From what age can children remember a cruise?

I was wondering when would be the first time children would remember a cruise from? I think it would be nice to create lasting happy memories for our kids ;) I’d guess maybe 6 or 7 years old for long term memory.

What’s the earliest you or your kids can remember a cruise holiday?

My son had just turned 4 on his first cruise. He remembers every detail- but I think that at 4 that may be the exception rather than the rule...

Happy Cruising!

We have a grandson who had just turned 3 on his first cruise--he remembers some things; we know they are true memories and not just parroting what he had been told or seen in pictures because when he mentioned some of them we had forgotten the details until he said them. He is 9 now, and comes up with something new about that cruise every so often.

But, realistically, I'd say 6-7 for true memories, and even then they may be vague in years to come.

Our son, now age 37, swears he has never been to Disney World. We went twice, once when he was 4, once when he was 7. And, he is the family member whose memory is normally phenomenol. I couldn't beat him at the game of Memory when he was 2!

It helps to look at pictures and reminence about trips, I think. But, I wouldn't put off a trip because children might not remember it; life experience like traveling are always enriching.

My little girl remembers bits and pieces from Camp Carnival when she went at 2.

My 2 year-old remembers our December cruise. We are headed out on one again tommorow and all he talk about is the ice cream at dinner, dancing with fun ship freddy and seeing the "show".

My DD remembers all her cruises except her first at 14 months. She still talks about the dolphin swim in Cozumel and remembers the dolphin's name - Pablo

:-)

Seriously? What do YOU remember from your childhood? ;)

My kids started cruising as infants. I do it to create FAMILY experiences, not to create specific memories for just one child. I figure if I die tomorrow, then I got to have those memories of my children. :)

I traveled a great deal with my own family when I was a child. I can tell you that I don't have any solid memories of those trips until I was about 12. And even then I am guessing it was more from pictures. But I am betting those prior experiences made me who I am today. :D I love to travel.

At this point my kids say they remember all of their cruises, but when they are my age...will they? I don't care...I bet they will love to travel and won't be afraid to leave the state.

Seriously? What do YOU remember from your childhood? ;)

 

My kids started cruising as infants. I do it to create FAMILY experiences, not to create specific memories for just one child. I figure if I die tomorrow, then I got to have those memories of my children. :)

 

I traveled a great deal with my own family when I was a child. I can tell you that I don't have any solid memories of those trips until I was about 12. And even then I am guessing it was more from pictures. But I am betting those prior experiences made me who I am today. :D I love to travel.

 

At this point my kids say they remember all of their cruises, but when they are my age...will they? I don't care...I bet they will love to travel and won't be afraid to leave the state.

I agree completely; memories may be vague to non-existant when they are grown-up, but you still had the experiences, togetherness and fun. I don't remember very specific details about my young years either, just vignettes here and there and I often think even those are related to pictures or family talking about them.

Do the things you want to now without worrying about if kids will remember them. That's not the point, IMO.

I'm not sure what all DD remembers from her first cruise at 4 but I remember...

• Her getting her toe run over by the ramp getting on the glass bottom boar in Nassau and losing her toe nail from it.
  
• The waiter dumping Bahama Mamas on me and splattering her while we were waiting for a show to start.
  
• The clerk in the store giving her a Minnie Mouse Pin because she was having a "bad" day when I went with her to buy a stuffed Minnie Mouse.
  
• The begginings of her love for Shirley Temples.
  
• The waiter bringing her a special surprise of Strawberries on her Mickey Mouse ice cream bar only to have her wrinkle her nose up at him and say yuck.
  
• The look on her face when she saw Tinker Bell flying over the ship in the production show and asked me "Does this mean we can fly".
  
• The excitement she had at getting her hair braided.
  
• Getting paged to come get her from the kids club because she was crying because she thought I had left her there "forever".
  
• The fun she had in the MDR with the waiters.
  
• Playing with the big checkers on Castaway Cay.
  
• The expression on her face when she thought she stepped on a fishes home the first time she snorkeled.
  

This was 10 years ago and we have been 6 cruises since then with fond memories from each of them.

Heck I remember going to the hospital to see my newborn sister when I was 2.25 yrs old and I'm well into my 30's now ;)

ITA with other posters that it's about the experience and in-the-moment fun rather than a child remembering x, y or z facts about a place. DS1 recalls quite a bit about our trip to Cuba when he was 4 yrs, DS2 doesn't remember much and he was 2 yrs. Our cruise from January is still generating discussion with both boys, who were 5 and 3 respectively. The dolphins definitely made an impression!

Pictures help them recall certain events, but they help me too!

Not a cruise, but my family took a big driving trip across the western U.S. just about two months after my 3rd birthday. I remember exactly one thing from it: trying to climb the rail at the Grand Canyon and hang off of it from the outside. (For some reason, my parents wouldn't let me do it!)

We never did any kind of big trip like this again, and I had to wait until I was in my mid-20s before I was able to get out West again. Even now, years and years later, I still haven't seen a lot of the places we went. And yes, for years it irked me that I essentially missed out on the biggest vacation my family ever had.

This is why I'm not taking my kids on a cruise, or any other major vacation, until they're old enough to remember it (which I estimate to be at about age 4). We do lots of stuff for fun and family-bonding, including a recent trip to Florida to see Sea World and the Kennedy Space Center. But the really big trips -- and for me, that includes cruises -- will just have to wait. Feel free to flame me on this, but that's how I feel about it.

P.S. Observant readers will notice that I have taken two cruises within the past year. But we did not take the kids on either of them. Next time!

Are you cruising to be together and have fun? Or are you cruising to teach your child something?

My child has asked me to tell her about what happened when she was born many times. I don't expect her to remember, but she seems to be amazed each time I tell her stories.

She no longer remembers being in Paris when she was 1, but she still giggles at the pictures of herself being a toddler.

I have stories about each trip, and she's also had her take on the travels we've done together. She tends to laugh quite a bit on trips, so that's how I measure whether or not it's a good trip.

Granted, I'm saving the Smithsonian and a trip to Athens & Rome for when she's a teen... ;)

Our 4yr old remembers a lot about the cruises she has taken after about age 2. The ones we took prior to then she doesn't remember other than from pictures. I expect that as time passes she will remember less and less about them, but her parents won't forget :D

I concur with much of the previous sentiments. I traveled (mainly land trips) as a child with my family. How much of the trips I "remember" vs how much I recall because of family stories and photos -- I'll never know. But, I do believe that who I am today is largely a part of all of the experience I've had over my life.

DD's first real "vacation" was a 8MO (although GM/GP's house was 5.5 hour trip one way so . . . . ). Does she remember anything specific about that trip? Not now (she's 15.5YO) -- although she shocked me by remembering something very specific about it when we were on a plane on our way to another vacation about 3 years later!

She's been to 23 states and 12 foreign countries. A large part of "who" she is is due to our travels. The experiences are part of it and the family component is another part of it.

I remember special events from when I was 3 years old. Routine stuff fades from your memory, but unique events remain. Before age 7, I lived in three different states and a foreign country, and remember a great deal about them. I remember things like bringing home a baby brother/sister from the hospital, holidays, and other significant events as young as 3, though.

Actually with the wee ones you are building awarness of other things around them. My family drug us kids around from birth on "family vacations." That was when you had the time to spend with parents. Parents work rest of the year. It was a dedicated time to be together. So it is never if the can remember, it is that you spending time and laying the ground work of memories.

I always laugh when people say leave the kids with the grandparents. Umm, memo from my mom. I raised you kids, am thrilled to be a grandparent and once potty trained they can spend the night when we feel like it. Done our job. Your turn, looking forward to spoiling them. Our turn to get away and party. I think mom was on track with that. But mom had me at 19, it is her turn.

I can see this from both sides. You hate to spend so much money on a "kids" vacation if they most likely won't remember it. However I am excited to take our DD's on their first cruise and share my love of cruising with them regardless of whether they remember it or not.

I'm fairly certain that my 5 y.o. will remember many things and will definitely remember getting to swim with dolphins. On the other hand, our soon to be 1 y.o. won't remember a thing and that's OK! We will have plenty of pictures and memories to share with our youngest as she gets older. We will all have the experience of the trip and that is priceless to me!

I was able to travel the world when I was young and it helped to shape who I am. I want the same for my daughters. As another poster said though, there are certain trips that I will save until they are old enough to appreciate them. ;)

well i remember that my family never went anywhere on vacation besides sesame place when i was about 5. So if you go on a vacation atleast they'll know they went and get to see pics. if you're lucky they'll remember some.. get a recorder that will help.

we have traveled with each kid since they were were infants...WDW, a cruise, and a bunch of other land vacations. We love to see our children enjoy the things we do. Who cares if they remember them or not. They are enjoying it at that moment and that's what counts. They can look at pictures when they are older and we can tell them happy memories...even better!!

I always laugh when people say leave the kids with the grandparents. Umm, memo from my mom. I raised you kids, am thrilled to be a grandparent and once potty trained they can spend the night when we feel like it. Done our job. Your turn, looking forward to spoiling them. Our turn to get away and party. I think mom was on track with that. But mom had me at 19, it is her turn.

Well, my Mom had me at 31 and she says the same thing lol! They would take the boys for a night, but never any more. I'm grateful to have them available at all.

Well' date=' my Mom had me at 31 and she says the same thing lol! They would take the boys for a night, but never any more. I'm grateful to have them available at all.[/quote']

LOL. Someone else who has similar parents. Whenever I read the grandparents would love to watch the kids I bust out laughing.

Not that these parents do not like the kids, they just do it on their terms. Heck our whole family has done cruises together. And true story. I was sitting next to mom in the casino. Nephew runs up to grandma and says I want to play video games. I ended up giving him money for that. Grandma has a budget. Will say the kid showed me the arcade games.

Grandma had already paid for his cruise so it was not like she was being super cheap. She just did not have a lot of on hand cash. And he was thrilled to play games with his old aunt.

My oldest was 4.5 when she went on her first cruise and she remembers parts of the cruise, mainly the beach day we spent in St. Thomas because I made her put a t-shirt on over her swimsuit because her shoulders were getting red. That's what she remembers. :rolleyes:

My oldest was 4.5 when she went on her first cruise and she remembers parts of the cruise, mainly the beach day we spent in St. Thomas because I made her put a t-shirt on over her swimsuit because her shoulders were getting red. That's what she remembers. :rolleyes:

My oldest remembers bits and pieces of her cruises at age 3 and 4. At age 3 we went to Alaska and she remembers standing on deck and seeing the glacier, and the sound that it made when the ice broke off (can't remember the word for this). She remembers the British Isles cruise, but said that there were "too many bus rides"!

It's incredible how from such a young age some kids can remember certain incidents from their cruise.

I sense that my question provoked more controversy than I expected. My son is 17 months old and we will probably only go cruising a maximum of 3 times during his childhood so that's why I was pondering this to help me decide whether I should take him at a time when he can have some recollection of going on a family cruise holiday.

I see the points about taking him being fun and enriching experience for him and provide me with good memories but we make sure every day is fun for him and give him new experiences regularly and that he frequently spends quality time with us. It doesn't cost much to give him loving fun family experiences so when I do spend thousands on a family cruise I feel it would benefit him more if he was also able to recall it later on in life.

Personally, I like having recollection of fun family holidays! I can see it being a different situation if you do go cruising frequently though.

My now 4.5 yr old son remembers our WDW trip from May 2009 vividly. Like what souveniers he got (still plays with), who we saw where (characters), what rides we rode, where we stayed, how the busses worked....

He was just 2.5 at the time. I was given endless grief for taking him -- oh, he'll be afraid of all the characters. He'll whine and cry and throw fits. You'll be on his schedule. He won't remember a thing.

You know what? None of that happened. We had a fabulous trip. Yes, we came back to the room in the afternoons for naps, but otherwise, our routine worked for all of us....and he remembers -- more than I ever expected him to.

I wll say his temperment made taking him easy. We are NOT taking the kids back to WDW until my daughter is a little older than that (probably 3.5) b/c she is much more.....ah, feisty. The theme parking with a feisting infant scares me. SO we're going to do a cruise in Feb 2012 -- about 2 1/2 for her, 5 1/2 for him. And I know he'll remember alot. And I think she will as well...as she has already shown a remarkable ability to remember. I think you might be surprised what kids remember from what age.