multi generational cruise

[alaskabound2323]

hi all and thanks for any help. My Mother in law has proposed a Alaskan Cruise for her 80th bday. (June 2010) She is in pretty good health, but she is still 80.

 

On the other hand, the family going along consists of 2 adults (50's) that have vacationed all over the world, climbing mountains, and being very adventuresome (no kids)

 

2 adults with 3 teenage kids 13-19 who love to travel, hike, kayak, zipline. (and not cruise)

 

and a single mother with 2 teenage girls 13-14. Will love to sit around the ship and relax mode.

 

My family is the "non cruising" family. We love to travel, and have been on 2 cruises with Holland America and the Auto Owner Ins group. They have been fine, but not our ideal vacation. too many people, like being in a huge hotel that you cannot always leave.

 

I am trying to make everyone happy.... hah! I am thinking a southbound one way cruise. Would like to do some traveling in Alaska before the cruise. I need a cruise line with nice long stopovers, things for kids but not totally crazy kid focused. I would love a smaller boat, but think the expense and teenagers want otherwise.

 

HELP Please. Any advice is appreciated.

[Budget Queen]

The "smallest" of the major lines is probably some HAL ships, which offers an EXCELLENT itinerary. But I suggest you all do your homework. Find out what the ports can offer you, the differences in the glacier. MAKE lists, then compile them, go with the majority. :) THEN find your ship. This would work out the best, since you want "port intensive". For that to be successful you are best to have activities of interest to fill them.

[KRN]

Alaska is great for a multigenerational cruise. We did one with family ranging from 6- 70, and are going again with family ranging from 8 - 75 (other side of the family).

 

Celebrity worked for us. The kids and teens were very happy. And so was everyone else. It seemed the perfect arrangement.

 

Something else to look at when you check out itineraries, that some on this board may disagree with. Check the time in port, and the ports. Many of the cruise lines have 2 days of glacier viewing and an inside passage day at sea. While the glaciers are beautiful, these are days completely at sea - no port. We preferred an itinerary that had one day of glacier, one day inside passage, and the rest at ports. We preferred an extra port day over a ship day. If you prefer non-ship activities (and while we found the ship relaxing, we preferred to explore on land), this might be the type of itinerary you would like.

 

My husband was not into the idea of a cruise - but loved cruising Alaska. It's a great trip.

[alaskabound2323]

thanks! we want the land too. I will look into celebrity. We were looking at the one way too, so we could spend more time on land in alaska, and fewer days at sea.

[fleckle]

What type of cruise will make your mother-in-law the happiest and what kind of ship does she like best? What does she most want to see and do?

 

It would be wonderful if she can have her ideal, memorable 80th birthday celebration cruise with her family (especially if she is the one paying for it) even though it may not be exactly the vacation that the others in the family would pick as their first choice.

 

All the rest of you will most likely have many, many more years ahead of you to enjoy cruises and vacations of whatever type you prefer, so my suggestion would be to give top priority to making an elderly lady's dream come true on this one.

 

[alaskabound2323]

You are every mother in laws dream! I will keep that in mind, my snotty 17 year old just told me he was not going if we were on some old person cruise ship... lovely teenagers. But ...if they are not having fun, they will surely torture us all.

[nothriver]

We are doing a multi generational one way southbound on Celebrity Millennium.

I'm new to cruising but we did quite a bit of research and this was the one that seemed like a good fit for us as far as itinerary, ammenities, etc.

 

We are cruising for my parents 50th and my mother loves Regent - while in thoery I agree with fleckle that I should defer to the older generation's wishes, I was really unhappy about Regent not having any type of kids program and not even in room sitting for the two youngest kids. Pricewise, Regent is surprisingly competitive. The cabins are huge, service is awsome and of course you get the smaller ships and exceptional service and quality. Regent does have programs for elementary age kids and up, the program for older kids and teens looked really wonderful, based on Alaksa enviornment/nature/conservation. I'm pretty sure we would have gone with Regent if I didn't have a 3 & 4 yr old since their kids programs start at age 5. I think they had some "kids free" type of promotions over a year in advance and some good rates for airline included.

[vbmom87]

Summer cruises to Alaska tend to have many families on them. BQ, who posted above, has been on well over 20 cruises to Alaska. She has posted many times that no matter what cruise line you choose for Alaska, the age spreads will be very similar. Get the teens involved in selecting the port activities and they may be more receptive to the whole cruising to Alaska idea.

 

HAL does seem to have smaller ships, which is one of the reasons we chose them. We had narrowed it down to Princess and HAL, who both had the same itinerary except for the final stop. (Seward for HAL, and Whittier for Princess). NOt sure which ships HAL will be using in 2010, but they do have ships which hold 1200 and 1400 people, which are much smaller than the other lines with their mega-ships. If your mother-in-law is not able or does not like to walk long distances, these smaller ships would be ideal. Like someone above posted, I would really show her the different itineraries and let her pick. Maybe glaciers are her priority. If that is the case, you should pick an itinerary with more glaciers rather than more ports. If you choose ports, will she have the energy to get off the ship and do what is in port, or will she be stuck on the ship, while the rest of you are out and about? What does she want out of this trip? Perhaps she just wants all of you to be happy. However, I would make sure she is getting the vacation she wants.

[CowPrincess]

my snotty 17 year old just told me he was not going if we were on some old person cruise ship...

 

Perhaps he'd prefer to go military school for a few weeks of the summer while everyone else is on the cruise. :D

[hrfs]

I agree with the above posters, your mom should be the focus of your trip. You can make yourself crazy trying to please everyone.Believe me, I know. Next month I'm going to Alaska with my mom, 79 and in failing health, and DD, 11. I've made it very clear to DD that this cruise is for "Nana" and her job is to help me make this a nice trip for Nana. When we looked at the list of things to do and shore excursions the one thing that really made DD excited was whale watching, so that's the one thing we are doing just for her. Mom agreed and is going to hang out in the spa while we go to Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching. In the other ports we are just taking little one and a half to two hour trolley, carriage, whatever city tours. That's about as much as mom can probably handle and she is looking forward to doing these things with us. They aren't the excursions I would have picked if it was just me but this trip isn't about me. Someday I will take another cruise with DH and DD and we can do all the adventurous stuff we want and we will have all the wonderful memories of what a great time Nana had on her trip.

[alaskabound2323]

The boy informed me that he was "just kidding". You are right though, the focus should be on her, but it has to be about us too. We are taking vacation time, traveling from Michigan, when it is beautiful in Michigan. We live in the same neighborhood and see her all the time. She can walk well but a smaller ship would be easier. (I actually want to go on a really small, 12 passenger!) (but it is not about me, right?) We will probably do some excusions with the whole group, some with smaller groups. This family is not exactly tight. They can spend about 2 hours together before it gets stressful. So I am quite sure she will be very happy to be left on her own a bit.

 

But thank you for those who gave and are giving advice, I am sure you answer much of the same questions. I love to research trips and come up with some really great stuff. My husband and eldest son went to Europe on a band trip and came home with a new appreciation for my travel research.

 

I will try to stiffle my adventure desires and think outside my box.

 

By the way, my brother, who lived in Alaska, said don't go to alaska for whales, go to Hawaii for whales. That was one of my priorities too. (he said whales were really inconsistent)

[kenish]

I will keep that in mind, my snotty 17 year old just told me he was not going if we were on some old person cruise ship... lovely teenagers. But ...if they are not having fun, they will surely torture us all.

 

My 16yo had fun on our HAL cruise last year. There were a lot of teens (over 110 passengers between 2-18yo) and HAL's facilities and staff were so good my son wanted me to be sure to include it on the comment card. It must have been extraordinary for my son to ask me to do that! He made several good friends too. And there were lots of girls! :)

 

Alaska is very port-intensive so print out a list of shore excursions. Have your 17yo rate each one 1-5. Without promising anything, it will clue you in to your teen's interests. You may be surprised what they prefer and rule out.

 

Another suggestion is have your teen help choose and plan things for MIL, especially if they are close.

 

FYI, when we got home from our cruise my son said he had a lot of fun even though he thought our ship was a "floating retirement home". :)

[neecee23]

I know that Royal Caribbean, Princess and Carnival all have "teen" clubs for those under 18. For one example, here is a link to Carnivals teen club.

http://www.carnival.com/cms/fun/obx/youth_experience/clubO2.aspx

 

There are many planned activities for all ages on just about any cruiseline. Choose what your must sees are and then find a ship that goes there.

Last summer our group consisted of two adults in their 50's, one adult in her 40's one 11 year old and one 85 year old in great shape. Not as big or varied as your group but everyone had a good time. The 11 year old wanted nothing to do with the kids club, but he loved playing bingo. Browse the boards and don't be afraid to ask questions.

[Budget Queen]

 

By the way, my brother, who lived in Alaska, said don't go to alaska for whales, go to Hawaii for whales. That was one of my priorities too. (he said whales were really inconsistent)

 

Sorry NOT true. Out of Juneau and Hoonah, humpbacks are seen on 100% of the tours.

[alaskabound2323]

Glad to hear he is wrong. He is such a know it all. (big brother).

 

I think we will look into southbound HAL ryndam. Looks like a HAL ship that has some teen areas, one way, good variety of excusions for all interests. I send the info to MIL. Told her if she was feeling really rich she could opt for cruise west. Suprisingly, she has been on cruise west and loved it. (not to alaska). But it seems to be about 3 times the cost. That times 11 is quite pricey. Seems that to many on this site, cost is no object.

 

We will spend some time in Alaska before the cruise without MIL to get some of the excess child energy out.

 

Thanks for everyones advice. Does anyone know where the quietest places on a ship are (for the cabin) we don't really have seasick issues. Also my family is 5, sister in laws is 3, mil is one. I think we should have MIL in her own cabin, and split the other 8 into 4 cabins. The triples seem crunched. and no grown person wants a sofabed.

 

Janet

[CowPrincess]

For absolute quiet, we REALLY enjoyed #772 on the Ryndam. It is an oceanview category "E", lowest deck. We ask for it any time we book. We also have had cabins on the next deck up, towards the back, and found them noisy -- too many quad cabins nearby, so increased "kid" traffic, and directly below the Promenade Deck which had LOTS of thumping above our heads :) as people did laps. Though for your group, if you want inside & oceanview, the very back cabins on the lowest deck might be a perfect location.

 

We travel in the "cheap seats" so can't tell you anything about the veranda and suite categories!

 

Seems that to many on this site, cost is no object.

 

Where'd you get that?! Most of the posts I read are from people who are doing their best to save money, one way or another.

 

As for the 80th birthday, tell HAL when you book. And confirm with the dining room that they know the date. They most likely will arrange a cake and singing waiters.

[vbmom87]

I think we will look into southbound HAL ryndam. Looks like a HAL ship that has some teen areas, one way, good variety of excusions for all interests.

 

In 2010, the Ryndam will have a different itinerary than the one for 2009. Here is the 2010 itinerary. :

 

Day Port Arrive Depart 0

 

Seward (Anchorage) Alaska 08:00 PM 1

 

College Fjord Cruising CO 06:00 AM 09:00 AM 2

 

Glacier Bay Scenic Cruising CO 10:00 AM 04:00 PM 3

 

Haines, Alaska 06:30 AM 09:00 PM 4

 

Juneau, Alaska 08:00 AM 06:00 PM 5

 

Ketchikan, Alaska 11:00 AM 08:00 PM 6 At Sea 7

 

Vancouver, British Columbia 07:00 AM

[alaskabound2323]

Thanks for the room advice. We will take it!

[kenish]

We took HAL Zaandam and the teen area and staff were great. My son had also been on Carnival (who are younger / family oriented) and HAL was way better in his opinion. He even added some comments to the survey/comment card and he NEVER does that sort of thing!

 

HAL ships are "midsize" with about 500-1000 fewer passengers than others. You really feel like you're on a ship, going ashore and embarkation are quick, and getting from your cabin to the other end of the ship doesn't take 15 minutes.

 

The Ryndam itenerary listed above is great. This is almost like arguing religion but I'm glad we did a northbound cruise. The scenery gets more spectacular northward. However many prefer southbound to get the long flight out of the way, or want to do a land tour first and then "relax" on the ship.

 

Consider spending 4 days minimum visiting the Kenai Peninsula or Denali National Park. It's a completely different experience from the cruise and since you've traveled that far it's worth the extra time and $$ if available.

[alaskabound2323]

you bring up some very good points, I suppose it could be a letdown as you head south, I really want to go one way though, so we can spend time in Alaska.

 

I am afraid of Carnival because of the rowdiness of the crowd, I have heard stories of crazy kids, up all night on more kid oriented cruises, so while I want some kids around and some organized kid stuff so they meet eachother, I don't want a huge party ship.

 

One more question for those out there. My daughter will be 13 in July or 2010. The teen stuff starts at 13. If we cruise in June, can we put her with the teens? She is the youngest of 3 and is quite mature for her age.

 

i also saw 2 different itinerarys for the Ryndam for 2010. Do you think 2 full days cruising around glaciers gets boring after a while?

[vbmom87]

i also saw 2 different itinerarys for the Ryndam for 2010. Do you think 2 full days cruising around glaciers gets boring after a while?

 

You know, there are those who will say if you see one glacier, you have seen them all. Then there are those, like me, who couldn't get enough of the glaciers and the beautiful scenery of Alaska. The posted intinerary for the Ryndam for 2010 is the one I took last year on the Volendam. It is a great itinerary for those who like scenery. Both Glacier Bay and College Fjords are so scenic and majestic. I could have sailed amidst the glaciers all week and been perfectly happy. It really depends on the individuals what they will and will not like. I just wish I could get back to Alaska this year, with the great prices.

 

Note that the glacier sailing for College Fjords is very early in the morning. If you want to enjoy this area, you will need to make sure you are up early. I have read of many who slept through this scenic sailing.

[PK4SC]

has programs on board for children and youth. Also their port stops are long. They seem to gear themselves to the family idea. :eek: