Alaska cruise with young children

[gkeep]

We have been been wanting to cruise and have been thinking about an Alaskan cruise for June 09. We have three children - 2,6,9. We have cruised before, but not Alaska. We currently live in Hawaii, so we need to find a cruise on the West Side because I have no desire to travel to Florida from here with a 2 year old.

 

There seems to be so much info on Alaska, different routes, ships etc. I was looking for your input on what you would recommend for a family with young kids. ( or if you would recommend it over say Mexican Riviera or Hawaii). Should be wait until they are a little older to enjoy this trip?

 

I wanted to get input on what company, ship, and itineray would work best for young kids?

 

I prefer RCI for the kids, love Princess too, not as fond of Carnival. Never have done NCL. I would like the most family friendly options for things to do on the ship. Also wondering if they would enjoy the ports?

 

We would most likely be interested in a round trip from Seattle for airfare reasons.

 

Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Coral]

I don't have an answer for you but I would look into cruise lines that allow 2 year olds to participate in kids programs. Many have a 3 year age requirement. Maybe yours will be 3 by then but if he/she will only be 2, I would possibly wait until they are 3.

 

The ages of the other 2 are great and they will have a blast.

[luvlake]

Extended family (20 members) cruised on Coral Princess the end of May 2007. Grand daughters were 4 and 9. They loved the Kid Zone and asked to go back time and time again. They had a wonderful program for the kids. They had attended day care and so there were not any separation problems. Princess also has pagers for use while on ship.

 

The only thing about the Coral if I remember right is that as stated the child must be 3 years old and potty-trained. This may cause a problem with your 2 year old.

 

We were southbound in the Inside Passage from Anchorage (Whittier) to Vancouver.

 

Our excursions were obtained through Princess and were enjoyed by all. We rode the train in Skagway, whale watching & Mendenall Glacier in Juneau and Lumber Jack Show in Ketchikan.

 

It has been a year since the cruise and it is still talked about by all. Alaska is all about the beautiful scenery. :)

[gkeep]

Thanks for the info... I wasn't aware that NCL allowed 2 year olds in the kids club. That would be a huge factor! They probably need to be potty trained?

 

I initially was going to wait until he was 3 before we cruised again ( so he could do kids clubs) , but my DH and I have been itching for a cruise. Our last one was when I was 4 months prego with the 2 year old.

 

 

Glad to hear there are things for the kids to enjoy at the ports. I will have to research some more.

 

thanks!

[hal2008]

We were not satisfied with kids program (to put it mildly) with HAL this summer.

 

Compared to 4 other cruiselines we have sailed, we found HAL program disorganised, lackluster and many times unsafely unsupervised.

 

Recommend that you do look into cruises starting from Vancouver

 

a) Fares may not be expensive (earlier this summer it was actually much cheaper to fly to VAN than SEA)

 

b) VAN itself is beautiful

 

C) Even if you fly to SEA, VAN is only 3 hours away

 

d) More cruise options from VAN compared to SEA

 

e) MOST IMPORTANTLY, SEA routes go over rough sea west of Van. Island and you miss out on beautiful views

[knorrisb07]

My neighbor came back from their September cruise. The kids program on princess is almost non existing. There were only few kids on board because school has started. But they were caught by surprise as well. You may want to know if you are going in "shoulder" season.

[Quimby]

We had similar concerns, with a 7 & 9 yr old in June 09. I looked at all the lines and looked at the ages of the groups for the Kids Clubs. We wanted our boys to be together not separated in different groups. Hence we went with Norwegian, NCL which is 6-9 yrs old for the Kids Club.

 

We also didn't want to fly into Alaska $$ because of the cost of the kids tickets so we chose to cruise from Seattle to Alaska on the NCL Star. We'll fly from LAX to Seattle. Good Luck with your decision.

 

As far as Alaska ports, my kids are excited about seeing Glaciers, whales, Bald Eagles, kayaking, hiking, sightseeing....We couldn't imagine seeing all of this without them!!

 

Visiting Hawaii alot, I would not recommend Mexico. You already live in a Tropical Paradise, which Mexico, especially the port towns, cannot compare to. Just my opinion!!

[2ndguesser]

Highly recommend the NCL Pearl from Seattle. We just did this in August of this year with a 2, 4, 6(Almost 7) and a friend and their 2 kids (1, 4, 8). The 4 and ups begged us to go to kids club. The 6 and ups didn't want to leave when it was pick up time. My 2 yo went a couple times but had seperation issues. No they do not need to be potty trained. They give you a beeper and you get paged if they need a change.

 

The seas were not that rough and it was rainy and windy when we were out to sea. We probably did miss some prettier scenery by leaving from Seattle rather than Vancouver but not having to deal with passports, driving, train, flying made up for it. THe kids had a blast and loved seeing the whales, beers, otters, eagles ect. it was one of our best vacations ever and the kids are still talking about it.

 

Oh - the best part about NCL was no set dining time and you don't have to dress up. We would take the kids to eat at the buffet (which is right outside the kids club) then drop them at the kids club. Then we would go for an adult dinner at one of the nicer (pay and no pay) restaurants. It was a good little system we had.

[napls2]

Our first trip to Alaska, my children were 3 1/2 and twins 9. The 3 1/2 year old had alot of fun in the kids room and on shore excursions. We did whale watching and she absolutely loved it, but now she is almost 6 and doesn't really remember it too well. A stroller is a must because she fell asleep almost every time we got off the boat in port. She would miss alot of the shore excursions because she'd fall asleep on the bus or train we were on. We waited until she was 3 and potty trained so she could go in the kids room on Princess. Alaska is such a big trip that you really want to enjoy and remember and for most people is a once in a lifetime experience that I would wait until the children are older. We've been to the Carribean, Mexican Riviera and Carribean again with the kids and they remember those trips better.