Well shiver my timbers, who knew that even chatting about kids behaving badly on cruises could be so incendiary?
A few online discussions on the subject brought up some furious reactions that could be pretty much divided into two camps: the parents of badly behaved children who claimed complainers should “put up and shut up”; and everyone else.
Oh and a third camp was bad old me, for even putting the question out there. So I’ll be wearing my flak jacket from now on.
Typical comments from camp one were, “They’re only children, for God’s sake – I’ve seen plenty of adults behaving badly” (haven’t we all) or, “It’s meant to be their holiday,” and even, “People who whinge about kids having fun are just grumpy old gits.”
Those who had encountered spoilt, rude and unruly brats uniformly believed that out-of-control kids and teens were the result of poor parenting and that “ships are not kindergartens”.
Over the course of 30-plus cruises I’ve experienced, I haven’t witnessed any of the activities that these cruisers reported – but
I am a parent who has taken boisterous sons on holiday and they weren’t always angels.
However, when you hear anecdotes about teens setting fire to deckchairs (must have been a while ago if the deckchairs were the wooden variety), eating ice-creams and pizza in whirlpools and leaving greasy bits behind, barging into adults-only pools, picking food out of the buffet with their hands, riding the lifts and blocking access to other passengers, running full-pelt along corridors and – the most common complaint – screaming and dive-bombing in pools, you have to wonder.
Are all those DayGlo water slides, chemically coloured soft drinks and sugar-filled junk food sending cruising kids into hyperactive frenzies? Aren’t kids’ clubs supposed to keep them busy and entertained? Are people who find rowdy behaviour intolerable merely intolerant?
Now that more than 1.5 million kids (18 and younger) are estimated to be cruising globally each year, we have to find a way to holiday in harmony. Banning under-18s from cruise ships is a little harsh, but it would help if parents laid down some basic courtesy rules (and we appreciate that most do).
We can’t expect the ships’ crews to police the cruise lines’ behavioural guidelines (and they do have them) and it shouldn’t be up to other passengers to admonish children for running around the main dining room (yes, another complaint).
If the only thing that works for you is a totally child-free cruise, there are a few ships that don’t allow under-18s aboard: Viking Ocean Cruises’ Viking Star and Viking Sea; P&O World Cruises’ Arcadia and Oriana; Saga Cruises’ Saga Pearl II and Saga Sapphire – exclusively for over-50s; and Voyages to Antiquity’s Aegean Odyssey, which is “unsuitable for children under the age of 12” and discourages under-16s.
Most small luxury ships aren’t suitable for children, either, and the fares aren’t conducive to family holidays, unless the family is exceptionally well-heeled.
If an adults-only or upmarket cruise isn’t viable, you may have to compromise. Avoid cruising during school holidays, in Australia and overseas. Skip megaships that are designed for families, or look for ships that have adults-only sun decks and pools, “ship within a ship” accommodation and facilities, and plenty of alternative dining venues.
Lastly, there’s a big difference between excited kids who are having fun and over-excited kids wreaking havoc. Enjoy the former and dob in the latter to their parents if it happens once too often.
I can’ t imagine anything more boring than an over 50s cruise.
But if that’s what you’re looking for, great for you – but then don’t whinge about those on those cruises that cater for all. Cruising isn’t exclusively an over 50s – or over 18 – activity. And as said above, bad behaviour isn’t exclusive to any one age group either…
It is a sad reality that there is a severe lack of discipline within families. This is partly caused by the “do-gooders” being so PC that parents seem not to have the right to discipline their children and partly by the “me” generation that puts the individual wants ahead of the group.
Some parents expect that the ship is their new playground and the kids can have free reign of all amenities. I was disgusted that despite signs on the buffet cabinets stating children were to be supervised, little kids who stood as high as the food counter, breathed and coughed over the food while helping themselves with their hands!! I moved away and only ate what was high up on the shelf.
Parents need to be reminded that going on a cruise does not abrogate their responsibility to look after their kids just the same as they do when they step ashore on some foreign bustling market; they don’t just sit at a bar and hope the kids turn up again to return to the boat before it sails!!
Having just returned from a Royal Caribbean Cruise I appreciate that P&O place a limit on how many children in each group are allowed more than I thought I would. Cruising with a teen myself I thought I wouldn’t appreciate such rules.
More than once I got on an elevator full of bored teens with mothing to do but press ever button and go up and down, fine with me none of them were mine, but I can understand why others would be annoyed. Talking to those kids they said there was nothing to do, so in my opinion limit the number or have a better kids club than dogeball for 15 yr olds. My son said the same the difference was he spent the whole time in my shadow instead of having a holiday of his own, the kids club being key. This is the first time I think he went to one of the shows and he didn’t just go to one but all of them, why you may ask no other choice than to follow me.
I also heard the loud footsteps of kids running up and down the halls like never before but they were younger and it could be a school holiday side effect, but still other parents for the sake of the reputation of all our kids tell them not to run.