Hi I'm Gary Bembridge and this is another of my Tips For Travellers. In this
video you're going to discover the best cruises and cruise lines for kids,
families and multi-generational travel. Cruising with families and
multi-generational travel is a big popular trend within travel and cruising,
but choosing the right cruise and the right Cruise Line is really
important. So I'm going to explain to you the things to consider. The first thing
to do is focus on the new ships, particularly the big new ships. As
cruise lines bring more and more ships into their fleets they're focusing
increasingly on the needs of families, and the needs of multi-generational
travel, because they know that this is a big growing trend. The ships are
designed with both cabin configurations which deal for families much more they
have before, like connecting cabins, they have more family cabins, they'll have
areas for example with very premium cabins which might suit part of
the family which have bigger budget (like the grandparents). The new ships will
also have many more facilities to deal with families and the needs of kids like
bigger and better kids' clubs. They'll have more facilities whether
it's rock-climbing, go-karting, entertainment facilities and the whole
ship will be designed to provide just so much more for kids and for families. The
second thing you should do is focus on the big popular regions and areas to go
cruising. So, for example, the Caribbean, the central Mediterranean area and
perhaps to a lesser degree places like Alaska. These are really big popular
itineraries and where most of the cruises take place, so there's lots of
choices of cruise lines, lots of choices of ships but also very importantly they
have so much more to offer for families in ports. So, if you're doing
multi-generational travel you'll find the excursions and the port facilities
will deal for part of the group who want to go on more cultural trips
but there also have more family-based excursions. So if you go to the Caribbean
or you go to the central Mediterranean area you're going to find just so much more,
and so much more diversity, of opportunities. Now increasingly places
like Alaska, which is a huge and growing cruising area, will also have more and
more attractions and excursions which cater for the needs of families. I would
also recommend that you tend to avoid places like the Arctic, the Antarctic or
the Galapagos, though these are going to be fascinating. But
with kids they are very expensive to take kids and families on, and also
many of them have restrictions on the age not only that kids can go but even
if they can go there are often restrictions on the age that kids can
actually get onto the RIB boats to go out on some of the excursions. I would
just wait to they're a little bit older, perhaps more in their teens. The next
thing I would do is avoid the old traditional cruising lines, so cruise
lines like Cunard, Holland America Line, Fred Olsen. Avoid those kind of very
traditional cruise lines because they have a much more formal traditional
approach to cruising which appeals to a slightly older demographic or people are
like a more formal type of cruising. They will have much more rigorous dress
codes and have much more formal dining approaches. They'll have much less
choices of alternative dining venues, they're going to have smaller or even in
some cases no actual kids clubs and kids facilities. They're not going to have
attractions and features as they're designed for a very different audience.
So exclude those. I've been on many of those cruises where people have come
along with families and I feel in some ways it's unfair on the kids because the
passengers are slightly resentful of this kids running around, and the
facilities are not there. I know there are other cruise lines that cater
and embrace and just have so much more to offer for families and
multi-generational travellers, so exclude the traditional cruise lines and look at
those cruise lines that are focusing much more on the family audience, and I'm
going to talk about those. Also I would avoid ultra-luxury lines. You're
talking here about lines like Silversea, Seabourn, Regent Seven Seas and those kind of
cruise lines because again partly because of the audience and the cost of
those they're going to be extremely expensive to take kids on. Also the
people traveling on those are often people who had their kids and
kids have left home and they're actually just looking for a kid-free zone, so
actually the passengers themselves are not as welcoming of families on board
because they're actually looking for a more adult experience. What are you going
to find is no to very limited facilities for kids, some of them will
sometimes in the peak summer seasons put some facilities on board but I would
actually avoid those because your kids aren't going have a great time in my
view, and the passengers are not going to be as welcoming. Some of the cruise
lines actually have an adults only experience, for example Viking Ocean
does not allow people under 18 on. So what then are the cruise lines that you
should focus on? I believe there are actually quite a lot of them and there
are eight that I'm going to talk about. One of the best cruise lines to consider
for families and multi-generational is Royal Caribbean, especially their big new
mega ships. They just have a vast array of facilities, entertainment and things
to do which will cater for all ages of kids including young kids and
teenagers. There's going to be a huge range of things do and they also are
renowned for their kids clubs. They have very big kids clubs and are really
focused on making sure that families when they come on board have a great
time, and if you ever go on a Royal Caribbean ship you'll just find loads of
families and loads of multi-generational travellers. Another phenomenal cruise line
for families and multi-generational is Norwegian Cruise Line. The great
thing about Norwegian Cruise Line is they do, in their bigger ships, have a
wider range of facilities, so they have things like water parks and other
entertainment for you to get stuck into. But the great thing about Norwegian is
their Freestyle approach. They have huge amounts of bars, they have huge
amounts of restaurants and lots of flexibility. Freestyle Cruising is their
concept. So, if you want to go to cruise and you know there's lots of people going to
want to do lots of different things, Norwegian Cruise Line is a great cruise
to look at if you're traveling with the family and want huge amounts of
flexibility. Again they do have a lot of focus on families, they do have lots of
family centric entertainment and they do have great kids clubs. Another great
cruise line for families is Carnival, and Carnival is one of the most
cost-effective and one of the best in terms of value.
Carnival has a concept what they call "fun ships". The idea is to have
loads and loads of fun. Many of their bigger new ships do have more facilities
like water parks, but the real heart of it is having fun. So, it's really upbeat,
it's very energetic and it's great value. They have some of the best prices that
you're going to get at sea. If you're looking for a great value holiday take a
look at Carnival. They are the biggest individual cruise line in the world and
carry the most amount of passengers and they are very very popular. They're
really strong in the Caribbean and if you're looking for a great
sunny summer holiday and you just want to have lots of fun.
Carnival, like many of the other cruise lines, has partnerships with lots
of well-known brands so they have things like Dr. Seuss and they have really
great kids clubs. Certainly people who have been on Carnival cruises with kids
rate the kids clubs very high, so be reassured that they focus
on families. If you want to take your kids on a much more multicultural
experience then I would really strongly recommend you take a look at MSC Cruises.
This is a family-run company and they're very passionate about catering for
families. MSC Cruises is Italian inspired and they have increasingly big
large resort style ships. The official language is onboard are six of
them. On board it's very multicultural so you can
find lots of Spanish, Italians, people from the UK, some USA and so it's very diverse.
It's a really great experience if you want to go on as a family and make sure
that your kids meet and get exposed to a very different mix of
cultures. I think they have great kids clubs as well. They have partnerships
with brands like Lego and Chicco so they again have great facilities. At their
heart is family and it's much more Mediterranean / Italian feel so something
very different from say the Royal Caribbean or Norwegian which is much
more American at its heart. One of them of course has to be Disney Cruise Line.
Disney, of course, are experts at dealing with kids so not surprising they have a
Cruise Line and it's great for family. Disney does tend to be best for kids
aged between about four and eleven, that's really the sweet spot and
that's the ages that they cater for best. Of course they know how to deal with
kids, they know to deal with families and also in the cabins many of the cabins
have a great setup where you have basically in the bathroom two separate
areas, which are quite distinct, so you can actually have a sink and a toilet in
one area while you can also then be bathing or showering in another area. So, the great
thing is they have bathrooms which enable you to all get ready at
the same time. If you're going on a multi-generational trip don't exclude
Disney completely because they do have some adult-only areas on the ship.
Some of those are all during the day, and some of them at parts of the night. so
there are some times when as an adult you can be kid free
and have an adults-only time on a Disney cruise.
One other cruise line, particularly for going on a
multi-generational cruise line is Princess Cruises. Many people who go
multi-generational cruisers love Princess Cruises, and while Princess
Cruises is a little bit more traditional and they don't have many of the big
resort facilities that some of the other cruise lines do, they do cater very
well for multi-generational. It's a slightly more traditional experience and
although it's not an obvious one to think about for families, it is very
popular for multi-generational as the older parts of the party will really love
Princess cruise lines and the kids will be very welcome on board. The seventh
line to take a look at is P&O Cruises, particularly if you're a
traveller out of the UK. P&O Cruises are perfect for people
looking for a British experience. What's interesting on P&O is they
have some ships which are designated adults only and then they have other
ships which are open and welcoming to families. P&O ships tend not to be
resort like and are relatively traditional in terms of their style of
cruising, but they do cater a lot for family and they have more family cabins,
they have good kids clubs. It's a very British experience, so if you want
to go on a British family holiday then take a look at P&O Cruises. Now P&O
Cruises also operates out of Australia and again they have a much
more Australian experience. If you do want to travel ultra luxury and you want
to travel with kids, the one cruise line to take a look at is Hapag Lloyd
cruises. They are an expensive cruise line, very upmarket and the Europa 2
ship is the one designated as an international ship. The great thing
with them is, although it's very luxurious, they have a couple of perks.
If your kids are under the age of 11 and travelling in the same cabin as you, they
actually travel for free. If they're over 11 you pay a roughly about 100 euros / $100 /
about £100 per kid per day. It's
relatively inexpensive to bring kids on board once you've paid the higher fares as
adults. They also have a number of these family apartments which are one of their
veranda staterooms and they're interconnected to a room which is
specifically designed with kids in mind, with bunk beds toys and bathrooms which
are designed for kids. If you do want to travel ultra luxury then take a look
at Hapag Lloyd Europa 2, you will find in the season you're going to have a lot of
kids on board. Bear in mind that most of them will be German speaking,
because it is a German line, but everything that you interact with will
be in English.If you want to go cruising with families, kids or
multi-generational, there's a couple of key things to focus on.
Do focus on big new modern ships because they're going to have much more
facilities. Avoid the traditional cruise lines and focus on those eight key
cruise lines: Disney, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, MSC Cruises P&O
Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises and if you want to go ultra
luxury Hapag Lloyd cruises. Hopefully that's given you something to think about and
it's helped guide you if you're thinking of going cruising with families and
multi-generational. If you found this helpful I'd love it if you watched many
more of my Tips For Travellers videos because you'll get much more cruising
and travel tips, inspiration and advice.