Longer Holland cruise over the holidays with young adult kids?

[KKB]

We are looking into a cruise with our children (18, 20, 23), who have cruised DCL, RCCL, Princess, Celebrity & NCL.

We are considering a longer cruise on Holland, over New Years (11 days).

It is the Zuidam (sp?) which is a bit smaller than the Constellation we sailed for 5 days over Spring Break a couple of years ago.

But we like the Southern Caribbean itinerary (we loved Curacao & Aruba).

On sea days we like to be busy--a bit of sun time, trivia, game shows, comedians, dancing (top 40 70s-today), gambling.

 

Do you think this cruise would fit us well? Concerned about an older demographic (tho thinking over holidays it should be younger) & perhaps there aren't as many activities on Holland (we don't need all the recent bells & whistles of recent like skating rinks & climbing walls...)

 

Our kids like to connect with others their age but it isn't a requirement--they like to spend time with us & just with each other.

 

Thoughts?

[Daisyloo]

We cruised on the Westerdam (sister to the Zuiderdam) with our 2 sons when they were 20 and 23 and they loved it. Our daughter did her first cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam when she was 26 and loved it. We also took our 3 kids and and our future son in law on a Princess ship and they liked it, but all agreed they liked HAL better. Our daughter and husband chose HAL for their honeymoon and had a great time.

We don't need a lot of structured activity and we can make our own fun.

 

I know everyone has different opinions about what they want from a cruise, but those are our experiences.

[KKB]

We cruised on the Westerdam (sister to the Zuiderdam) with our 2 sons when they were 20 and 23 and they loved it. Our daughter did her first cruise on the Nieuw Amsterdam when she was 26 and loved it. We also took our 3 kids and and our future son in law on a Princess ship and they liked it, but all agreed they liked HAL better. Our daughter and husband chose HAL for their honeymoon and had a great time.

We don't need a lot of structured activity and we can make our own fun.

 

I know everyone has different opinions about what they want from a cruise, but those are our experiences.

 

Thanks, I appreciate your thoughts.

I think they liked RCCL best as they met some great teens from UK in the teen club.

We ALWAYS have fun together, and we all agree any cruise is better than no cruise!

Have friends who took their similarly aged kids on Holland Alaska this summer & liked it so much (they have done RCCL & NCL) they booked a New Years Holland cruise--so I am intrigued/1

[epixx]

Our "kids," who are now 24 and 20, sailed HAL 5 times since they were 16 and 12; twice on the 14 day Alaska itinerary, once on an 11 day Dover to Barcelona trip, once on a 12 day western Med cruise, and most recently on the 7 day Canada/New England trip. All of these cruises were in the middle of summer. Although the teens had no trouble connecting with others their age on the 2 European cruises, they did not really find companions on the North American itineraries. None of these cruises offered entertainment that particularly appealed to them, but we have done trivia on all of them. They were never able to find reasonable dancing, as you described above, and the comedians were definitely not funny. Game shows??? Not really. Nevertheless, they have enjoyed each of these cruises very much and are certainly willing to travel with HAL again. We have sailed all of the major cruise lines and like HAL for the classic ship decor, the library (at least on the older HAL ships), the comfortable rooms, the smallish size of the ships, and, most of all, for some of the best itineraries around. Although we consider it a bonus on other lines, we don't need the entertainment. Finally, with regard to the older passenger composition, our "kids" quite enjoy meeting seniors and speaking to them at dinner, for example.

[sprockie]

We always cruise with our kids and now they're teens. They never wanted to participate in the kids club and there were always fewer kids on board when we sailed because we sailed on non-school break times. That being said, now that they're older, we have a different schedule that works really well with HAL. We find that we are in places that aren't busy (eg, hanging out at the Lido pool from 4-8 when most others are dining, or preparing for dinner). We eat later and get off the ship very early for port days. We find this doesn't coincide with the general crowd, which we love.