First family cruise

devonian20

Hello everyone. I’ve been doing some reading on the forum here about cruises.

It is to be our 10th wedding anni next year and we are toying with the idea of a cruise - our first one.

We have two kids who will be 6 and 1 at the time of travel.

My first question is what company would people recommend (I know that a very open ended question, sorry!) and secondly I’m cautious of extra costs, what could we be caught out buy that isn’t included? 

Thank you!

daveyjp

For a first time cruise if you want nice and simple with the majority of passengers from the UK P&O from Southampton is a good a choice as any.

It is possible to spend very little over  and above the fare. Extras you may have to pay for, but it depends on cruise line and offers so check small print.

Drinks, gratuities, port excursions (you don't have to go ashore and some ports are close to city centres so you can walk), chargeable shuttle buses between ship and town centre, on board shopping, spa treatments, food in chargeable restaurants, casinos, some on board activities.

Cruising is a huge subject and choosing your first one can be overwhelming.  For ours with a young child we chose a 7 night France, Spain and Portugal on P&O Ventura from Southampton.  That was almost 15 years ago and we did 6-7 more cruises as it worked so well for us as a family.

devonian20

Thanks that really helps. I need to look into where you can go from the U.K.  

If we can avoid the stress of a flight to get to the departure country with the kids it’ll be a lot better!

We’ll definitely want to go into the countries we dock at so considering excursions may be a good idea and budgeting for the days food/activites.

P and O was the first company I looked at so will look more in depth
thanks!

strawb_shortcake

Personally I didn't find P&O particularly family friendly, but my children were older when we cruised last year. The new ship Arvia seems to have a lot more to keep families entertained. 

Pick your room carefully, being above the club or theatre can be noisy and vibrates up through the cabins. 

In terms of comparing airports to cruise terminals, cruise terminals are a breeze to get through. Most cruises go from Southampton.

You can easily not pay for anything on board, drinks on P&O are reasonable, you can take soft drinks with you and alcohol for the cabin, I couldn't ever justify the cost of the drinks package.

Neil49

P&O are a safe bet for a first time cruise and sailing from the UK does make life easier. Pricing in £ plus the fact that tips are included is a big plus point. As mentioned above you can take your own alcohol on board for in cabin consumption and top up supplies at each port. Most other cruise lines don't allow this or have strict limits. 

Quite a few other cruise lines sail out of the UK such as Royal Caribbean (which are very child friendly but charge you extra for everything under the sun - beware) and MSC who have some very modern mega ships but they really pack in the number of passengers. Check out the size of each ship (tonnage) to the number of passengers to get an idea of space.

With a family I would recommend a large modern ship. We were on Ventura last year and it's showing its age in design. We were also on the Enchanted Princess ship which is quite new and quite impressive but you are subject to pricing in US dollars plus tips so isn't cheap (same applies to Royal Caribbean).

We like Marella but their ships are older and smaller so I would avoid them if you have children.

So I suggest that you start by looking at the more recently built large P&O ships that state they are family friendly (some are adults only). Also be aware if you go out of season then children's facilities could be limited.

You have already been advised about cabin location - have cabins above and below you (or a shop etc) to avoid noise and also away from the atrium where noise from singers etc can travel up through the ship. Somewhere nearby a lift could be useful given the age of your children because the corridors to cabins can be extremely long.

Ship organised excursions can be very expensive (particularly on US ships) so look for ports where you can do your own thing. Hop on/off big red buses are all over the place nowadays and can be a great option. 

First thing to do is pick up a physical P&O brochure and study it in detail.

Hope all this helps. 

devonian20

Cheers guys some super helpful info- particularly the cabin location and being near a lift! I’m not sure we’d want to sit in our cabin drinking too much so would like need the drinks package so something else to consider! 

ellenvan

Debateable whether you would be in the lounges drinking enough with a one year old to justify drinks package.
If it is a cruise with ports of call into the evening we have one or 2 drinks ashore, then only one or 2 onboard. Most people having drinks packages last time said average of 5 drinks per day to get value from package. Would depend on the ship though.
Try a 7 night cruise first and then you will know what suits you for next time.

strawb_shortcake

The P&O drink package is £40 per adult per day but you does include drinks for the children and soft drinks too.

ellenvan

Nothing stopping you buying soft drinks at ports of call - also fill waterbottles up for kids drinks.

Also worth noting that they serve water with all meals - so you do not actually have to buy drinks

NoodleDoodleMan

I wouldn't be comfortable with a 1 year old on a cruise - just my opinion.

Others will differ.

getmore4less

Rough dates would be useful information, and location(guess southwest) 

Given the way P&O is cutting back and the horrendous reviews I would think carefully.
They have a fixed price drinks package and not seen it on offer.

MSC out of the UK in the summer is very British and their drinks package varies some times very cheap.
They do have free/cheap kids places on most cruises and have decent family cabins..

Why wait you could do a 1 week sampler from Southampton on MSC cheap if you can go outside school holidays

still space on Easter cruise(31st march)  4passenger with drinks £1,800 balcony £1,950


Check out the threads on HUKD for Virtuosa.   We were on 1/2 term last year loads( of kids and loads to do    
https://www.hotukdeals.com/search?q=virtuosa


Of the big american players in the UK Royal Caribbean are more kid friendly than Princess or Celebrity


We make the Southampton day easier by doing an overnight in or close(<1hr) to Southampton.