Any familes with young children who do Christams cruises?

[kclcruise]

I am considering doing a Christmas cruise this year. My children are 3 and 6. I am wondering if I will be happy or if I will miss Christmas day? They are only young once. so maybe I should stay home, but the family time on the cruise would be great. Can anyone help me make up my mind? TIA!:)

[YoungGangMom]

I have a 6 and 8 year old, maybe at this age I would begin to consider a Christmas cruise. Any earlier would be like missing out too much for me. My opinion, I love Christmas morning, tree, presents, ect., pretty soon Santa won't be a factor and I could ask them what they would like to do.

Good luck making your decsion, either way a lovely holiday!

[Ula]

We do extended family at Christmas, both of us since birth. We do cruise just before Christmas and they do really decorate up the ships. It is really wonderful to see. At least Princess does that. I bet they go all out on Christmas day. You might want to ask on the general board of the cruise you are interested in on what is done for Christmas day.

I have read some people bring their own little tree for the room and stockings for the day.

[cb at sea]

I would never have taken kids who still believe in Santa on a cruise....Christmas is just too magical the way it is!

Now, that they're grown, a cruise is a great way to avoid all the useless presents and have a lovely time together, but for smaller kids....nope!

[SelectSys]

We were on a Christmas cruise last year and it was a lot of fun - but not with little kids. Santa was on board all Christmas morning handing out gifts to the kids. I actually got a picture of our kids with Santa for the first time in probably 4 or 5 years. Our ship, Jewel of the Seas, was well decorated and it seemed like all the kids on board had a good time. At least some people had trees in their room and gifts on board in the morning. I seemed to remember they also had some announcements from the bridge that Santa was spotted on radar.

[AudBee]

I am considering doing a Christmas cruise this year. My children are 3 and 6. I am wondering if I will be happy or if I will miss Christmas day? They are only young once. so maybe I should stay home, but the family time on the cruise would be great. Can anyone help me make up my mind? TIA!:)

 

 

Why not do what we did last year and do a pre christmas cruise..................

 

We are in Uk and sailed with Pand O on the beautiful Aurora. We did a 10 day round trip from Southampton and visited Hamburg, Amsterdam, Oslo Copenhagen and Bruges.................we had overnight stays in Hamburg and Copenhagen. All of these cities were really magical at this time of year ( we sailed on Dec 10th). The ship was beautifully decorated, we had visits from Santa, carol concerts from local school children, marching bands and firework displays for sailaways, mulled wine, hot chocolate............................mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm and on on I go. A couple of nights before the end of the cruise, more decorations were added for the Christmas cruise, including a huge gingerbread village in the Atrium. It was called Christmas Markets and Winterwonderland and it really was wonderful and the best thing was we were home by the 20th so enough time for all the food shopping (we brought gifts in the cities we visited) and preperation and at home on Christmas morning. Highly recommended and the children loved it....

[spaceflower77]

We sailed over Halloween and Carnival went ALL OUT. I can only imagine that Christmas on board would be even more magical and memorable than anything that might happen at home. Bring your stockings from home and let the kids know they should go to bed early because Santa is going to come by. When they wake up have their stockings hanging in the room. My 3 and 8 year old still talk about our Halloween cruise now, it's nearly a year later. I can't imagine it being a better idea (unless they'll miss out on family traditions). I think it's a GREAT way to celebrate and a GREAT way to get away from the commercialism that seems to absorb us all at that time of year. It sounds like a wonderful way to relax and enjoy the holiday. Now you're making ME want to go then, too! ;)