I’ve heard it said that there are no do-overs in life, but I disagree with that notion. As I stood on the deck of Holland America’s Koningsdam ship on an inside passage cruise to Alaska with my husband and our four grandchildren, I was pretty sure that life had given me a do-over. Almost 24 years earlier, we had taken our four children on the same cruise aboard a different vessel, and it had been one of our all-time favourite family vacations.
We decided to repeat the experience with our four grandchildren — inviting their parents to come along too. Alaska cruises have long been a popular travel option for seniors and when we experienced our first one 24 years ago, there weren’t many children on board. There were facilities for children and teens, but our children had those amenities mostly to themselves.
They loved the Holland America Kids Club activities, the swimming pool, the sports games and other activities onboard. Flash forward two decades and the first thing we noticed as we boarded the ship was the number of families onboard. There was still an abundance of adult couples, but there were also quite a few families.
Since our children had enjoyed the Kids Club so much on the original voyage, we made sure to register the grandkids on the first night of the cruise. This time there were plenty of other children participating — enjoying expanded facilities and increased programming. Our oldest granddaughter, Amelia, was in the tween group (ages seven-11 years), a.