Regent’s NCL roots are showing....

[SWFLAOK]

In Florida, all of the kids are out of school by the end of May, and I suspect other school districts in the South have summer vacation starting before Memorial Day and return to school in mid August.

We did a late August Alaska cruise on Regent last year. There weren't a lot of kids on board, but there was a large family group with teens and preteens that were unsupervised. As the cruise went on, other children joined this group and formed a disruptive mob during the day. But by dinner time, they were all contained and we didn't see them in the CR or the specialty restaurants. They were definitely bored, and the only excursion of interest was the zipline (which needed to be booked ahead and was sold out).

Going forward, I don't think you can count on not having disruptive children on board by avoiding school holidays. In the US,  there are so many people home schooling their kids, and they prefer to travel when the rest of the kids are in school. We just completed a long road trip in the Southern US, and ended up at a number of attractions that had free or reduced admission for parents who were home schooling. Mom, or Mom and Dad, or Mom and Grandma,  had 3 to 5 kids with them. The kids were interested and excited about what they were seeing, but they ran, screamed and pushed smaller kids in supervised school groups aside to get the best view, with none of their family members telling them that they needed to respect others.

 I'm on one of those summer med cruises that just became an 'add your kid to your room for almost nothing'. I can't imagine why any kid would want to take any of the offered excursions. They'll be onboard all day by themselves, causing chaos in the pool. I'd rather they gave a much better single supplement that allowed more adults to book cabins. I would love to see more cruise lines have adult only cruises.

Edited May 4, 2019 by SWFLAOK
typo

[Kwaj girl]

SWFLAOK- are you saying that Regent will allow patents to leave the shop on an excursion and leave their minor children on board? Oye vay.  And what if, heaven forbid, the parents don't get back before the ship sails?  That actually happened on one of those mass market behemoth ships a couple years ago

 

[califsealion]

Hi!  I've been lurking.  I've been on a grand total of one Regent cruise in summer 2015, but my mom and I are doing another on the Navigator in October, so I've been reading to gather information.  And read about everyone's amazing cruises so I can live vicariously.

 

I am middle aged and childless and am not a fan of kids.  I generally plan our cruises not in the summer to make sure fewer kids are involved.  That being said, on our summer Alaska cruise with Regent, we had maybe 3-5 kids and they were great.  They did have a crew member assigned to do games and things.  They were never an issue.

 

I mostly wanted to chime in because I was a kid on a cruise ship.  My dad loved ships and I went on my first cruise at age 6 and went on another 4-5 until I turned 11 (which was when my brother turned 13 and thus would have had to pay adult fare, and so ended our cruise vacations).  They were not on "kid-friendly" ships, but just regular cruise ships.  A couple of the trips had a "junior cruise director", but otherwise we were on our own.  We were never bored.  We loved the pool, ping pong, and shuffle board.  We played bingo with the adults.  Maybe it was a different day and age.  There were no smart phones to shorten our attention spans.  My parents took us out to eat on a regular basis, so we were used to sitting and behaving in nice restaurants.  All that to say, it all probably depends on the parents and on the kids.  It would be nice if parents knew their own kids well enough and did the research to know if it would be appropriate for them.

[Travelcat2]

1 hour ago, Kwaj girl said:

SWFLAOK- are you saying that Regent will allow patents to leave the shop on an excursion and leave their minor children on board? Oye vay.  And what if, heaven forbid, the parents don't get back before the ship sails?  That actually happened on one of those mass market behemoth ships a couple years ago

 

 

I do not think that Regent would permit children (under 18) on the ship alone while their parents are ashore.  That would be very irresponsible and, as you mentioned, there is a risk that the parents miss the ship and also, what would happen if a child was injured and there was no one there to give parental consent?

 

Agree with SWFLAOK that you cannot avoid children 100%.  In the other hemisphere, children are on vacation in our winter (and Christmas is their summer - strange to think about a hot Christmas).  There are also toddlers that are not in school yet (they can be the worst if the adult/parent/nanny is not there to remove them if they get rambunctious).  

 

Even if children are just acting like children - it does not fit the Regent experience.  Dive bombing in a pool is typical behavior but makes the pools on Regent unusable.  Toddlers screaming and wanting to run around is also typical but should not be allowed on Regent.  

 

One general comment that I would like to make is about the decibel level of some parents and children.  Instead of speaking in a quiet, soft voice, they scream which is disruptive to all around them.  

 

All we can do is sail when school is in session in the U.S. since most passengers are from here.  Most of us know when children in different parts of the country get out of school and I make a point to know when spring break is so that I can avoid that as well.  

 

By the way, I appreciate how tolerant and understanding the posters on this thread are.  This topic can be contentious.  

[bissel]

Califsealion, thanks for sharing your experiences. Just as with adults, children are individuals with their own personalities. The ones we’ve met on many cruises have been interesting and fun to talk to. I enjoy their company.

Besides, these are Regent’s future customers and will one day take our places when we’re too old and decrepit to be sailing around. Sure Regent knows this well.

[Travelcat2]

However, if children are bored out of their minds, they may never want to board a shop again.

[wripro]

On 5/2/2019 at 5:39 PM, Travelcat2 said:

In my opinion, this has nothing whatsoever to do with NCL.  Regent was advertising "Kids Sail Free" several years ago.  We would not step foot on a Regent ship on any cruise where children sail free or at a heavy discount.  

 

There have been up to 100 children on Regent (especially in Alaska) during these "sales".   I have learned that many reports of children behaving wonderfully are generally lies.  I have spoken to more than a few passengers that posted how children were not an issue but actually were a pain.  The worst thing that I read (and it was true) is when two boys were using shuffleboard paddles (not sure what they are called) as swords and one boy broke two arms.  

 

I understand that booking "luxury" Alaska cruises can be a challenge but, In my opinion, kids ruin the ships (spilling  and breaking things everywhere, etc.) and the cost to replace what they have done exceeds the tiny amount that they get by the low cost.

 

Don't bother slamming me as there is nothing you can say that will change my mind.  I would not have taken our children on Regent when they were younger and would definitely not invite our grandchildren on a Regent cruise.  Disney is much better suited for younger children and NCL is great for older children.  

 

 

At long last something we totally agree on. Bravo to you.

[Kwaj girl]

Where's the "like" button?

 

[purpleally]

On 5/2/2019 at 8:39 PM, Travelcat2 said:

In my opinion, this has nothing whatsoever to do with NCL.  Regent was advertising "Kids Sail Free" several years ago.  We would not step foot on a Regent ship on any cruise where children sail free or at a heavy discount.  

 

There have been up to 100 children on Regent (especially in Alaska) during these "sales".   I have learned that many reports of children behaving wonderfully are generally lies.  I have spoken to more than a few passengers that posted how children were not an issue but actually were a pain.  The worst thing that I read (and it was true) is when two boys were using shuffleboard paddles (not sure what they are called) as swords and one boy broke two arms.  

 

I understand that booking "luxury" Alaska cruises can be a challenge but, In my opinion, kids ruin the ships (spilling  and breaking things everywhere, etc.) and the cost to replace what they have done exceeds the tiny amount that they get by the low cost.

 

Don't bother slamming me as there is nothing you can say that will change my mind.  I would not have taken our children on Regent when they were younger and would definitely not invite our grandchildren on a Regent cruise.  Disney is much better suited for younger children and NCL is great for older children.  

 

 

Could not agree with you more!!!!

we were on a Seabourn cruise and grandparents had brought their adult child and their family, two children 

the grandma would look so fondly at the two girls as they jumped, splashed, scream repeat

i so wanted to tell her off and that I loved my grandchildren and would never subject them to an adult cruise!  To her credit, the mother tried -kids didn’t come to the pool til about 4. 🤦‍♀️ 

[purpleally]

7 hours ago, Kwaj girl said:

Where's the "like" button?

 

Where’s the LOVE button!