Alaska Age Recommendation

[peachygreen]

I know you can take kids of all ages on a cruise and that they will enjoy it. My youngest isn't yet 3 and is getting ready to take her 3rd cruise. So far we have done an Eastern and a Canada cruise out of NY. Our cruise in March is also an Eastern to San Juan.

I would love to do an Alaskan cruise. If we choose to do Alaska in 2014 my girls would be 4 and 8. Would you recommend waiting until they were 5 and 9 or even later for Alaska or do you think it would be fun to take them at 4 and 8? I know it is very subjective. I guess I'm curious how your younger preschool age kids did and what kids of excursions they enjoyed? A lot of the excursions in Alaska are pricey so I want to make sure they could be truly enjoyed by a small 4 year old.

I also eventually want to do Europe either via cruise or via a land based vacation but I'd like to wait until both girls are older to take that trip.

 

[SoThisIsLove]

I took my DD who was 4 at the time on the Alaskan Cruise in 2011 and she LOVED it! To this day she will tell you it was her favorite cruise (she has been on 4 other DCL cruises ). She is always asking us when we awe going back to Alaska. She loved Vancouver and Seattle as well. We went in August and the wildlife was wonderful. The salmon run was in full effect and we actually saw a lot of bears at Mendenhall Glacier....it was like a postcard with the bears lifting the salmon out of the water! We also saw a lot of bald eagles and whales. It was also nice to go away and get away from the heat of summer in NY. I would def recommend Alaska for your younger ones!

 

[DahliaRW]

I would also think about what you want out of an Alaska cruise. I personally would want to be able to sit on my veranda (or the deck) and watch the scenery. And I know that's not going to happen much with young children. So, that is why I'm not considering Alaska right now. So if that is your cup of tea, that might be challenging at your children's ages. If it's not, then ti might be fine.

 

[shaggy430]

We just booked our Alaska cruise and we are finding there are a number of age restrictions for Port Adventures. Mind you there are plenty but at first glance it was disappointing to see 8 and 10 years old for several of them.

 

[hhh]

We cruised Alaska with our 1 DD and almost 4 year old (3 yrs 11 m) DS. Our son loved the train rides and the cruise in general, although he had trouble spotting the wildlife we pointed out to him. We decided our daughter was too fidgety for the train so one of us stayed behind with her; of course your girls are much older.

We decided our kids were too young for the wildlife boat tours. My cousin took her four year olds twins on a boat tour - one had a blast, and the other was miserable the entire time.

All the kids had a great time on the cruise itself, but they were too young to appreciate it all. I hope to take them back in 10+ years. If you think you will only go to Alaska once in your lifetime, you might want to wait. If you're just worried if your girls will have fun, they will!

 

[lbgraves]

It will be a different cruise traveling with kids versus just adults, but we believe in experiencing things as a family. It is much easier to take young kids out of school than when they get older and have more schoolwork and other activities to keep up with. It really depends on your kids though and what holds their interest. I'll never forget DD on our 4th cruise at age 6 after we toured the ruins in Costa Maya repeating many facts that the guide had explianed to us. At ages 5 & 7 both of my kids begged us to move to DC on our third hour long trip on the Metro early in the morning. They loved going through the museums and galleries -- even Congress. When we went to Alaska the kids were 11 & 13, but I saw in the Navigator that they had a couple of National Rangers working with the kids in the OC & OL during the cruise teaching them about the area with activities.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

My boys were 13, 11 and 8 and I felt they were the perfect ages for Alaska. They could really appreciate the history, the wildlife, the scenery, the excursions we did would not have been suited to younger kids, etc. If it were a once in a lifetime trip, I would say wait, but if you think you will do Alaska again, then go - there were tons of young kids on the ship, but I have no idea what those people did for excursions, etc.

Of course at the time I said ours was a once in a lifetime trip. I am now drooling over the possibility of a 9 day with different ports