Many families have added vacationing to their list of things to do in 2021. This might include flying to Orlando to take their 6-year-olds and tweens to Disney World. Some families might decide to just visit their relatives after the tumultuous year of 2020.
Other families have decided to spend their free time on a cruise. They want to get away from it all by traveling on the open seas. Here are some tips for traveling on a cruise with children.
Take pictures.
When you go on a vacation cruise with your kids, you want to take as many pictures as possible. From the day of departure to the day of arrival to whatever tropical vacation spot you’re traveling to, take a lot of pictures. First and foremost, this allows you to save memories of your visits to these recreational destinations. You can even involve your child in the memory capturing process, asking them to record their time on the cruise ship. This can become a fun task for them, as they document their vacation from behind a camera’s shutter.
Another reason that you should personally take pictures is that these pictures make for great kids gifts. When you get home after your seven-day cruise, you can upload your digital photos to websites like Shutterfly. Here, you can create a unique gift for your kids with these very photos. Children love personalized gifts, and these children’s gift ideas are perfect for that. You can use your vacation pictures to create personalized storybooks, jigsaw puzzles, water bottles, or even custom games. Taking pictures and having your kids take pictures is a great tip to follow when traveling on a cruise with kids.
Don’t stress over what you can’t control.
When you incorporate a bit of flexibility and resist overscheduling your cruise trip, you’ll make the vacation a bit more enjoyable for your kids. Children can sense when you’re stressed and soak up such emotions like a sponge. A vacation cruise is the last place that you want for something like this to happen. Allowing yourself to understand that things aren’t going to go perfectly on a seven-day Disney Cruise Line vacation will save you trouble in the long run.
You can still do your best to see that things run without a hitch. Just don’t overdo it. For example, schedule Port Canaveral off site parking so that you don’t have to worry about making it to your cruise terminal in a timely fashion. Some of these services even offer parking lot security, uncovered parking, covered parking, free shuttle rides, and service to all the cruise ships in the Port Canaveral area. When such things are taken care of, this gives you much more time to ensure that your toddler, child, or tween is having a fun time on their Carnival cruise vacation. The other side of this is that kids of all ages eventually get tired, and cranky themselves. If you can lessen the stress they have to deal with, this will make the vacation go smoothly for the family.
Choose a cruise ship that caters to children.
When you disembark from Port Canaveral, Orlando, or Cocoa Beach, make sure to choose a cruise ship that focuses on kids. Disney Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Royal Caribbean International have incorporated many child-centric activities on their cruise lines. From the time you leave your cruise port, all of these cruise ships are brimming with activities for your children. These include water pools, mini-golf, rock climbing, foosball, surf simulators, and various youth programs. Cruise lines realize how important this group of cruise passengers is. Make sure to find out what activities are available for your children before scheduling a cruise vacation.