Cruises - Alaskan Cruise with kids?

Considering taking an Alaskan Cruise with kids...my daughter who will be ten, and my sisters two boys ages 7 and 6...any thoughts on if this is a good idea? Will there be enough for them to do? I'm assuming, with highs in the mid 60's the pools will be closed?!?!

Any cruise lines you'd reccomend besides Disney?

dont see why not, and pools should be open

the two year old wont be impressed.....you should check out baby sitter services for her....the boys should be awed....see if disney does ak...

The pools should be open, but the weather may be a bit cool and windy and it's not unusual to see some rain up there.

Make sure to check the age restrictions on any excursions you are planning, I don't know if it's going to be an issue or not, but some of the more adventurous ones may not allow kids as young as six on them. I don't think it will be an issue for most of them though.

Considering taking an Alaskan Cruise with kids...my daughter who will be twn, and my sisters two boys ages 7 and 6...any thoughts on if this is a good idea? Will there be enough for them to do? I'm assuming, with highs in the mid 60's the pools will be closed?!?!

Any cruise lines you'd reccomend besides Disney?I took my 8 year old on the Dawn Princess SF - Victoria - Alaska (4 ports) - SF and we both had a fabulous time. Never used the pools, but during time at sea, my son loved the kid's club. He'd race through breakfast, head for the club, meet me for lunch, and then go back to the club. For the 6 and 7 yr olds, the kid's club would be great, but I don't know about the 2 yr old, you'd have to see what the age limits are.

If the ship sponsored excursions don't allow kids, in most ports doing your own is easy enough. In one I arranged a fishing trip for us, in another we had a great time just strolling around and visiting 2 museums (which were very kid friendly) on our own.

Just went back and corrected my typo in the first post. Sorry, my daughter will be TEN, not TWO.
I'm not worried about her so much as I know she will enjoy it. The two boys are typical boys and will want to go, go, go! I was wondering about the pools b/c the average temps are in the 60's.

Great advice about the excursions, I'll look into age limitations.

Thanks so much, and if anyone has a suggestion on what line to take (we've done Disney and those are great, but pretty expensive.

My granddaughters are about the same age as your kids. They went on an Alaska Cruise this summer and said it was the best vacation of their lives (trust me, those kids are very well traveled). They chose a Princess ship as the demographics skewed a bit younger than other options. Also, they used a terrific Virtuoso Travel Agent who secured them upgrades to a suite. I believe they sailed from Vancouver to Anchorage. Their holiday cards, this year, are photos of each holding a salmon which each one caught. Really, they had the best time!!

We took our sons around that age and they had a great time. They still talk about it. (and they are in their twenties now)

We went whale watching and saw many. (We even saw a fairly rare bubble net...)

One day a whole (herd? pod? whatever...) of hundreds of dolphins swam along side our ship.

As for excursions, I recommend walking on glaciers, helicopter rides, whale watching trips (the smaller the boat the better.)

If you have the time, I also recommend a Princess cruise Tour before or after.--visiting Mt. McKinley/Denali. The train is neat. Katishna is very cool.

The two boys are typical boys and will want to go, go, go! I was wondering about the pools b/c the average temps are in the 60's.

Great advice about the excursions, I'll look into age limitations.
The Princess kids club was more than enough to keep my high energy boy happy at sea. It was too chilly for the pool, but he didn't miss it at all because there were so many other things to keep him interested.

On land we did plenty of walking on/between tours. The best tour by far was the Duck amphibious tour in Ketchikan. It gave us a good overview of the town and a tour of the harbor, but left enough free time for us to walk back to the fish ladder, go the museums, get a snack, etc.

silversea did makeshift kids club on cruise i did, no idea re quality

i was lucky and had great weather

I am planning on going with my nephew and neice (and some other family) that are around the same age. With the kids club and some nintendo ds's for when they need some down time no one is worried about them being bored. I want to thank everyone else for the excursion ideas and the heads up for age restrictions though!

The Princess kids club was more than enough to keep my high energy boy happy at sea. It was too chilly for the pool, but he didn't miss it at all because there were so many other things to keep him interested.

On land we did plenty of walking on/between tours. The best tour by far was the Duck amphibious tour in Ketchikan. It gave us a good overview of the town and a tour of the harbor, but left enough free time for us to walk back to the fish ladder, go the museums, get a snack, etc.

Great advice!
I think we'll give this some serious consideration...I was under the impression the kids would be bored to tears on the ship without the pool. We've only done the Disney cruise before and it was Caribbean, so the kids had plenty of pool time, etc.

silversea did makeshift kids club on cruise i did, no idea re quality

i was lucky and had great weather

What do you consider great weather? 70's and sunny?

Did people use the pool at all?

on several days of the 7 day cruise, it was the "best weather" of the season IIRC. i cant speak for temperatures, but no rain, few clouds.

pool situation will be different on larger ship with larger pool(s) - silversea only had 410 pax

edit - you have to plan for bad weather, but sometimes weather can be bad even during most peak season

on several days of the 7 day cruise, it was the "best weather" of the season IIRC. i cant speak for temperatures, but no rain, few clouds.

pool situation will be different on larger ship with larger pool(s) - silversea only had 410 pax

thanks!

We cruised Alaska on Holland America's Zaandam in mid-July and had great weather, sunny and 70's almost every day. However the week before ours, and the week after, the weather was cloudy or rainy and quite cool.

Our 16 year old son was with us and he thoroughly enjoyed it even though HAL has a reputation for older clientele. There were quite a few younger kids who seemed to have a lot of fun with the kids' program.

There was a large indoor/outdoor pool on the Lido Deck that was always open - retractable roof when it was good weather, covered when it was cold.

Considering taking an Alaskan Cruise with kids...my daughter who will be ten, and my sisters two boys ages 7 and 6...any thoughts on if this is a good idea? Will there be enough for them to do? I'm assuming, with highs in the mid 60's the pools will be closed?!?!

Any cruise lines you'd reccomend besides Disney?

It's a tough call for kids on an Alaska cruise. We took a 7 day cruise Vancouver/Anchorage and it didn't stop raining (except for a few minutes a day) EVERY DAY OF THE CRUISE. Only once we got on the cruise ship did the ship indicate that bad weather and rain is very common there.

The post-cruise trip to Denali was fantastic as we saw many animals along the tour going through the park toward Mt. McKinley and we even had a clear view of the mountain but the tour guide said it's very rare (only a couple days a year) to see the mountain. While I'm glad we saw so much AFTER the cruise, for my money it's too far to go and too much to pay to hope you might get good weather and you might see something.

As someone who did the AK cruise on NCL for 3 months in 2010, I can say that weather is crapshoot.

Of those 3 months, I can say I only had 2 or 3 cruises where it did not rain on one of the ports.

There are some really nice days where it's sunny and you can go out in jeans and a T-shirt (and I'm a Floridian). And sometimes, it can be freezing rain and fog.

If it's not raining consider it a good day. If it's blue skies and sunshine, consider it a GREAT day and make sure to do something awesome.

I also agree on the Glacier walk and heli rides (I did those and had a blast).

**IF I had to pay, I would book a cruise from July-August. Although I heard some great weather can also be had in September, but that's a bit of a gamble. The only reason, I wouldn't book early in the season is because some of the ice that had broken off the glacier would prevent the ship from getting closer.

pick a kid friendly line. you have many rccl which owns royal and celebrity, you also have carnival which owns princess.

If you go in the summer months, there should be enough kids to keep the kids program fun and interesting. Maybe not as busy as a Caribbean cruise at the same time, but west coast people like to cruise with families too, and many like to take the local cruise rather than head east or south. Princess and Holland America are known as the ones that do Alaska best, but I think that also factors in their extensive land tours that a lot of people take before or after the cruise. However, most Princess and HAL ships also have a pool with a retractable roof.