How about taking the whole family?

So me and DH just cruised last week. It was my 4th and I have taken children with me on board Carnival and Celebrity. However, this past cruise was the first time with hubby and he is hooked! He decided for us to take another one next year. He wants it to be just us, and take a longer cruise up to 15 days. I say let's week to around spring break and take the whole family. We see several lines are offering kids are free deals. I guess my major question is which line do you think would fit our family best. We know we have to get to cabins, one with our 4 boys (21,15,12,2 at time of sailing) and the other for us and our two girls (6,4 at time of sailing). I know not all cruise lines have a program for 2 yo, so I will compromise with some toddler watching time with our oldest. My soon to be 15 yo said he was interested in going as I mentioned it to him, he seems to be a drone to online activities and does things with us (all 8 of us) but thinks its boring (typical) so would a teen program hold his interest (he loves it when I take him to some of the cons as we have the same interest in that area, so I know anything that is a game show or trivia he is with me)?

Thanks in advance to any advise! BTW, we prefere to drive to a port so TX or CA and not everyone cruises out of these ports in March :rolleyes:

Carnival starts the kids clubs at 2.

I'd look at the Carnival Miracle 7 day or one of the four day cruises out of Long Beach, CA.

Many will do a cruise then Disney or one of the other amusement parks. The Aquarium of the Pacific is an excellent alternative.

The Miracle has some interesting cabins. There are a few balconies that connect to insides (forward). The best bargains on the ship are the French Door (4K) and obstructed balcony (7A) cabins.

From the sounds of it- your husband likes the idea of getting away from the kids and doing a more interesting, longer itinerary that will probably be cheaper, since you aren't glued to school closings.

This is something you BOTH have to agree on. Cruising with six people will be expensive and a two year old might not be that thrilled to be in the youth program- meaning less adult time.

Another consideration is that you have four very different ages. The 21 year old is probably not going to like to do the same things as the 12 year old. The fifteen year old is probably not into hanging with parents. Do the older kids want to babysit the two year old and will this put a cramp in their style? I have a 26 year old married son and a 13 year old and I can tell you that our last family vacation was in 2010. My then 22 year old son was not interested in doing the same things as his then 9 year old brother or his then 44 year old mother. I think your husband may recognize that it won't be the same relaxing vacation as you just shared.

I too have children with a large age span (DH's oldest is 23 and our youngest is 6 months) so I know how difficult it can be to get everyone together for a vacation, and that is why a cruise is a great way to go! Like you said, there are some great deals out there right now where kids sail free and a cruise ship has so many different activities for passengers of ALL ages, that it seems to be perfect for families like ours. I don't have any advice for you on which ship to choose because we've yet to take our kids on a cruise, but I'd really like to, so I'm interested to see what others might recommend.

From the sounds of it- your husband likes the idea of getting away from the kids and doing a more interesting, longer itinerary that will probably be cheaper, since you aren't glued to school closings.

 

This is something you BOTH have to agree on. Cruising with six people will be expensive and a two year old might not be that thrilled to be in the youth program- meaning less adult time.

 

Another consideration is that you have four very different ages. The 21 year old is probably not going to like to do the same things as the 12 year old. The fifteen year old is probably not into hanging with parents. Do the older kids want to babysit the two year old and will this put a cramp in their style? I have a 26 year old married son and a 13 year old and I can tell you that our last family vacation was in 2010. My then 22 year old son was not interested in doing the same things as his then 9 year old brother or his then 44 year old mother. I think your husband may recognize that it won't be the same relaxing vacation as you just shared.

Yep, this is right. The more we (okay I) tried to figure it out this week, the more I was leaning towards not doing a huge family vacation like this. I have admitted to DH that he might be right in his prediction of a scenario like yours occurring :rolleyes:. Then our vacation would turn into a stressful event for me. I can see getting my 15 year old to ware anything but jeans is a hassle, he would go in the water with them :cool: Just getting ready for the day would be chaos, our mornings here are already like that so in tighter quarters yikes!!! So back to planning just one for us. I will stick too our staycation weekends we have ever so often.

I think it is a great idea to do things as a couple- it makes you really eager to come back to the kids.

I think it is a great idea to do things as a couple- it makes you really eager to come back to the kids.

That is so true, when we came back from the recent cruise we literally hung out with the children it was not like our daily routine. Even our 14 yo was happy to see us and spent time with us the proceeding week. It's a good break for everyone!