Cruise Trip Report - warning long

[BarTopDancer]

What GD said.

Looks amazing. Glad MissMaddieMcMadderson had such a good time too.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

And WHO is that knockout young lady with you?? All those late nights at the club did her some good...

Glad to hear you had fun! I loved walking on glaciers and seeing bald eagles but given the choice, my next cruise would be more tropical.

[katiesue]

Originally Posted by Not Afraid

It looks lovely! Alaska is probably the only place I would cruise to. It seems more convenient than touring any other way. No whale sightings?

We did see some whales when we were dining at Palo but no photos. Having the verandah was awesome. I'd sit out there every night before bed with a nice nightcap and watch the scenery go by. There was almost always something to see out the windows.

[Kevy Baby]

I fully admit that I only looked at the pictures: hopefully I can read the full report later.

And these were my favorites:





My absolute favorite: it looks like she is floating

[Stan4dSteph]

Nice report! Glad you had fun. I enjoyed our cruise a lot too.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Great report!

[cirquelover]

It sounds like a marvelous and relaxing time! Thanks for the trip report, color me jealous like the rest.

[Morrigoon]

They must do a really good job with that teen club. It's a tricky thing for a business, trying to appeal to that demographic in a way parents will feel is age-appropriate.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I had a very similar experience on a cruise with my family when I was around 14. Something about the cruise environment really works well. Being a closed system help parents let kids have a lot of freedom without much worry. There's only so much trouble you can get into trapped on a boat, even a large one. And so the kids are just so generally giddy to have that freedom that everyone gets along way better than a bunch of teens supervised by some lady with a nametag would on land.

Endless access to food probably helps too.

[katiesue]

Maddie was talking about it last night and one of her thoughts was the counselors were "cool". They didn't say stuff like "come along boys and girls" or whatnot. Per her they knew how to treat teenagers like teenagers and not little kids. The other thing they do is the first night they have a meet and greet. At that time they get a list of all the possible activities they can do, I think she said there were like 50-60. Everyone votes then they actually schedule in the winners. So every cruise is different based on the wishes of the current group of kids.

And yes as a parent I didn't worry about her getting into much trouble. To be on the cruise at all every kid had to have an adult somewhere on the ship. There aren't really any "private" places they can go, no one has their own room. They just hung out a lot of the time in public places as well as in Vibe.

Maddie would usually show up for dinner since that was an almost universal requirement of all the other kids. They could do whatever but they had to meet the family for dinner. I didn't require it for a few reasons but she came most of the time anyway. The night we went to Palo she took one of her friends to our table and had a wonderful time.

I do think Disney does a great job with all ages as far as activities for everyone to do. There are things all day long for different age groups and for families to do together. And there are adult only areas and activities too.

I know a friend who did an Alaska cruise on a different line a couple of years ago with 3 kids and she said there really wasn't much at all for them to do. And since it's not really warm, although the pools are kept at 88, just sitting by the pool or on deck isn't much of an option as it would be in warmer areas.