Children on world cruise sectors?

We’ll be spending a few weeks in Australia and NZ Seeing family either next year or year after. Some of the sectors on the world cruise have great itineraries (between 14 and 20 days) which would be good to tie in. Our daughter will be 3, just wondered on these world cruises if many children do any parts of it? Thanks.

We haven’t taken a full World cruise as yet, but have taken long sections.

There were VERY few children on board. Last time, we used to see a little boy of about two, and a girl a little older, maybe four, but no others.

I have been on two world cruises - one on Cunard and one on HAL. There were a handful of children on some of the sectors on each. Both lines had a very good children's program and with the small number of children onboard, they received lots of attention.

Thanks. I’ve done loads of cruises with my two sons from age 2 up until now (they are 19 and 17) and they have always loved the children’s clubs growing up. Never done a world cruise sector but Cunard have some good itineraries. I’ve a 2 year old who will be 3 by the time we go. RC also have good routes as well.

We’ll be spending a few weeks in Australia and NZ Seeing family either next year or year after. Some of the sectors on the world cruise have great itineraries (between 14 and 20 days) which would be good to tie in. Our daughter will be 3, just wondered on these world cruises if many children do any parts of it? Thanks.

The answer is no.*

*According to my limited experience. We used a Union-Castle replacement service (Southampton to Cape Town via the Canaries) and there was exactly one child (not including teenagers) on board.

That said, your daughter might become a star hand have about 1500 to 2000 volunteer part time grandparents to her service. ;)

I've done three 1/2 W/C's, each about 60 days ~~~none of them had many children. ( referring to 2016 + 2017 + 2018).

The very few kids that were there, were in the day-care/ play rooms part of the time, and seemed to be having fun. But there's not enough for groups of any significant size to be formed.

In 2017 the O N E child I saw, was with his mom/dad, all the time.

I absolutely LOVE Cunard, and its 3 magnificent QUEENS. But they are the last ships I'd ever consider taking kids on.

*** and I also LIKE children ***

I absolutely LOVE Cunard, and its 3 magnificent QUEENS. But they are the last ships I'd ever consider taking kids on.

*** and I also LIKE children ***

I find that strange. I’ve got 19 and 17 year old sons who have cruised since they were 2 (25 cruises each) and I did the QM with them in 2005 and the Victoria and they love it - there were loads of children in the kids club and it was very children orientated. I only asked this question as it was to do with sectors on the world cruises.

We did the full World Voyage on the Queen Elizabeth this year. There were only 3 children onboard that I can recall, and that was only a 7 day segment Osaka to Osaka.

The World Voyage does not make provisions for children--no junior counselors, no activities.

Ricki

We did the full World Voyage on the Queen Elizabeth this year. There were only 3 children onboard that I can recall, and that was only a 7 day segment Osaka to Osaka.

 

The World Voyage does not make provisions for children--no junior counselors, no activities.

 

Ricki

Thanks Ricki :cool:

We did the full World Voyage on the Queen Elizabeth this year. There were only 3 children onboard that I can recall, and that was only a 7 day segment Osaka to Osaka.

 

The World Voyage does not make provisions for children--no junior counselors, no activities.

 

Ricki

This must have changed since 2014. On the QE WV that year there were a couple of young ladies who took care of any children on the various segments. We had one young man about 13 who was on for the entire WV but I don't think he took part in any of the children's activities.

The World Voyage does not make provisions for children--no junior counselors, no activities.

 

Ricki

Hi Ricki,

Do you mean in addition to the Childrens Clubs which are always available?

TBH I'd never considered that a cruise line would put on extra activities during World Voyages, as there's so much for them to do anyway.

Hi Ricki,

Do you mean in addition to the Childrens Clubs which are always available?

TBH I'd never considered that a cruise line would put on extra activities during World Voyages, as there's so much for them to do anyway.

The Children's Clubs were open, but I never saw anyone there, and we just didn't have many children onboard.

Ricki

The general rule is the longer the itinerary, the less children onboard. Cunard is generally child free, compared to other cruise lines. World cruise sectors don’t really attract families due to their duration.

The World Voyage does not make provisions for children--no junior counselors, no activities.

Could you check with Cunard? My 2 and 6 year old were on a Cunard's Norwegian Fjord cruise last year, and the counselors told me they'd done the world cruise prior and there were 2 children aboard who spent a lot of time in the kids clubs. It's true there isn't a huge amount for kids on Cunard, but our ship had a large chess set, large pools that potty trained kids can use and a tennis/ping pong area that my kids really liked. My oldest has been on 4 cruises starting at the age of 2, and none of them have been on newer ships with many child amenities. We always choose cruises based upon itinerary, and those tend to be older ships with fewer things for kids. And my children have absolutely loved all of their vacations, and been very happy. We take them with us on excursions during the day and leave them in the kids club as soon as we reboard so we can rest. As long as your kids like to travel/explore this should work out well. My oldest keeps telling me we have to go on another Baltic cruise since I was pregnant with my younger one and he didn't get a chance to see Stockholm or St. Petersburg.

Just a few thing to note about Cunard:

if you don't sail in a premium cabin, there is no anytime dining. We were assigned fixed late seating, which was after my youngest's bedtime. I contacted Cunard ahead of time and they very kindly cleared us off the wait list for early dining so we could eat in the mdr.

You are not allowed to leave your child in the kids club and go ashore, and therefore the kids clubs open up later on shore days (this didn't affect us at all, as we always like to take our children on excursions but it was a surprise since most mainstream cruise lines let you leave a child behind.

We had some issues with the staff not being willing to work one on one with our two year old to help him acclimate to the kids club (he needed individual attention for about 5 minutes in the transition and then he was happy to play with the other kids) but I don't think the staff will tell you they're overworked on a world cruise, since there might not even be any other kids in the kids clubs during the time you are there.

We had difficulties with the tender - prior to sailing please go to Cunard's website and print out the page where they say parents can carry children across the 18 inch step test to be cleared to use a tender. The people in charge of the tender insisted that everyone - including a 2 year old - needed to be able to step across 18 inches to tender. We were denied tender tickets and had to spend an hour fighting with the purser's office to be granted tickets. Unsurprisingly when we got to the tender, the crew quite kindly picked up our little one and passed him over safely into the tender boat (which is exactly what happened when we sailed to the Panama Canal with a 2 year old on Princess.)

My reviews in the signature line have a lot of info about traveling with kids. Best of luck!