Best line for activities WITH your young children?

[cruizinnj]

Hi everyone,

 

We just returned from a Carnival cruise and while we had a great time, I was disappointed with the number of activities for families with young children to do TOGETHER. The camps are wonderful, but we don't want to have to drop the kids off for them to be able to do kid stuff. And the seaside movies were all PG13 and up. Not even one G rated movie was offered. And all of the evening shows started at 8:30 or 8:45. We would love to be able to do more ship-sponsored things together. (I brought toys and crafts of my own.) do any of the ships have open play rooms or activities focused on young families? I am thinking Disney might? how about Royal (I know Oasis and Allure have a carousel) or Norwegian? I am just starting my research in hopes of planning a future cruise - so any advice or recommendations you may provide is appreciated!

 

thank you!!

[Kerry's Girls]

Princess allows parents to join their kids in the play room, so before my kids were old enough for the kids program, we would go in there and play. Once they were old enough, they had no interest in me being there anymore.

 

On our last Royal Carib cruise, there were family games planned here and there that we enjoyed.

 

Best,

Mia

[sailinglisa]

If you are really looking for things to do WITH your young children...then I would definitely say the Oasis or Allure of the Seas..or Disney. Most of the other ships of all the cruise line have the same standard activities and limited family-do-together activities.

 

I know when I was a little kid I loved to do things with my parents, but by the time I was 7 and older, I definitely wanted to do things on my own with my own group of friends...."Mom, ,do you REALLY need to come with me/us?"

[cruizinnj]

Thanks Mia and Lisa for your responses! I should have clarified - my kids are almost 18 months and just turned 3. So, I am thinking we have a couple of years to go before they are ready to kick me to the curb :) lol. But I know the day will come when they will be begging for me to drop them off.

[Mom2B&Z]

Our NCL cruises had a family activity almost every day, where parents were expected to stay and participate with their child(ren). Things like cupcake decorating, Lego, pizza making...that's all I can remember off the top of my head ;). We have sailed Disney, but didn't find all that many active activities to do together, most were passive like watching a movie or a show.

[mjkacmom]

Our NCL cruises had a family activity almost every day' date=' where parents were expected to stay and participate with their child(ren). Things like cupcake decorating, Lego, pizza making...that's all I can remember off the top of my head ;). We have sailed Disney, but didn't find all that many active activities to do together, most were passive like watching a movie or a show.[/quote']

 

Oops - recently sailed the Breakaway, and sent the kids to cupcake decorating by themselves (10 and 12). My kids are older, but there was the ropes course, dance lessons with the Rockettes, Nick meet and greets and shows, family trivia, family Karoeke (sp), and early shows (the circ show was at 5:30).

[Hidden Minnie]

The Oceaneer Club & Lab on Disney ships do have lots of "open house" time when parents can come in and stay and play with their kids. If you Google something like 'Disney Cruise Daily Navigator' you can find copies of the daily activity listings and see the open house times.

[Keith1010]

I think two of the better ones are Disney and Princess.

 

Keith

[lillotis]

Just got back from Oasis and there were several things going on each day besides kids club. Face painting and balloon animals on boardwalk several times, Dreamworks character dance parties, breakfasts and meet and greets. Family craft times, family karaoke, family science time, ride power wheels in sports area twice from 7-8 at night, mini golf, ice skating and so much more. The list was endless. Each night you would get in your room schedule for next day and it was loaded with things to do. We were with two three year olds and they were blown away and had best time.

[OCruisers]

Just got back from Oasis and there were several things going on each day besides kids club. Face painting and balloon animals on boardwalk several times, Dreamworks character dance parties, breakfasts and meet and greets. Family craft times, family karaoke, family science time, ride power wheels in sports area twice from 7-8 at night, mini golf, ice skating and so much more. The list was endless. Each night you would get in your room schedule for next day and it was loaded with things to do. We were with two three year olds and they were blown away and had best time.

 

When we were on Oasis, I was amazed at the large number of Family Times listed in "The Compass".

 

LuLu

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[cruizinnj]

Thank you all so very much for the helpful replies. I appreciate your responses! I am thrilled to see that some of the ships have so many family activities as an option. Your feedback is going to help our decision-making process quite a bit! :)

[crusinmama06]

As the others had stated Royal and Norwegian seem to have (from what we have personally experienced too) the most Family activities.

 

Every day in the Royal compass and the Freestyle dailies there were multiple family events to choose from - so much so that on ships like Epic - we were RUNNING from event to event.

 

One would be a Nick Family Event - with Spongebob and Dora - then we would have to run to a cupcake decorating event. (This was on Epic)

 

On Royal - there was always Family Scavenger hunts and one day we did balloon animals. On the Freedom and Oasis class you would have the added benefit of all of the Dreamworks events.

 

We did Carnival 3 times and we were looking for things to do with the kids. We never have that problem on Norwegian or Royal.

[cruizinnj]

Thank you Michelle! I appreciate your response and additional info. As you and the others have described, I am seeing that there are certain lines and ships that will be better suited for us cruising as a family wanting to do things together as a family. I am thrilled that this is the case as I walked off our last cruise wondering if we would need to take a break from cruising while vacationing with little ones! I am so happy to see that is not the case :)

[Gardeneroflove]

I think two of the better ones are Disney and Princess.

 

Keith

 

nope, not Disney. They do have limited open house hours, but they were in the evenings, so dd didn't get to play that long, they aren't everyday either.

 

There's no open play area. Though the Magic did have the splash area so there's water play.

 

Wake up with Disney Jr (dancing and songs) for 30 minutes, then Toddler Time open play with some toys is held on sea days (only).

 

That's it. Most activities are for the club/lab, NOT for parent/child. The only time the parents can go into the club/lab is during open house hours. VERY disappointing as I thought the stuff listed with the ears we could do with dd.

 

We still booked another cruise though, but since Disney won't be in Gal. Tx, we're looking for new ship! I'm very anti spoogebob though.

 

Now, dd was 14 months, so they may have stuff for the OLDER kids, but not for the younger ones.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

RCL the Oass or the Allure ..

[Gardeneroflove]

RCL the Oass or the Allure ..

 

Do you know what ports they are in? We're looking for a new cruise line/ship as Disney is no longer in Gal. We need something out of Gal or New Orleans.

[azcater]

We've done NCL and Disney with our kids and Disney wins for family activities hands down. NCL has family things that were mentioned before. But cupcake decorating is fun for 5 min.. the Lego time is good (when they actually bring them, this was a problem on the Sky last week) and the under 3 zoo parent participation program is a joke. I will NOT be traveling on the Sky again with my kids. The STAR has an excellent kids club but that's for when they are old enough to be dropped off, etc. We had lots of time to play with our 1 yr old on the Disney ship in their playroom with lots of fun toys.

[crusinmama06]

No one can compare a Sky experience with a Disney ship. Sky is the oldest ship in the fleet.

 

Stick to the newer ships.

Edited November 30, 2013 by crusinmama06

[Gardeneroflove]

We've done NCL and Disney with our kids and Disney wins for family activities hands down. NCL has family things that were mentioned before. But cupcake decorating is fun for 5 min.. the Lego time is good (when they actually bring them, this was a problem on the Sky last week) and the under 3 zoo parent participation program is a joke. I will NOT be traveling on the Sky again with my kids. The STAR has an excellent kids club but that's for when they are old enough to be dropped off, etc. We had lots of time to play with our 1 yr old on the Disney ship in their playroom with lots of fun toys.

 

Which ship? I didn't think any of them had an open playroom.

[azcater]

Crusinmama- you are soooo right. We made a huge mistake choosing that ship. (although we didn't really "choose" the ship, just the itinerary and date and ended up with that ship) but never again!

 

But honestly, I had no idea there would be such a difference between the Star and the Sky. Even the Star had better kid pool area and the kids club was so much better.

 

Gardeneroflove- we went on the Magic and I believe the nursery area for little ones was called flounders reef, but we were allowed to come in during certain times and play with our little one.

[azcater]

Gardeneroflove- sorry I just saw your post about the magic.. since you sailed in 12/2012, they must have changed things up since we sailed with them. We had plenty of opportunities to play along with my son. (he turned one on that cruise). Bummer!