What we wanted to get out of our time on board our cruise ship
While some cruises cater to older crowds or to younger adults who don’t have kids, many cruise lines design their cruises to be a great fit for family vacations. There are so many reasons to cruise with kids for your family vacation. Here are 5 that made it worthwhile for us with our 2 kids.
Our first cruise experience
Our family of four loves water recreation, but water transportation was a new one for us when we took our first cruise in 2024. During a 14-night repositioning cruise from Seattle, USA, to Yokohama/Tokyo, Japan, we crossed the Pacific Ocean on Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas.
Meeting new people
We love when our kids get to meet new people. From our wait staff in main dining to people in the kid room and teen center, Aster and Connor got to meet new people from all over the world.
Independence
Our kids are old enough and responsible enough to do more things on their own. Armed with their sea passes, Aster and Connor often went out and about to do their own activities. We went over how to identify crew members if the kids needed help, how they could always come back to the cabin for safe space or alone time, and how to get around the ship. The kids handled their independence responsibly—and had a lot of fun.
A break from cooking and tidying
We love to cook. We rock taking care of our living space. But sometimes we want a break from those things too. With delicious food available pretty much 24/7 on board, plus an attendant who took care of our room each day, we viewed our cruise as a chance to take a couple of weeks off some basic life work.
Be (mostly) offline and off the clock
Our 2024 has been amazing, but pretty intense too. Our year included visiting Europe and Africa, dealing with rodent damage in our RV’s throttle, selling our home, and a bunch of work projects. So we aimed to have our cruise be a time when we mostly were not working. We also took advantage of crossing the ocean to be mostly offline, though we did have a one-device-at-a-time internet package so we could do some work and online stuff here and there.
The ship is beautiful and full of art
Over the years, Royal Caribbean has invested nearly a quarter billion dollars in art. From the cabin corridors to the stair landings and all over the decks, we found art at just about every turn. Plus, Aster adored the butterfly art adorning the central atrium.
A cruise vacation can be fun for the whole family
Our family cruise vacation was a 2-week delight of crossing the Pacific Ocean from Seattle to Tokyo. Whether taking your children to the Mediterranean, Alaska, the Caribbean, or anywhere else in the world, the reasons to cruise with kids add up to a fun, stress-free vacation for the entire family.
