Antarctica w/kids?

We're considering sailing on the Zaandam 21 night SA/Antarctica. Our 4 children (15/13/10/4) usually accompany us on our adventures and we plan to take them along. I'm interested in hearing of other families that have sailed this itinerary (or similar).. Will they be about the only kids on board?

They carry themselves well on ships so I don't expect any issues there, and it looks like the Zaandam has an apparently decent kids program/areas to help them pass the time.

I'm a bit concerned about the # of sea days and their ability to find something to do ;) I think it would be an incredible experience to share together.

Yes, they might be the only kids on board. It's a great itinerary.

You may also want to post on the HAL Cruise Line Board.

Keith

The longer the itinerary, the less likely there'll be kids on board.

On our 21-day Antarctic expedition, we had one kid only, roughly age 10. I was pleasantly surprised that he was so well behaved, gracious, and charming. Great young fellow. (I hate children. When I was a child, I hated myself...)

Hi

We are a couple in our forties with a 15 year old ,our son has always travelled with us and we have been i on some challanging trips and live in Tasmania which has a some great wilderness .He has learnt so much from these travels my advice is go for it.

I just booked this same cruise. My kids are 18/15/8. I asked HAL how many kids were on the cruise and as of today, there are about 12 teens and 9 - 12-and unders.

We're considering sailing on the Zaandam 21 night SA/Antarctica. Our 4 children (15/13/10/4) usually accompany us on our adventures and we plan to take them along. I'm interested in hearing of other families that have sailed this itinerary (or similar).. Will they be about the only kids on board?

 

They carry themselves well on ships so I don't expect any issues there, and it looks like the Zaandam has an apparently decent kids program/areas to help them pass the time.

 

I'm a bit concerned about the # of sea days and their ability to find something to do ;) I think it would be an incredible experience to share together.

Wow! If I could have done this at 15 it would have been great. At 75 I was old and slow and couldn't keep up. For kids, if you can afford this type of trip it is an adventure more than a cruise.

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The itinerary sounds exciting. I always travel with my son as well (7 yrs old). I have a couple of questions for you:

1. Do you know if you have any landings in Antartica?

2. Or is it essentially just cruising along the coast?

3. Would there be opportunities to view wildlife?

It's a drive-by and 'wildlife' is all around.

Double post sorry

The itinerary sounds exciting. I always travel with my son as well (7 yrs old). I have a couple of questions for you:

1. Do you know if you have any landings in Antartica?

2. Or is it essentially just cruising along the coast?

3. Would there be opportunities to view wildlife?

No landings on our cruise. Many days of scenic cruising of Antarctica and the Chilean fjords though.

We have scheduled stops in 6 ports, not including the beginning and ending ports. Two of them, Puerto Madryn and Punta Arenas, have large colonies of penguins accessible on shore excursions. There are also shore excursions in Puerto Madryn to see sea elephants and sea lions.

Someone posted excellent videos of their trip on this itinerary on the Veendam earlier this year.

We now have 32 kids on our cruise (as of final payment date). Come join us!

Seabourn also has a cruise around the same dates, that does make several days of landings in Antarctica. It's more expensive and doesn't have a kids club., but it's a more upscale experience with actual landings.

The itinerary sounds exciting. I always travel with my son as well (7 yrs old). I have a couple of questions for you:

1. Do you know if you have any landings in Antartica?

As Boulders has indicated, if you're looking for a cruise with landings then you need to find an 'expedition' cruise.

We had an amazing cruise to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands on Hurtigruten's Fram and are returning on her in three months time to go south of the Antarctic Circle. There are usually two landings each day with wildlife up close.

It's a drive-by and 'wildlife' is all around.

Yes, that should make it a lot easier than an expedition with multiple landings each day.

An Antarctic cruise is on my bucket list and I absolutely want my daughter to experience that! She is currently 3 so we have several years for planning this trip! How many days is your cruise? Are there minimum ages for cruises with landings?

An Antarctic cruise is on my bucket list and I absolutely want my daughter to experience that! She is currently 3 so we have several years for planning this trip! How many days is your cruise? Are there minimum ages for cruises with landings?

Hurtigruten Fram's minimum age seems to be 5 years old. I found this on a blog, not their own website, so double check that. Quark's minimum age is 10.

When I was doing the research for this cruise, I found a lot of providers charge the same amount for the third or fourth people in a cabin as the first and second. Other providers don't allow for a third or fourth. That meant that the cost of an Antarctic cruise approached $50K for our family of 4 on cruises with landings. This why we're doing a drive by.

If your kids are focused and mature enough to recognize what they are seeing and if the landscape overcomes the perpetual ice and cold which tickles their fancy, then go for it.Younger kids tend to forget. I see this all the time since I live outside Orlando. Parents drag their two to four year olds to WDW and later realize the children don't remember a thing about their $5-10k WDW visit. Both my kids don't remember our early trips to WDW.

If your kids are focused and mature enough to recognize what they are seeing and if the landscape overcomes the perpetual ice and cold which tickles their fancy, then go for it.Younger kids tend to forget. I see this all the time since I live outside Orlando. Parents drag their two to four year olds to WDW and later realize the children don't remember a thing about their $5-10k WDW visit. Both my kids don't remember our early trips to WDW.

I absolutely agree! I would want DD to be old enough to remember 10-12 years old or so and have read about shakelton's expedition as well as seen the IMAX film before going to understand the significance of the trip.

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