to under age 21 -- tables of 4-6 in specialties with children only under the age of 10-- under 3's dining with parents and grandparents.  Luckily, it was a port intensive cruise.   There was a large group from a wine organization on one segment , closing some venues for their get togethers, maybe that was the source of the families with young children?? The kids weren't all well behaved -- we had kids running in the hallways screaming after 10pm.  I felt sorry for the staff in the specialties trying to keep the kids controlled.  This was more than we have experienced on Celebrity during the same time in the Med.  Last time for us with Oceania in the Med in the summer.  Fortunately, we can now travel at other times of the year.  

I wonder did that cruise have the kids specialty program? We did Regatta (Alaska) this past summer and there was a Junior Explorer program that my 11 year old daughter participated in, along with at least 10+ other kids. They enjoyed it and most of the children seemed to be aged 10 and up, and were all well behaved thankfully, whether on the deck, in the pool/hot tub, or in dining areas 🙂