A three year old and a fifteen year old want nothing to do with the same vacation. One wants a splash pad. The other wants to be left alone with friends and food.
This is the family cruise problem nobody warns you about. It is easy to picture the family cruise as one happy group doing one happy thing. In practice your kids split off in three directions by day two.
The good news is that the big family ships are built for exactly this. On Icon of the Seas, Royal Caribbean separated the ship into neighborhoods so the toddler zone and the teen zone are not the same zone. Surfside on Deck 7 is a family area geared for the preschool and early elementary set, with a splash pad, a carousel, and kid friendly eateries at no extra charge. Teens get their own hangout called Social 020. The Adventure Ocean program runs from six months up to age twelve, so the baby and the ten year old are not lumped together either.
Disney does the same sorting a different way. The Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab cover ages three to ten. Then Edge takes over for the eleven to fourteen crowd, and Vibe is the fourteen to seventeen space. The nursery handles six months to three years for a fee. The point is that Disney does not pretend a nine year old and a sixteen year old want the same room.
Here is what actually matters when you book. You want a ship where the age groups are split into real dedicated spaces, not one club with a wide age range and a tired counselor. You want those spaces close enough that you are not hiking the length of the ship to collect everyone before dinner. And you want a cabin setup that gives the teen a door. A family suite where the kids room actually closes is worth more than most parents realize at booking and everything by night two.
You can pick a family ship by looking at the pool photos. You can also pick one by matching the kids clubs to the exact ages of your kids. Only one of those methods keeps a teenager from sulking for a week.
If you tell me the ages of your kids, I can tell you which ships will keep every one of them busy at the same time. That is literally what we do.
Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Steve
Like what you’re reading?
The Captain’s Log is published daily by Ernst Travel Agency. We plan, protect, and personalize your vacation at no extra cost to you. If something in today’s post sparked an idea, let’s talk.
Ernst Travel Agency · North Kingsville, OH · Serving clients nationwide · ernst.llc