Website CSR told me that Dream is better for young kids than LOS. ??

[camorelli]

From what I can tell after my countless hours of research, the CCL Dream and RCI Liberty of Seas are both good for young kids (mine are 4 and 6) and that it comes down to personal choice really. Both ships are going when we want and where we want and I really just want to have a ship that my kids will enjoy (nice camp and water play area) and one that DH and I like too. So in my mind, I was leaning towards RCI's Liberty. When I called for pricing to book, the Dream came out a teensy bit more so I figured that was it, I'd be booking the LOS. Then the CSR said "well the Dream is better suited for young kids and the Liberty of the Seas is better suited for teens, but it isn't much of a price difference..." I know the LOS has Flowrider and Rock Climbing Wall for older kids, but really I figured the LOS was a good fit for my young kids too. Am I wrong? Guess I got to the point where I finally decided that the Liberty of the Seas would be our ship and then she put that little twinge of doubt in my head...

 

I do love the Promenade look on the LOS. I've missed that promenade area of a ship since we went on Voyager in 2003. I'm guessing that as long as the kids have a good kids camp area and fun water area, it doesn't matter if it's a splash park/H2O zone or a water slide.

[Queen of Oakville]

We just came off the dream on March 13th. Our kids were 2 1/2 and 4.

 

I personally wasn't thrilled with Camp Carnival. I also was not thrilled with the availability of family events. To me Carnival catered to children and they cater to adults, but they dont' cater to families. They want you to leave your kids at Camp Carnival and then go off and drink and spend money. There many times there was an event at CC (ex. the magician) and we wanted to watch our kids enjoy this, but could not. Our kids wanted to dance, but there was no where to enjoy this as a family. This was VERY disappointing as we wanted to enjoy the holiday with our kids.

 

I saw Cruisn Mama's posted activity sheets and was really pleased to see that for Royal, they actually post family activities for the whole family. I checked out Aquanots (3-5) for one of the ships (can't recall which one) and each day there were 2-3 activities that you could enjoy as a family.

 

Our next family cruise will definitely be with Royal. On the dream, we booked two cabins, one of which had 1 adult and 2 kids, and because of this, we found our best pricing on Carnival. It's the only reason we went Carnival.

[camorelli]

Thanks Queen of Oakville. I appreciate hearing your opinion! I just got done printing off Cruzinmama's activity sheets for Independence as I figured they would be close to Liberty's. Just did a quick glance and they do sound like fun activities!

 

We've only cruised RCI and Celebrity so I don't know anything about Carnival's ship other than what I've read.

[um5xno1]

LOS is certainly better for kids in diapers bc of the baby splash zone, that allows for swimmies. I know your kids are older, but it discredits the theory that the LOS is suited for teens.

 

Make your own decision based off things you find here on CC, and other peoples personal information, don't go off of an all-encompassing one sentence generalization.

 

Having been on the LOS personally, I would say that it has sections that are perfectly suited for kids of all ages...incluing us "still a kid at heart" adults too!

[MNmomof4]

I was on the Dream in January with a 2.5 and 4yr old and we all loved it. Camp carnival staff was wonderful with the kids. I have never been on LOS but am booked for Oct. I picked that ship because we will have the teens with us in addition to a 3 and 4 yr old. I figured it would be fun for everyone. Price always seems to be the bottom line for me since I know my kids would have fun no matter where they are.

[camorelli]

Thanks! MNmomof4, that's the same cruise I'm getting ready to book!

[MNmomof4]

Thanks! MNmomof4, that's the same cruise I'm getting ready to book!

 

That's great! Not too many people traveling with kids on our roll call. The Problem with that cruise is the air to Miami, over $330 for us so that means $2000. Yikes! Let me know when you book what excursions you are thinking of doing. I am trying to figure out excursions with car seats or some that dont require them.

[camorelli]

That's great! Not too many people traveling with kids on our roll call. The Problem with that cruise is the air to Miami, over $330 for us so that means $2000. Yikes! Let me know when you book what excursions you are thinking of doing. I am trying to figure out excursions with car seats or some that dont require them.

I'd guess that most won't pull their kids from school (for school age kids) that soon after the start of school. I get a month vacation in October so we're pulling our soon-to-be 1st grader from school for a week. ;) With a month off, I definitely have to have a 7-nighter on a ship! It would be longer if DH had more vacation days!

 

So our little ones can meet in the AO. :) I haven't gotten to excursions yet, but will be soon. I LOVE planning for a cruise!

[MNmomof4]

My kids have a 5 day weekend from school so I only have the take the kids out of school monday and Tuesday. It's hard to take the kids out of school in high school since they miss a lot of core content. I'm still working on getting decent air.

[nybumpkin]

We just came off the dream on March 13th. Our kids were 2 1/2 and 4.

 

I personally wasn't thrilled with Camp Carnival. I also was not thrilled with the availability of family events. To me Carnival catered to children and they cater to adults, but they dont' cater to families. They want you to leave your kids at Camp Carnival and then go off and drink and spend money. There many times there was an event at CC (ex. the magician) and we wanted to watch our kids enjoy this, but could not. Our kids wanted to dance, but there was no where to enjoy this as a family. This was VERY disappointing as we wanted to enjoy the holiday with our kids.

It's interesting comparing your post with the thread that was active last week about the mom who was disappointed that there are too many times Camp Carnival is closed in favor of staff "down" time or family activities, especially the last afternoon. The one thing I've found disappointing on some of our recent Carnival cruises is that one of their main "family" activities is the teddy bear workshop - four times on our February cruise! The teddy bears are cute, but my 10 YO son doesn't need or want another stuffed animal - and I don't want to pay for one. However, they did have some other family activities like ultimate race, cookie decorating, and water wars.

[crusinmama06]

My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE the Freedom class ships. My 5 year old has been on Carnival 3 times, Disney twice, and Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas and Independence of the Seas --

She was kicked out of Camp Carnival for rubber shark abuse...LOL. :p

 

So the theory Camp Carnival is always GREAT for young kids doesn't gel. It really depends on the counselors that week ;)

 

This was my review from Independence and since it looks EXACTLY like Liberty, you can see what my kids did -- they are the same age as yours...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=923729

 

The H20 zone, parades and ice skating rink - not to mention Adventure Ocean has a CIRCUS and Pirate Parade for that age - yeah you can't beat that with a stick. ;)

[Quixotic]

We just booked FOS (another Freedom class RCCL ship) for Thanksgiving week, and it was a tough call for me, too. I wanted to book Disney (don't we all? :p) but the price was just too high. Like you, I wanted a ship that my 7 and 6 year olds would love just as much as hubby and me.

 

I am biased against Carnival. I'll be up-front about that. My one and only cruise experience was in 2008 on a 3-day bahamas cruise with a bunch of my girlfriends on a very old Carnival ship. I found the ship to be cheesy, glitzy, and not my thing. I totally realize that Dream, being their newest ship, is a completely different experience! But still, a bias is a bias and I couldn't quite get over it. KWIM?

 

The rock climbing wall has a min. age of 6. You have to be 52 inches tall to do the flowrider (which stinks because my 6 year old loves the flowrider... they have one at Great Wolf Lodge near us, and he was on it constantly using a skim board). I hear mostly good things about AO on RCCL.

 

We're super excited to be on a freedom class RCCL ship, and think it's going to be great!