What can families do at night?

[RedE2Gogina]

We will be on the Rhapsody next summer. I really hoped that there would be activities that our whole family could do together. My kids are 13 and 9. While I know they would enjoy the kids club activities, I would really like to do things that included them. I read that the Broadway Melodies production shows would be ok for them to enjoy. Anything else in the evenings that they could do with us? What time do they close the pool, or hot tub? Any other ideas?

Thanks for any help.

[dianelevene]

We were on a cruise last year with our 3 and 4 year old daughters. If the evening show was something musical we took them to that. One night there was a magician so we took them to that. Some of his language and jokes were adult oriented but since my girls were so young most of it went right over their heads. A couple of nights my girls went to the children's program. One night we found a lounge where they were playing big band music. The lounge was basically empty so we took them in and they spent an hour dancing on the empty dance floor. Then we ordered them Shirley Temples to drink. It was their favorite night on the cruise. If the lounge had been filled with couples we would not have taken them in because it would have disturbed the other adults but it worked out beautifully for us. Some evenings we had an hour or so between dinner and the show. We found that if we took them up to the top deck to the sports courts, it was empty and they could run around and have a great time. I know your kids are much older so I am sure they will end up witha bunch of friends to hang out with in the evenings.

[luvinevryminute]

We just sailed on Carnival's ship Celebration. We sailed with our four kids ages 9, 10 and two 11. Every night we ate dinner together then the kids did their own things for a while. Depending on what activities they wanted to do in Camp Carnival we then gathered together to watch the shows or went to the lounge to sing karaoke. The pools were generally open until 8 p.m. (we sailed on other ships in the spring/summer months and the pools were open later) and the hot tubs were open until about 11. They also had little parties on the lido deck where we could dance with our kids and listen to music as they had a late night snack. They also had a giant chess set (approximately 10' x 10') so the kids really enjoyed that. Occasionally we would play some of the video games with them. Some nights we just gathered on the lido deck and played Uno or cards. This was my kids' first cruise and they loved it. They asked how soon we could go again. :)

[RedE2Gogina]

Both of you had great ideas! That was exactly what I was looking for. I will definitely bring some Skip-Bo cards (to play in a non-windy section on one of the decks). The kids would love to watch karaoke. I didn't know if that was something kids could watch.I know my daughter would enjoy going to one of the lounges and acting grown-up and dancing to big band music with her daddy. As you said, I would only do this if the lounge was pretty empty.

 

Thank you both for sharing some of the things that worked for your family. I can hardly wait to do those things with MY family.

[cruisinqt]

We were on the Rhapsody this past January and our kids loved it. I can't remember which lounge it was, but there's a family friendly lounge that allows kids and adults alike. We went there every evening and had a blast. Each night was a different type of theme music. The 50's sock hop night was their favorite.:D Their next favorite was Elvis night with mostly Elvis music. There were lots of families there and everyone was pointing at my little girls dancing with their daddy and smiling. I had one older couple come over and commend us on spending quality family time together like that. They had seen us there every night. We also spent a lot of time at the ping pong tables with them. There's 2 ping pong tables out in front of the kids area and anyone can play.