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Still Dating My Spouse

Helping couples keep the love and joy for each other long after the wedding day.

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How to plan a family cruise vacation

Plan a Carnival Cruise family vacation

Choosing the right family vacation spot is one of the biggest and most important decisions couples make in a year. Well, it is in our house. We on our second go round of traveling with kids. We learned a lot with the first set so we don’t take the planning stage lightly. This year, the nine year old asked to go on a cruise. A cruise? Oh yeah that’s up our alley.

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We are a cruising family but ummmm its been years since we’ve taken a child on a cruise. So me being the overly paranoid planner, I immediately wrote out a list to help us with choosing the right family cruise vacation.

 

Things to remember when selecting a family cruise vacation:

Date Selection

-spring

-summer

-holiday cruising

It’s important that you choose the month or season that fits not only into your vacation time but also the kids school schedule. Also take into consideration if you want to go during the busiest cruise seasons: Spring break, Summer months and Christmas week.

Once you decide on the time of year you will cruise, decide on the length of the cruise. We have cruised 3 days up to 7 days. Guess what we are doing this year? Yep you guessed it: 7 days!

Select departure city

The cruise industry has grown so that cruising don’t start and stop just in Florida. You have many options. We are cruising out of New Orleans for our family cruise vacation. The choice of departure city probably will depend on if you will drive, fly or even take Amtrak to the port. If you want to extend a land and sea vacation, you may choose a departure city that allow your family to sightsee pre or post cruise.

So, this step is so important.

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Select cruise line

When you are researching cruise lines make sure you make a list of must haves that is important for your family cruise vacation. For this family cruise vacation these are the items that were important to us:

-family friendly

-kids camp

-dining options

-length of cruise

-Entertainment

The family cruise vacation that we are taking in May will include multigenerations. The one thing I’m really liking about cruise lines, especially Carnival, is that they are embracing the multigenerational cruising that families are doing.

For the nine year old first cruise, my mom, sister and niece are going so a cruise line would have to offer amenities that appeals to us all. And the Carnival Dream does.

Themed cruises appealing to kids (and family) 

Carnival has added Seuss at Sea to several ships including Carnival Dream. I’m overly excited because we will take our Dr. Seuss costumes with us so when we participate in Seuss-a-palooza story time we will be fully engaged and dressed the part.

Kid Programs: We selected Carnival Dream for our cruise adventure because of is close proximity to Memphis but most importantly CAMP CARNIVAL. I’m, I mean, the nine year old is looking forward to attending Camp Carnival. Camp Carnival has five programs for kids based on ages:  ages 2 to 5 (Toddlers), ages 6 to 8 (Juniors ) and 9 to 11 (Intermediates). The activities are age appropriate, such as: sing-alongs, arts and crafts for toddlers; games, Tshirt designs for Juniors; and  talent shows and scavenger hunts for Intermediates. Oh don’t worry Carnival haven’t forgotten about the pre-teens 12 to 14 (Circle C) and teens 15 to 17 year olds (Club O2) this group have dances, pool parties, and special teens-only shore excursions. No child will ever be bored while on a cruise. Plus while they are enjoying Camp Carnival, the adults can enjoy the fun activities on deck.

Select cabin style

-inside

-outside

-balcony

-suites

Don’t worry if you have a large family or a family of two or three, cruise lines have staterooms to fit the comfort of any size family. We chose Carnival Dream because they had rooms that will fit all 5 of us in one cabin + it has a balcony.Once you have narrowed down your options, it’s time to book. The fun of cruising starts with planning and watching the cruise countdown ticker on your personalized account page.

Cruise countdown Carnival Dream

Our personal account page on Carnival.com gives us all the info we need to know about cruising, our cruise plus the excursions we can take each day at port. Oh don’t worry about that right now, I’ll share more about onboard activities and choosing excursions later.

We are so excited about this family cruise. The nine year old is super excited! If you haven’t been on a cruise, you should definitely look into taking one.

 

What’s your favorite family vacation? 

 

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Comments

  1. I wouldn’t take my kids on one, but I would go with my hubby. Cruises are fun.

  2. Wow, lots of great tips here, which I will pass on to my brother. He’s taken his wife and kids on a Disney cruise and they really loved the experience.

  5. You have the Best posts! A Cruise would be really nice at this stage in my Life. I’ve heard the food options is the best part

  7. My fave family vacation is one that is unhurried and unscheduled. Beach holidays are great and since having kids, I’ve grown to understand the importance of ‘ALL INCLUSIVE’

  11. I have never been on a cruise. I definitely want to go on a cruise though, so I love coming across posts like this one. Mentally filing the info. 🙂

  14. I would love to take a cruise-I hear they are fantastic. However, my husband has an aversion to being on open water and refuses to take a cruise! lol.

  17. I don’t think I would take younger kids, just because I know mine have a little bit of seperation anxiety. As soon as we are clear of that, I would so consider a cruise! I’d love an adults-only one though, just time for my husband and I to reconnect and have fun and not be “parents” for a few days, just adults having fun. We haven’t been cruising yet, so some day!

  19. I hope to do a family cruise this year for the holidays! It would be way more fun to ring in the new year from a cruise ship!

  21. I’ve never had to plan for travelling with kids because I don’t have any. I wish I could find a cruise that accepted pets, though. I have THREE fur babies.

  27. Great advice! We’re planning a family cruisenext year, with our extended family and deciding WHEN to go has been the most difficult part! My husband and I have cruised and we can’t wait to take our daughter!

  30. I have never been on a cruise before. Lately I have been looking into them more. Thanks for the tips and tricks. I’ve wanted to go since my parents went on one and just raved about how awesome it was. This is a big thing considering my mother is terrified of the ocean.

  32. I’ve never done a cruise, although I would like to. Our family vacations are usually camping and hiking mini vacations a couple times a month all summer. The only big vacation I’ve ever done was driving to Florida a couple of years ago. We didn’t do any of the theme parks, just chilled at the hotel and went to all the older tourist traps along with the historical sites. It was very fun.

  33. I’ve never been on a week-long cruise before, much less with children. Usually, I fly directly to a destination. But, this seems fantastic!

  34. I would love to go on a family cruise. I have always wanted to go on a cruise. I think it would be so much fun being in the open water.

  36. These are great tips. I have always wanted to go on a cruise. I want to take the kids in the next year or so.

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