Good morning! Our family of four has been working at checking off every state before my oldest graduates high school. Alaska was a big one we were excited to check off. We choose Royal Caribbean because we have always cruised with them and left happy. They do a great job with food allergies, shows, things to do and the staff is always wonderful. We choose the smaller ship in the Alaskan cruise fleet because it can get closer to things like the Hubbard Glacier, dock directly so there is no need for tender and we figured we would be enjoying the scenery and less concerned with all the extra entertainment. I was a little concerned our kids, 12 and 10, would be bored but they were definitely were not. Here is what my kids enjoyed, what work and my advise for an Alaskan cruise with kids.

Things my kids really enjoyed:

Balcony time, we were so happy we got a balcony for this cruise. We spent so much time out there. Unlike many of the other cruises we’ve taken, the boat stays pretty close to shore most of the time so the Alaskan views are gorgeous and ever changing the whole time. The girls loved journaling out there, we ate meals out on the balcony and enjoyed morning coffee out there.

Kids Club activities. This is a hot topic in our family, which you know if you’ve watched Piper’s kids tour of the ship. My kids do not like and have no experience with kids clubs on any Royal Caribbean ship. They love doing stuff around the ship or just chilling in the room, theyve never wanted to go. BUT, on the days at sea, the kids club put on some really fun family activities. Our favorite was the family photo scavenger hunt. Each family got a list of places or people on the ship and had to take a selfie with everyone in it within a time limit. We ran all over the ship, met so many staff members and had so much fun.

My kids also really enjoyed the food and drinks. There are so many places all over the ship to get snacks and to eat meals. We got our family the refreshment package so Starbucks coffee at Cafe Latitudes was included. The girls loved starting their morning off with a frapp, or grabbing a hot chocolate and a snack in the afternoon. There’s another snack (the Disney adult in me wants to say quick service) place in the Solarium pool. They had hot roast beef to make sandwiches with and some dessert options too. We had no issue sitting at the tables with the kids, even though the pool area is adult only, the snack area is totally fine for kids. The girls loved dressing up for dinner in the main dinning room. Seven long, more formal dinners was just too much for us, so several times we opted for the Wind Jammer dinner or had it in the room. In all honesty, the food was super similar to what was being served in the main dinning room in the Wind Jammer. If you stay in a suite, take advantage of the concierge lounge. There is always coffee, hot chocolate, water and snacks. And a happy hour from 5-8 with appetizers, bar service and a great time to plan the next day with the concierge. The drinks in the lounge were delicious and so much better any other bars. We also had fun visiting all the lounges during the day and letting the girls order a shirley temple etc. The bar scene on this cruise was very minimal. Normally, we avoid lounges with our kids but on this cruise, the crowd is mostly older adults and families. No spring breakers taking full advantage of their drink package. We enjoyed the atmosphere very much.

ya’ll are going to judge us for this one, but our kids LOVED bingo. Yes, it is gambling and yes, technically kids cant play, but they loved filling in our adult cards. We played quite a bit of bingo. In fact, it was during a riveting game of bingo, the host was ribbing us for having kids playing (all in good fun) and all of sudden… we heard the most awful sound and that is when we hit an iceberg and lost an engine. But it didnt stop our fun!

Duck Duck GO! Another fun cruising tradition is little rubber duckies! Order a bunch before you leave and hid them all over the ship. We had so much fun finding other people’s ducks they hid. Some even had little tags with hashtags for instagram.

My husband surprised us girls with a trip to the spa to celebrate my birthday. The girls were able to get pedicures. It ended up being a really cool experience as we saw whales for the first time during the pedicure. We were able to whale watch from the pedicure chair. We felt really spoiled and pampered. They did a great job and it was a lot of fun!

On this cruise, we didnt use the outdoor pool areas at all. We are from the south and to us, it was too cold. We did enjoy the Solarium pool during kid swim. We also didnt use the rock wall , ball court or arcade. Mostly due to time or weather. But those amenities are there and there were definitely kids and adults using them. My husband really enjoyed the gym.

ADVISE PORTION:

We also let our kids bring their Nintendo switch and an HDMI cable to hook it up to the television in the room. We brought journals, coloring stuff, books to read and some stuff they enjoy playing with. My advise would be don’t stress the days at sea. Relax and go with the flow. Dont set a high expectation for everything you want to accomplish with your kids and get upset when they dont go along with it. It’s okay if you miss a meal in the main dinning room because your crew isnt feeling it. Or you need some adult time and take your kids to the kids club. The port days are busy, so try and chill on the days at sea. It helps the kids too recoup for the next port day. We had a lot of early mornings so we tried to get to bed on the earlier side. The time change can also be difficult for kids so be prepared for that with a kid sleep aid and understand their little bodies have to adjust. Traveling as family is so rewarding and i feel like half the battle is in expectations. Try and come at from your kids age perspective and have some balance. of kid and adult activities . We do drag our kids along to stuff we want to do that they arent super pumped about and we try and plan stuff for them too. Sometimes for them, they just want downtime. But if you work in some balance, dont get FOMO I think you will end up having a great time! Go out and make some epic memories with your kids.