Cruising is one of the fastest growing family vacations. It's affordable, offers a wide array of activities for everyone, and offers exotic destinations as education experiences. Most cruise lines offer supervised programs, some for kids as young as infants and all for kids well into their teen years.

Here's the lowdown on some of the programs offered by major cruise lines:

Princess

Princess executives tell us that over 75,000 kids sailed with them in 2005. Most summer sailings include 200 to 600 kids per ship per voyage. While we might not think of Princess as the ultimate kid friendly cruise line, their programs offer a nice variety of activities at no charge.

The Princess youth programs are for kids aged 3 through 17. The youth activity center, available on most ships, is open from  9 AM until 1 AM, even on port days. The younger kids participate in the Princess Pelicans program, the tween kids are in the Shockwaves program and the teens are in the Remix program. The Shockwaves benefit from Science at Sea, a program developed by the California Science Center, among many other activities. The Remix kids can participate in the Jr. Chef @ Sea program on the Crown, the Sapphire and Caribbean Princess ships.

Princess boasts a staff to child ratio of 1:10 and good security measures. Parents must sign kids in and out and if there are 50+ kids on a voyage, the Youth Security Team is out and about keeping an eye on everything. 

The Caribbean Princess is the ship that hosts the most children each year, but Alaska cruises are also very popular for families. On Alaska voyages, there are additional Jr. Ranger and Teen Explorer programs and the first is conducted by a National Park Ranger.

There is no personal kid-sitting program, but there is group sitting from 10 PM to 1 AM each night for a fee of $5 per child per hour.

 

Royal Caribbean

Royal's youth program is called the Adventure Ocean Youth Program and it's designed for kids aged 3 - 17. There are also programs for infants and toddlers called Aqua Babies and Aqua Tots designed by Fisher Price, but parents must accompany kids to these activities. RCI youth program groups are the Aquanauts for ages 3 - 5, the Explorers for kids ages 4 - 6, the Voyagers for ages 9 - 11, the Navigators for ages        12 -14 and the Guests for ages 15 - 17.

Activities vary by age range but include scavenger hunts, talent shows, water/pool activities and even family activities for everyone.

The youth center and activities start at 9 AM on sea days and one hour prior to the first shore excursion on port days. Both end at 10 PM when group kid-sitting begins. Kid-sitting is available through 1 AM. The fee of $5 per child per hour is assessed.

Royal Caribbean also offers in room baby sitting from 8 AM until 2 AM and must be reserved through the purser's desk onboard. Rates range from $8/hour to $10/hour and kids must be at least 1 year old.

Carnival

Carnival's youth programs are called Camp Carnival. The program covers ages 2 through 17 in 5 age groupings and has supervised activities from 9 AM until 10 PM on sea days and part of the day on port days. The programs are supervised by counselors and have strict sign in/sign out policies for the younger groups. The program activities are closed during meal times with the exception of at least one night when kids can dine with their age group peers in the Lido restaurant while parents enjoy a night out.  All activities are complimentary.    

Carnival offers two different teen programs. For 12-14 year olds, Camp Carnival has a variety of age appropriate activities. Teens aged 15-17 enjoy Club 0 2. The older teens get a chance to show off during a Karaoke session, pool parties, late night dances, outdoor sporting events like basketball and ping pong.

Babysitting is available every evening from 10 PM until 3 AM for kids aged 4 months to 11 years old at a cost of $6 per hour. In addition to the evening babysitting, for infants under the age of 2, babysitting is available on port day mornings from 8:00am to 12:00 noon; if the ship arrives later in the day, babysitting is available in the afternoon until 6:00pm. All babysitting is done in the children's playroom, with a "slumber party" type atmosphere. Movies and cartoons are shown. Pillows, blankets, and cribs are provided.

 

 

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