Can You Homeschool on a Cruise Ship?

Recently, I had the opportunity to take a cruise out of Los Angeles for 4 nights. We sailed on the Princess Discovery to San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico. While I didn’t have the children with me, I couldn’t help but look at the entire adventure through the lens of a parent.

And it got me to thinking… sure, traveling homeschool is a thing. But what about homeschooling on a cruise? Does it make sense? Is it doable? Could it be a success?

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I’ve spent a lot of time thinking on it, so I decided to write about it to share my thoughts.

First, A Little about the Cruise

As I mentioned above, the cruise set sail out of Los Angeles. We sailed on the Princess Discovery, which is the newest ship for the Princes cruise line.

It was a four day cruise, with stops in San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico. While it wasn’t a family-friendly cruise in the way that a Disney cruise would be, there definitely were plenty of families onboard. In fact, there was a pretty wide age range overall. I saw young couples all the way to multi-generational families. There were young babies, toddlers, tweens – kids of all ages.

Homeschooling on a Cruise: Here’s Why and How It Can Work

So there are plenty of families on cruise. But does that mean it works for homeschooling? Well, there are definitely pros and cons. To start, let’s look at why a cruise could be a good choice for a traveling homeschool family.

An Inexpensive Way to Travel with the Family

In general, cruises are an excellent value. It’s essentially all inclusive. You pay a flat fee, and you have a place to stay, entertainment, and places to eat. You also have transportation to various destinations. You’ll also find that since your schedule is flexible as a homeschool family, you can go during off peak times and save big on cruise fare. Granted, there are plenty of opportunities to spend more if you choose. Extras such as drinks, restaurants that are not included, souvenirs, and more can add up quickly. And anything you’d buy extra that isn’t included, you can assume it will be overpriced. However, if you stick to what’s included with your fare, you’ll find it to be an excellent value.

A Way to Expose Your Children to Different Cultures

When you go on a cruise, you can expose your kids to all sorts of cultural diversity. Cruise staff all wear name tags with their country of origin. And they’re often from places all over the world. Entertainment can often reflect that as well. And food choices as well. For example, the buffet on our cruise had a wide variety of Indian food, Thai food, and more in the buffet (which is included with cruise fare).

Travel out of the Country without Passports

Speaking of culture, going on a cruise is one of the cheapest ways to travel abroad. In fact, you don’t even need a passports to travel to Mexico or the Caribbean. On a close-looped cruise, all you need is your ID and official copies of birth certificates for you and all your kids. This makes it cheap and easy – no need to apply for passports, get photos, and pay for all that.

Map skills and geography

There are lots of opportunities to work on map skills with your kiddos on a cruise. For example, on the TV in the room, you could follow the ship’s journey on a map. There were also maps of the ships throughout. This is a great opportunity to give your kids real life navigation practice. The ship is large, so there’s a ton of figuring out where you’re going. So you can pick the destination, and have your kids use the maps to help you find your way.

If you wanted to take it up a notch, you could organize a cruise scavenger hunt for your children. You can come up with a list of items that can only be found on the ship and have your kids search for them. They’ll have a blast honing their map skills and learning the layout of the ship (which is also great for safety, should they get lost).

There was also navigating your way around whatever ports you stop in. We had to use a map to get around San Diego and figure out where we wanted to visit. Whereas, in Ensenada, we just kind of stayed in the touristy area where everyone else went.

Exposure to Arts on the Cruise

On my recent cruise, there were plenty of opportunities to expose kids to the arts. There were tons of musical performances, ranging in style from Jazz to Mariachi to 80’s rock. There were art gallery presentations (although be careful, they want you to buy), and other performances.

In the kids club area, which features drop off programs for kids of all ages, there are also planned activities that have to do with art. I’m sure this varies by cruise, but I noticed on this particular cruise there were plenty of structures crafts available, such as creating masks, drawing a ship, puppet creation, and more.

STEM Opportunities for Kids

Depending on the age range, there were also various STEM opportunities for kids. For example, there was an activity where kids could try to design the best paper airplane. Then, mid-ship, they had a contest in front of everyone trying to fly the planes through a hula hoop. It was a big production and lots of fun!

There was also an activity where kids had to design a collapsible water bottle, as well as puzzle challenges and stacking activities.

Then there are STEM activities on shore. This can vary by destination of course. But for example, in San Diego, we visited the San Diego Air & Space Museum. I wish my kids would have been with me, because it was the perfect STEM activity for them. You’re also visiting seaside destinations, so there are plenty of opportunities for learning about sea life by whale watching and more.

Socialization through the Kids Club

Sometimes homeschooling can feel like a lonely endeavor for kids. However, as you know, it’s all about how you go about it, because there are plenty of opportunities to socialize your kids when homeschooling. And a cruise ship is one of them. Through the youth program, kid have plenty of opportunities to meet and connect with other kids. And it’s supervised, so you can feel safe about leaving your kids to socialize while you go have other experiences with your spouse or friends (or even by yourself!).

Physical Activity

In terms of homeschool PE, well a cruise ship is about as good as it gets. There’s tons of walking and climbing stairs by default. Then there are swimming pools everywhere. In fact, most of the pools were full of kids, not adults, my entire trip.

There was also a sports area that featured basketball and pickleball. The kids program also organized a dodgeball game there that I saw, along with a Zumba lesson.

Then there was an area for putt putt golf, ping pong, and other games. Basically, while some people go on a cruise to lounge and relax, there are ample opportunities for physical activity.

Why a Cruise Might Not Be Good for Homeschooling

Okay, I’ve spent lots of time discussing what I think makes a cruise a good idea for a traveling homeschool family. But let’s play the devil’s advocate and discuss what might not make it the perfect fit. After all, nothings perfect?

One thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was that the Wi-Fi connection was absolutely terrible. So if your homeschooling curriculum is dependent on connectivity, you really are out of luck. You couldn’t do much of anything over the Wi-Fi except text. Websites loaded horrendously slowly. And forget about trying to stream anything!

Any assignments you do do on a cruise, you need to plan on them being on paper, or being preloaded on whatever devices you plan on bringing.

Of course, this could also be a plus. After all, if you’re like me, you’re concerned about your kids’ device time. Well, they won’t have much, if any on the cruise!

Some families also might not be comfortable with the presence of alcohol on the cruise. If you don’t want your kids around drinking, you’re out of luck. There are bars throughout the ship, nearly everywhere you turn. Alcohol is a big reason people go on cruises, which is why they offer flat fee drink packages that let you pretty much drink as much as you want.

That being said, it’s not like I witnessed a ton of inappropriate behavior. For the most part, everything was very family friendly. Sure, if you’re out and about late on the ship, the feel changes. But that can be avoided for the most part by getting an early start and heading back to the cabin after dinner. The late night activities typically aren’t for kids anyway.

Download the Free Cruise Coloring Pages

Whether you’ve decided to take a cruise or not, your kids will live our new printable – cruise ship coloring pages! There are six pages related to cruising, and they’re absolutely free. So download them now and get the kids to coloring!

Should You Homeschool on a Cruise?

So is homeschooling on a cruise a good idea for a traveling homeschool family? Well, I don’t think it’s something I’d do exclusively by any means. But as a one-off working vacation, sure. I think as you’ve seen above, there are plenty of opportunities for education on a cruise. And it can be pretty inexpensive too.

Have you gone on a cruise while homeschooling? Or thinking about giving it a try? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!