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Bridex100
Two Under Two Mommy
Member since 3/08 10420 total posts
Name:
Momx100
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Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
We just booked flights to Rome in June. The dates of our flight were booked with plans to do a Mediterranean cruise through France, Spain and Italy. DH thinks this would be easiest because we would not worry about feeding the kids, entertaining the kids and we won't have to lug around our bags.
I was just thinking that if we did not have kids, a cruise would not be my choice of travel.
Would you stick with the 7 night Mediterranean cruise as planned?
Or would you rather take trains to a few places in Europe?
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Posted 3/3/15 12:48 PM  |
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Long Island Weddings
Long Island's Largest Bridal Resource |
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
I would do cruise. You have a whole boat to roam around on. I think the train will get boring for them and restless sitting around.
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| Posted 3/3/15 1:50 PM |
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Lillykat
going along for the ride...
Member since 5/05 16253 total posts
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
Definitely a cruise. Train travel is fine for adults, not great to lug kids, bags, entertain them, etc. sounds stressful to me. A cruise you are taken port to port, no packing, unpacking, kids area with activities if they get bored, a pool. You do not have to eat all your meals on the ship, but at least you know what is there. The cruise seems much more relaxing to me. The downside is you get less time in each city, but with young kids shuttling them, bags, entertaining them on a train seems more stressful. At least if they get antsy in port you can put them in the pool, let them do an activities in the kids camp.
What cruise line are you looking at?
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| Posted 3/3/15 4:40 PM |
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Bridex100
Two Under Two Mommy
Member since 3/08 10420 total posts
Name:
Momx100
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
Posted by Lillykat
Definitely a cruise. Train travel is fine for adults, not great to lug kids, bags, entertain them, etc. sounds stressful to me. A cruise you are taken port to port, no packing, unpacking, kids area with activities if they get bored, a pool. You do not have to eat all your meals on the ship, but at least you know what is there. The cruise seems much more relaxing to me. The downside is you get less time in each city, but with young kids shuttling them, bags, entertaining them on a train seems more stressful. At least if they get antsy in port you can put them in the pool, let them do an activities in the kids camp.
What cruise line are you looking at?
I currently have a reservation on hold for Norwegian Epic. Our other option is Royal Caribbean.
We wanted to do the Disney European cruise but the dates did not work for us. They only have August sailings for the Mediterranean. I have done a Mediterranean cruise in August before when I was younger and it was just too hot.
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| Posted 3/3/15 5:04 PM |
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luvbuffet
LIF Adult
Member since 7/10 6470 total posts
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
Whatever you do, do NOT book a Costa cruise! I can't begin to tell you how awful it was! Last August we flew to Israel for a couple of days then flew to Rome. Spent 2 days in Rome then took a costa cruise (Barcelona. Mallorca,Ibiza,and Sicily. ) ports were great but the cruise was the absolute worst!
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| Posted 3/4/15 12:05 AM |
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ElizaRags35
My 2 Girls
Member since 2/09 20494 total posts
Name:
Me
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Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
Cruise by far.
Message edited 3/4/2015 12:29:06 AM.
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| Posted 3/4/15 12:28 AM |
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klingklang77
kraftwerk!
Member since 7/06 11489 total posts
Name:
Völlig losgelöst
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
A cruise in your situation. In seven days you are not going to see France, Italy, and Spain with a train. The train ride alone from Nice to Rome is 8-10 hours. And that's without delays and strikes  , which can be common in those countries.
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| Posted 3/4/15 6:14 AM |
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dlj97
LIF Adult
Member since 7/10 4399 total posts
Name:
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Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
DH and I did an Greek Islands cruise on NCL a few years ago (pre-kids) and there were NO kids on the ship. I really think your kids would be so bored on a Mediterranean cruise. Either way though, I think your kids will be bored in Europe! I guess the cruise would be easier than traveling on your own by train, but don't expect them to have as much fun as they did on the Disney cruise!
ETA I just looked at the NCL and RC ships and it looks to me like RC has more for the kids.
Message edited 3/4/2015 10:10:14 AM.
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| Posted 3/4/15 10:08 AM |
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JandJ1224
Member since 6/06 5911 total posts
Name:
Jannette
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
I think for me it would depend on what you want to see. If the ports are places on your wish list to visit then the cruise makes sense. If there are other European cities that you'd prefer I don't think it would be terrible traveling by train with kids. The biggest concern for me would be luggage and logistics of getting it around but if your kids are older and you can pack where you and your husband could easily transfer baggage around I think you would be fine.
I would like to bring my girls to Venice and we will probably do a cruise to the Greek Islands from there.
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| Posted 3/4/15 10:52 AM |
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dlj97
LIF Adult
Member since 7/10 4399 total posts
Name:
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
Posted by JandJ1224
I would like to bring my girls to Venice and we will probably do a cruise to the Greek Islands from there.
That is exactly what we did on NCL and there were NO kids on the ship. DH and I were in our early 30s and were by far the youngest people on the ship. I really think unless you do a Disney cruise to Europe those cruises are really geared toward adults.
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| Posted 3/4/15 12:05 PM |
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ElizaRags35
My 2 Girls
Member since 2/09 20494 total posts
Name:
Me
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
Posted by dlj97
DH and I did an Greek Islands cruise on NCL a few years ago (pre-kids) and there were NO kids on the ship. I really think your kids would be so bored on a Mediterranean cruise. Either way though, I think your kids will be bored in Europe! I guess the cruise would be easier than traveling on your own by train, but don't expect them to have as much fun as they did on the Disney cruise!
ETA I just looked at the NCL and RC ships and it looks to me like RC has more for the kids.
ITA.
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| Posted 3/4/15 4:09 PM |
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Lillykat
going along for the ride...
Member since 5/05 16253 total posts
Name:
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
Posted by dlj97
Posted by JandJ1224
I would like to bring my girls to Venice and we will probably do a cruise to the Greek Islands from there.
That is exactly what we did on NCL and there were NO kids on the ship. DH and I were in our early 30s and were by far the youngest people on the ship. I really think unless you do a Disney cruise to Europe those cruises are really geared toward adults.
This is not necessarily true. How long was your cruise? When did you go? I know several people who brought their kids on Europe cruises and it was not on Disney. They went on RCCL and Celebrity and there were definitely kids on board.
7 days will have more families than say a 14 day cruise no matter the line. And as long as you go during school breaks you will have kids. Outside of school break no matter the line (except disney) will have only a handful. Depending on the line that could be a plus. They will get a lot of individualized attention if say there are 20 kids versus 300.
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| Posted 3/4/15 6:04 PM |
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ChristinaM128
LIF Adult
Member since 8/12 4043 total posts
Name:
Christina
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
I've been to Europe a bunch of times with my friends or husband, never yet with kids, and train travel is HARD. There's tickets, then there's reservations (2 different things - and you need to navigate the system in a foreign language), sometimes a seat is reserved for you sometimes not, some train stations are impossible to navigate, and trains frequently go on strike. Schlepping around luggage makes things worse. Sometimes we could barely get our luggage on/stored/and off. I could never ever imagine doing this with small children who require supervision. My rec is to do the cruise if you want to see multiple places. If you go the no-cruise route, I would recommend limiting yourself to one European city and maybe do 1 or 2 day trips by train.
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| Posted 3/4/15 10:03 PM |
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dlj97
LIF Adult
Member since 7/10 4399 total posts
Name:
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
Posted by Lillykat
Posted by dlj97
Posted by JandJ1224
I would like to bring my girls to Venice and we will probably do a cruise to the Greek Islands from there.
That is exactly what we did on NCL and there were NO kids on the ship. DH and I were in our early 30s and were by far the youngest people on the ship. I really think unless you do a Disney cruise to Europe those cruises are really geared toward adults.
This is not necessarily true. How long was your cruise? When did you go? I know several people who brought their kids on Europe cruises and it was not on Disney. They went on RCCL and Celebrity and there were definitely kids on board.
7 days will have more families than say a 14 day cruise no matter the line. And as long as you go during school breaks you will have kids. Outside of school break no matter the line (except disney) will have only a handful. Depending on the line that could be a plus. They will get a lot of individualized attention if say there are 20 kids versus 300.
We did a 7 day on NCL. It was not during a school break, but I still think European cruises are generally geared toward adults. There would def be more kids though during summer/school breaks.
ETA that like I said above - almost everyone on the ship was significantly older than us - I would say the average age was 60+. Lots of retirees.
Message edited 3/5/2015 10:32:19 AM.
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| Posted 3/5/15 10:30 AM |
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kimchee
LIF Toddler
Member since 1/07 428 total posts
Name:
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
Defintely cruise.
Carrying a bunch of luggage around from city to city on a train is no fun. I did an 11 hour train ride with a baby and 5 yo DS who LOVES trains (we did it mainly for him) and would never do that again. After 2 hours on the train, he got bored so used his tablet the majority of the trip - thank god for the tablet and free wifi! But never again!
We've also cruised with our son and it was an entirely different experience. He can't wait to go back on a cruise ship but as a family, we're done with trains for awhile.
As for the lack of kids on European cruises, it's not a huge deal unless you think that the cruise ship would cut out the kid's program due to the lack of children. That's unlikely to happen and if anything it's better for your kids. On our last cruise ship there were so many kids in the kids program that we didn't feel comfortable with leaving our child there - there were about 35-40 kids to only 2 supervising adults. :P
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| Posted 3/9/15 1:02 AM |
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Bridex100
Two Under Two Mommy
Member since 3/08 10420 total posts
Name:
Momx100
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Re: Europe with 4 and 6yo - Cruise or train?
Posted by kimchee
Defintely cruise.
Carrying a bunch of luggage around from city to city on a train is no fun. I did an 11 hour train ride with a baby and 5 yo DS who LOVES trains (we did it mainly for him) and would never do that again. After 2 hours on the train, he got bored so used his tablet the majority of the trip - thank god for the tablet and free wifi! But never again!
We've also cruised with our son and it was an entirely different experience. He can't wait to go back on a cruise ship but as a family, we're done with trains for awhile.
As for the lack of kids on European cruises, it's not a huge deal unless you think that the cruise ship would cut out the kid's program due to the lack of children. That's unlikely to happen and if anything it's better for your kids. On our last cruise ship there were so many kids in the kids program that we didn't feel comfortable with leaving our child there - there were about 35-40 kids to only 2 supervising adults. :P
I am actually not concerned if there are not too many kids. I would prefer it.
The Disney cruise was fun but the pools were overcrowded for sure. There were too many kids in the pool and we went during school times. The one day it rained, the kid's club was so crazy busy that I decided not to put the kids in kids club.
We decided to go with Norwegian. I like that we will have some adult entertainment - Blue Man Group and Cirque Dreams. Food is supposedly better and we got the dining package that allows us to eat at all the premium restaurants at any time we want.
One HUGE peeve I had with our Disney cruise was our dinner. We picked the early seating but that made us late for the nightly entertainment. No way my kids would stay up late to watch the later shows. We also had the same waiter so even if there were 20 waiters with no table, we had to wait for our 1 waiter. Also had to wait for the waiters to greet everyone at the front of the restaurant so even if we got to the restaurant at our time, waiter would not come around to us until 20 minutes later because he had to finish greeting guests up front. Drove me nuts! I also remembered how we had these seatings on Royal Carribbean. I would never notice or care about this stuff if we didn't have kids.
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| Posted 3/9/15 2:02 PM |
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