Europe cruises - what evening activities for kids?

[Thinkingabouttravel]

Looking at the 5 day Mediterranean cruise which is port-heavy and onboard time is mainly in the evenings until the last day. This is our first time - what are the kids activities for evenings aside from the kids clubs? I think there are movies and shows - are these every night or just one per cruise? What else?

If they want to do the movies or shows what time should we plan dinner seatings?

there other organized activities in evening?
If we are in port all day we won’t get much use out of the pools either.

 

[Mommb]

Every Disney cruise (of 3 or more nights) has 3 main shows and additional shows in the theater (e.g., magician, comedian, special guest, movie) on any other nights. These shows are always offered twice: once during the first dinner seating for those with the second dinner seating, and once during second seating for those on first seating. So your family will be able to see the shows no matter which dinner seating you have.

There are also other family activities during and after dinner, such as trivia, dance parties, and, on one night, a pirate party. The pirate party will be scheduled after the 2nd dinner seating, so everyone can go. There may also be a pirate party between 1st and 2nd seating for younger kids who may stay up later. Other evening activities may be offered during only one seating, but there will always be something available to do during each seating.

My family prefers the 2nd dinner seating in Europe to give us time to relax after getting back onboard before we change for dinner, but that’s a personal preference.

 

[TestingH2O]

Agree with PP that late seating in Europe is nice because port times are later.

There will always be more to do in the evenings than there is time. The shows are scheduled so that you can go regardless of which dinner seating you have.

 

[Marc D]

In Europe, late seating is more appropriate since the excursions are long and you want time to relax before having to be somewhere. Our usual schedule on a European cruise, after coming back to the ship is

1- Change (maybe shower)
2- Before show cocktail
3- Evening show fro 6:15 to 7
4- Family activities - game shows, trivia, etc. from 7 to 8:30
5- Dinner from 8:30 to 10
6- Adult activities / kids club from 10 to 11
7- Off to bed because the excursions often start before 8 !

There are always organized things to do in the evening, plus there are movies showing on funnel vision and in the Buena Vista theater.

 

[Thinkingabouttravel]

Very helpful! Wish we had more sea time to enjoy it all! But also wish we had more land time to see the cities properly! I guess we can sleep when we get back home to the US

 

[wishuponastar1984]

Very helpful! Wish we had more sea time to enjoy it all! But also wish we had more land time to see the cities properly! I guess we can sleep when we get back home to the US

Disney cruises are pretty expensive. Unless you just have plenty of money to burn you may be better off just booking a mainstream line for half the cost and extending your cruise. Having been on several Med cruises I can say that we were exhausted by the time we got back to the ship that we were in bed pretty early. I would rather do a Disney cruise where the attraction is the ship and enjoying everything that it has to offer.