Has anyone taken younger chidren on a full transit?

[March Cruiser]

I am just pondering ways to use my Princess future cruise credit within the next 3.5 years! My oldest will be in 5th grade by then, my youngest in 1st grade. Has anyone taken children these ages on the Panama Canal full transit cruise? Were there other kids to play with?

 

TIA!

Chandra

[katiebug the travel girl]

Did a 10 day partial transit a couple years ago. Lots of kids. A great experience. However, I think you should be aware once you go through the first set of locks they may lose interest. We got off on Lake Gatun and did a bus ride through the city and countryside followed by small motor boats on the lake. We saw lots of wildlife including monkey's, sloths, reptiles, birds. etc. It helped to break up the day. If you have the opportunity to explore once you are on Lake Gatun I would highly recommend it (rather than making a priority to go through boths sets)

[jff50]

I am just pondering ways to use my Princess future cruise credit within the next 3.5 years! My oldest will be in 5th grade by then, my youngest in 1st grade. Has anyone taken children these ages on the Panama Canal full transit cruise? Were there other kids to play with?

 

TIA!

Chandra

I've done a full transit with kids (10 and 4) about 14 years ago. Don't recall how many kids there were on it. We are about to do an 11 day full transit with my youngest (7) this December 4th. Don't expect there to be many kids on the ship but I'm sure there will be some, and there will be a kids program.

 

With kids, I would suggest a full transit rather than a partial. If you do a partial (generally from Florida), you will miss a good portion of the canal (Culebra Cut, Bridge of the Americas, Pacific locks) unless you take the ferry that goes all the way through to the Pacific. We did that with my youngest when she was about 3, and the ferry shore excursion was a long time to keep her occupied. Much easier to get to appreciate the full scope of the canal with a kid if you can spend the entire transit on the cruise ship.

[VikkiGarcia]

We did a transcanal Oct. 2003 with our 13 and 10 year old. We sailed Royal Caribbean Legend of the Seas. There were 23 kids on board. There were 3 teens (one being my son). My kids loved it. The staff did an awesome keeing the kids active and entertained. We did meet up with a HAL ship in Huatulco they had 3 kids (all toddler) on board for basically the same itinerary as ours.

[Sarah A]

We will be on the December 4th Princess cruise that is full transit. Sounds like the same sailing as jff50. We will have our 3 1/2 year old boy/girl twins there. Unfortunately they are not potty trained so can't go to kids club. But my son loves playing with older kids. We can report back after our trip if you're interested.

[jff50]

We will be on the December 4th Princess cruise that is full transit. Sounds like the same sailing as jff50. We will have our 3 1/2 year old boy/girl twins there. Unfortunately they are not potty trained so can't go to kids club. But my son loves playing with older kids. We can report back after our trip if you're interested.

You should join in the rollcall for the 12/4 Island Princess

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=516076