{"id":505,"date":"2007-12-31T10:10:54","date_gmt":"2007-12-31T16:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/first-time-family-cruising\/"},"modified":"2017-03-22T18:24:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T23:24:00","slug":"first-time-family-cruising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/first-time-family-cruising\/","title":{"rendered":"First-time family cruising"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Halifax_city_aerial\"<\/a>
\nBy Donna Mulligan<\/em><\/p>\n

Being a working mom for the past 18 years, family vacations<\/a><\/strong> are very sacred to me. Spending family time together, without the distractions of the kids’ homework, food shopping, paying bills or work, has always been a very blessed investment.<\/p>\n

So it was with much excitement that I planned our first family cruise<\/strong><\/a>, a 4-night sailing from Boston to Nova Scotia<\/strong>. Our boys, who were ages 14, 12 and 8 at the time, were so thrilled and excited when they realized the ship was a floating resort hotel, fully equipped with miniature golf, game room, water slides and unlimited ice cream sundaes whenever they wanted!<\/p>\n

The adjoining outside cabins gave us parents just enough privacy, and the boys were thrilled with the bunk bed that dropped out of the ceiling.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I felt relatively comfortable letting the boys explore the ship on their own. We provided them with a loaded game card<\/strong> and soft drink card<\/strong>, which gave them some freedom to be more independent. My husband, Joe, and I even booked reservations at one of the specialty restaurants one night, and the boys ordered whatever they wanted from room service. They later attended a G-rated comedy show by themselves, and were in bed by the time we returned from dinner around 10:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Cruising has so many activities and entertainmentoptions that it can easily accommodate everyone’s personal interests. I can see why it is so popular with extended families<\/strong> — grandparents and all. Personally, my kids enjoyed the bingo hour<\/strong>, and the cash prizes<\/strong> were an added bonus!<\/p>\n

We all looked forward to the shore excursion<\/strong> when we docked. There were a number of options to choose from. As I had been to Halifax before, we chose to explore the harbor front on our own. There is an interesting Pier 21 in Halifax, which served as Canada<\/a>‘s “Ellis Island”<\/strong> for European immigrants. My grandparents came through that very pier from Belgium back in 1926.<\/p>\n

I truly would recommend family cruises<\/a><\/strong> to anyone — even better yet if you can include grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. There is enough to satisfy everyone’s interests and the food is phenomenal!<\/p>\n

Donna Mulligan is a full-time working mom to 3 hockey players, ages 18, 16 and 12. Her family’s favorite travel destinations include Killington, Vermont, the Adirondacks, Florida\u2019s Gulf coast, and Quebec City.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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