From the colics of infancy to white-knuckle teenage driving lessons, a parent’s life is filled with unnerving prospects. But are any of them as intimidating or as fretful as long-haul travel with a toddler?
Influencers who seem to float around the world with their gaggle of well-dressed, well-behaved chicks are mythomaniacs. It’s never that easy. Experiences will vary as much as the temperaments of children do, but inopportune tantrums and fountainous bodily fluids are as certain as sunrise.
No wonder so many parents continue to choose to cruise. AAA projects 21.7 million Americans will embark on an ocean cruise this year — a record number. For parents, swaying in a floating hotel means little kid essentials like all-hour restaurants, reliable facilities and a consistent room at each destination.
But, where those of child-rearing age are selecting to sail has shifted.
It’s as cliche as it is true that today’s traveler is an experience junkie, bent on mixing luxury and exotic locations. No more fly and flop: it’s Bhutan over the Bahamas and Morocco over Mexico. When we cruise, we want smaller expedition ships that call at bijou ports and embrace local culture, not waterslides.
Japan, with its weak yen, cultivated cuisine and puzzling pop culture, is a beneficiary of that shift. It’s already set new records for visitors this year, coming off a record-breaking 42.7 million international tourists in 2025. I was one of them.
I should say “we,” because in March, I dove headlong into the center vortex of the travel-trend blender on a cross-Japan, luxury small-ship cruise — with my wife, Siobhan, and 20-month-old daughter, Luella.
Last summer, the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection launched Luminara, its third and most advanced ship. The Yacht Collection has been a disrupting force in the ultracompetitive luxury cruise market, which it hopes to stand apart from, treating the definitional word “cruise” like invective. Taking its design and service cues from private superyachts, this sleek 226-suite midnight-blue vessel is the cooler, smaller, contemporary-luxury alternative to buttoned-up Queen Mary 2-style sailings.
But, with multicourse dinners, free-flowing Champagne, full-day cultural excursions and a bring-your-own-nanny policy, it’s not designed for small children. Beyond a tiny Ritz Kids club aimed at older children, and high chairs and cots by request, there is not a tot-friendly amenity aboard and we don’t do iPads.
At the same time, Luminara’s Asian itineraries are some of the most alluring on the market with sailing out of Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and dozens of smaller destinations that are hard to reach with a squirming toddler in tow.
Feeling brave, we booked a 10-night Tokyo-to-Tokyo voyage calling at Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Busan (in South Korea) and Kagoshima — a journey we wouldn’t have dared attempt piecemeal.
Booking with Ritz-Carlton did have immediate family-friendly benefits. The most important was transportation. The second you clear customs, a rep is there with a black car (car seat included) to whisk you to the Ritz-Carlton hotel for the night, and then from the hotel to the ship. If you’ve ever navigated Tokyo Station or the buzzing underground railroad stations at Narita, you’ll understand how amazing that really is.
Cruising also means that schlepping luggage isn’t a problem. That’s fortunate, as we had a suitcase devoted to diapers and another with creams, coloring books and a guinea pig stuffie.
Settling into our suite — and yes these are grand multiroom suites, not cabins — we were greeted by another benefit not designed for children per se, but a godsend nevertheless: There were pocket doors separating the bedroom from the living room. As all parents know, a downside to staying in a hotel room with children is that you go to bed when they do. Lights out. Onboard Luminara, we could put Luella to bed, turn on the white noise, slide the doors shut and open another bottle of Champagne on the balcony. Bonus: These suites have bathtubs, another near necessity for little nippers.
By dinner time, it was obvious that we had the only baby onboard. What a blessing. Luella was instantly the star of the ship. Run-waddling through the grand living room in her best dresses, climbing up and down the 10 stories of stairs (her favorite pastime), taking her baby doll to smell the fresh flowers and splashing in the heated pools — she stood out like a VIP.
Guests and staff alike wanted to win her over. Several told us we had inspired them to sail with their children and grandchildren. She was showered with treats, gifts and smiles. I’m convinced there was a secret staff bet to see who could score the first high-five (they got none).
A precocious communicator, we taught Luella key phrases like “I want an omelet” and “Thank you, chef,” which she repeated with abandon. If she wanted olives and peas for dinner, pickles for breakfast or simply to suck a lemon — Luella has developed an eclectic palate — she simply had to ask. We’re still working on “please,” but so are many well-heeled travelers.
That’s not to say you can take full advantage of Luminara’s pleasures when you have an 8 p.m. bedtime and the earliest dinner reservation at any of the ship’s five restaurants is 6:30 p.m. — her normal post-dinner bath time. We missed various lectures and parties that I would have enjoyed. But we don’t get to do that sort of thing at home, either.
At port, we self-planned our sightseeing, or took private guided tours that allowed us to be flexible. In Nara, a historic capital an hour outside Osaka that’s famous for bowing deer, we spent more time feeding animals than in museums. In Nagasaki, we could eat our fishy local lunch early.
We saw the monumental carved stones beneath Osaka castle, resplendent ancient temples and the devastation of atomic war. She saw a large crab advertisement, an otter with a hat on in front of a cafe and Godzilla on a hotel in Tokyo. Two weeks later, it’s still all she wants to talk about.
A well-to-do mother in the Hamptons once told me that any restaurant, no matter how fancy, is kid-friendly at 5:30 p.m. The same thing goes for luxury ships with butlers and well-stocked humidors. People talk a big game about introducing kids into your world instead of stepping down into theirs. I was never convinced. Now, I can’t imagine doing it any other way.
Prices from $13,900 per person; 10 nights, all inclusive.
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