Parents Packing List

Bruce,

Seems like you quoted me from another website :-).

I have no experiences with teens (Leonie is still some years away from this age). She got a Nintendo DS Lite for Christmas and a second game from the Easter Bunny on our Caribbean cruise. As you sure know kids at her age (7) get bored very soon during a several course dinner. Our intention was to keep her busy during dinner as we didn´t want her to stroll around (which she usually is doing on the MQ). But I´m sure a teen can stay seated during dinner (even if he´s getting bored) :-). And of course a 7 year old is not allowed to play for hours (and she doesn´t do it anyway).

I also wrote it all depends on the kid. You should best how to keep your kids entertained and therefore pack something suitable. Maybe offering him some limited gameboy time will get him trying something new!

In fact on our Caribbean cruise I didn´t need anything of the packed toys. Sure she spent some time on the Nintendo because of the new game. She didn´t read a page, she didn´t color anything and we didn´t use the MP3-Player (which is "running" via the Nintendo) at all. But better be prepared.

The AQ does have a selection of board games and cards in the Front Porch of America. There were also some Lego blocks and Barbie dolls but I bet your kids are out of that age :-).

Most of the time you will spend on shore tours anyway. I´m sure you will get along without a gameboy :-).

Carmen

I am a big HP fan myself. So to that end, let me suggest the following games that could make the cruise interesting to the teens. First off, compose a scavenger hunt of steamboat related items that must be found on the AQ.

Judy Patsch or one of the riverlorians could offer suggestions on this too but things as simple as what color is on the sign over the Callioppe could be just one question. I have been off the boats for a few years but another question is how many 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles are on board? Any steamboat puzzles? How many books in the boats' library? What color is the floor in the engine room?

Another game is bringing portable Scrabble to not only play that game as a family but also anagrams where you take a name like Harry Potter and see how many phrases you can make from it. If you play Scrabble, any steamboat related word gets 10 extra bonus points.

I also regularly played bottle caps with kids. It is a New York City verson of marbles. The kite flying segment would also pose some ideas. The Scavenger hunt could extend to things seen along the river based on the particular trip. Spotting specific birds or a turtle is a great discovery to young and old.

You might also bring a deck of cards and engage in some family gambling and pretend you are all in the days of Mark Twain and the great Riverboat Gamblers.

While I agree that some kids need to be entertained and some kids can entertain themselves well- the key is not always electronic devices. If you are creative enough, your kids can be the Harry Potter of the steamboat. Encourage them to go ahead and pretend that crew members are characters in a great adventure. The kids need to make lists of the characters they meet and create their own fictional map like the HP books.

My praise of the HP books are because they have successfully encouraged reading and imaginative play. I like the movies too. As a student of mythology, I am aware of practically all the "borrowed" ideas in the books- but I think they are presented in a very clever way.

If there are TVs and DVDs in the rooms, you can even call MAL and ask for a list of what is available for your kids to watch.

I also think that the bored eye roll may change once he is aboard but also may not want to reveal how much. The thing of it is- you haven't decided to go on a vacation to get away from your kids- you have decided to do something that you think can make it fun for both of you. Sometimes that family bonding can be as magical as the river itself.

I confess that when I first worked the AQ, I ended up being a Pied Piper of what few young people were aboard but I am certain, they all actually asked their parents or sometimes grandparents if they could come back again.

The AQ is a grand boat to explore. If you can fit the Gameboy in your luggage fine but I would personally try to make sure it stays hidden in the adult luggage.

Also remember Nick Taylor is just a teen himself and he has developed a computer simulation of piloting a steamboat. See if you can arrange to get that if practical. Good luck!

Bruce,

I totally forgot about the TV sets on the AQ. Your room is featuring a hughe plasma TV plus a sound system and DVD player. There is a selection of DVDs available in the Mark Twain Gallery.

I´m sorry, but I wasn´t able to post the photo I promised yesterday. I try to post it today. I remember I also made a photo of the bookcase with the DVDs. I´m trying to post that one too. At least over the weekend.

I definitely know that watching TV is not the thing I´d like to do on a steamboat or a kid should do. But like the gameboy you can take that as "incentive": 1 hour TV or one DVD for a nice shore tour or Discovery Guide talk.

Carmen

What's the world coming to? As a product of a day when children made their own games and played them on each others' front porches, back yards and vacant lots, I wonder what has become of kids' brains. At that time, between chores, we knew how to even sit and do NOTHING and enjoy it. We did not depend on our parents or machines to amuse us. But it is all different now, and your problem is real.

Bruce,

Here are the two photos I´ve promised to post. One is showing the games in the Front Porch of America, the other one the bookcase with the DVDs.

Carmen

Alan Bates;5538 wrote: What's the world coming to? As a product of a day when children made their own games and played them on each others' front porches, back yards and vacant lots, I wonder what has become of kids' brains. At that time, between chores, we knew how to even sit and do NOTHING and enjoy it. We did not depend on our parents or machines to amuse us. But it is all different now, and your problem is real.

Look at today's SUV's & vans with all the DVD players....people today want this, so they aren't bothered by their kids when travelling or alike...I've heard it at the dealership many a time from all walks of life!

I think it all very sad...

Pete Sisak;5543 wrote: they aren't bothered by their kids when travelling or alike

Then the rest of us seem like mean parents when we say no.

With the Interstate Highway system you can drive from one coast to the other without seeing anything, and now you can see the same things you would see if you never left home.

When I tell people we are going on a cruise they say "Oh wow" and then they ask where we are going and I say "Steamboat from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh" the look on their face says they think I am nuts. In fact that is the same look I get from the kids when we talk about this trip.

Bruce MacCullagh;5552 wrote: Then the rest of us seem like mean parents when we say no.

With the Interstate Highway system you can drive from one coast to the other without seeing anything, and now you can see the same things you would see if you never left home.

When I tell people we are going on a cruise they say "Oh wow" and then they ask where we are going and I say "Steamboat from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh" the look on their face says they think I am nuts. In fact that is the same look I get from the kids when we talk about this trip.

Due to the fact the DQ was/is never advertised at all around here, I get the classic response...."oh, you are going on a gambling boat!"....then I have to explain...and get the 2nd response..."well what do you do then?"

I'm not a parent, thanks be to God...but regarding what I posted...family bonding usually occurs on those trips...obviously...for good or bad, depending on how you look at it... I've been told that I look through "rose colored glasses" at certain things...maybe this is one of those certain things...
If your kids (or some other people you know) think you are mean because of a lack of a material object...well, I can't answer that, sorry...I guess I'm too old to remember being mad at the folks for not getting me something when I was young!

I don't think I would have never learned as much as I have without those travels up & down I-55 and alike with my parents and grandfather and those hours of conversation!

When I was a kid, my long distance travels with my parents (which we did every couple of years ) had some things you could count on.
1) The interstate system wasn't really finished in the places we were going
2) We would be camping so we were on more historical roads than the new highways
3) We had 30 days to go from one coast to the other and we weren't going back the other way for several years so we could stop and see things
4) No matter where we started and where we ended up the trip included Marietta Ohio, the Campus Martius Museum, and Zumbrota MN.

It got to the point that when I was taking geography tests in school I would start with whatever state the current school was in, and work my way back to Ohio and Minnesota, and then go from there.

Fifth, Six, and Seventh grade for me was in Asia. When we returned we flew to California, and then we drove across country to Connecticut. The day we were in Marietta there was a showboat, actually a converted barge, at the landing. The audience watched the pre-Bicentenial University of Pittsburgh show from the landing instead of from on board seating. It was the first time we heard the US national anthem without the Philippine national anthem before it, in three years.

This may be why I am so wrapped up in wanting the kids to participate in the cruise. We haven't been able to tour the country like I did as a kid. How many people get 4 weeks paid vacation every two years, and don't have to return to where they started at the end of it?

My wife thinks I am too worried and that they will be fine. When we lived in rural Missouri there was no TV, the only radio station was farm reports, and we had a blast together. Between the Missouri river and the Missouri Pacific there was plenty to watch, and we made up the plenty to do.

Listen to your wife - and you make sure YOU enjoy the trip, don't spoil it worrying about everyone else.

I agree with your wife, too. You're gonna have a ball and of all the rivers you picked a goody...the upper Ohio is beautiful. And if you can, get up the last morning before sunrise so you can experience the view of Pittsburgh's point at dark from the unique perspective of the river, especially three rivers.

But then again as a Pittsburgh boy, I'm a little biased...

To expand on what Judy said, your kids will get what they get out of the cruise...and I suspect that they will get more entertainment and good memories out of your cruise, day for day, than if they were home. Matter of fact, if your kids are like my kids were at their age I would expect their routine on the AQ to be only a little different than their routine at home, and I suspect today I would still have to be coached to not take offense, but in the end my kids would probably have a good time, despite me being nervous about how they were going to judge me.

I could never understand how my teenage kids could be BORED everytime we went to our lake cottage up north. But today they still talk fondly of all the good summers we had at the lake, go figure.

You and your wife are the ones that will really enjoy this, and worrying about if the kids are entertained shouldn't be part of the intinerary. You two take the time out to experience the river, and if the kids want a part of it too, then that would be a plus.

Enjoy, you're gonna have a good time.

Bruce,

From the additional info- I agree with the others- your kids are going to fine just as long as you are also enjoying yourself. Have a great trip.