Q for family travelers who've done cruises before (re: attitudes)

[Smartcookie]

But I'm worried, Can I have fun if I'm constantly being looked down upon? Do you actually get that snooty feeling once you're on the ship?

~AIL

 

Don't give it a second thought! Cruising is the LEAST snooty vacation next to camping! The fact that cruising is for the upper crust is a MYTH. The average income of mass market cruisers is something like 40K-50K, so I can't imagine who is going to be looking down on you, it is an extremely middle class vacation.

 

Go and have fun and when you see who is cruising, you're going to say "This is who I was worried about"? A lot of people on message boards are full of themselves, they only pretend to be something they're not.

 

PS, Don't worry about dressing formally either, a simple black cocktail dress is far more elegant than some of those hideous ball gowns some people trot out for formal night. ;)

[lvz2cruz]

I think you will be very happy on RCI. They are known to target families with mini-golf, ice skating, etc. We have 3 kids and cruise Celebrity because they allow 5 in a room (another cost-saving tip, I could not imagine paying for 2 rooms. We'll share and go on twice as many!!!)

Don't let grumpy people who do not like kids intimidate you, the poor souls are just miserable and want to make the rest of us miserable. We were on a cruise and someone had a sleeping baby in the theater and some lady kept pointing and making disapproving faces. The baby was sleeping, why did this bother her? To me it made her look like the nuisance, not the sleeping baby!

I will also totally agree that people on these boards are much ruder than on the ship. Once my roll call had a very difficult person that I dreaded meeting and they put on their happy face and were most pleasant on the cruise.

As far as dress, I'll tell you what I tell my girls: there will always be those whose clothes you envy and another bunch that envy what you have. Be grateful and enjoy what you have.

Go and have a great time, you will laugh at how much you worried over nothing--we all do the same.

[wrangler4u]

We went on our first cruise with our 18 month old twin girls. Well, overall it was fantastic. In fact I cant imagine any other way of traveling with our girls until they reach the age of 5-6 and we go to disney land! haha. We only had one negative comment and that was on our first night at dinner. The table next to us didn't like the few little squeaks my girls made, even though we took them back to our rooms as soon as they started to make noise. After that we switched to the late seating dinner, and put the girls to bed after feeding them dinner in our cabin. We then had a sitter come in.

 

Not a problem for us in the least. We were able to have dinner alone and that was our time on our cruise. What was really funny is that a few nights later we saw the same people sitting near the cova cafe (they had just finished dinner and we were waiting to go into dinner) and one of the fuddy duddies has his pants unbuttoned and fly down. I thought that was much worse than the few squaks my girls made!

 

Also, we had three formal nights. I wore my long back dress on two and just added diffent broches, pins, or jewelry, or wraps, ponchos, etc. On the third night I wore a diffent dress. There were other ladies in full on cocktail dress, some in prom style, others in dresses like mine. I think some of it is your attitude too. If you wear your favorite dress or get a spiffy dress to wear you will look beautiful. My husband actually ended up renting a tux through the ship, and he was covered for all the formal nights and the semi formal too if he wanted. A lot easer than having to pack all the ties, and coats etc.

 

Most people were so friendly and loving to our girls. As were the crew. Just remember there will always be some people that just dont know how to have fun but that doesnt have to be your problem. Enjoy your vacation. We are from Medford, Oregon.

[Cruising Aussie Mum]

I agree, go and have fun. I think most people accept ( and hopefully even like) children, as long as they are well-behaved and the parents take charge when they are not (because they all have their moments)!:p

Having said that, has anyone read the post on another board (mentionned and accessable via cruise critic's home page) asking what people most try to avoid when selecting a cruise? Most mentionned seems to be avoiding cruises with children!!! Sad isn't it?:(

[babytraveler]

I had to laugh on cruise. Very few neg comments, but one lady remarked, as we were waiting in line for food, about a table of chatty kids. "Loud kids." she sighed. Then she proceded to click her nails against her food tray for the entire lenth of the line and whisted the whole time, too! Gee, I couldn't hear those loud kids over her body noises.

[Warm Breezes]

Go and have fun. I'm not one to care what others think when taking our children on cruises. We will be going on our fourth this December and the kids are looking forward to it as much as we are. I have never felt that we have been looked down upon. As for formal nights I picked up some nice formal dresses for DD and myself on e-bay very inexpensive. DD (9) loves to dress up for formal night and even had some older teenage boys tell her she looked beautiful and asked her if she had a date on our cruise last year. You should have seen her blush!! DH wears a nice suit and DS (12) dress pants with a shirt & tie. The kids like the fact that we don't feel like we are doing a weeks worth of traveling and yet they get to see many exotic places. I like to see everything through my kids eys. Oh to be a kid again!! Have fun and don't worry about a thing.:D

[Dawniepoo]

We have taken a few cruises with our kids. The latest was with my new baby who was 8 months at the time. Our entire vacation we felt like royalty for the way the crew AND passengers treated us i.e. holding doors and gooo goooing (sp?);)

[JCSM-Mom]

Thank you for the responses and encouragement.

 

We're traveling RCL to the mexican riveria in October (a time when there may be less kids than normal d/t school (??)).

 

Jayne I'm from So. Oregon too. Lived here all of my life (Except for my stint in Eugene at UofO 1996-2000).

 

I am not so much worried about my children's behavior. They are generally well behaved and understand concepts of politeness and not running and adults-only etc.

 

I think I was (am?) more worried that it is ME and my husband who will be out of place, and that having kids along will only make everyone think worse of us. The formal attire issue is one that has really stressed me out. I went on the "cruise fashion" board to get an idea for what "formal" is, because honestly I'm not a girly-girl, I dont' often dress up in more than a summery skirt, and I had no idea how fancy was fancy. After reading a lot of the posts on that board I felt like cruising was maybe not for me. I dont' like to be around adults who act like children or frat boys or who get intoxicated and agressive, but I also don't like being around adults who think they're so much better than everyone else because they can afford to buy 2 different formal dresses with matching bags and wraps and shoes and jewlery. I go on vacation to relax and while I also believe in the things that I teach my children (to be polite and respectful and patient and have empathy for others), but I don't go out of my way to be "formal" and "refined". KWIM?

 

Anyway, thanks again for your encouragement. I hope that we'll go and this will all seem silly after we get there.

 

~AIL

 

Hi -

 

I think you'll be fine. I also live in Southern Oregon. We took DS to the Mexican Riveria when he was 14 months old, on Celebrity. I have never had a problem traveling with my children. We took DS and DD on the Voyager last November and are planning a B2B next October with both.

 

Formal on the cruise ships isn't the same as it was say 10 years ago. You'll see people wearing what I call 'Sunday Church Clothes' to tuxes.

For us, DH wears a suit & tie and I'll wear more of a cocktail type dress, and sometime I guess it's I don't like to spend a lot of money on my formal wear either. I usually look for clearance sales.

 

The staff on the ships are really great with kids.

 

Happy sailing.

[txracefan]

Don't worry about what you do or how much you make just have a good time.WE come from a really small town I am not going to pay $200 for a dress i'll never wear again.I have a dress I bought for a formal wedding ,will have to do.I have a 3year old GD and 17 year old GS.Iwork in a Primary School so kids are ok with me .I am 60 and my husband is 66 so we are not in the young group.

[jamandamn14]

An upper-crust, older generation who can't stand the "average" person who has a family and who SAVES to go on a cruise.

Some of the message boards on this site are a bit worse than others, and there are always posts from people saying "who cares what others think, have fun!"....

 

We live in a rural-ish area (pop 70,000) and are probably considered middle class (I'm a nurse, husband's a writer). Our 2 kids ages 3 and 8 are well behaved for the most part but the 3 yo does get naughty sometimes. They aren't "run amok" kids but they aren't "children should be seen and not heard" kids either.

 

~AIL

 

I think personally it depends what message board or cruiseline you are on I think you will find rccls target market is middle class and celebrity is more upper middle class, it depends on which cruiseline and so which message board, I think you will find that on a cruise there is no class divide even Im told on cunard where they have different classes on the cruise, there are no class division and "very little looking down there nose"

[jamandamn14]

An upper-crust, older generation who can't stand the "average" person who has a family and who SAVES to go on a cruise.

Some of the message boards on this site are a bit worse than others, and there are always posts from people saying "who cares what others think, have fun!"....

 

We live in a rural-ish area (pop 70,000) and are probably considered middle class (I'm a nurse, husband's a writer). Our 2 kids ages 3 and 8 are well behaved for the most part but the 3 yo does get naughty sometimes. They aren't "run amok" kids but they aren't "children should be seen and not heard" kids either.

 

~AIL

 

I think personally it depends what message board or cruiseline you are on I think you will find rccls target market is middle class and celebrity is more upper middle class, it depends on which cruiseline and so which message board, I think you will find that on a cruise there is no class divide even Im told on cunard where they have different classes on the cruise, there are no class division and "very little looking down there nose"

[christineann]

My kids and I have been on two cruises - both Royal Caribbean, one in 2003 and then in June this year. We are on a tight budget, and this is a very big vacation for us, and we have never felt that we didn't fit in. We have been at tables for 8-10 both cruises and have had a fantastic time with our table mates. My kids are now 21 and 18. We love the family atmosphere of Royal Caribbean, and having lots of kids, including very young ones, around does not bother us at all. We never saw any kids misbehaving and really enjoyed seeing the excitement on their faces, especially the last morning at breakfast in the Windjammer. Let's face it........we all need a good laugh to get over leaving the ship. Four kids, aged 1 to about 3, were fascinated at the view of the pier and were pressed up against the windows next to our table. The parents came up to our table (they were sitting at the next table) to remove the kids because they didn't want them to bother us, and we had to convince them to let the kids stay there.

 

I don't have any exremely formal dresses, but I do have dressy silk dresses that I wore on formal nights. My daughter wore silk and/or chiffon knee length dresses that she wore to her semi-formal dance and prom this year.

 

Go and enjoy yourself - a cruise is a fantastic vacation!

[Need2Cruze]

Hi AIL! I truly think that like everything else in life, your cruise experience is what you make of it. There are always going to be people who share different opinions than us, but that's just different strokes. We went on a cruise 2 years ago when my oldest son was only 3 1/2 months old. At one of his well check-ups before we left, (being a first time mom with all kinds of questions) I told the nurse practitioner that we were going to Bermuda and asked if it was ok to use sunscreen on the baby, or should we just stay out of the sun altogether. She replied "You're taking him with you? Why on earth would you do that?!" I just thought that was the strangest reply... But there are plenty of people I know that love to go on vacation without their little ones (my BIL being one of them and his boy is only 4). I can't even imagine going off without my two kids. Maybe I'm just crazy and overprotective, but I feel like even though it's a hassle with all that you have to bring along to be prepared, I would so rather do that than miss them and worry about them. I don't think I would be able to relax.

Anyway, don't worry about it. There are plenty of people who love kids. The crew really seemed to love being in the company of my little guy 2 years ago - a lot of them hadn't seen their own kids in months so they loved playing with him and making him laugh. And there are always all kinds of people from different walks of life, so you will always find people you can relate to. And just like in everyday life, there will be people you don't care much about;) but you're on vacation so just go withi your own flow!

[Cruisin' Chick]

Our first vacation after our child was born when she was 23 months and on a three-day Carnival cruise. My hubby was reluctant to travel at all but decided to finally try. We had a blast and ever since she has gone on every trip longer than a few days we've taken, and every one has involved a cruise. She was eight on her sixth cruise last December. No one has had the nerve to say anything negative to me about her being on a ship. But some fellow passengers have complimented us on her behavior.

 

Here's what I've found:

1. It's nicer for the kids to go during times when there are plenty of other kids. Three cruises ago in Febrary 2003, she was only one of three five-yr-olds and the activities were pared down. When there are plenty of kids, more fun for them.

 

2. Make sure the kids are supervised, either in the kids program or with you. You don't know if there are any "weird" people also onboard. Also, if there's an emergency, you'll know where they are (have any doubt, read some of the posts by those who were on the Star or the Crown Princess during those crises)

 

3. Give the kids age-appropriate instruction on how to behave. It's funny when my girl is at the sink washing her hands and someone comes in to use the facilities and then walks out.

 

4. If the kids are feeling persickedly at meal time, use the buffet. And bring the dress up clothes. They don't need tuxes and long dresses and neither do you. I have seen the sparkley dresses and what not. I don't let it bother me if I choose to just bring cocktail length dresses. And no matter what some CCers say, you can change after the meal into casual clothes to go to the shows, etc. If they have a problem with that, it's their problem.

 

5. The crew members love the kids. Many have families back home and miss their kids. Ask them about their families.

 

6. If you're traveling to the port by plane, go a day ahead and shop for things you didn't want to pack -- favorite snacks, juice boxes, small toys and activity books