South America with 8 and 10 year old

[tgetz]

We are considering taking our grandchildren that live with us now, on a 15 day South American cruise for the christmas/new year holiday' s this year on Royal carribean. Do you think we will find may children their age on that itineary and for that long? OUr grandchildren would only miss one or two days of school and they love to cruise but not sure how many other chldren their age would take that long of a trip and to that itinerary.

[phoenix1181]

I'm inclined to think there wouldn't be a lot of kids on that particular cruise but why don't you check and see if there's a meet & mingle thread? If there is, you should be able to find out if any of the posters will be traveling with kids in the right age group.

[kitty9]

It depends. My first thought is that not many school districts have a full two weeks off for Christmas. Another thought is: the bad economy. We now see many families opting to stay closer to home rather than take those real far away cruises---the disposible income is fast going away. And the cost of flights has many families choosing to stay with cruises closer to the US. I've taken two South American cruises, and I've not seen one school age child on board. The only kids were a couple of infants and toddlers.

[tgetz]

Thanks, i have been on that thread and there have been no posts since mine two or three weeks ago. Hoping to maybe hear from someone who maybe did this itinerary last year although i am not sure if RCI did south america last year, and i f they did, did they do a 15 day CHristmas one? It is still a while but.... i know there are still plenty of smaller cabins but all of the suites are now gone so someone is sailing :-) We have a suite booked and have our air confirmed but want to be sure everyone can have a good time before we spend that kind of money. The carribean cruises would have more children, but we have done them so often, and they are not reasonably priced at the holiday season, so it wouldn't seem special. if we are spending a lot, we want it to at least be 'special'.

[tgetz]

I know the economy and the airfares is really going to impact everything this year. I jsut can't seem to find another cruise that is really appealing. We thougth about Hawaii, but couldn't find any suites still availbable.

[San Diego Ellie]

I think many school districts do have two full weeks off. I know all of them in San Diego do. The ports for SA itineraries are extremely interesting. (We did Star Princess, which included Antarctica cruising just a few months ago.) I am sure your children will love all the opportunities to see penguins at a lot of the ports.

 

Our cruise had only a couple of very very young children, but it was in February. I would think the Christmas one would have adequate numbers of children the right ages for yours to make it a good trip for you.

[greatam]

IIRC, it was a RCL cruise last year Xmas time, SA that SOOOOO many complained about. It was literally full of SA families-very extended families which took over large parts of the ship. The kid's clubs were out of control, as were the kids. I don't know whether search is still down and I don't sail RCL, but I know I read all about this in January/February 2008.

 

You may want to look at another cruise line. Star Princess has a pretty good itinerary, as does Celebrity and even NCL. Celebrity and Princess probably won't draw the SA families nearly as much as due to the lack of rock climbing wall, putting green, etc. All things that attract families. AND, doesn't the RCL Xmas cruise sail out of Sao Paolo??? Brazilian visa's, yellow fever shots, VERY overcrowded city AND the crappy crappy air quality, not to mention the LOOOOONG drive from the airport to the port. IMHO, real waste of money leaving from Sao Paolo and NOT even seeing Rio (since you had to pay for the visa)