The time of their life for tots to teens

Over the last few years cruises have become a real family affair. All the most affordable cruise lines have decked out their fleet with cool kids’ clubs, interconnecting rooms and activities for the whole family to enjoy together. In fact when it comes to pocket-pleasing family holidays, MSC Cruises win hands down because all under 18s sail FREE! Bargain!

Competition amongst cruise lines has created very high standards across the board for kids’ clubs. Carnival, NCL, Royal Caribbean, Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises all employ qualified and enthusiastic staff to look after younger passengers while the adults relax to their heart’s content. Many clubs are split into age-appropriate programmes from toddlers to teens, so no matter their age they’ll have hours of fun doing everything from face painting to pizza parties, Nintendo Wii and discos for teenagers.

In almost every case kids’ clubs are included in your fare, but do watch out for babysitting services. Most cruise lines offer this service from say 10pm through to the early hours, but it is often charged at around $5 an hour per child.

They’ve thought of everything!

As we said, competition is strong within the family cruise market and this means that there’s plenty of thoughtful features popping up on the most popular cruise lines. For instance, if you’re sailing with extended family such as grandparents or aunts and uncles, NCL have the widest and most innovative choice of sleeping arrangements from rooms with bunks to interconnecting suites and rooms connected to suites, so everyone has the space they need to enjoy their holiday. Plus P&O Cruises lay on a special children’s tea each evening so the kids can eat all their favourite food such as pizza, chips and ice cream together, leaving you to enjoy grown-up meals later.