Extended Family to Alaska

[grsnovi]

We want to take the kids, their spouses and kids to Alaska next summer. I'm interested in feedback from folks who may have done something like this. I'm mostly interested in your kids opinion of a room with 2 adults and two kids as well as your thoughts on how CLUB HAL does with kids ranging from 7 to 13. We just got off K'dam and I saw a room set up with the fold out and then a bunk over the top of two double beds with a set of stairs (ladder) up to the bunk. I wonder if they can configure a bunk without separating the main bed. I realize that HAL has a stereo-typed clientele but it's true, most of us are older. I'm wondering if another line might be "more fun" for the kids and grand kids. A couple we dined with this past week suggested that Norwegian might be a better choice for the kids. We've done Alaska 3x and wanted to sail out of Seattle to allow us to drive (from Portland) and park at the pier - so we're not really interested in sailing from Vancouver. We're also pretty familiar with HAL's shore offerings.

[boulders]

I've cruised HAL with kids and teenagers. We've also cruised Disney, Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Princess. HAL is my teenage daughter's favorite line. The boys prefer Royal Caribbean. I like HAL.

 

HAL does not have the massive numbers of kids on board, which is a good thing. They do combine age groups if there are few kids on board. For a summer cruise, there should be plenty of kids, but not huge numbers. The kids get more individualized attention on HAL than they do on other cruise lines.

 

A lot of the "fun" things on other ships involve water parks, which are a no go in Alaska.

[Spunky946]

We did that cruise in 2014on the Westerdam. It was me, dh, and two kids and my in laws. We had a balcony that had the two beds pushed together, a sofa bed and the drop down bed over the big bed. The beds were put away during the day and pulled out at night. My kids were 6 and 10 and loved the kids club. They brought a naturalist on board for the kids at glacier bay along with one for the adults.

 

We would meet my in laws for breakfast and lunch usually and did excursions as well. We would eat dinner separately because they like main dinner at 8 and we ate earlier using the anytime dining. Cruising with them is awesome. We have quality time together and time apart as well.

[fatcat04]

I don't have anything to add other than HAL shines in Alaska and our family including our then 8 yo loved it. Such a great experience. I did want to commend you taking this vacation. Our best memories were of vacations with our then young son and his grandparents before Daddy passed. I am so thankful for those sweet times. We are taking Momma with us on our next cruise and we are all looking forwards to another adventure. The now teenager is even planning to treat his grandma to the Pinnacle one evening.

[janmcn]

We did this with 14 family members to celebrate our 50th anniversary. Took 5 grandkids from 4-15 at the time. They ALL absolutely loved it. There were not very many children on board which in their opinion was a good thing...just enough to have a great time. They were more eager to go to Club HAL than with us!

Re: Cabins...we were on the Nieuw Amsterdam and got 4 "J" cabins which were perfect. They are inside (which is perfect for the short nights in AK) and had plenty of room for 4 people in each one. Photos of it are on Halfacts.com

http://halfacts.com/signature-class/1024-nieuw-amsterdam

In Skagway, we had a private tour with Let's Go Beyond Skagway which was an all-day tour, but our guide had set up plenty of stops with the kids in mind...they loved it! I highly recommend HAL's AK cruises to everyone (oh, yes, a Junior Ranger program was on board for Glacier Bay, too.)

[janmcn]

Re: out of Seattle...we purposely didn't do that since that "outside" trip can sometimes be a bit rough for first-time sailors...with the kids we didn't want to take a chance. The whole inside passage trip from Vancouver is usually quite flat water. Nobody got seasick at all.

[grsnovi]

Re: out of Seattle...we purposely didn't do that since that "outside" trip can sometimes be a bit rough for first-time sailors...with the kids we didn't want to take a chance. The whole inside passage trip from Vancouver is usually quite flat water. Nobody got seasick at all.

Thanks for your responses! We really want to go out of Seattle as we can drive to the port and part - eliminating the additional airfare expense. Also, thanks for the link to the inside set-up all these years and I didn't know that site existed. I just sent them shots of Koningsdam cabin 4111 and see that they are already posted. As to seasickness, we've been popping a Bonine chewable each morning for the last 11 years of cruising and have never had any trouble with seasickness (of course we've also been blessed with fair weather and calm seas). Thanks again!

[Sea42]

We tried to get our grandson involved with HAL's kids club but at 12 (almost 13!) he balked at being with the 7yr olds. It would probably be different if he were with family members.

I was disappointed that after sign up we never received any info on what was going on in the kids club. No daily schedule of any kind was delivered to the cabin. If he had been interested I would have pursued it. I just thought they would send out something on daily activities. It was not on Navigator either. Disappointing.

[Avery's Gram]

Hi.... we did a 7 day Vancouver to Vancouver last year with our family, DH and me, (70’s), 3 adult children and spouses with 8 grandchildren between them, ages 2 through 12. It was wonderful!

 

BUT.....we did not double up on rooms. We booked 3 sets of adjoining cabin for the families, and an aft wrap Neptune for ourselves. The kids were all in a line, so opening the balcony separators made it one long area for the six cabins, while our large room and huge balcony meant that we all had room to view the Glacier Bay together. After little people had enough, they nestled up in our king sized bed (7 of them!) and watched a video while the adults enjoyed more time together on the veranda.

 

Our kids did not spend much time at Club HAL, preferring to spend time with cousins they don’t see very often. On the whole, it was a wonderful trip....the absolute best 70th birthday present I could ever have given myself!

 

Barbara M. In NH

[petepie]

I just posted a review of our recent multi-generation cruise to Alaska on Westerdam: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2654043

We really liked it. We were in a quad verandah cabin, they can do the drop down bed over a king, and then you have the pull out single couch. It's tight but we did fine and the beds are only out after dinner. I also like that the verandah door locks on HAL with a key that you can remove. We took the key out just as extra safety so nobody would be able to get to the balcony at night. A little extra peace of mind if you have kids in the room. A previous poster was correct that club HAL puts ages 7-12 in the tweens group and was strict about not allowing 12 year olds to "bump up" to the teen Loft group. The result was that a 12 year old with us didn't do a lot in club HAL, especially if there were only the littler kids there, but did have fun over a few days and activities, they just didn't spend hours in there. The club HAL activities can be found via TV menu in your room. I think they purposely try to keep the kids activities less public than the rest of them.

[boze9999]

We've done a few "generational" cruises on HAL to Alaska. Every time, we got either adjoining rooms and/or adjoining balconies - you want to hang, play, and laugh together! Check out the prices of Neptune Suites for 4 - sometimes very affordable when adding the 3/4 passenger. Club HAL is separated by age - pre-school, School and Tweens. Our pre-schoolers totally loved it! We didn't have the other two categories, so can't comment. As a family, we all met up for cocktails & mock-tails in "nice clothing" prior to dinner with everyone - every night. The kids felt very grown up - especially with all the comments from other passengers!! Alaska & HAL is "home" to family reunion multi-generational cruises! We had 250 under 18's on our July 18 cruise! Have fun - a time of all your lives!