Surprise summer luxury deals - for families?

[SueBryantCruiseUK]

A few interesting offers have come to our attention recently, as luxury or niche cruise lines offer summer vacation deals for families. Check out our news story: Surprise Summer Luxury Deals...For Families?

What do you think? Should children on luxury ships be welcomed? Or do you take luxury cruises to get away from families?

[wripro]

Do a search and you will find hundreds of threads about this. Everyone has been more than happy to tell you how they feel.

[ck8mom]

Originally Posted by SueBryantCruiseUK

A few interesting offers have come to our attention recently, as luxury or niche cruise lines offer summer vacation deals for families. Check out our news story: Surprise Summer Luxury Deals...For Families?

What do you think? Should children on luxury ships be welcomed? Or do you take luxury cruises to get away from families?

My children are well educated and enjoy the fine things in life. Their favorite place to vacation on land is The Breakers in Palm Beach and recently, we enjoyed another cruise on Celebrity Solstice. They are now 14 and 11 and also do not like the kids club. We bring novels to read and this past cruise they loved going to the Rosetta Stone demonstration.

The cruise lines need to not only adapt but offer intelligent things for the kids to do. My kids enjoyed the jazz pianist and sat listening to him many evenings. I wish there had been a cooking class geared toward teens because they love to cook and not just add stuff onto cookies. My son developed a potato leek soup that is wonderful. Why not get a few keyboards on board and have a piano class? Many options are out there.

Our kids are the highlight of our lives and we do everything with them. Like my son told a lady, " our parents like us!" We have money to spend on nice vacations and would always bring our kids. In just a few short years they will be in college and starting their own careers etc, and now is the time to enjoy them!

[williamsk]

The cruiselines are looking at attracting younger couples or even longer down the road, the children themselves. These passengers represent a lot of potential cruises down the road.

I view this as a case of simple economics- in order to sale more berths or develope future cruisers, the cruise lines attempt to attract or keep parents (or perhaps even grandparents) with children. They are bargaining that the increase in families will offset those who will not cruise with children. These families, in return, are looking for a different experience than many of the mass lines offer.

Whether you like it or not, if it makes the difference in keeping your favorite line afloat, it benefits everyone. Cruiselines will morph as economic realities change. There will always be a few ninche lines that will discourage children, but these markets are self limiting and risk drying up if they cannot attract new clients.

I just hope that existing cruisers will judge young travelers on individual behavior; they will not resort automatically to some of the antichild sentiment that is sometimes voiced inappropriately when the child has done nothing out of line. In the same vein, parents of children should also recognize that parenting is never optional, even on a vacation. Unfortunately there are always those, on both sides, that do not accept responsibility for behaving with respect for passengers. There are always those, regardless of age, that you do not want to cruise with.

[martinsfo]

I have sailed three times with Crystal and they do a great job keeping the kids busy. Our trips were all during holiday seasons where there were upwards of 75 (out of 800) kids on board. You never saw them unless you went looking for them. Our son disappeared after each meal and reappeared for the next meal. They were great in using unused venues around the ship for activities. They`had them dancing, and now they are introducing cooking lessons.

[Hornet84]

Originally Posted by martinsfo

I have sailed three times with Crystal and they do a great job keeping the kids busy. Our trips were all during holiday seasons where there were upwards of 75 (out of 800) kids on board. You never saw them unless you went looking for them. Our son disappeared after each meal and reappeared for the next meal. They were great in using unused venues around the ship for activities. They`had them dancing, and now they are introducing cooking lessons.

I'd love to take our kids on a Crystal cruise. We normally cruise on Royal and Cunard, but I'd like to try Crystal just once to give our family a really fine luxury experience.