Why Hong Kong parents should forget flying and take toddlers on a cruise instead
Endless kids’ activities, a ship so big it’s like a floating land mass, no luggage weight limits – and wait till you step ashore in Okinawa, with its sparkling seas, temples and snakeskin guitar bands
With their sudden mood swings, strange sleeping habits and penchants for extreme violence towards rival members of the family, they are not an obvious choice of cabin mate.
They bounce around confined spaces like pinballs, throw tantrums at the dinner table and relish the chance to leap from moving platforms.
So as we prepare to board the SuperStar Virgo in Tsim Sha Tsui, I must cast away my trepidation in taking my toddlers Alice, three, and Clara, one, on their maiden voyage.
The cruise ship is plying a new route to Okinawa from Hong Kong via Nansha, Guangdong, until November, when it will relocate to Shenzhen to make way for the first of the megaships three times its size that owner Genting hopes will capture the expanding Asian market.
Japan’s finest beaches and crystal-clear waters are a siren call to a tired parent who loves his little urchins but harbours a primal fear about being confined with them for seven days in a cabin smaller than a Hong Kong flat.
