Dressing Up Onboard

Clients are always asking me if a yacht that they are looking at is “child friendly”. Families do want to charter together, and cruising on a yacht can be an excellent venue for family time. A charter offers a moving hotel room, family meals together, and a myriad of fun activities for all age groups. Children can swim, snorkel, and play on the beach, shelling or building sand castles. Being towed behind the ship’s tender on an intertube or banana offers hours of water fun. Hiking, exploring and beach games are available at the turn of a corner into the next anchorage.


Many yachts, like Silolona, that are “child friendly” also organize onboard fun for children of all ages. Maybe the crew will go ashore and create a Treasure Hunt, complete with a Treasure Map, and buried Treasure. Silolona has created a full “pirate raid”, with pirate boarding (crew members dressed as pirates), stealing the on board Treasure that must be found and recaptured by the younger guests.

On our recent cruise on Silolona, Guia, an 11 year old young lady from Italy, was on board. The crew entertained her with “dressup” in traditional sarongs and Indian Sari’s, henna tattoos and even stick on “jewels”, turning Guia into a lovely exotic girl, perhaps a princess or dancer.

Another day, picture frames were pulled out with a glue gun and Kadek helped Guia decorate the edges of a picture frame with found beach treasures to take home for her own customized Indonesian slice of life.

Craft Lessons

Are charters “child friendly”? For the most part, a resounding YES.

Read about the next day’s adventures

Visit Northrop and Johnson’s Website