Cruises.have you done it as a family of 4

[Woodward23]

We'd love to take the kids 7+10 on a cruise next year weve done one ourselfs as a honeymoon and really enjoyed but it just seems extortionate with the kids, the holiday times, will they enjoy it, is there enough to do.
We don't like flying so it has to be a round trip from England
Yesterday we spoke to a travel agent to see whats out there a 7 night in May school hols on p+o ventura to Spain and France stopping at 4 ports for a balcony cabin is £3096!
Then there was a 7 night in Feb on the iona to Germany and Netherlands for £2296 again I think that was a balcony

Im so confused what to do . Anyway yes the point is have you done a cruise as a family of 4 with kids in similar age if so what ship did you enjoy it and how much did you pay please ?

I'd have a look at cruisecritic First Time Cruise Tips & Advice - Cruise Critic

I've been cruising since i was a similar age, my sister takes her two kids who are pretty similar in age to yours and my 18 month old is about to go on her second next month. For kids out of UK you are probably best looking at Royal Caribbean's Anthem of the sea and P&O ships.

The prices don't look too insane. We paid 2k for the three of us in June on RC Anthem but quite in advance and on a kids go free deal and was a guaranteed cabin so didn't get to chose location.

What does the £3k include? I can find that cruise for next may (I can't find it for this may) for 2.5k for 4 people in a balcony including parking and some on board spend? so does the 3k include drinks? so other than petrol you don't HAVE to spend a penny more (I'm not sure if gratuties are included on P&O or not these days if so that's another couple of hundred) but compared to all inc elsewhere its very good value. all food, most drinks, entertainment, kids clubs etc all included.

Drinks are normally included on Marella, either included or very cheap to add on NCL and extra on the other cruise lines.

since covid tips are now included on P&O

(They didn't used to be, but it changed quite recently, so now they are)

You only pay extra for drinks (but can have tea / coffee / water and juice with breakfast for free, and the drinks are reasonable pub prices, not silly prices)

You can pay extra for some restaurants (but there are plenty of excellent restaurants that are included)

You pay extra for spa treatments (as you would expect, pools / hot tub are free)

For wifi if you want it (ive never bought it)

For shore excursions (but of course you can get off the ship and wander do your own thing for free, or for public transport / entry costs etc)

Even the laundrette is free on P&O

We’ve done lots of cruises with the children when they were younger. We always have booked direct with the cruise company and used Avios for flights to get there.
Ours never did the kids clubs because holidays were for family time. Royal Caribbean is great for families and the trips are good- zip lining, river tubing, mountain biking kayaking etc

We have done 14 over the last 18 years always with the kids from the age of 3 and 5 we all had a great time. Personally I would avoid P&O as others offer much better standards, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Holland America etc. Look for one with a kids club most have them. Plan your shore trips yourself its far cheaper, some ports you can just walk off, Cruse critic forum is a great source of info.

We have cruised with older teens. Tui/Marella had a good young teens club on our first cruise. Shared a cabin on that. Had a drinks package that was good value and bonus is gratuities are included on Tui cruises. Same for P&O. We did a week from Southampton to the fjords - great cruise and had neighbouring cabins (booked in a travel agent and that didn’t cost extra which it usually does) Drinks were pub prices. Royal Caribbean from Southampton round N Europe was a fabulous boat and gratuities and drinks were part of our package (again travel agent shop and arranged adjoining cabins) Glad they were included as drinks were more expensive and add 20% tip per drink! On last night I felt there was added effort to ensure a tip - which we had already paid/had included! Currently looking into our first post-kids cruise and fancied one which seemed reasonable until I added $200per person gratuity! Think I’ll stick to Tui/P&O.

Thanks, it looks like it just lists the different types of cruises; family cruise, tour+cruise etc. rather than the nuts and bolts of what you need to know when you look to book a cruise. I'll check out the boards though, maybe more there.

Sorry for the hijack, is there anything much for (non-adventurous) teens to do in the Norwegian fjords cruises? On land I mean. I'm picturing it as very scenic, but little in the way of touristy activities except adventure sports?

I priced our first cruise up on Sea Scanner. Decide if you want to sail from Southampton or fly to another port first. We are flying to Barcelona - I chose Barcelona as it's a short flight and the airport and port are close to the city.

Choose what type of cabin you want, inside, outside (window) or balcony.

Put your starting port and dates into Sea Scanner and Google the ships and lines that come up, some are more family, formal or lively.

Once you've chosen it will tell you what is included and take you through all the add ons like drinks packages and WiFi, spa access etc

I'm going this summer and can't wait!

Oddly enough when we looked into this we found Disney cruises surprisingly good value 😳 we thought they’d be ridiculously expensive. But so much is included and the basic price isn’t too bad. Disclaimer - never actually booked it in the end as we decided to do something else. There’s a couple of vloggers on you tube that have a channel called “cruise with Ben and David” and I really enjoyed all their videos- they’ve covered just about every type of cruise / cabin / ship you can think of…!

Re Fjords, not really but it depends on the ports you stop in.

My two were about 8 and 10. They loved the scenery and being on the ship. We walked Bergen and used the funicular- that was a lovely day but oh did it rain! The North Cape we did a paid for trip and also, independently , went to the ice bar - that was fun. The other days the ports were small and we walked the small towns.happy.being curious and not too.bothered about being "entertained,"

We did regret not going on the ships husky trip as that looked great when we saw the ships photographers photographs.

Norway is terribly expensive.so.not having to eat and drink too much on land was quite a relief. Knowing water would see us through most days and we were well catered for either side.

We also found the sea days interesting. Passing the artic circle and receiving a blue nose certificate, the midnight sun, and seeing glaciers
The ship we were on was relatively small.and could cruise closer to the land than, presumably, some others..cruising the fjords is incredible!

Thank you @TiredandLate @Xrays - I'll check this website and the YouTubers out.

@Stepbystep100 that's really interesting - thank you. A cruise sounds like a good way to see the fjords because of being able to access different areas more easily than by land. Do you remember what ship you went on?

Fred Olsen Balmoral

We did a Royal Caribbean transatlantic with our kids. Term time for part of it so it was cheaper but there were still other kids on board.

For the cruise, 3 nights at a hotel in nyc and flights home, it was under £5k which I thought was good value for money.

We've booked a 12 night canaries cruise next year, again partly term time. It's £3k for the 4 of us. I think that's good value for what you get.

Kids loved it when we went on the first one. Lots of sea days, only 3 port days, but they had so much fun.