Whilst I am waiting for our first shore excursion on this cruise tomorrow afternoon, I thought this would be an opportunity to talk about cruising during school holidays, when there are a lot of children and teenagers on the ship.
Travelling on a more expensive cruise line must be a costly holiday for a family of between four and eight, yet I have seen countless families on the ship on this cruise and on the last one that finished on Saturday. Yet I would say more than half the passengers on board last time were family groups, while perhaps a third are family groups this time round.
It must be a great experience for young people whose parents take them to see and explore all the new places we visit, and who also are taken to eat in the dining room and to see the concerts, as a family. There are many special facilities and activities for them whilst on board as well. Apart from various swimming pools, these include an iceskating rink, a rock climbing wall, a surf ‘beach’ way up high, and club activities.
From here on in, I shall confine my comments to the last cruise I have just completed. Most of the families were British.
One such family sat near us in the dining room last time, with a daughter about 11 and a son about 9, I would say. As I was facing them, I could not but help notice how well this family interacted with one another, quietly chatting and laughing in the most respectful way. When one spoke, the others listened. Clearly they adored each other, even the young brother and sister. Sadly, it is a rare treat to see families like that these days - all of them so together and mature and considerate of each other. It obviously was second nature to them, so I would expect that was very much how they are at home.
This also would have been a great experience for children in wheelchairs, of whom there were quite a few. No doubt the change of scene and of air did their whole family a lot of good, which must have been much-needed.
But on other end of the scale, there were parents who let their children run wild day and night until all hours, running through the ship in bathers, yelling and running up and down stairs and along the passage ways, and taking over certain areas. Let me say that many of these parents did not behave or even dress in a dignified way themselves and did not seem to be aware of that, or perhaps they did but did not care. I will leave it at that . . .
However, the consequence was that many of the elderly passengers and those passengers with walking difficulties were feeling very vulnerable, afraid of being bowled over by boisterous children. As well, many of us got sick and tired of hearing the thumping noise the youngsters made when they ran around later at night when we were trying so sleep. The ships must bear a lot of responsibility for this, for not confronting the parents and making them leave their sundecks and drinks or the bars and take responsibility for their children (who all wear wrist bands stating their name and cabin number). The ship’s curfew of 1.00 am for children is ridiculous!
Most of these families do not visit the ports either. Why on earth would you pay all that money to go on a ship, when a holiday resort would provide similar facilities to meet their needs, and probably at a lower cost? It is beyond me!
So my advice is - if you want to go on a cruise, do your homework and choose a time that is outside school holiday time. And I say this even though I love kids, including teenagers. I just don't always love their behaviour!
The following photos first show some of the chocolate treats on offer for breakfast this morning, then the ‘penny arcade’ provided to teenagers on this ship with lights flashing and very loud sound effects, which is spread over three rooms and to my way of thinking is an inducement to gamble, or worse, later on. (Look at the one with the ‘machine guns and what it says on the screen!) The last ones show the ice skating rink, one of the swimming pools, the 'surf beach' and the climbing wall on the twin ship of this one, which I cruised on last year.
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