Will the 11 night be too long for kids

h3kta

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 6, 2018
Messages
30
Celebrating a milestone in 2019 and looking to go somewhere and experience something special. Family of 4 with two kids 7 and 5. We have been on 1 disney cruise before (5 night bahamas) and we had a great time. Looking at the 11 night southern Carib. for summer of 2019 and wondering if it will be too long for kids that age. Also, I find the ports of call very attractive (aruba, barabados etc) and so will definitely be interested in exploring. For those that have been there will it be a good idea to head out with the kids at these ports? It will be a stretch financially so we cannot do many port excursions. Will it still be worth it to just head out and walk around?

Thanks.
 
It wasn’t too long for us! Ours were 8, 5, and 2 at the time. The ports were great, I am sad the 2019 one is too late in the summer for us. School starts that week.
 
That's good to know. The one in 2019 is towards the end of July.
 
We are doing it this summer with a 10 and 5 year old.

We are doing beach days most days. We are splurging on a catamaran snorkeling tour one day. For Puerto Rico we are going to visit the forts on our own.
 

I can't comment on the ports for that particular cruise, but we sailed 20 straight nights on the Magic on B2B European cruises when DS was 7 and he LOVED it! There is so much for the kids to do on the ships. The longer the better IMHO!
 
My son over the years has done up to 21 nights in a row and every time was in tears getting off so not sure it can ever be to long.

Research on tripadvisor and you can do all the ports on your own and save a lot of money!
 
You know your kids best, so individual results may vary. But I agree with what most have said, shouldn't be a problem. Disney is wonderful (pardon the boat pun) about having activities for all ages, so when you're onboard, no worries. My kids are older now, but when we started cruising they were younger and we barely saw them! We insisted on dinners and some activities together, but generally they were on their own on the ship.

Excursions are tricky things. Sure you could just go to a public beach, but the excursions are fun too. You have 2 options, Disney or non-Disney (like Viator for example). With the Disney excursions, you are walked right to your tour guide and are guaranteed that the boat will NOT leave without you if you are late getting back. We just did the 7 night SCar, and in Antigua we were the last ones back onboard. They literally pulled in the gangway behind us. But they waited.

In Aruba, I almost wish we had booked non-Disney, as Wonder was in port from 8:30am until 1:30am the next morning. Very little chance of missing the boat there!

The biggest difference (outside of the variable risks based on timeframes) is that Disney excursions are almost always more expensive. You can save a lot of money booking non-Disney, which we've done several times. Also sometimes you'll have better luck if the Disney excursion fills up quickly and you can't get in.

All that to say that you may be able to find something more reasonably priced and age appropriate for your kiddos if you look non-DCL and are willing to plan a little more shrewdly.

One work of advise, some of the Caribbean islands (Martinique comes to mind) have European style "clothing optional" beaches. Disney is pretty good about warning you about that, but Viator is not. Caveat Emptor!

Cheers,

daedelus
 
Celebrating a milestone in 2019 and looking to go somewhere and experience something special. Family of 4 with two kids 7 and 5. We have been on 1 disney cruise before (5 night bahamas) and we had a great time. Looking at the 11 night southern Carib. for summer of 2019 and wondering if it will be too long for kids that age. Also, I find the ports of call very attractive (aruba, barabados etc) and so will definitely be interested in exploring. For those that have been there will it be a good idea to head out with the kids at these ports? It will be a stretch financially so we cannot do many port excursions. Will it still be worth it to just head out and walk around?

Thanks.
We took our kids on the Transatlantic at 5 & 8 and it was great...so much time to just chill and relax. Since it was such a long trip, they made "ship friends" who they spent time with...there was enough time to want to befriend other kids (but not enough time to get sick of their new friends--lol).

We've done the Panama Canal which was equally as long and that was great too...they were about 9 and 12 for that one.

Celebrating a milestone in 2019 and looking to go somewhere and experience something special. Family of 4 with two kids 7 and 5. We have been on 1 disney cruise before (5 night bahamas) and we had a great time. Looking at the 11 night southern Carib. for summer of 2019 and wondering if it will be too long for kids that age. Also, I find the ports of call very attractive (aruba, barabados etc) and so will definitely be interested in exploring. For those that have been there will it be a good idea to head out with the kids at these ports? It will be a stretch financially so we cannot do many port excursions. Will it still be worth it to just head out and walk around?

Thanks.
 
Thanks for all the responses. Trip has been booked and I look forward to it.
Now I just need to resolve the issue of whether deck 5 aft will be noisy since it is above the night club
 

GET UP TO A $1000 SHIPBOARD CREDIT AND AN EXCLUSIVE GIFT!

If you make your Disney Cruise Line reservation with Dreams Unlimited Travel you’ll receive these incredible shipboard credits to spend on your cruise!
























DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter DIS Bluesky

Back
Top