First Cruise With Kids could not have been better. Who would have thought that you could throw 4 people on a gigantically large ship and still have the best family vacation ever! We traveled out of Port Canaveral with our children, ages 10 and 12, and left after two full days at Universal Studios. We imagined that the kids would love Universal and would be stuck looking for things to do on the ship. Boy were we wrong...

From the minute that we arrived our kids were just in awe of the things to do. Andrew, our 10 year old, met a "buddy" while boarding the ship and they quickly learned how to navigate the ship - even on the days I had to stand and look at the map, he always knew his way around. I remembered our travel agent telling me to allow the kids to have run of the ship and check themselves in and out of activities. And, although I though he must be crazy, I found myself enrolling them with their own sign in- signout privileges. From that moment on we never had to wonder where they were or what they were doing. The Kid Supervisors knew my kids within thirty minutes and always called them by name. It was truly impressive. In fact, the by second evening, our kids were begging to return after late dinner for the midnight activities. I can't even tell you how much I appreciated those kid supervisors. And each day was so well planned out! When you returned to your cabin in the evening they each had a small card with a schedule of the next days events, challenges and activities. So Smart!!!

My only disappointment was in getting my 12 year old daughter involved. For the early week activities, they were grouped 12 to 17 and she just couldn't muster enough confidence to go in and meet people. When she finally did attend the first 12-14 event, the guard stopped her at the door and refused to let her enter because he didn't believe that she was 12 (ok she's kinda small, but give me a break, she'll be 13 in a couple of weeks). If he had bothered to look at her seapass he could have figured it out, instead he left here embarrassed and in tears. He did, however quickly recover once we had a "talk" and personally took her back in the room and introduced her around. On the other hand, it's nice to know that they security guards are being watchful. Read more