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Abstract
The current studies on cruise tourism lack an exploration of children’s cruise experience. The aim of this article is to obtain a deeper understanding of children’s cruise experience in the following phases: the pre-cruise decision and planning phase; the on-board engagement phase; and the reinterpretation and evaluation phase. Following an inductive qualitative approach, three sets of interviews (one for each phase) were conducted with 12 children (aged 4–14 years). The findings revealed that children play a very important role in choosing the cruise company and that while on board children want to have a certain level of autonomy so that they can co-create their own memorable cruise experience. This study contributes to the overall theory of children’s tourism experience. The managerial implications for cruise companies are outlined.