Let me preface this by saying that I was actually writing this as a personal letter to Gabriela and Jose, a nice young couple who have added baby Camilla to their family since their last cruise, but I decided to share it with anyone else who might be interested.
For many young families, there simply is barely enough money to cover the bills. They need to worry about making ends meet before traveling to the ends of the earth, and I strongly encourage them to never count their chickens before they hatch. Before considering a vacation, make sure you have disposable funds available. It is never my intention to encourage anyone to go on a cruise only to return home to financial chaos.
That being said, we live in a far different world than when I was a kid. Cruises used to be a form of transportation between continents, but today, the ships themselves are destinations. Cases in point are Royal Caribbean's incredible new Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas. As my recent post said, they truly are
Floating Wonders of the World.
Obviously these floating resorts allow you to spend time with your children, parents, grandparents and friends both onboard and then, if you choose, in the destinations you reach. When traveling with an infant, however, the destinations probably matter less than the onboard experience, because it is impossible to zipline through a rainforest with a baby in your arms...except in the case of an emergency, like commandos chasing your family from a fortress in a war zone, but it's unlikely that applies to you.
You want to see some beautiful beaches and maybe walk down some historic streets, but the ship itself will probably be your main focus. Past cruisers like Jose and Gabby alredy know how much fun it is on the ship, so I doubt they need convincing.
As they looked into Caribbean cruises for the summer, they've been somewhat disapointed to find that those super cheap rates evaporate after the spring, when the plethora of ships in the warm Caribbean Sea disburse to summer home ports in Europe and Alaska. So far, we've been focusing on something less expensive, but they're favorite cruise line, like many young adults, is Royal Caribbean, and why not?
Royal Caribbean rocks!
With Oasis of the Seas, Royal Caribbean took it all to a new level, and they even pushed that a little bit more with the introduction of Allure of the Seas, which pulled Oasis to follow suit.
When you watch the movies at my
Floating Wonders of the World post and realize that, with the exception of the beach scenes in Labadee, those are all filmed on ships, you can't help but be stunned by how far the cruise industry has come technologically since "The Love Boat" television show introduced destination cruising to a wide audience.
Certainly, Jose and Gabby would agree they could have an amazing time on that ship, and as further icing on the cake, if they want a night out on the town, those ships have a fantastic baby sitting service. The staff of the service has a minimum four year degree in child development or education plus full CPR training, so they can handle anything. Royal Caribbean places such great confidence in these professionals that they allow them to watch infants aged six months and older. There is an additional fee for this, but it is like traveling with a personal nanny who is available at the drop of a hat...or should I say putting on a hat and tails to go dancing...no wait, Jose isn't Fred Astaire...wrong era.
What's the downside? Well, Oasis and Allure of the Seas demand premium pricing, because they are the hottest ticket in cruising right now. How can you justify paying one and a half to two times what you hoped to pay for a cruise?
Consider that no matter what you do with your vacation time, there is a clear opportunity cost. Taking a week off work is worth at least what you get paid to be at work. If you're flying to a far off port or destination, you still have the cost of that flight, plus the time and hassle involved. Taking an overnight flight from San Diego to Ft. Lauderdale should be a relatively easy flight with an easy airport transfer. That small piece of getting from the airport to the cruise port can make a less expensive cruise from a less convenient port more difficult. Ideally, you'd rather spend a night in a hotel than on a redeye flight, but when traveling with a baby, you'll soon find that packing and unpacking only once would make this trip much simpler anyway, and it saves you the cost of the hotel and additional transfers, meals, taxes, etc. Therefore, once you factor in the price of taking a week off worth plus the cost of the airfare minus the cost of a hotel, you should be able to justify the price difference to go to Oasis or Allure of the Seas, which really are the ideal ships on the ideal cruise line to the ideal destinations for your vacation dream this year, as almost marginally insignifant.
.jpg)
