Purpose The market segment of families with young children is significant for the cruise industry in China. This study aims to examine the cruise experience of them and facilitate the provision of family cruise vacation products and services. Design/methodology/approach This study collects online comments on the cruise experience of Chinese families with young children and analyzes the data in terms of text, sentiment and content. Findings The results of the text analysis indicate issues with several dimensions of the cruise experience. But the results of a sentiment analysis reveal that only 56.76% of the Chinese families with young children expressed positive feelings about cruise tourism. Almost one third (30.43%) expressed negative feelings, and the rest were neutral. In addition, by conducting a content analysis of the negative sentiment comments, this study identifies areas where cruise products and services need to be improved. Practical implications Cruise lines are advised to improve the provision of family cruise vacation products and services, such as enhancing physical experience elements, paying attention to human interaction and situational factors and caring for travelers’ personal needs. Originality/value This paper explores the cruise experience of Chinese families with young children, which is currently underdeveloped. A methodology approach including text analysis, sentiment analysis and content analysis is systematically applied to offer a holistic and deep understanding of travel experience. A framework for the cruise experience is proposed, which has theoretical and practical significance.