Family Cruises 101: How to Pick, Prepare, and Have the Best Trip Ever
If you’re looking for a great trip for the whole family, a cruise may just be the right choice for you! There are a lot of reasons to love cruising…visit a number of different locations without the transportation hassle, the all inclusive nature of cruises and there is always something for everyone!
I’ll share with you our best tips and tricks to help you pick the right cruise, and things we wish we knew before cruising the first time. We’ve taken a variety of different cruises over the years and have lots of opinions!
At the end, I’ll share our favorite cruise we’ve ever done (and one that wasn’t so great!).
How do I pick the right cruise for my family?
There are a ton of factors to consider when picking a cruise. Here are some questions that I’d recommend beginning to think through before you get started:
- What port do I want to leave from?
- What stops are high on my bucket list?
- What is the vibe I’m going for?
- How long can I travel for and what’s my budget?
Where to Start?!
- Go to someplace like booking.com and search cruises
- Filter by departure port for the ones you’re interested in
- Filter by the length of time you have available to cruise
- Determine the dates you want to leave
- Sort (or filter) by price to find trips in your budget
Example: I’m looking for a cruise over spring break. My kids are off school from Saturday – Sunday. I could fly somewhere Friday night, or Saturday. Since I want a 3-5 night cruise, my departure dates are Saturday – Wednesday. I filtered further by limiting my search to just Mexico.
Once you’ve got that all setup, start browsing! I like to look at the variety of options of cruise companies, and the stops that they make. I then start documenting ones I’m interested in. Below is a pic of exactly how I’d start researching:
Here are some things that would influence my decision:
- The departure port – I like places that are either 1) cheap to fly to … or 2) some place I want to visit! Example: We departed once from Miami because I wanted to visit South Beach. Once from Fort Lauderdale so we could do an Everglades tour. In the future, I want to leave from New Orleans, because my kids have never been!
- The locations – I’m usually looking for places I’ve never been, but if this is your first time – the options can seem endless. Some cruises go to their own private island which can be appealing to some and not to others. Others may go to places that have lots boat and water activities, while others may allow you to go inland and see things like ancient ruins in Mexico. What might help you pick is the next consideration..
- The activities – Once I get a good list of options based on my dates of travel and budget – I write down all the potential ports and then start researching (e.g. ‘Best things to do in St Maarten during a cruise stop). This will at least give me an idea of the kinds of activities that could be options for me, and may help me make my decision if I see something I really want to do!
- The cruise line itself/the ship – I’ll get into the cruise line options in more detail, but looking at the cruise line and the ship is important. Some of the ships you see above are REALLY old! That sometimes leads to a bit more motion sickness, or maybe not as many amenities. Just research if they’ve been refurbished & if they have the stuff you’re looking for … how critical is a waterslide or a super nice pool, for instance.
How to pick a cruise line
Everyone has different opinions on which cruise line is best. My take is – they all can be good options, but they are just different. I’ve sailed on Disney (as a kid), Carnival (without kids), Norwegian x2, Princess and MSC. Our favorite brand is Norwegian!
- Disney Cruise – they obviously do everything really well, with amazing attention to detail. If you’re kids love Disney, this could be a great option. To me – I cannot possibly justify the 4x pricetag on their cruises compared to other brands.
- Carnival – these cruises tend to be more budget friendly, but that also comes with (I think), more crowds and a lot more chaos and parties.
- Princess – this cruise line seems to cater more towards an older crowd – but we did this with our kids and they also had a nice kids club. The vibe was more chill (jazz music vs loud jazz music)… the shows were just OK, not great… and it was a bit more formal with more dress codes enforced. But – we stuck to the buffet without a dress code, and enjoyed quiet evenings on the deck outside
- Royal Caribbean and Norwegian – these are great options that are at a good price point, awesome for families and a lot more flexible with dining and dress codes. I’ve got a few things that I look for when looking for a cruise and these meet those critiera:
- No assigned seating – I don’t want to make small talk with random people
- No assigned dining times – I don’t want to be forced to eat dinner at 6:30 or 8:30pm
- No dress code – I don’t want to be forced to wear a formal ball gown to dinner
Some of those non-negotiables for me, can be avoided by just going to the buffet. However, I do sometimes want to have a nice sit down dinner and I don’t want it to be so formal. But – each cruise line has perks. Hopefully these helped get you started, and then you can narrow in your search on things that matter for you.
What to know before you to!
- Wi-Fi and cell phones – the wi-fi you may purchase on the ship is expensive. And – most of the time, kind of mediocre. Your cell phones also likely will not work while on board, most of the time. This makes life a little tricky – so make sure people at home know you may not always be reachable while out at sea. And – for your family while you’re on the ship – have meet up plans if you split up! We would bring post-it notes and leave notes if we were ever going somewhere, with a specific time we would meet back up.
- Tipping – this is an unexpected expense that sometimes catches people off guard. Often the tip they add on to your bill is $15-20 per person, per day. This can add up really quick. So – that deal you see online for $300 for the week per person, isn’t quite that cheap. One thing to note though – you can adjust this amount. It usually means though, needing to go to the main desk and wait in a line and ask to adjust it. We have adjusted occasionally. When we have, it’s typically because we didn’t use the bar at all, or if we went without kids, we didn’t use the kids club. Other times, we’ve raised the tip in areas like the kids club, because they were so fabulous!
- Kids Club – speaking of the kids club – this is one of the best parts of a cruise with families. The staff at the kids club are top notch. So many of them have an incredible resume of experience when working on the ships. They aren’t babysitters – they literally curate an amazing program of activities for your kids. When we took our kids when they were 8 and 6, they never wanted to leave the kids club. We got a lot of nice dinner alone because of this. They are very secure about making sure kids are safe and don’t leave without a parent. When they are older, they are able to sign themselves out of the teen rooms (if you let them)
- Drinks and Food – while most things on a cruise are included, some are not! Included are things like the buffet, the nice dining rooms for sit down dinners, tea, coffee, water and lemonade. Things that aren’t included: some specialty restaurants, soda and alcohol. My take on specialty restaurants – don’t go to them. You are already paying for the food on the cruise, which is very good, just go to the regular restaurants and save your money! Typically we don’t do any alcohol or soda packages, because we don’t really get our moneys worth. But – it could be a good option if you think you’d use it – just do the calculations before you buy.
What to Pack
Cruise ships rooms are SMALL, unless you splurge for a bigger room or balcony. We generally tend to save our money for excursions and book the cheapest room there is. It’s so small that we have a general rule that we all 4 shouldn’t be in the room all together unless we are sleeping.
- Don’t overpack – rooms are small with minimal storage!
- On the first day, bring essentials in a smaller bag… something you’re happy to carry all day. This includes swim suit, medications, sunscreen etc. Your big suitcases typically aren’t delivered to your room until late afternoon
- Look for any specific dress code on your ship; do you need any nice outfits for dinner? Also check because some have theme nights, if you want to participate
- Magnetic hooks – shown in image above – are a great way to utilize space well!
- Towel hooks – it’s windy on the ship and these help keep your towel from blowing away
- Motion sickness meds – if you even get a little motion sick – you may want to have on hand!
Transportation
You should definitely arrive the day before your ship leaves, at least. This gives you a bit of a buffer in case there are flight delays. You can use this time to check out a new city, or just get a hotel that is close to the cruise port!
Figure out your transportation situation and what time you need to arrive. There are likely specific times you can start boarding. You may have a whole morning to hang out before heading to the ship.
When departing, make sure you leave a large enough buffer between your ship docking and your flight. They are very efficient with unloading, but it does take time to get thousands of people off the ship. Make sure you leave a few hours before your flight boards, and check how far the cruise terminal is to the airport. Pro tip: if you elect to carry your own bags off the ship, you can get off much quicker!
So… what was our favorite and least favorite?!
Least Favorite
Our least favorite cruise, and really the only one we didn’t like… was thankfully only a 2 night cruise. We took this as a means of transportation around Europe, from Barcelona to Genoa. We had plans to head to Rome, and it was cheaper to get a 2 day cruise and a train instead of flying – and we thought it would be a fun activity for the kids! The cruise was through MSC. One disclaimer before I get to my issues: this was a very long cruise (something like 6 months in total). They interestingly, let people get on and off in different locations depending on what you book – which is how we ended up with 2 days. In Genoa they were planning to refuel and stock up on food. So it’s possible they were running a bit low on things.
Things that went wrong:
- The boarding process was insane, unorganized and took forever
- They had assigned dining times, and by the time we got on board after the crazy boarding process, we had missed our 6:30pm assigned dining! We asked to go to the 8pm and they said no
- They had a super strict dress code and we didn’t have nice clothes. I had a dress but it didn’t have sleeves, and I wasn’t allowed in the main dining room!
- The food was… almost inedible. And I’m not even picky about needing nice food. I’m talking pasta that was cold, meat that was room temperature, fruit that was spoiled. Limited selection of everything.
- At some point before we arrived, there was an unfortunate medical emergency that resulted in the ship turning around and heading backwards to the closest port. During our time on board, there was a period of time in the afternoon where the ship basically stopped for 30 minutes in the middle of the ocean. Then eventually it started back up and turned in circles. This caused an incredible amount of speculation if we were turning around (and if we needed to worry about our connecting train ride the next day). Turns out – it appeared to be nothing, but seemed like a crazy thing to do with no communication to guests who were all a bit panicked.
Anyway – usually don’t complain, but that was a not so great experience. I’d still try MSC again, maybe under different circumstances.
Favorite!
The best cruise we ever took was the cruise to South America on Princess. Like I mentioned – this cruise ship doesn’t cater to a young crowd by any means, but we found everything to be more than sufficient. The kids club was great, the food was delicious, and even though the ship was very old, it was nicely remodeled. Our favorite thing about this though was the ports we stopped at. This, to me, is the most important thing to look at when picking a cruise. Going to the ABC (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) islands and seeing amazing beaches, and then going to Panama Canal, Colombia and Costa Rica was a dream. We loved everything about this cruise!
Cruising can be an awesome option! I hope you’ll consider taking a cruise for your next trip – it’s a great vacation for your whole family!
