Torn about which cruise...

So..we are currently booked on a Canada/New England cruise for next September. We were going to do a Carribean cruise a few weeks ago but had to cancel in August and reschedule it for a Canada/New England cruise next September. My kids will be 8, 6 and almost 2. I posted about this last week about things to do in the ports up there and it seems like the overwhelming response is that this will be a boring cruise for this age group. We will be on the Liberty of the seas. I love that it will be (hopefully) quieter and not a bunch of kids running around and I thought it would be a nice change from the beach. My girls get a little overwhelmed with chaos and screaming kids everywhere, but I don't want them to be bored. I can honestly see my 8 yr old being anxious about the kids club. So, I don't know what to do. ..Switch back to a carribean cruise while most kids are in school? (There is no penalty if done before the 3 month window) Another question. ...what is there to do on board if they don't use the kids club especially since the weather will be cooler? Is there organized family activities? And what activities do they actually do in the kids club for 6-8 yr olds? What is the name of the itinerary thing that is delivered to your cabin each morn on royal carribean? Maybe I can look at some samples online. Sorry for all the questions. I may have an unrealistic vision of our future cruise. ;) Thanks in advance!

There's the Anne of Green Gables angle for older ones.

We did cruise to Bermuda on Grandeur last fall, and there were about 40 kids on board. I think Liberty is doing that cruise too, but it's only 5 days. That may be a better option. Liberty has a ton for kids to do, so they should not get bored on the ship.

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So..we are currently booked on a Canada/New England cruise for next September. We were going to do a Carribean cruise a few weeks ago but had to cancel in August and reschedule it for a Canada/New England cruise next September. My kids will be 8, 6 and almost 2. I posted about this last week about things to do in the ports up there and it seems like the overwhelming response is that this will be a boring cruise for this age group. We will be on the Liberty of the seas. I love that it will be (hopefully) quieter and not a bunch of kids running around and I thought it would be a nice change from the beach. My girls get a little overwhelmed with chaos and screaming kids everywhere, but I don't want them to be bored. I can honestly see my 8 yr old being anxious about the kids club. So, I don't know what to do. ..Switch back to a carribean cruise while most kids are in school? (There is no penalty if done before the 3 month window) Another question. ...what is there to do on board if they don't use the kids club especially since the weather will be cooler? Is there organized family activities? And what activities do they actually do in the kids club for 6-8 yr olds? What is the name of the itinerary thing that is delivered to your cabin each morn on royal carribean? Maybe I can look at some samples online. Sorry for all the questions. I may have an unrealistic vision of our future cruise. ;) Thanks in advance!

Don't let people sway you too much, you know your kids best. I looked at your other threads and most of the people who answered you don't even have little kids and some have no kids at all.

As far as a NE/Canada cruise is September, there will be fewer kids than a cruise out of Florida. Some find that to be a good thing, others not so much. Liberty has a lot to do for kids but it might be too cold for your kids to use the H20 zone, really never know with a fall cruise in the northeast. We have done the NE/Canada cruise on Royal Caribbean twice out of Boston. Both were October sailings. This years cruise was cold but the cruise we took 4 years earlier had my DH in shorts for the week since it was so warm.

On the itinerary you are looking at, there is lots to do for your kids in all your ports. The only port that might be harder to find something would be St John, New Brunswick. If you don't find an excursion that works with your young kids, I would try to at least get off the ship and even if you find a park for the kids to run around in, that can be good too. All the other ports have a lot that would work with little ones.

If you decide to sail out of Florida, I would try for Freedom instead of Enchantment. Freedom and Liberty are sister ships. If Freedom turns out to be too pricey, then don't rule out Enchantment.

I would search the Royal Caribbean forum for copies of the cruise compass and the kids compasses, they will give you an idea of the activities that are offered on the different ships. You might need to look at compasses from the 9 night NE/Canada sailing of the Explorer though since it was sailing that itinerary, not Liberty.

A guidebook will be your best resource for your potential ports....it will tell you EVERYTHING! Libraries have them!

NE/Canada cruises typically have an older demographic. Don't let that discourage your from taking your children. There are things of interest in all the ports for people of all ages. For example Bar Harbor has a Lighthouse and a large park within walking distance of the ship along with a nice, quaint town on the water where you can sit and enjoy the boats or take a water taxi to an island. Bar Harbor has Acadia National Park. If that isn't of interest, you can walk around the town or hike on one of the trails right near town. St. John has a market and underground shopping mall with museums etc. very close to the ship and some wonderful water areas, such as beaches and the reversing falls. Halifax has a wonderful museum and a lot of Titanic related locations. Then, of course, there are the ship's tours. But it is very easy to plan your own tour at all these locations.

We've gone on the New England/Canada cruise twice with our son. The first time he was 3 1/2 and the second time, he was maybe 2nd grade? He had a blast both times.

I'll try to relay what I can remember. The second time, there was only about 8 kids in Adventure Ocean, but our son still loved it.

Ask the staff in Adventure Ocean about family time swimming in the solarium pool. There's 2 times per day that families can visit the indoor pool. Times were posted in the Cruise Compass.

As far as ports.....since we've gone twice, we've tried different things each time.

Boston - the first time we stayed at the Hyatt or the Hilton at the airport and took the water taxi near the Hyatt over to Long Wharf. We had lunch at the Legal Seafood and then rode the trolley around to some interesting stops. It's a hop on hop off....Old Towne Trolleys. (They had many trolleys so we did not experience any waiting at the stops).

The second time in Boston, we hired a private tour guide. She was fantastic. She took us to the Old North Church and Paul Revere's House, then we went to Concord & Lexington and we visited Minuteman National Park. Our son got sworn in as a junior ranger. He had a little booklet to fill out. We visited the site of where the "shot fired heard round the world". We learned all sorts of things from her. She was a national park ranger and a history major. We enjoyed her so much, we hired her to get us off the ship at the end of our cruise and she took us on another day tour and it ended with her dropping us at the airport. That day she took us to the USS Constitution. We took the tour to the lower decks. The navy provides the tours. We also had a lovely lunch at a historic tavern. I think it was the Warren Tavern in Charlestown. Also that same day she took us to President John Adams home and we toured that.

Portland Maine - here we did the Lighthouses of Maine tour. We saw 3 or 4 lighthouses and got to go inside one of them. Then when our tour came back to the ship, we saw a young man with a pedicab. There were 2 pedicabs there so they could peddle your whole family. We had them peddle us down to the floating restaurant about a 1/2 mile away. It was Dimillo's. Outstanding food. I think we had fish and chips and some fabulous desserts. Then we simply walked back to the ship.

Bar Harbor - we rode Olley's Trolley up to Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. It had a stop at Thunder Hole too. We had a nice lunch at Geddy's. The kids meals were served on frisbees. I think we had fish and chips there too. (We don't get a lot of seafood where we live so in New England we pretty much try it at every port).

Halifax - This was our favorite stop by far! We booked a tour with Blue Nose Sidecar tours. It's a husband and wife team each with Russian motorcycles with sidecars. My husband rode on the back of one. My son and I each rode in a side car. They keep the speed fairly low and it was a nice enjoyable ride. We felt like royalty riding around. We went to several fun stops. The best stop was at Peggy's Cove to see the lighthouse and get some pictures of the ocean. Our son liked the gift shop there too. We had them drop us at the boardwalk and we had lunch at Salty's. It was just past the sign that says "Historic Properies". Then we did some shopping along the boardwalk and walked back to the ship. (you just follow the boardwalk all the way back). On the boardwalk, there were 2 shops that were especially nice. One had custom made glass. You can view them making the glass from an open doorway outside. Next door was a shop where everything was made of pewter. Very fine made items. I didn't get to bring any of that home, but I took some pictures of some beautiful things.

The first time we did Halifax, we did the hop on hop off trolley. We visited the citadel. If you go there, go to the main office and see if there is anyone giving tours. We just walked around, but we saw some getting tours and they seemed to be learning a lot. We didn't want to join in on a tour that was already going on. We heard a bagpiper and saw the changing of the guard (not much of a ceremony, but still interesting). The other stop we got off at was the Maritime Museum. It had an interesting exhibit on the Titanic.

I'm thinking the time before we may have gone on the tour to Kennebunkport. That was fun too. We saw the Bush residence and we got to shop in town. It was a cute town. We ate at Federal Jack's. I think our son ended up buying a toy school bus and we ended up finding a nice bookstore and buying him a picture book about Maine. I think it was I Met A Moose One Day In Maine. (Another Maine author to look for is Chris VanDusen....especially his book "Down By The Sea". It is especially Maine themed. It's a Mr. Magee series. Excellent author and neat artwork.)

St John....last time we did a tour to St Andrews by the Sea. It was okay. Cute town, but a long commute on a bus to get to it. I think the time before that we took a tour bus that went to 3 stops....an old city market, Reversing Falls, and Carleton Martello Tower. Our son liked the Carleton Martello stop the best. It was one of the towers built in case there may have been a land attack from America (I think). It's hard to recall what we were told. I think next time we may just get off the ship and walk down to the mall.

I hope that gives you some idea. To us, it was so enjoyable we had to do the cruise twice. If you see the link below, I posted a photobook on shutterfly from that cruise. It has lots of photos of what we saw.

As far as Adventure Ocean, our son loves it. The first day or evening, Adventure Ocean is an open house in which the parents and kids can come in and see the facilities and meet the staff and see what all the kids do. Activities start on the next day. They had structured games, some science, etc. Also they offered Adventure Dining which our son loved. I know he made a small model of the planet Saturn. Also they must have done some work about germs because he came back with a container full of germs (glitter).

I hope I helped you a bit. Good luck on your decision. It's just a different sort of vacation than the Caribbean. I know on the first trip when he was 3 1/2, he especially liked any tour that involved riding on a big motorcoach.

I forgot you asked about family things to do. There were ping pong tables that we enjoyed. Also it seems like there was a family Wii event in Adventure Ocean on a certain day. There was a family-friendly cake decorating event that was pretty crazy to watch. I think it was the cruise director, a chef, and a passenger all competing to decorate a cake.

I'm sorry that's all I can remember, but I'm sure there was a lot offered that we just didn't have a chance to do.

Thank you so much Cheryl for your detailed response! I am thrilled that kids are allowed to use the indoor pool a couple of times a day. Not being able to swim at all has been the one major negative for me with this itinerary. I'm completely fine with there being only a small amount of kids. As long as mine aren't the only ones, I know they would much prefer being around 8 as opposed to 800! They don't do well with crowds and chaos. The side car tours sound fun and I think my kids would enjoy Acadia National Park.

I would agree with the above poster to get a guidebook. Maybe go to your auto club office (if you're a member) and check out their bookstore, which often has books on traveling with kids (I know there's a book about California travel with kids). Libraries will have many guide books you can borrow -- if I find one I really like, I might try to buy the current edition. And you can go on Amazon to see if there's a regional book on kids and New England.

I know that on Princess ships that are on the west have a covered pool that is available all the time no matter the age. (they are moving some of the newer ships that might not have this, though) Great for Alaskan cruises if the weather gets iffy.

Thank you so much Cheryl for your detailed response! I am thrilled that kids are allowed to use the indoor pool a couple of times a day. Not being able to swim at all has been the one major negative for me with this itinerary. I'm completely fine with there being only a small amount of kids. As long as mine aren't the only ones, I know they would much prefer being around 8 as opposed to 800! They don't do well with crowds and chaos. The side car tours sound fun and I think my kids would enjoy Acadia National Park.

Cheryl went on ships that had a covered Solarium so swimming indoors was an option, Liberty does not have a covered Solarium. The Solarium is more enclosed than the outdoor pool deck but it is still open to the elements unlike the Radiance class ships that Cheryl has sailed on. Both times we have done the NE/Canada cruise has been on Radiance class ships (Jewel and Brilliance) and on both cruises, we saw kids swimming outside on the warmer days.

I found this review for you that has a picture of the Solarium on the Liberty.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2028493

It also shows you the great H20 zone on that class of ships.

Cheryl went on ships that had a covered Solarium so swimming indoors was an option, Liberty does not have a covered Solarium. The Solarium is more enclosed than the outdoor pool deck but it is still open to the elements unlike the Radiance class ships that Cheryl has sailed on. Both times we have done the NE/Canada cruise has been on Radiance class ships (Jewel and Brilliance) and on both cruises, we saw kids swimming outside on the warmer days.

That's a really good point.....I didn't realize RCCL had any ships left that don't have an indoor solarium pool. Radiance class is our favorite line of ships. Can't wait for our next vacation on the Radiance in 9 more months.