Cruise Advice/Other Travel Suggestions

[dfrecore]

I've been on a bunch, both with and without my kids. The key for me is to pick one that has a lot of stops. Ones where you have a "fun day at sea" is not my idea of fun. I want to get off the ship and go explore the area every single day. I don't overeat on cruises (I've never gained weight on one, probably because we are super active and walk a ton, skip the elevators for stairs, etc. the entire time we're there). I am not a big drinker, plus I have to be careful because I can get seasick, so drinking doesn't pair well with that. We don't go to broadway shows, but we do go to other ones - we've seen good stuff like comedians, the Not-So-Newlywed game, stuff like that, and all of it has been pretty funny. There's plenty to do while on the ship, and you're not required to do any of it if you don't want to. I also love to read, and I swear I can read 2-4 entire books on a cruise, which is heaven for me.

Our kids (17 & 15 now) have been on 2 cruises, and they enjoyed both.

The first was Disney (they were 5 & 7), where it was 4 days at the parks and then 3 days on the ship. It was good. Lots of stuff for the kids in that age range to do while the parents had some free time. At dinner one night, the little boy at the table next to us was mad and started crying because "I don't want to eat with you, I want to go eat with my friends!" So obviously he was having a great time. The thing I thought about the Disney cruise part was that it's overpriced for what you get - I feel like most cruises are similar, and if you choose one with a kids' program, this isn't better than those.

The 2nd was a weekend cruise from LA to Ensenada, and the kids (older at that point, maybe 12 & 14) had a blast. On board the ship, they had a great kids program (separated by ages) until midnight every night. They would head out after dinner, and do scavenger hunts, dance, play games, have video game contests, all kinds of stuff. And I felt like I could let them go crazy and stay out because it's not like they could go anywhere or get into too much trouble.

I think the key is to find something that you can both enjoy - a cruise where they have stops daily (if possible) and one where there's a great kids program. I'm guessing if you do Europe, where things are closer together, you might be able to pull it off.