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Boring, mid-30s parents of two looking for ideal Ship.


dana.carter17
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We like long walks on the beach and wine....

 

So, anyway. I'm looking to plan a family vacation (cruise?). At the time of sailing our kids will be 3 and 5. We've done one cruise with them and two without.

 

Our cruise ship preferences include a good kids club and a ship that's not overly crowded. We aren't big on group activities, so lots of "attractions" (other than pools!!!) aren't a big draw. We basically like to soak up the sun, swim, go to the beach, and eat :)

 

We sailed with Royal last fall and found the kids' activities to be wonderful, but the ship was extremely crowded and the food was blah.

 

Help me choose a ship!

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We like long walks on the beach and wine....

 

 

 

So, anyway. I'm looking to plan a family vacation (cruise?). At the time of sailing our kids will be 3 and 5. We've done one cruise with them and two without.

 

 

 

Our cruise ship preferences include a good kids club and a ship that's not overly crowded. We aren't big on group activities, so lots of "attractions" (other than pools!!!) aren't a big draw. We basically like to soak up the sun, swim, go to the beach, and eat :)

 

 

 

We sailed with Royal last fall and found the kids' activities to be wonderful, but the ship was extremely crowded and the food was blah.

 

 

 

Help me choose a ship!

 

 

 

Hi!

My niece has two children 5 and 8 and they love the Disney cruises. While the children are taking part in a Disney children’s activities they (the adults) are able to spend quality time alone as a couple. Whenever they return from a Disney Cruise they are just gushing about how good the service was and how it wasn’t overcrowded as compared to their cruise on another line. Her husband is a firefighter and Disney gives First-responders a nice discount.

 

 

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Hi!

My niece has two children 5 and 8 and they love the Disney cruises. While the children are taking part in a Disney children’s activities they (the adults) are able to spend quality time alone as a couple. Whenever they return from a Disney Cruise they are just gushing about how good the service was and how it wasn’t overcrowded as compared to their cruise on another line. Her husband is a firefighter and Disney gives First-responders a nice discount.

 

 

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I have been toying with the idea of a Disney cruise but I will admit to some sticker shock. I will look again! :) It's probably worth it to truly enjoy the trip.

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Many multigenerational family trips take place on Disney. There were a lot of issues about the cousins who never see each other needing to be in the same kids club, so disney finally decided to let all kids age 3-12 go to the same kids club. Since there is such a wide age range, the kids clubs have to be unstructured. Some 3 year olds have a great time but others get overwhelmed and refuse to go back. Given the sticker shock, I’m not sure I’d risk it with younger children.

 

The princess kids clubs are excellent, and they have some smaller, older ships like the coral princess you might like. We were also happy on Hal (although their kids club is closed from 1130-1 and 4-7 on sea days so you’d need to consider that prior to sailing). Ncl can be crowded, and the food in the mdr wasn’t great so you’d need a specialty dining if food is important to you. Ncl kids clubs are excellent. Cunard had very good food and quiet ships. The kids club wasn’t great about helping my 2 year old transition, but once he got settled in he and his 6 year old brother were both happy there and neither wanted to leave.

 

We haven’t sailed celebrity yet but hopefully someone can tell you how they liked that.

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We just sailed on Norwegian Dawn with baby and 4 year old. The kids pool area at the back of the Dawn is just perfect for that age! We like that it is a smaller ship, and for the price of a low end room on Disney you can get a suite with butler service and a concierge who escorts you past all the lines (really valuable with little kids!) on Dawn.

 

 

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Thanks! This is great!! Our favorite cruise so far (without kids) was Princess, so I am pleased to hear you liked their kids club! I am hoping for a celebrity opinion as well ;)

 

 

Many multigenerational family trips take place on Disney. There were a lot of issues about the cousins who never see each other needing to be in the same kids club, so disney finally decided to let all kids age 3-12 go to the same kids club. Since there is such a wide age range, the kids clubs have to be unstructured. Some 3 year olds have a great time but others get overwhelmed and refuse to go back. Given the sticker shock, I’m not sure I’d risk it with younger children.

 

The princess kids clubs are excellent, and they have some smaller, older ships like the coral princess you might like. We were also happy on Hal (although their kids club is closed from 1130-1 and 4-7 on sea days so you’d need to consider that prior to sailing). Ncl can be crowded, and the food in the mdr wasn’t great so you’d need a specialty dining if food is important to you. Ncl kids clubs are excellent. Cunard had very good food and quiet ships. The kids club wasn’t great about helping my 2 year old transition, but once he got settled in he and his 6 year old brother were both happy there and neither wanted to leave.

 

We haven’t sailed celebrity yet but hopefully someone can tell you how they liked that.

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I was looking at a Suite on the Norwegian Pearl just last night. I’m so glad to hear that you found it to be a good family experience!

 

We just sailed on Norwegian Dawn with baby and 4 year old. The kids pool area at the back of the Dawn is just perfect for that age! We like that it is a smaller ship, and for the price of a low end room on Disney you can get a suite with butler service and a concierge who escorts you past all the lines (really valuable with little kids!) on Dawn.

 

 

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Thanks! This is great!! Our favorite cruise so far (without kids) was Princess, so I am pleased to hear you liked their kids club! I am hoping for a celebrity opinion as well ;)

 

Regal and Royal Princess for you!

 

The food is fantastic, and so is the kid's club!

 

But there are no activities for families with kids, and my kid doesn't do kid's club, so despite great food, we are very bored on Princess ships. So, our next cruise is on RCCL's Allure - plenty to do WITH the kid! And we are lazy parents in our early 40s, but we like doing things with the kiddo, hence RCCL.

 

Plus, RCCL is running Kids Sail Free through the end of July for cruises from Aug '18 to May '19, so we hit the jackpot.

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We have similar tastes and have found that RC is not our style. Having to reserve meals, reserve show tickets, etc. on a huge ship is just way too much for us. Disney is amazing, but we prefer to travel more often and that cannot happen with Disney prices.

 

Interestingly enough, we love Carnival. I'd look at an itinerary that goes to Grand Turk, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, St. Lucia, St.Thomas, Mahogany Bay, etc. as all have nice beaches. The Carnival kids clubs are AMAZING! My kids beg to go 24/7. We are not party people, hate mega ships, have no interest in scheduling anything besides dinner, love wine too, and enjoy our time either on a balcony or in the adult serenity area when we aren't with our children. We also love that we can do a 7 day cruise, private shore excursions at 4 ports that fit our family, and have amazing childcare for under $5000k/week.

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That IS interesting! Ha. I am always tempted to try Carnival again...I did it once as a girls trip in grad school and we felt a little out of place on the Party Boat. But I have heard so many families rave about their trips. Do you have favorite ships for me to look into? The one that sails most frequently closest to us is the Carnival Pride, and CC describes it as a "louder" ship. Hmm...

 

Also, you guys sound exactly like us!

 

We have similar tastes and have found that RC is not our style. Having to reserve meals, reserve show tickets, etc. on a huge ship is just way too much for us. Disney is amazing, but we prefer to travel more often and that cannot happen with Disney prices.

 

Interestingly enough, we love Carnival. I'd look at an itinerary that goes to Grand Turk, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, St. Lucia, St.Thomas, Mahogany Bay, etc. as all have nice beaches. The Carnival kids clubs are AMAZING! My kids beg to go 24/7. We are not party people, hate mega ships, have no interest in scheduling anything besides dinner, love wine too, and enjoy our time either on a balcony or in the adult serenity area when we aren't with our children. We also love that we can do a 7 day cruise, private shore excursions at 4 ports that fit our family, and have amazing childcare for under $5000k/week.

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dana.carter17

, we are scheduled to sail on the Carnival Pride (out of Baltimore) in 11 days. My girls are 15 and 4. We have done two Disney cruises with them. This will be our first family experience for a Carnival ship. With that said, we are not party people, my husband and I like doing both activities as a family and just as a couple. We easily able to do this on Disney line, and are optimistic about the Pride. We liked that this ship was a little smaller. We learned we prefer smaller ships. The water area on this ship looks really fun. Another Carnival ship/cruise I have my eye on is the Carnival Sunshine... it looks really fun for kids and seems to have a lot of dining options. My husband and I are the kinds of people that like to explore the port, but if we are going to pay for an experience, we would rather book a Captain's Table meal/experience vs an island tour or shore excursion.

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Oooh! We are 45 min south of Baltimore so I’ve had my eye on that one. I’d love to hear how you enjoy your vacation! :)

dana.carter17

, we are scheduled to sail on the Carnival Pride (out of Baltimore) in 11 days. My girls are 15 and 4. We have done two Disney cruises with them. This will be our first family experience for a Carnival ship. With that said, we are not party people, my husband and I like doing both activities as a family and just as a couple. We easily able to do this on Disney line, and are optimistic about the Pride. We liked that this ship was a little smaller. We learned we prefer smaller ships. The water area on this ship looks really fun. Another Carnival ship/cruise I have my eye on is the Carnival Sunshine... it looks really fun for kids and seems to have a lot of dining options. My husband and I are the kinds of people that like to explore the port, but if we are going to pay for an experience, we would rather book a Captain's Table meal/experience vs an island tour or shore excursion.

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I was looking at a Suite on the Norwegian Pearl just last night. I’m so glad to hear that you found it to be a good family experience!

 

 

 

We had a suite on Breakaway when my son was 2, and one on Dawn last month (he is 4 and his little sister was 9 months), and they are great for families. The staff is soooo sweet with kids!

 

 

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That IS interesting! Ha. I am always tempted to try Carnival again...I did it once as a girls trip in grad school and we felt a little out of place on the Party Boat. But I have heard so many families rave about their trips. Do you have favorite ships for me to look into? The one that sails most frequently closest to us is the Carnival Pride, and CC describes it as a "louder" ship. Hmm...

 

Also, you guys sound exactly like us!

 

 

I'm a surgeon, husband is an IT security guy for Bank of America. We have 5yo twins. We take one cruise a year and one land vacation, along with several long weekend trips. Cruising is a great vacation for all of us. Since we live outside of Nashville, we are forced to travel regardless of port selection. Unfortunately, I have no experience with the Carnival Pride.

 

Yes, there are some party people on Carnival...but it isn't everyone. We enjoyed the Carnival Dream out of New Orleans. It has a great waterpark, ship isn't too huge, etc. We are going on the Carnival Glory in September. It's moderate sized, moderate aged, has not-too-crazy décor, and 2 waterslides that my 43" twins can use (along with the little twin baby slides). We cruised Sunshine when she was the Destiny and got horrible reviews, yet we loved it! We looked at Horizon, but the waterslides require 48" heights and our kiddos aren't there yet.

 

I'm convinced that a lot of cruising is attitude. Also...private excursions are a must for us. We can't handle the ship ones...too crazy and too many people in a group.

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It was a long time ago, but I didn't find my 7 day Carnival cruise to Roatan, Grand Cayman Island, Cozumel and Belize to be all that much different than my cruises on the higher end lines. I think if you sail Carnival for longer cruises you'll see a different cohort sailing than on shorter cruises.

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That IS interesting! Ha. I am always tempted to try Carnival again...I did it once as a girls trip in grad school and we felt a little out of place on the Party Boat. But I have heard so many families rave about their trips. Do you have favorite ships for me to look into? The one that sails most frequently closest to us is the Carnival Pride, and CC describes it as a "louder" ship. Hmm...

 

Also, you guys sound exactly like us!

 

We just got back from our Carnival cruise and loved it. It was the 8 day our of NYC, so lots of families. I didn't notice any partiers/obnoxious behavior, but I tend to stay in my own lane while on vacation and only pay attention to me and mine. Previously DH and I had sailed RC for our honeymoon and it was okay, but nothing we felt we had to do again. We got off the ship last week and started looking into another Carnival cruise immediately. My sister who has sailed with several lines (RC, Carnival, and Princess) said she liked her Carnival cruise the best. Granted our kids are older so the kids clubs were not a priority for us, so I can't speak to them.

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We cruise to relax - and have been doing so with our kids since they were 2 and 8. They have always enjoyed Carnival and we have found over the years that if you stay away from school break times (summer, Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring break weeks) that the ships are comfortable. We don't really care for the larger ships and find Sunshine @ 3000 pax to be about right. It has tons of restaurants to enjoy and the great water park for the kids. We always book a balcony so we have a place for peace and quiet.

 

We find the Princess atmosphere to be more in line as it is a bit classier and more relaxed (ie less energetic fun) than Carnival and our kids have always enjoyed their programs, though they were older than yours (probably 8 or 9) when they first sailed them.

 

Either way, I don't think you can go wrong on a 7+ day cruise. We choose Carnival for cost, and the wide variety of itineraries; we are learning toward choosing Princess as we are ready to branch out from the Caribbean. I have stayed away from Disney as I think the price is obscene and not cost effective. And I prefer the food and service on both Carnival and Princess to what I experienced on Royal.

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We had a suite on Breakaway when my son was 2, and one on Dawn last month (he is 4 and his little sister was 9 months), and they are great for families. The staff is soooo sweet with kids!

 

 

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This is so true! We had such a wonderful experience with it that we booked another suite/haven for next April.

 

We had a penthouse on the Dawn last October and the staff loved our daughter(6 months old at the time.) They went above and beyond making sure we were happy. Highchairs were always waiting at "our" table every morning when we arrived at the suites breakfast, a server once went to another deck to get fresh fruit for her because they didn't have any in that restaurant, our steward Felix would come running to greet her every time we left our room, our butler Henry could set up dinners in our room without waking her, a server made her a penguin out of napkins that she loved, by the end of the trip our daughter was asking the staff in Cagney's(suites only breakfast and lunch) to pick her up and giving them kisses.

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Hi!

My niece has two children 5 and 8 and they love the Disney cruises. While the children are taking part in a Disney children’s activities they (the adults) are able to spend quality time alone as a couple. Whenever they return from a Disney Cruise they are just gushing about how good the service was and how it wasn’t overcrowded as compared to their cruise on another line. Her husband is a firefighter and Disney gives First-responders a nice discount.

 

 

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Are they able to book online or do they have to call in for the discount? My husband and I are law enforcement and would love to take advantage of this discount if it brings the price to one we can afford.

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  • 1 month later...
Thanks! This is great!! Our favorite cruise so far (without kids) was Princess, so I am pleased to hear you liked their kids club! I am hoping for a celebrity opinion as well ;)

 

Hey there dana.carter17, here is your Celebrity opinion: We're a boring couple straddling 50 with teenagers who started cruising with Celebrity when daughter was 3 (and son was in utero); DD became instant Elite when she turned 18 this year (more free laundry for us!). The only other lines we have been on are Royal and NCL, so we have a limited comparison, but the food we liked most was Celebrity's, and our kids have always loved their Fun Factory/X Club. Celebrity seems to be trying to attract more family cruisers in recent years, but maybe a decade ago, there usually were not huge numbers of kids, and that seemed to make for a less chaotic kids program, with very attentive counselors. Not to say that there were no kids; there were some summer cruises we were on from US ports (vs Europe, Europe is always less crowded, think because school breaks are different) where there were so many kids in the program, son didn't like the crowds! When our daughter was going through a princess phase we considered Disney but the cruise fare convinced us otherwise. And if you are thinking Disney, maybe you should consider a sky suite on an S class ship. Cruising is our favorite family vacation, especially Medi/Baltic. A new place almost daily to explore without the packing and unpacking (because it won't be your kids doing the packing and unpacking!)

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  • 1 month later...
On 7/9/2018 at 4:51 PM, dana.carter17 said:




I have been toying with the idea of a Disney cruise but I will admit to some sticker shock. I will look again! 🙂 It's probably worth it to truly enjoy the trip.

 

We are also "boring" (stable) parents. We did a 4 day Disney to try out cruising. We loved every minute of it. The kids reveled in their freedom to explore the ship and I never for a minute felt unsafe or like they were being exposed to negative elements.  The kids were 9, 12 and 14 at the time. But the price...when looking at a longer cruise for this Christmas,  Carnival was almost 1/3 the price....(but still "peak" pricing for carnival... )....crossing my fingers....

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  • 4 weeks later...

We're a couple of years behind you - our kid is 3 - and have found Carnival to be basically fine for family cruises. We're probably going to move to Celebrity over all, but haven't tried Celebrity with kid yet.

 

I go on cruises for peace and time looking at water. We've found Carnival to be incredibly supportive of family time - good family activities when we wanted them, great child care and clubs, and the serenity areas are always peaceful, and the staff have been universally excellent with kids. Bartenders remembering her favorite drink, the taco stand guys making her fresh tortillas because she liked to watch the machine, room stewards with eternal patience and charm. The kids club is, I think, the best in the business. I prefer the age separation, I think you get better care for little ones and the care takers have a better idea of what's developmentally appropriate. Carnival kids clubs have just seemed warmer and more accommodating to me, less tacked on because they have to, and more focusing on their youngest customers having a great time too.

 

We tend to go for longer cruises or 'weird' itineraries - Belize or Canada. Families are not uncommon, and she usually gets to adopt grandparents by the truckload. They're going to have music and goofy things by the pool, but I've loved swimming with my daughter during a dance party, she laughed so much! And then I can go back to my balcony and have quiet.

 

For us cabin and location matters a lot - aim for a mostly quiet cabin location very near where your kids are going to want to be. Balcony cabins on the pool deck have been great for us. Just far enough away from the pool to be out of the music, but close enough to get a tired kid back from the pool or a hungry kid to the buffet without fuss.

 

Food is not fancy. We typically do the specialty restaurants a few times just to break it up, and ask for extra veggies at dinner because we're used to eating more plants than they normally serve. I'm fine, but my husband gets antsy for a richer cuisine environment after most of a week.

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