Anyone done a Panama Canal cruise with young kids?

[lspst8]

My DH and I are considering booking a Panama Canal cruise for the spring of 2016 once the next schedule is released. Our girls would be 3 and 5 at the time of the cruise. My oldest will start kindergarten in the fall of 2016, so this is our last chance to do a long cruise until the girls are done with high school. I was just looking for others' experiences and thoughts .... I know we have a long time to decide, but I'm a planner.

 

[Karlzmom]

That is one of the cruises in play for our family as well. As a family we discussed it and our DS thinks it sounds great. However, as we will be traveling with my parents we may need to do a shorter cruise to meet their needs & if so PC will be the trip for 2017. I have to say the number of days really opens up possibilities to spend "family time", "couple time" & for DS to really have time to experience the various kid focused options. 7 days just plain blew by and at the end I realized how many other experiences were out there for us to enjoy.

 

[DisneyCruiseFamily]

We have done a handful of long cruises with our kids. Started when they were 2 and 6. They are some of our best memories. The long cruises are awesome and I highly recommend doing the PC if you can while they are young. We are very sad that it does not look like there are any long cruises in our future for many years due to school schedules.

 

[Poohbug]

We were on the PC cruise in 2011 with our boys (then ages 12, 8 and 4). If you can do it, I highly recommend it.

There are actually very few kids on the longer cruises and they have a lot of extra fun activities in the kids clubs. The counselors really get to know your kids.

Some of my favorite memories are from a cruise routine we developed on sea days. Wake up, grab breakfast and head to the pool. Most of the time we had the kids pool to ourselves. Then we would eat lunch by the pool and head in to do some school work.

I cannot see us ever being able to do a vacation like that again due to school schedules. After that the kids will be grown. I'm really glad we did it while we could.

 

[cherylleen]

My DH and I are considering booking a Panama Canal cruise for the spring of 2016 once the next schedule is released. Our girls would be 3 and 5 at the time of the cruise. My oldest will start kindergarten in the fall of 2016, so this is our last chance to do a long cruise until the girls are done with high school. I was just looking for others' experiences and thoughts .... I know we have a long time to decide, but I'm a planner.

We did the Panama Canal cruise in September 2014. We have a 3 y/o daughter and our son was 4 (almost 5.) We did it for the same reason; it was our last chance before our son starts kindergarten. It was wonderful. The kids club was not crowded at all, and they loved going there every day. Our son had been going to pre-school for a year at that point, and was fine to be left in the club. I put our daughter in the same pre-school class as my son about 3 months before the cruise, partly because I wanted her to be comfortable going to that type of environment, and she did great. I think there were less than 200 kids on board, but many of them were older school-age kids or teenagers. The Mickey pool was never full. We went every day, and at most there were 15 kids in the pool at one time. There was always a place to sit at the Mickey and Goofy pools. Even when our kids were in the club, my husband and I were not able to sit at the adult pool, because that was always full. Ha ha. Our cruise encountered a hurricane and a tropical storm during the first week, which prevented stops in Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta. We had sea days for 8 days straight. There was still so much to do for both adults and kids. I think it's a great cruise to do for any age!

 

[MunFam]

We are taking our 4.5 year old on the WBPC cruise that departs in 7 weeks for the exact reasons you mentioned. This is our last real opportunity to pull her out of (preschool) without it effecting her studies. There are a handful of kids on our meet group that we have "gotten to know" already and we are really looking forward to the private excursions and activities on board. I also feel like this is a great age for everything to be "magical". I will do a short trip report when we get back (in early June). I go straight from the ship to the Indy 500 for work...so it will be a while before I can put a trip report together.

 

[I❤MICKEY]

We did the WBPC in May 2014. My boys were 3 and 6 at the time of sailing.

There was so much to keep the boys (and us) busy. My older son would stay in the club from morning to night if you let him. The younger would stay for short 2 hours stints but would much rather be at the pool with us. Some kid specific things to consider.

• There is a sleepover in the club. My older son was the only one of mine who was able to attend. We received an inviation in our room. Once we reserved his place we also recieved a little pull string bag (sleepover specific) for him to bring any special items like a blanket or stuffed plush. He was so excited about the bag. The sleep over was in the second half of the cruise. I think this was the highlight of DS6's trip.
• There was a character meal on our sailing. From what we've heard fewer and fewer cruises are offering them.
• The children's pools were pretty empty. My DS3 went down the Mickey slide about 30 times a day without waiting in any type of line.
• There were still plenty of kids for socialization and because of the duration they really bond.
• The lines for the characater meets were very managable. The princesses were still a little crazy -- especially the first week. But the rest was not bad. We had a few experiences of being by the pool or the promanade where a character would come up and start to interact with our kids. I was amazed by the one on one attention.
• Our sailing included Friendship Rocks. I believe this is only offered on Magic/Wonder for cruises longer than 6 nights. The kids loved it. They wear their t-shirts all the time.
• There is a ton of one-on-one interaction in the club. I think every single castmember in the club knew not only our children's names but our names too.
• In addition to the staff at the club it seemed like everyone knew us. Probably because there weren't a lot of kids. We spent a lot of time at the pools and our little one really connected with a few of the lifeguards.
• There was a Royal Tea which was at no additional charge. If I recall correctly we received an invitation in our room and had to sign up for a specific time. It was similar to a character meal but it was tea, milk, finger sandwiches and cookies. Super cute. When the kids entered they announced them as Princess or Prince. They were given little crowns/tiaras. The princesses made their way around to the tables. The sang some songs and taught some dances. Even with 2 boys this was very enjoyable.
• Because the ship was on the way to Alaska we had a pixar pals event. It included Sully, Mike, Incredibles, UP characters, Jessie, Buzz and Woody. There may have been more but I can't recall. They had a "dance party" type thing in the lobby and then later in the evening meet/greets. The lines for these were pretty long. I think they were only offered one night.
• Normally we don't have time to go to the movie theater on the ship but with a cruise this length I don't feel like I should be doing something else.

I would recommend getting involved in your cruise meet -- there was one on the DIS but the non-DIS group was far more active. With a sailing this long we had some pretty awesome events: mixology classes, open bar events, kids meets, ladies champagne/tiara event, etc.

I would also suggest requesting late dining. Because the ship was so empty there were only 2 dining rooms in use for late dining. If you have early dinner it just seemed so early. We had friends that selected early dining. Each day we would be enjoying the pool or activity and they would need to leave to get read for dinner. Plus as the cruise passes thru the various time zones it felt like you were eating earlier and earlier.

Let me know if you are interested in any information regarding excursions. We did the horse drawn carriage in Cartagena Columbia. The pirate ship in Puerto Vallarta. Boys weren't feeling great so we did Cabo on our own. We hired a non-DCL jeep tour in Cozumel.

This was truly an amazing sailing. Not sure if we will ever have the opportunity to do something like it again. I would say go for it and enjoy. You won't regret it.

 

[Hamitchell]

We did 10 night Princess cruise partial transit canal cruise. Kidsl loved it. Ages same as op's. Kids club, excursions, even transit thru locks interested them.

 

[Jareds_mommy]

We are taking our 10 and 13 yr old on the Panama May 1st

 

[GatorMomInNC]

I took my then 9 and 6 year olds on the EBPC cruise in September 2014 and they had a great time. Understandably, my older son was more interested in the PC experience, and my younger son was pool, kids club, pool, kids club, pool, pool, pool ,pool. We also had some great excursions in Mexico. Besides the EBPC we have done two 14 night WBTA and these are, IMHO, the BEST cruises for families. You get so much family time, but the number of kids on the cruise is perfect for the kids to have a really wonderful experience in the kids club.

The only negative about the Panama Canal cruise - very, very HUMID and HOT. And this is from someone who grew up in Florida.

 

[braysmommy]

We have done 3 longer cruises with DCL, Panama Canal and transatlantic twice with my DS who was preschool/kindergarten/first grade. Longer cruises are the way to go with kids if you can take the time for all the reasons previous posters have mentioned.

 

[houseofduck]

I would also suggest requesting late dining. Because the ship was so empty there were only 2 dining rooms in use for late dining. If you have early dinner it just seemed so early. We had friends that selected early dining. Each day we would be enjoying the pool or activity and they would need to leave to get read for dinner. Plus as the cruise passes thru the various time zones it felt like you were eating earlier and earlier.

On the WBPC, you are gaining hours. So, if you are from the east coast, you would sometimes start dinner at what would have been around midnight in your usual time zone. That's why we chose the earlier seating when we did this cruise with our young children. But, maybe since it is a gradual change, it's not that big of a problem.

But, I agree with everyone else on this thread. It's a great, relaxing cruise. We wanted to do it again this year, but things just did not fall into place this time.

 

[lbgraves]

Honestly, the experience kids can have on a PC cruise surpasses anything they could learn in school during that time IMO, and that is exactly what the principal said when I told her about the trip. We went in 2008 when the kids were 7 & 9 and it started in August when they were out of school. They did miss the first 5 days of school [3rd & 4th] but since attendance doesn't start until you set foot on school grounds, they were just no shows for those days and not counted absent. DS9 was thrilled to go to South America and see the canal in person. We took 10 days for WDW and a 7-night cruise each year until DS was in 8th grade. He found it just too much to keep up with his honors class in 7th grade when we went to Alaska. We didn't know when we booked it that he would be accepted at a YR school out of district so wouldn't have missed any school in our district. Now that he is taking college classes in high school we don't plan anything over spring break due to the course work he will need to work on then. Taking the kids out of school for a week or more through 7th grade didn't affect their grades at all. DS still got an A out of that honors class, he just didn't get to spend as much time in the club on the cruise.