First time cruise with family

[Sikey]

Hi

We are a family of five who are looking to go on our first ever cruise next year. Looking at May, June or July. Really want to find the right cruise as it will be our first big holiday in years. 

Can anyone advise what  cruise or ship would be suited to keeps our kids aged 9, 12 and 13 occupied and happy. What ships have best facilities like  water slides, pools cinema's and things like that. We would preferably like to sail from UK but flying to port isn't out of the question either. Would like to do 10 or 12 days maybe. Any advice would be great please.

Thanks

[mom says]

You don't say what country you live in, but I'm going to assume UK. I'd suggest, since this is your first cruise, that you find a local travel agent with experience with cruises. They are best able to guide you through the selection process of cruise line, ship, and itinerary that best meets your preferences and budget. But all else being equal, if you want all the bells and whistles for your kids, look at the Oasis class Royal Caribbean ships.

 

But also realize that most European cruises have very port intensive itineraries, so you won't be spending that many day time hours actually on the ship (unless you don't go ashore).

[Essiesmom]

It would help to know what kind of travel you have already done as a family, and where.  But if you are from the UK, your home cruise line would P&O-UK.  They cater to families on Britannia, Ventura, Iona, Arvia.  (Arcadia and Aurora are adults only).  I would avoid Princess, Celebrity as their ships would not have the attractions your kids want.  Also Oceania, Regent, Silversea and the other premium and luxury lines.  I see Disney will have a ship in play by June, but I think your kids may be over Disney by now, and their prices will give you a stroke.  Also have a look at NCL, particularly their larger, newer ships, and MSC.  Cunard is too traditional and will not have what your kids want.  
I suggest you go to cruisetimetables.com and choose ‘cruise from’ and select desirable ports.  I only checked Southampton, but if you are willing to fly you might consider Barcelona and Civitavecchia (Rome).  You can also look at Athens, but not in July as the eastern Med. Can be beastlynhot in July.    EM

Edited October 20, 2023 by Essiesmom

[Host Kat]

6 hours ago, Sikey said:

Hi

We are a family of five who are looking to go on our first ever cruise next year. Looking at May, June or July. Really want to find the right cruise as it will be our first big holiday in years. 

Can anyone advise what  cruise or ship would be suited to keeps our kids aged 9, 12 and 13 occupied and happy. What ships have best facilities like  water slides, pools cinema's and things like that. We would preferably like to sail from UK but flying to port isn't out of the question either. Would like to do 10 or 12 days maybe. Any advice would be great please.

Thanks

 

Hello @Sikey and welcome to the Cruise Critic message board!

 

I see on one of the Host/Administrator Only software features, your IP address IS in UK. You might enjoy our UK Cruisers and The Pub forums. Here are other links to our forums mentioned above in no particular order: Royal Caribbean International, P&O Cruises ( UK ), Norwegian Cruise Line, MSC Cruises and if the kids are still into it, Disney Cruise Line

 

Thank you for your new topic on the Ask a Cruise Question forum! However, it is the forum for general questions regarding cruising. Your inquiry concerns a specific type of cruise and is off topic there.

 

To help you out I have moved your new topic to the Family Cruises forum where it will be on topic. The majority of your fellow Cruise Critic members that have sailed family cruises frequent this forum and provide feedback here. If sailing with kids, it is our forum for the best family cruising advice. Browse through the thread titles on this forum looking for threads of interest. You will probably find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that may be of interest to you.

 

The Cruise Critic website and message boards are great resources for new as well as experienced cruisers and we are so glad you found us! Please feel free to browse the Cruise Critic Community categories list for the various forums. Please read a few threads in the different forums to get a feel for what each forum is about. Make sure you read any pinned threads (aka Stickies) on the top of the first page of threads in most forums. You will find very important instructions or information there.

 

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So sorry this is so long, but I sincerely hope this additional information will be helpful to someone new to posting on our message boards. We are glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic! 

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

 

[Sikey]

 

 

14 hours ago, Sikey said:

Hi

We are a family of five who are looking to go on our first ever cruise next year. Looking at May, June or July. Really want to find the right cruise as it will be our first big holiday in years. 

Can anyone advise what  cruise or ship would be suited to keeps our kids aged 9, 12 and 13 occupied and happy. What ships have best facilities like  water slides, pools cinema's and things like that. We would preferably like to sail from UK but flying to port isn't out of the question either. Would like to do 10 or 12 days maybe. Any advice would be great please.

Thanks

 

[kitkat343]

Actually, you should speak to your kids to get their input on this big trip.  Would they like to go to a beach?  Would they like to visit cities?  If they have traveled in the past, where have they gone and how have they enjoyed it?

 

In Europe, my two favorite cruises were the Baltic cruise and Norway.  there are Norway cruises that leave from Southampton, and if you think your kids would enjoy exploring places with stunning views that might be an option.  My favorite ports were Flam, Olden and Geiranger.  In Flam, there was an amazing railroad and we also visited a goat farm.  In Olden you can hike to a glacier (it's been hit hard by global warming but is quite pretty.) and take a gondola to the top of a mountain, and in Geiranger there are lots of beautiful scenic outposts.  

 

I also liked my Baltic cruise, and there's lots in Stockholm (Vasa, open air lemurs in Skansen), Copenhagen and Tallinn for kids (I loved St. Petersburg but that could be quite awhile).

 

My kids (13, 8, 5) preferred Royal Caribbean over other cruise lines, although Princess has a very good kids club (no waterslides though).  Surprisingly, we sailed an old unimpressive RC ship (Adventure of the Seas) and my kids preferred it to the megaship we sailed on NCL (Getaway).  The Getaway was in much better shape, but it was much easier to get around AOS, and the food was much better on RC, so I'd start with that.  

 

But if you think your kids would like itinerary and travel, consider Princess or even Cunard (we took a 2 and 4 year old on Cunard for Norway and that trip worked since they loved the ports).  If they want ship amenities like waterslides try newer RC ships.

 

And if you can afford it, consider private tours for just your family.  Thea ability to control your itinerary and take breaks whenever the kids get overwhelmed might be the difference between enjoying the tour and dragging miserable teens/tweens everywhere.  Whenever my kids started to get cranky, we'd stop for gelato and they would cheer up.

 

If you are sailing for itinerary, just be careful with NCL.  On our last cruise, one month prior to sailing NCL announced that they were cancelling the stop in the DR and the morning of Antigua to help the environment.  My children had wanted to visit a giant tortoise island that only has tours in the morning, so I contacted NCL to request that we be able to switch to an identical sailing a few weeks later, but they denied that request because they dropped the ports after final payment.  They continued to advertise the original itinerary, and didn't let passengers who booked after the port cancellations change their reservations either.  This has been happening to a number of NCL sailings so if you chose NCL make sure you check private tour operators refund schedules prior to booking:

 

 

For NCL, also check the recent ship reviews to see if they are diverting similar sailings to yours and where they might be going.  For the DR they'd cancelled that a lot, so I knew I needed to research Nassau and GSK as backups but we wound up with an extra sea day.  

[Sikey]

Thanks for all that info. Appreciated. I will definitely ask the kids what they think

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 10/20/2023 at 6:44 PM, Essiesmom said:

I would avoid Princess

my 12 yo loves Princess ships, even though he doesn't even do kid's club.

[katealpha]

We've done P&O, Fred Olsen, Royal Carribean and Princess from Southampton and my kids liked Princess the best. The RC ship had the water park but it was such a large ship it meant tons of queueing for all the activities and they were really disappointed not to make the cut for some things. You'd queue for 30 minutes for ice skating and then get told, no more ice skating today. They were tiny when we went onb Fred Olsen so don't really remember it but it is a great itinerary that went from Southampton down to the south of Spain as far as Barcelona and back so we got opportunities to go to the beach as well as a bit of sightseeing for the adults. P&O wasn't too bad but the kids clubs they found boring, whereas the kids clubs in Princess they wanted to go all the time, indeed rather than get off the ship! This was a Norwegian Fjords cruise in the summer and offered something for everyone but meant we got to relax on the ship while they were in the kids club but we also did lots of family stuff like some of the quizzes, movies under the stars, some of the concerts and shows together. On Princess and P&O I felt the ships were ok for them to free range a bit out of our sight but the RC ship was really too big and busy for that. It's a factor that puts us off the larger ships, as well as the queueing. I would do RC again, it was a good cruise, but maybe when the kids are older and it feels a bit like Disneyland where I am in constant fear of losing them if I relax for a moment.

Edited December 11, 2023 by katealpha