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Taking The Kids: A fall cruise when family doesn't necessarily mean kids

By Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Content Agency on

Stacy Thompson left her husband and three kids behind and headed off for a special fall family vacation.

She wasn't crazy. Just the opposite. The New Jersey nurse and her sister surprised their parents with their first cruise vacation aboard the Norwegian Gem, which sailed from New York to Atlantic Canada and back, just the two daughters and their 72-year-old parents. "We're all having a great time," she reported, even racing down the water slide with her sister Sandy, and trying the rock climbing wall. "It's a real vacation," she acknowledged, without having to worry about the kids.

Two other sisters I met had also left their families behind, surprising their mom with a cruise to celebrate her 75th birthday. Another plus for those traveling without children: there were only 15 kids among the Gem's 2,300 passengers (as compared to as many as 800 on school vacation and summer sailings), which made for a considerably quieter pool deck.

But even without a lot of kids, the ship was still packed with families -- mothers and daughters, aunts and cousins, brothers and sisters-in-law, grandparents and young grandchildren, even four lifelong friends celebrating their 70th birthdays. "We're closer than sisters!" boasted Monica Collistra from their perch in the hot tub.

I wasn't any different -- traveling with my husband, his brother and wife. We don't get to see them that often, as they live across the country, so the seven-day cruise was a rare treat, especially with no holiday meal to prepare or activities to plan geared toward pleasing all generations.

"A lot of us with a lot of college debt can't otherwise afford vacations, if we don't travel with our parents," said Aubrey Neff, 35, traveling with her mom and some family friends from Minnesota.

 

Families I met like the Neffs suggested a cruise offers what families crave most -- unfettered time together when no one has to cook, clean or make the beds. "Sometimes I feel guilty that the crew is so nice," said Russ Ciffo, a New Jersey Transit train conductor enjoying his first cruise.

Our only decision was which activities to join on board and in port, where we wanted to dine (besides the two dining rooms, buffet and 24-hour pub, the ship offered five specialty restaurants, which require an upcharge (though many cruisers seemed to have packages that included these) -- all part of the cruise line's FreeS5tyle program, which enables passengers to eat when and where they like.

There were Broadway-style shows, a pool, hot tubs, casino and a range of activities from cooking demonstrations to how to make towel animals to a talk with the senior crew about what it takes to run a big ship (1,100 always smiling crew for starters). But mothers and daughters also simply sunned by the pool, cousins played cards in the library and brothers indulged in a second martini before dinner.

In port, about half the guests opted for shore excursions (whale-watching in Maine; learning how maple syrup is made in Nova Scotia) while the rest headed out on their own exploring. We soaked up a lot of Titanic history in Nova Scotia (some 140 victims are buried in Halifax). We also hiked in Acadia National Park in Maine and St. John, New Brunswick. (Read my travel diaries about our adventures here.)

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