Kids on Cruise Tours?

[JSSpence]

Apologies for all of my recent posts, I am knee-deep in planning.  We are planning a SB cruise for 2021, and our son will be nearly 10 at the time. We definitely want to do a land-portion prior to the cruise. Are there many kids on the cruise tour options? None of the itineraries I've seen so far are "perfect" so I'm starting to think about the DIY approach for the land. But I also don't want to keep my kid cooped up with just us, if there are typically other kids on the cruise tours that he could hang out with. (Note: I'm going to crosspost this on other boards for the cruise lines and family cruising). Thanks!!!

[AKStafford]

3 hours ago, JSSpence said:

Are there many kids on the cruise tour options?

I'm starting to think about the DIY approach for the land.

if there are typically other kids on the cruise tours that he could hang out with.

I drove motorcoach for Holland America for two years here in Alaska. Typically there wasn't kids on Cruisetours and if there was, they were the only ones.

 

I personally think DIY is the way to see Alaska. It gives you the flexibility to pick the activities, lodging and dining that you want to do. And there's nothing offered on a cruisetour that can't be done on a DIY  trip.

[prim8keeper]

I second the DIY is probably the way to go since it will give you control over what you are doing, i.e. you can tailor it to include some things you know your child will find interesting or just leave if it is becoming painful. While we did not do a cruise tour ourselves, we did DIY, the hotel in Anchorage we were staying at was a base for a lot of them. Every day we would watch the buses come and go with large groups of people. Honestly it seems like they spent a ton of time waiting, which I think would be painful for a kid, and it confirmed in my head that we made the right decision doing it on our own. Often they would be waiting as we would walk out and hop into the small van for the private small group tour we had planned. We too are going back in 2021 and plan to go DIY again so we can see exactly what we want.

[oaktreerb]

I’ve been on a lot of cruise tours and only once did we  have a couple of very well behaved children (8,9 years old).   They had  each other and their hand held devices to play with.  If you don’t want to do a DIY take a look at Disney Cruises in Alaska.