New to cruising: Activities for a single/with a 4-year old son onboard.

Hi there,

I have booked Diamond Princess Auckland round trip on 17-30 December 2015, but am totally the first timer here. There will be me, my 4-year old son and my cousin on the trip. Are there any good activities for 2 women to do on our own onboard? I planned to take my son to youth programme some days so we can have time to ourselves. I have browsed through the activity lists but do they all require booking in advance? Your suggestions and advice are highly appreciated.

Cheers.

Hi there,

 

I have booked Diamond Princess Auckland round trip on 17-30 December 2015, but am totally the first timer here. There will be me, my 4-year old son and my cousin on the trip. Are there any good activities for 2 women to do on our own onboard? I planned to take my son to youth programme some days so we can have time to ourselves. I have browsed through the activity lists but do they all require booking in advance? Your suggestions and advice are highly appreciated.

Cheers.

You may have trouble keeping your boy out of kids club, some of them love it so much.

I cant think of any activity that needs booking in advance, if you mean things like shows, trivia, craft lessons, lectures and the such.

Hope you enjoy your first cruise.

If you tell us a bit more about the sort of thing you might enjoy doing we can perhaps give you better advice.

BTW welcome to Cruise Critic.

Hi there,

 

I have booked Diamond Princess Auckland round trip on 17-30 December 2015, but am totally the first timer here. There will be me, my 4-year old son and my cousin on the trip. Are there any good activities for 2 women to do on our own onboard? I planned to take my son to youth programme some days so we can have time to ourselves. I have browsed through the activity lists but do they all require booking in advance? Your suggestions and advice are highly appreciated.

Cheers.

Hi and welcome to CC.

We are on the Diamond Princess, leaving Sydney on the 8th December (round trip) but get into Auckland on the 17th so I guess that's when you will be joining us.

Why don't you join our roll call http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157332

Your cruise is in the middle of two cruises out of Sydney so you should also join the roll call leaving Sydney on the 21st December http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2111226 .

Look forward to seeing you on the 8th December roll call.

Cheers

Di

Hi there,

Thank you for your kind messages and warm welcome. Yes, will be joining from Auckland on the 17th December. The activities can be anything from spa to sports. So my son will love the youth programme? This means more leisure time for me and my cousin.

Cheers

Hi and glad you are getting to experience the cruising lifestyle.

We will also be on the same cruise as you but leaving Sydney on the 21st Dec. Our little girl was 5 on her first cruise on the Carnival Spirit and we could not keep her out of kids club. She loved it, even late into the evening she wanted to be there as they had things planned.

On a couple of nights she even stayed until just after midnight as we were enjoying ourselves so much as well. They gave them all a blanket and pillow while watching a late movie.

And there were so many tears on the last night when she left kids club for the last time.

She will be 8 by the time this cruise starts and she's looking forward to being with the older kids.

You may want to prebook a massage or other spa services as you will find the best times on sea days go very quickly. You can do this through your cruise personalizer on the princess website. All things onboard like trivia, destination talks ect are free and you just turn up. If you like gym classes I think some of them are sign up events but you can do that when you get onboard. Also if you want to have a night in a specialty restaurant (Sabatinis is awesome) then you may want to book as soon as you get onboard.

Diamond is my favourite ship and my daughter loves the kids club.

My son had just turned 4 when we travelled on the Sun three years ago. He was too shy to stay in the kids club and would not stay there without me (agggh) There weren't many other children on the cruise and none around the same age. The careers were lovely tried very hard with him, but he just would not stay there, despite the fact he was used to going to Childcare since 10 months of age. They certianly did a lot of fun activities and took the kids for free iecream. We participated in a dance contest thingy and a mini Olympics that he loved, made t shirts and lots of crafty stuff. They had lots of play station, wi and similar. though he caught sight of the teenagers separate section with even more electronic games and wanted into that section, but was not allowed.

Other then the games room they have lots of things going on on board and he was happy to tag along. He loved Bingo with hi Grandmother and enjoyed going to the shows of a night. He fell in love with the male cruise director and a few of the dancers and they all fussed over him. We found the NZ cruise didn't have many sea days anyhow so I don't feel I missed too much. I still got to Zumba and a quiz. They has cake decorating and ice-carving demos. And I escaped for a few hours on the ultimate ship tour and got to see the inner workings of the ship.

A few tips

The pool is very deep so if he's not a good swimmer, then I highly recommend bringing a swim floatation jacket so the you don't have to spend all your time in the pool holding him up.

The walls of the cabin are all metal so we took along a few people and other magnets and he and the cabin guy played tricks rearranging them every day.

Unless its changed dramatically the kids menu in the main dining room is all chips plus fried food ( ie nuggets, fish, pizza)apart from spaghetti bog as well as ice cream. If you want him to have some veggies you can order steamed veggies on the side or you can order one of the adult meals but have the veggies changed to ones he's more likely to eat and the potatoes changed to chips.

Thank you guys for your kind information. I will discuss with my cousin and see what we can do I'm keen on spa and sanctuary relaxation, etc. I am a bit worried but pretty certain my boy will love the kids club. :D

It will be different on a Christmas cruise as there will likely be more children on board. We went in term time for many states so there were only about 11 in total, and mostly 8-14year old girls,

We are going on the Christmas/NewYears trip on the Dawn this year. My sons now 7 and is looking forward to making new friends and going to the games room without me, as Its not cool to hang with mum when your 7 apparently.

They always have specials on the spa treatments on port days ( and kids club is open) so if there's a port you've been to before or are not too interested in, it's worth staying on for the discounts and tranquility ( my parents are frequent cruisers and sometimes do this) They usually advertise the evening before in the Princess Patter(newsletter)