Children on HAL European Cruises

[kimanjo]

Hello, all. I am posting this message on a variety of cruise line boards.

We are in the planning stage for a European/Med cruise next summer. We will be taking our (at that time) 13 year-old daughter with us. She is an experienced cruiser and is very well-behaved. Because she is the only child of "older" (put it this way, Dad has been in AARP for a few years now!) parents we think that is why she is so reserved and mature...she prefers reading and classical music, etc. to video arcades and pop music--though don't get me wrong, she is no wallflower and will certainly dance at a teen disco! Dad and I are not "party" people--a big night out is visiting the casino with a roll of quarters, and we are generally in bed by 10:00, so you get the idea.

Anyway, we are narrowing the choice between RCCL (sailed Asia a few years ago on RCCL with daughter), Celebrity (we have sailed Celeb many times), HAL (never sailed), and Princess (never sailed).

We are really leery of being on a cruise where there is huge influx of unchaperoned children who "party" until 2 a.m. every night...and I have been reading some of the other cruise boards about how the children--primarily teens--can become obnoxious and very rowdy on summer cruises.

My question is: do kids become obnoxious on HAL's European cruises?

Or is the cruise so port intensive that everyone onboard is asleep at a decent hour?

Any advise and comments, please post or eimail me @ kimanjo@aol.com. Thanks!

[jhannah]

If your daughter has the maturity/tastes you indicate, then it won't really matter what other teens might want to do. She can excuse herself and not participate in the obnoxious behaviors. And you will undoubtedly have her in the cabin well before two a.m. How long are you planning to cruise? Longer sailings generally equate to fewer young people.

 

HAL is a great cruise line with lots of class. Sounds like your daughter would fit right in.

[Jacqueline]

I just posted a long reply at the Princess board.

As you know as an experienced cruiser there is a bit of luck involved. 1500 people on the cruise can be fine and if the people next door are noisy at all hours of the night, coming and going, etc, this is all it takes ! On our first European cruise, I booked my kids across the hall in an inside cabin. they were young at the time and did go to bed early. The 4 kids in the cabin next door were older and on a later schedule. They were nice kids but a bit noisy coming in and settling down at night. I did talk to them about it and they were better after that. Canadians are so darn polite !

Think about booking a suite on the suite level of the ship to minimize this sort of problem. At least avoid having inside cabins acress from you where many of the kids are stored ! This summer our kids are in A's right next to an SS , so it is not foolproof .

Careful cabin selection can be a big help in getting a good night sleep. But you need a bit of luck and maybe some ambien as insurance.

[Cruiseoften]

Hello, all. I am posting this message on a variety of cruise line boards.

We are in the planning stage for a European/Med cruise next summer. We will be taking our (at that time) 13 year-old daughter with us. She is an experienced cruiser and is very well-behaved. Because she is the only child of "older" (put it this way, Dad has been in AARP for a few years now!) parents we think that is why she is so reserved and mature...she prefers reading and classical music, etc. to video arcades and pop music--though don't get me wrong, she is no wallflower and will certainly dance at a teen disco! Dad and I are not "party" people--a big night out is visiting the casino with a roll of quarters, and we are generally in bed by 10:00, so you get the idea.

Anyway, we are narrowing the choice between RCCL (sailed Asia a few years ago on RCCL with daughter), Celebrity (we have sailed Celeb many times), HAL (never sailed), and Princess (never sailed).

We are really leery of being on a cruise where there is huge influx of unchaperoned children who "party" until 2 a.m. every night...and I have been reading some of the other cruise boards about how the children--primarily teens--can become obnoxious and very rowdy on summer cruises.

My question is: do kids become obnoxious on HAL's European cruises?

Or is the cruise so port intensive that everyone onboard is asleep at a decent hour?

Any advise and comments, please post or eimail me @ kimanjo@aol.com. Thanks!

 

Your about to be 13 year old daughter sounds to be a delightful (and dare I say privileged) young lady. Bet she’s excited about an European/Med cruise! We'd most certainly recommend HAL - there are special programs for teens - virtually morning, noon and night.

 

In our experience, teens can and sometimes do become obnoxious on any cruise line –entirely the fault of overly permissive parents. There’s little doubt that there are those who party until 2 a.m. and beyond - again the fault of the parents....such hours are condoned at home so why not on vacation!

 

Port intensive or otherwise, healthy teens, particularly on vacation, are unlikely to be happily tucked up in bed by 10 p.m. In effect that means no shows for anyone, very little casino time for the adults and, I'd think, a dull cruise for a teen. I’m no teen but 10 p.m. is a bit early.

Perhaps it's time to think about a later bedtime….if you're like me, you know you will be wide awake until everyone is tucked up in bed and the door firmly locked! ……maybe your bedtime and your daughter’s curfew could be extended……kids flourish on much less sleep than we do!......damn it! It’s also important to get to know who your daughter is teaming up with for activities and perhaps also getting to know them and their parents. I was an only child with ‘older’ parents’ and only now do I realize just how much they did to accommodate me. Thinking back, they held 'open house' every day of the week.

 

I’m sure everything will work out for you – seems you’re working with an excellent foundation! :)

[TylerRose]

Last summer we were fortunate to cruise on the rerouted Prinsendam to Alaska for 2 weeks. Since it was origionally a European venu, those booked had first dibs etc. Also, since it was 2 weeks there were few kids.

 

The Prinsendam is smaller than many ships and only 750 were on board.

That said, Concerns to occupy our then 12 & 10 year olds were unfounded. While there were few kids "booked" on this cruise, the Officers children were on board and provided most of the "socializing". Since language was often a barrier, swim, dancing, gameboys, and EATING became favorite activites, not to mention going with the crew kids places they never would have been otherwise.

They had a great time and I will never again worry about too few kids booked or Club HAL. My kids are with us, and while I want them to have some "kid" time, they get that at school and our family considers a cruise to be Family time.

 

That said, All lines have their own "Atmosphere". If you are looking for family time, quality, and not a nonstop party allowing the ports to be the hilight, I would not look any further! HAL is the sort of line where my son ALWAYS wears his TUX on formal nights, and my daughter always gets a new formal. While the kids can certainly opt out for the Lido, it can also be a family hilight!

[doone]

When we sailed the Baltics in August 2001 on HAL's Amsterdam, there were only a hand-full of young children, less than 10, onboard. They were great kids, having a great time, I didn't find them obnoxious, they were very well behaved. But that was all the children we saw onboard. This was a 12-day cruise and an expensive one at that.

 

I think your daughter will enjoy whatever cruise line you choose for your European vacation, she sounds like a delight, but don't expecet to find too many kids on these longer, more expensive type of cruises, or at least that was my experience when I sailed the Baltics.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[Tatka]

I really hate to sail or vacation without our kid...but I made a right decision not to take him on Med cruise with us. We , adults were dead tired, he would be too. It wouldn't be fun for 12 years old. We took him on our other European vacations though...when we stayed in the same city for more than 1 day and could enjoy it with slower pace.

[FoxyTerrier]

My son turned 13 on our Med cruise - we spent the day in Gibralter. It is a memory that will last a lifetime. This was durning the school year (late April) so there were not many kids of any age on board. The ships crew taped a bouqet of balloons to our stateroom door as a surprise. By the end of the cruise everyone on board knew George by name.

 

We have since done an Alskaka cruise during the summer and a spring break cruise - all on HAL. The spring break cruise had the most kids and George was 15 by this point and hanging out with the older teens - a group of about 10 or so. He did want to keep late hours like 2am, we said yes and this is not the norm at home. We allowed him to do this as long as he checked in every hour or so. We had a suite and the kids all wanted to hang out in our stateroom - this was not allowed if an adult was not also there.

 

We will be sailing on the Noordam - Baltic cruise in about a week and I'm guessing there will be a fair amount of kids, but not the 100s you hear about on Carnaval. I would be concerned if we had a daughter traveling with no other children. I would not hesiatate to take her, but would have her on a shorter leash so to speak. Have you thought about inviting a cousin or special friend to make the trip with you.

 

We have thought about letting George bring a friend on a future cruise, but it would have to be the right kind of friend. Maybe even more than one for something special like graduation from High School. It is the norm where we live in Maryland for seniors to spend a week at the beach alone - not chaparoned. That scares the hell out of me. I would rather spend a little extra money and know they are safe having a wonderful vacation under my watchful eye.

[Jacqueline]

My daughter is 14 and when the following day is a sea day, I do let her stay out till 2am. The deal is that she need to be in a public place- not someone's cabin. Although this summer she will be sharing a cabin with her younger tattle tale sister so I would not be too concered about goings on (if she had a same age friend, it would be a different story).

Last cruise on Celebrity, she stayed in the teen center playing cards/talking last cruise late at night. The kids knew that there was a security camera in there. Whenever I called the number for the center- she answered. I also went up there more than once to looking the wondow and noticed a security guard in the hall asking if I needed any help. She knew that i was keeping a watchful eye.

Maybe I am way out there but I dont feel that my daughter needs to be on a tighter leash than my son. I expect that for our European trip this summer there will not be many late nights. With three sea days out of 13 there wont be a lot of late nights regardless.

[FoxyTerrier]

Maybe I am way out there but I dont feel that my daughter needs to be on a tighter leash than my son.

 

What I was trying to say it would make me more uncomfortable for a young 13 year old to be traveling the halls unescorted late at night or maybe at anytime when there were not a lot of people around. There were stories in the 90s (maybe not true) about assalts and rapes on cruise ships.

 

I worried a bit less about my son since he was about 5' 10" 175 lbs at age 13 and looked a lot older. And yes I know "things" can happen to boys too, but at 13 he was bigger than most of the men on the ship.

 

Now at 16 he is a strapping 6'2" and still weighs about 175 lbs.