River lines meet a rising demand for family cruises

[Host Jazzbeau]

New article on Travelweekly:

River lines meet a rising demand for family cruises

 

Adventures by Disney/AmaWaterways, Emerald, Riverside, Tauck and Uniworld are mentioned

[Roz]

On my Tauck Christmas cruise, I was surprised by the number of families onboard.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, and having kids there added to the Christmas fun.  They were all very well behaved and seemed to be experienced travelers.  Every night they had tables reserved for them in the dining room so they could sit together.   

[RobInMN]

We did AmaWaterway's Europe's Rivers & Castles in 2018. We were a 3 generation family of 9, early teens to 80's. There were 2 families larger than us and many other families. There were even a few kids younger than my niece. Everyone of all ages seemed to have a great time, and the crew didn't seem phased by the number of kids at all. 

 

This last December, we did a Christmas Markets cruise on Grand Circle (not my choice). my daughter couldn't make it, so there were only 8 of us. We were not the only multigeneration family group, but not like on the Ama cruise, but still, the crew said something about never having as many kids on one cruise before. My niece & nephew had a great time. And even though there weren't as many kids, and the average age of the passengers skewed quite a bit higher, as far as I know other families and kids had a good time also.

[LibertyBella]

We are cruising on a Viking river cruise in a few weeks, and my mother wanted to gift a similar cruise to my brother and his wife for their 25th anniversary.  But because children under 18 are not permitted (the kids are 14 and 17, and extremely well traveled including multiple cruises), my brother refuses to go.  They prefer to travel as a family unit. 

 

I see the same thing with the standard cruise lines--Carnival used to be mainly for swinging singles or couples, RC specializes in families, and Disney is for children of every age. Parents are very willing to spend a lot of money to ensure that special memories have been created.  We have sailed multi-generation on a number of cruise lines, starting in the 1970s!

 

I have never had an issue with children on cruises, but I do think many of the river cruise boats are not really designed to accommodate those young ones with high energy and short attention spans!

 

 

[Canal archive]

I suppose initially not knowing anything else we took both of our daughters from a fairly (under 10) young age to restaurants of all degrees including starred. They’ve dined in some of the best London establishments and loved it. The point is on a jaunt out on a Scout service team event we’re booked into a fairly up market restaurant as a special treat (these are kids from all walks of life) something is obviously not right - step forward my beautiful youngest daughter - she sorted it no problem, I’m held down out of the way. Youngsters learn and retain their experiences and I believe grow to be well rounded individuals.