Attn: Summer Cruisers and/or Cruisers with Children!!

[mueller74us]

Hello!

 

Question for y'all! Let me start by saying I love children (I work as a nanny).

 

I am taking my first cruise on June 10th (Carnival Destiny) and I wanted to know, in your experiences as either observer or one who travels with small children, if you have found that families with children tend to cruise immediately at the beginning of summer break or do you typically see more kids later in the summer?

 

I know that MOST parents are alert when it comes to the behavior of their children in public BUT..... I just want to prepare myself for the minority! Have any of you ever had to scold a child or confront a parent?

 

Thanks,

Jennifer

[redlef]

If the child was doing something dangerous and the parent was there, I'd point it out to the parent.

 

If the parent wasn't there, I'd have to say something to the child. I couldn't stand there and which a child get hurt.

 

If the child was being so obnoxious I couldn't handle it, I'd just walk away from it. It's a big ship. What could a kid do that's so terrible? Splash water at the pool? Talk too loud in the restaurant? Stick his fingers into the M&M's at the ice cream bar? Not much to ruin a vacation worrying about.

 

From my experience, the adults are more obnoxious than the kids. Wait till you get shoved by a fat drunken slob at the midnight buffet - You'll know me because I'll be drinking Jack Daniels from a Listerine bottle :)

 

That being said, I was very sensitive about what MY child did when he was younger.

 

Enjoy your trip!

[Tmeister]

I agree with redlef. I've seen more obnoxious adults than children. That being said, I've found the vast majority of cruise passengers of any age to be very well behaved and a delight to be with. You could take 10 cruises and not find any good reason to be annoyed with anyone.

[GORDONCHICK]

As far as when families are more apt to cruise - all summer long!!! It's when school is out. Though, our schools here get out earlier than many (in late May) and resume in mid-August. Others are out in June and don't start back until after Labor Day.

 

As far as children's behavior, I usually see children mirroring their parents. What I mean by that is attentive parents' children are usually a little more well behaved. Parents acting like they aren't parents (and I mean that in more than one way) usually have the children running loose. Again, that is very generalized, but my experience. Camp Carnival is very popular, especially with the younger kids, and so most of them will be there a lot of the time.

 

Like another poster said, I usually have more problems with the parents or other obnoxious adults! I will go somewhere else most of the time. It's my vacation, and I'm not giving them the control to ruin it!

[mueller74us]

Thank you all for your input! What you say makes perfect sense!