Tips for getting the kids ready for their first cruise?

I'm crusing on Carnival Spirit on 27 July with my husband and three kids - 6, 4 and 20 months.

We haven't told the kids yet as it will seem like AGES away for them, so I thought we'd tell them at the start of July that way it's not too long a wait.

I was hoping for some tips for getting the older kids ready and excited about their first cruise. And their first trip overseas!

This is what I've thought of so far:

- show them the brochure and website for the cruise

- show them Youtube clips about Carnival spirit

- cross off the days on a calendar so they can see that it's coming closer

- show them on a map/globe where we're flying to before the cruise

- get them to practice snorkelling

- get them a book about New Caledonia (where we're sailing to)

- get them to be more diligent about using nice table manners :rolleyes:

Any other tips to get them ready and excited?

I'm crusing on Carnival Spirit on 27 July with my husband and three kids - 6, 4 and 20 months.

 

We haven't told the kids yet as it will seem like AGES away for them, so I thought we'd tell them at the start of July that way it's not too long a wait.

 

I was hoping for some tips for getting the older kids ready and excited about their first cruise. And their first trip overseas!

 

This is what I've thought of so far:

 

- show them the brochure and website for the cruise

- show them Youtube clips about Carnival spirit

- cross off the days on a calendar so they can see that it's coming closer

- show them on a map/globe where we're flying to before the cruise

- get them to practice snorkelling

- get them a book about New Caledonia (where we're sailing to)

- get them to be more diligent about using nice table manners :rolleyes:

 

Any other tips to get them ready and excited?

If you live fairly close to a cruise port, you could drive by one afternoon and watch a sail away :). We are planning to do this with our son before his first cruise. Also, we are making a big deal about him getting his passport. Other than that, we are doing some of the same things you mentioned above...

Potty train the youngest so that he/she can go into the pool with siblings.

Although it won't apply to your youngest our friends had a practice "formal night" at home. Another couple did the cooking and the serving. Another friend played "dining room manager" Everyone got dressed up, went for a short car ride and came home to the ships dining room fully set table and all. There were only two dinner choices and a kids special. Menus all printed and ready to go. Yes you could just go to a restaurant but home seemed like a good training venue for them. They all had a blast!

Talk to the two oldest ones about the children's program.

Keith

If you live fairly close to a cruise port, you could drive by one afternoon and watch a sail away :)..

To add to this if you do not live near a port you can try to catch the ship on the many webcams. Here is the link to the NY webcam but in the upper left hand corner you can select from a bunch of them.

http://www.nyharborwebcam.com/

A variation of marking off a calendar is to make a count down chain with each link representing each day to go. The kids can take turns taking off another chain and watching it get smaller. One year I made one using a cruise ship brochure showing pictures of some of the things that we would be seeing. To make it easier to count down the days, I made every seventh link with a wider strip of paper so that I could easily count the number of weeks with the kids.

Have a great trip with your kids.

Tapster, you're well on your way to preparing your children! The one thing I would suggest is preparing them for embarkation. It is long, a bit boring and can set the tone for the rest of the cruise. I've never sailed CRnival, but I'm sure you could get information from their forum on how embarkation works. I'm not a fan of electronics on vacation, but we do bring them to reduce the pain of waiting to get on the ship :)

The other thing we talk about is ship events and excursions. Our boys have done some not-so-child friendly excursions very successfully, mainly because we all knew what we were getting into.

Enjoy your cruise!

Our two younger children were 4 & 5 the first time we went on a family cruise. Since our cabins did not have tubs, I started getting them used to taking showers. And we allowed each one to have a very small backpack of "special" things they wanted to take on the cruise. A few things were even brand new from the store and we didn't allow them to open them until we were on the ship.

Make sure you give each child one or two disposal cameras, so that they can take pictures of the things they think are important. (You will be amazed at what you get back.)

Our two younger children were 4 & 5 the first time we went on a family cruise. Since our cabins did not have tubs, I started getting them used to taking showers. And we allowed each one to have a very small backpack of "special" things they wanted to take on the cruise. A few things were even brand new from the store and we didn't allow them to open them until we were on the ship.

 

Make sure you give each child one or two disposal cameras, so that they can take pictures of the things they think are important. (You will be amazed at what you get back.)

I second the shower thing and the paper chain.

Instead of disposable cameras, you can get pretty cheap digital ones these days compared to buying the disposable and processing. It may work out to be the same in the end. The bonus is they can take lots more pictures and look at them and delete the duds.

You may be able to find a copy of the ships daily programme for the kids club and they can then see the sorts of things that go on day to day.

Have a great trip, we sail on the 21st July so also counting down!

Gillian

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I second the shower thing and the paper chain.

Instead of disposable cameras, you can get pretty cheap digital ones these days compared to buying the disposable and processing. It may work out to be the same in the end. The bonus is they can take lots more pictures and look at them and delete the duds.

I second the cheap digital camera comment. This reminded me of one of the first times that I let my then 5 yr old DS borrow my camera while on a hike and I was glad that I could just delete all of the pictures that he had taken of my, ahem, behind as he hiked behind me rather than discovering them after paying to develop them!

At one point we did have a cheap kid's version that was supposed to be sturdy, but it didn't last that long and we found that the kids respected a real camera more. It helped that they knew that they were borrowing Mom's camera rather than giving it to them out right. When they started to get silly with it I would just take it away.

One ritual that we started when our kids were young enough to need afternoon naps is that since we fly to the port a day in advance, we make a stop at department store to pick up some last minute supplies including extra sunscreen, snacks for when we hang out in the cabin and we let the kids pick out a quiet toy that they can play with in the cabin. There were no complaints about being told it was time to head back to the cabin in the afternoon and they could play with it after a rest in bed. They didn't always nap, but the downtime in the cabin was a welcome reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the ship and they were usually rested enough to have a decent shot of behaving well through dinner. (And if we were really lucky, through the first act of a stage show. We would sit in the back row and if they acted up, we would slip out the door and head back to the cabin, but sometimes they would just fall asleep and we would carry them back after we enjoyed the show.)