kids on cruises
New poster here, I've been reading somd for years, never needed to post before. Took 2 weeks to get activated, sorry.
As to your question: Kids do great on cruises. Most cruises have planned heavily for this. Check websites. We just took ours to Alaska. Let me tell you, I was plenty worried about taking the kids. I have 4: psycho 16 yr old, 12 yr. old, 5 yr old, and 3 yr old. After the first day, everything went great. The only problem we had dealt with the 16 yr old. And that was only cuz she's pycho. The younger 3 each had activity rooms to go to. Gave us parents a break and allowed them to hang with other kids. Boy they had tons of activities for them.
We did a Norwegian Freestyle cruise. If you have the choice, look for a cruise that allows eating anytime. Some cruises have special times for dinner. The freestyle cruise had 5 types of restaurants, at least one was always open til 4 AM! Some were high class, reservation type restaurants, some were buffet and one was a pizza bar. This was perfect, cuz invariably someone was tired or out during dinner so everyone got a chance to eat whenever they were hungry.
They also had drink packages that the kids could redeem at the bar for nonalcoholic drinks - they thought that was cool.
The kids crew area was open til 10 at night. If you wanted later, you could pay for babysitting. But the normal supervised time was included in the trip.
Here I was worried about them - it was so great to hear the 3 yr old shout "Whales". He sighted them faster than even the tour guides. My 5 yr old keeps asking when we're going again.
No one got seasick. Only once was it choppy enough to get slightly queasy and they passed out ginger ale and crackers.
By the way, the rocking helps them sleep, VERY well. I even saw one family with an infant in a carrier.
Prices are cheaper for kids as well. Ours were only $366 each to add to the cruise.
By all means, take them. It's well worth it. My oldest thinks that is the only way to travel, now.