Advice with kids

[turtlemichael]

Just a word of encouragement to the OP. We have recently completed Silversea's World Cruise and have no complaints, only compliments for what was the best cruise of our lives. While there were no world cruising children there were a small number who came on for different segments during the course of the cruise. Their parents had either just booked a segment separately in the usual way or they were guests of grandparenting world cruisers for a segment or two.  I can say from my point of view the kids were welcome as a slice of the real world (which a world cruise is certainly not!). Their behavior was certainly better than a tiny minority of older cruisers who I am hopeful I don't cruise with again. Enjoy your family cruise.

Edited July 2, 2019 by turtlemichael

[bethtex]

With 11 children about the same age, I think you will be in good shape.  We have traveled all over with our kids and do not find taking care of them to diminish our enjoyment of travel.

We were on a cruise once when the line went bankrupt and had to entertain kids on the ship without the planned youth program

We organized our own poker tournament, swimming meets, etc.  Shuffleboard, ping pong, etc make great kids events.  Maybe plan to do on the one sea day while everyone else is at dinner so the courts are open.  Then have your own movie night with room service.  

Charades also work great with kids and don't take packing anything.

A scavenger hunt with an adult in charge of each team should be lots of fun.  Use cell phones to take pictures for the scavenger hunt - can make it to take pictures in each part of the ship rather than finding and bringing objects back.

I have not been on SS before, but maybe if you ask they could do a "make your own Pizza" or similar for them for lunch.  Or a kids cooking class.  Or ice cream sundae bar.  

Maybe look up videos on making towel animals - my kids favorite when they were young on Carnival.

Have a great time!

 

 

[wripro]

16 hours ago, turtlemichael said:

Just a word of encouragement to the OP. We have recently completed Silversea's World Cruise and have no complaints, only compliments for what was the best cruise of our lives. While there were no world cruising children there were a small number who came on for different segments during the course of the cruise. Their parents had either just booked a segment separately in the usual way or they were guests of grandparenting world cruisers for a segment or two.  I can say from my point of view the kids were welcome as a slice of the real world (which a world cruise is certainly not!). Their behavior was certainly better than a tiny minority of older cruisers who I am hopeful I don't cruise with again. Enjoy your family cruise.

Consider yourself lucky. I have had too many cruises ruined by our of control kids and out of touch parents.

[Travelcat2]

On 7/2/2019 at 7:33 PM, bethtex said:

 

 

I have not been on SS before, but maybe if you ask they could do a "make your own Pizza" or similar for them for lunch.  Or a kids cooking class.  Or ice cream sundae bar.  

Maybe look up videos on making towel animals - my kids favorite when they were young on Carnival.

 

If Silversea really wanted children on their cruises, they would set up a children program during the summer as Crystal does.  I cannot see the staff taking time away from passengers to do any special children oriented activities.  Luxury cruise lines that do have children programs have to hire extra crew for the children ...... something that Silversea has obviously not done.  In my opinion, Silversea is rather passive/aggressive when it comes to children.

 

 

 

[Master Echo]

Having just disembarked Silver Shadow, where there were ten young children and a number of teenagers, SS brought on a Children's Counsellor to provide entertainment for the former. This was conducted in the ship's conference room, well out of the way from the normal passenger flows.  This meant that the young cohort were almost invisible during the day.

 

The Hotel Director was firm in ensuring that the all parents with children under the age of 21, were informed of the rules relating to, in particular, swimming pool behaviour.  This meant that no drinks glasses inside the wooden pool surround and no jumping into the water, however this was not adhered to universally.  Sadly the absence of parental supervision, meant that pool deck staff had to pick up the role of the parent in enforcing the rules. 

 

One mother was observed lowering her baby which was wearing nappies/diapers into the pool, which caused great offence to fellow passengers.  The HD bought a child's paddling pool at the next port to provide to water based activities for the very young children.

 

As has been noted several times above, some parents seem to think they should have no responsibility for the actions of their children, and it is this that causes severe irritation to other passengers.  If children, as some posters have said above, are well behaved and used to being in this kind of environment, no one including "old grumpy passengers" would object!

 

Kindest regards

 

Master Echo.

[Bullswood]

One or two of those who kindly offered advice above have requested feedback on how our trip went, so here goes...

 

In short, it was a great success and we all had a wonderful time on our Baltic cruise on Silver Spirit. Staff from boarding through to cabin service and restaurants were uniformly charming, and fellow passengers likewise. I was told that there were 35 under 18's on board out of 550 or so total, (though we didn't see any babies or toddlers) and Silversea made a great effort to provide for them with a Youth Counsellor, who was introduced as we boarded, and a daily program of activities delivered to each cabin with kids. Kids' menus were available in all restaurants. Activities for the 6-11s, for example, included crafts and board games, Lego making with a complimentary bag of goodies, a treasure hunt, ice cream making, a movie night with popcorn and pizza, ping pong and shuffleboard competitions and even the offer of a trip to the bridge (not taken up as it was on a port day). 

The kids, as far as I could see, were well behaved and ours enjoyed chess games and jigsaw making with senior fellow passengers. 

I was initially a little surprised by the low take-up (maybe half a dozen on average) at the organised events but in fairness there was only one sea day and the rest of the days included long & exhausting activities ashore. For our group, we tailored private shore excursions to include a mix of child friendly activities (e.g. Tivoli in Copenhagen, the marvellous Seaplane Harbour in Tallinn and The Grand Maket, Shadow Museum  & Matryoshka Painting in St Petersburg). Other parents with whom I spoke were uniformly appreciative of Silversea's efforts in providing kids' activities on board but as one said, it was actually a rare opportunity for some working parent/child bonding so they didn't really want to send the kids off for the day anyway (hence perhaps the choice not to go with a more child oriented cruise line).

Once again, thanks to those who offered constructive advice and encouragement, and for those with children wondering about Silversea, if you appreciate quality time together and relish a few days spent as a family, go for it. One caveat would be to plan your own shore excursions - most kids aren't up for the generally slow progress of large groups and long days in museums, or even shopping expeditions, and going it alone enables the places and pace to be of one's own choice. That actually suits me just fine as I prefer to avoid the regimentation of organised tours, kids in tow or not!

 

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by Bullswood