Alaskan cruise with kids- need help

[am2]

First time posting, so hello! Looking at taking an Alaskan cruise with our kids in summer of 2012. They'll be DD8 and DS10. My parents may join us as well (they've cruised on Princess to Alaska a couple of times).

 

My main issue is room configurations. We've cruised on Disney once and loved the separation between the kids' area and our area. Would love to find something similar (but not Disney) but am having a really hard time figuring out which cruise lines have what. My kids cannot share a sofa bed, so that is out of the question. They'd do well with a sofa bed and a pullman over it, but I can't tell which cruise lines have a curtain to separate us from them.

 

We're thinking we'd prefer a cruise line that doesn't have a gazillion kids. Our kids didn't enjoy the Disney kids' club because they were overwhelmed by the number of kids. Would also like a club where the kids can be together despite their ages.

 

Any suggestions for me for where to start looking? Thanks!

[cb at sea]

Few ship's have the Disney room configuration. And, on most ships, the pullmans are over the main bed...with no curtains to separate anything. Very tight. You might be happier if you were to book 2 rooms with a connecting door between them....that way, each child would have their own real bed, and their own bathroom!

The other option would be a 2 room suite....but that can be quite pricey.

 

Carnival has some of the larger "standard" cabins...so if you were to put everyone in one cabin, there would be a bit of "floor space".

 

There will be kids on almost every summer cruise.....probably not a ton, tho...Alaskan cruises don't draw the huge kid population that Caribbean cruises do.

[Essiesmom]

A mini-suite on Princess has a separate sitting area that doubles as the second sleeping area. One person sleeps on the foldout couch, the other in a bunk above it. But there is no separating privacy curtain. Celebrity has FV (vamily verandah) cabins aft with similar separate sleeping area, but two couches. They are intended for five, but you might be able to get one. They also have a separation, with privacy wall, but not total separation. they also have huge balconies, especially the corners. EM

[am2]

Thanks for the feedback. Well, hmm. Surprised more cruise lines haven't copied Disney's layout. Anyone else?

[RoadTripFanatic]

They are right. I've been on my share of cruise lines and no one else follows the Disney curtain plan. I'm sorry.

 

We cruised with Holland when we went to AK in 2007. We were very happy with the cruise line. (Best food!) I will say there were plenty of kids in the kids center but the crowd in general is a lot older on Holland.

[chipmaster]

Welcome to CC

 

I might suggest an inside / outside cabin arrangement where they are right across the way? 8/10 are old enough at least for my family that I booked an adult in each room with a child and than swapped.

 

As to Disney or other line. Hopefully you aren't attached to Disney as they only sail Tracy Arm.

 

We did Princess this past summer 2 balcony and 3 inside cabins all togather, worked pretty well. Kids kind of liked sleeping in the dark rooms till 10-11am sometimes :rolleyes:

 

Sadly every line I've been own have hard splits on clubs so that is what it is. I found Princess perfect, nice clubs but a good balance of all ages.

 

As to why not all lines follow Disney as its an expensive proposition and demographics and demand drive ship designs and target audience. Disney with their Mouse premium likely can achieve the occupancy that other lines may not.

 

First time posting, so hello! Looking at taking an Alaskan cruise with our kids in summer of 2012. They'll be DD8 and DS10. My parents may join us as well (they've cruised on Princess to Alaska a couple of times).

 

My main issue is room configurations. We've cruised on Disney once and loved the separation between the kids' area and our area. Would love to find something similar (but not Disney) but am having a really hard time figuring out which cruise lines have what. My kids cannot share a sofa bed, so that is out of the question. They'd do well with a sofa bed and a pullman over it, but I can't tell which cruise lines have a curtain to separate us from them.

 

We're thinking we'd prefer a cruise line that doesn't have a gazillion kids. Our kids didn't enjoy the Disney kids' club because they were overwhelmed by the number of kids. Would also like a club where the kids can be together despite their ages.

 

Any suggestions for me for where to start looking? Thanks!

[Cheryl H]

Last time we were on Jewel of the Sea (a sister ship to the Radiance), we had a family oceanview room. We had room 8002. It was 319 square feet. It had a separate area for our son and the doorway had a curtain. His area was probably 10 feet by 6 feet, I'm guessing. It had it's own closet and dresser. He slept on the twin bed, and there was a pullman that could be pulled down above it.

 

It just had a window, but it was sort of a bay window. There are pictures of the room below my signature.

 

It's a sister ship to the Radiance of the Seas which does the Alaska intineraries. It was really nice having the extra side room for our son. And the extra closet and dresser were great. We had lots of space for unpacking and then some.

 

I believe it also had a sofabed, but we didn't use it. Some say these family oceanviews require a minimum amount of people for booking, but we were a family of three and didn't have a problem booking at all. And the price wasn't much more than a regular window room.

 

Enjoy planning!! We're taking our 6 year old to Alaska this June. This time we didn't get a family oceanview. We have 1100 which is a junior suite aft. Can't wait. It's our first junior suite and first time being aft.

 

Cheryl

[Colorado Kat]

On Carnival ships, the Oceanview rooms have a bit extra space, since they incorporate the space that would have included the balcony. Makes for a nice, spacious cabin.

 

We've booked these the last few cruises, on the lowest passenger deck. I love looking out at the ocean from so close - it is very mesmerizing. Especially at night.

[newbiecruiser09]

Can't speak to the AK cruises but when we took the kids to Nassau last year we got connecting rooms. It was cheaper than a suite and gave us 2 bathrooms (we were on Majesty so the rooms were tiny and I cannot imagine how anyone gets 4 into one of them!) I think Disney has that family configuration because they have lots of families with little kids/babies and folks may not want to put them in a separate room.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Celebrity cruises offer family suites but they book quickly. I highly recommend them. We had one and it was really nice to have the extra room and larger balcony.

[am2]

Thanks for the feeback. We'll probably end up looking into connecting cabins with my parents so one kid can sleep in their room and one kid with us. It doesn't seem worth the expense to book 2 rooms just for the 4 of us. Wow- kids sleeping until 10 or 11am? Mine won't sleep past 7!

[am2]

Did some more checking today. Who knew choosing a cruise would be so difficult? It's like choosing a house- can't find one that has exactly what I want and am going to have to compromise.

 

Love the idea of Princess- kids would be together in the club, Jr Ranger program sounds neat, great itinerary. But they don't have any connecting cabins and to even put a 3rd person into a room we'd have to have a pullman. Could do one interior room and 1 balcony room on same level, us and a kid in one and my parents and a kid in one. But a kid would have to climb over a grandparent to get into bed. Simply cannot afford minisuite.

 

HAL looks great, again kids would be in same age group. Could do two inside or oceanview connecting cabins. But no floors have both balcony rooms and interior rooms that hold 3 on the same level. And balcony rooms not available yet.

 

Celebrity has two levels where we could do a balcony room and an interior room across from each other, both holding 3 people. Kids could sleep on sofa beds in both rooms (can't tell if the interior room has a sofa or a "trundle"- what is that?). But kids would be in separate kids clubs.

 

Don't like NCL itineraries, don't want to be overrun by kids on Royal Caribbean or Disney. Hmm... seems like I wasted a lot of time today!

[boulders]

I sailed RCCL's Radiance to Alaska in August, 2009. I doubt there were more than 200 kids on board. Three of them were mine. Not one age group dominated the ship.

 

Radiance definitely has connecting rooms as well as the family oceanview, which we had.

 

I'm sailing to Alaska this coming August. This time, I'm going on a Princess cruisetour, with just my 6 year old. Princess has a couple of cruisetours, the WOW and the FUN that are aimed at families. Princess' southbound cruise has one of the best itineraries out there. It visits both Hubbard glacier and Glacier Bay. When we visited Hubbard glacier with RCCL, we were there for maybe an hour.