1st timer, point me in the right direction

[kweaver]

Hi all -

 

I'm just beginning my quest to find the perfect cruise. I'm hoping all of you knowledgable, friendly folks will point me in the right direction. We are first time cruisers and a family of 5 (DH, myself, DD10, DS7, DS4) with three very active kids. We generally plan far ahead for most of our vacations...and this time is no different. We plan to cruise in May/June 2006...or early Jan 2007.

 

I've started to read through many of the 1st time cruisers articles. The amount of information and options is unreal?

 

Here's our situation...what would you do?

 

- We live in metro Atlanta and would prefer to drive to port. Most Florida ports would be acceptable (Miami is a bit too far)...as well as Mobile or New Orleans.

 

- Highly rated, supervised kids programs are extremely important.

 

- Room size...as much as I would like to say doesn't matter...ends up being a bigger deal when you have small kids and need to be in the room more often. We would consider a suite...or two connecting exterior rooms. Do other families of 5 have a preference?

 

- Ships...I prefer newer, nicer facilties at resorts...so I can only imagine this trend would continue when comparing ships.

 

- Food...Good to excellent. We like variety.

 

- Value...Of course, we're always looking for the most bang for our buck.

 

- Spa...gotta have one.

 

We are big Disney fans (we own one of the DVC timeshares), but I'm not sold on the Disney cruises mostly due to the cost factor (but I may be uninformed).

 

Things that really don't matter to us (I don't think?):

 

- Shore Excursions - difficult to do with 3 kids of varying ages and expensive? Kids might have just as much fun on the ship (and more relaxing for us).

 

I'm seriously looking at Princess and Royal Carribean (they both happento be clients of DH's and there is a possibility of some discounts or upgrades there...we shall see) along with Carnival.

 

I'm sure there are MANY things I haven't thought of yet. Just trying to get my feet wet. I appreciate any advice you can give!

 

Thanks!

 

Katie

[michaelsmom]

Katie, For sure, I would go with as much space as you can afford. It is my thought, although others on this board might disagree, that it is the grownups vacation too. So a little privacy is a nice thing. Plus 5 for one bathroom is alot.

(I wouldn't cruise if I had to share a room with my kids for a week, I would rent a condo somewhere. Just letting you know how strongly I feel about it.)

 

 

We had two connecting rooms for the 4 of us worked great.

 

Be careful of the weather in January, the further north you cruise from the more likely it is that you won't encounter cruise like weather.

 

My kids loved the fun factory on the Infinity (Celebrity is part of RCCL)

 

Most ships have spas, food is very personal and you can normally save a ton booking excursions privately (as oppposed to the ship). The ports of call (once you have a plan) are really great on this board.

[serene56]

You may want to look at Carnival...Iknow there is a connecting cabin one of which is a balcony and the other is an inside. These are on the Spirit calss ships. Spirit, Miracle, Legend. (check out cabin number 7106 and 7108)

 

sailing in the summer is prime seaon so expect to pay a lot more. Our cruises we did were last week in August at a considerable amoutn fo savings. We did an older ship so we could put 5 peopl ein an inside cabin. Saving money at that time was a big thing for us.

 

Remember when planning a cruise to factor in tipping money at 10pp per day. With a family of 5 that could really add up on a 7 day cruise.

[ineedacruise]

From what I have learned....

 

Hi all -

 

 

- We live in metro Atlanta and would prefer to drive to port. Most Florida ports would be acceptable (Miami is a bit too far)...as well as Mobile or New Orleans. NCL has cruises leaving from Charlestown SC as well. That could be an option for you.

- Highly rated, supervised kids programs are extremely important. Most cruise lines these days have great kids programs. Its where a huge part of the money is coming from.

 

- Room size...as much as I would like to say doesn't matter...ends up being a bigger deal when you have small kids and need to be in the room more often. We would consider a suite...or two connecting exterior rooms. Do other families of 5 have a preference? With the age of you kids, I would go for a suite more than two connecting rooms.

 

- Ships...I prefer newer, nicer facilties at resorts...so I can only imagine this trend would continue when comparing ships. Voyager Class or the newer Carnival ships would be great.

 

- Food...Good to excellent. We like variety. Carnival and RCCL will be average there but you wont go hungry.

 

- Value...Of course, we're always looking for the most bang for our buck. Carnival and RCCL again.

 

 

 

 

- Shore Excursions - difficult to do with 3 kids of varying ages and expensive? Kids might have just as much fun on the ship (and more relaxing for us). We always do our own excusions. With some planning you can save a bunch of money.

 

 

 

 

So after all that, I would say try RCCL. I think you will be very happy.

[ute_fan]

The above poster mentioned NCL -- they also cruise from New Orleans, if you meant that was close enough. The NCL Sun will be moving to New Orleans after returning from Alaska this summer. We were on the Sun last summer to Alaska, and it is a beautiful ship. Unfortunately, my kids are too old for the kids clubs, so I can't give you a personal opinion, but there is a recent post on the NCL board talking about how one poster's kid loved the kids club (age 5-12, I think) and how great the counselors were.

 

The rooms on the Sun are large -- that was our main reason for booking, as we were putting all 4 of us, including 20 & 18 year old kids, in one room. The itinerary will be a Western Caribbean one, if that interests you at all.

 

We loved the freestyle dining on NCL -- works particularly with our family which isn't used to structured dining times, as well as the more relaxed NCL freestyle dress code.

[julieclair]

We also live in the metro Atlanta area, and have cruised a number of times over the years with our 2 sons, now aged 16 & 13. We have cruised Disney (when they were much younger) and RCCL, but have been on Carnival for the last several cruises, because the boys have requested it. When they were younger, they LOVED the Camp Carnival program. Now they enjoy the teen programs that Carnival provides.

 

We have sailed out of Port Canaveral, Tampa, Miami, and New Orleans, and always drive to the port. You are right -- Miami or Fort Lauderdale are too far to drive from Atlanta. We will fly if we ever sail out of either of those ports in the future. We sailed out of New Orleans in December 2004, and will not use that port again until they finish the construction of their parking garages. It was a real mess, lots of traffic & no signs telling you where to go.

 

Tampa and Port Canaveral have been very easy and convenient.

 

I would recommend that you get a suite or connecting rooms if at all possible. But if cost is an issue, it's better to go and squeeze into one cabin, than to not go at all!

 

Good luck as you try to decide your options. No matter which ship you choose, you are pretty much guaranteed to have a fabulous time!

[Cruisin' Chick]

Our little one has gone on, I think, 5 cruises with us so far and loves it. Even when she was too young to be in the Carnival program, she still got to go to the first night party and participate in the games. We tried her with a weekend cruise first and that's what I recommend for new cruisers -- just to make sure everyone in your party will enjoy it. I'm on the West Coast so I'm not too familiar with what shorter cruises are within driving distance of you. Check out the websites for Carnival, Princess, RCL first (more affordable and great kids' programs). Maybe even Disney may make sense for you once you have all the info. If you're not planning to get off the boat in the ports anyway, it doesn't seem to matter for you what the destinations are. Also check out weather conditions: hurricane season, etc.

If you find cruising to be for you (like our family and others) then go for the seven-day cruises (this far ahead you may find some bargains).

[kweaver]

Thanks for all of the great thoughts, everyone! :)

 

It looks like I have my list of cruise lines and departure cities now...so I can keep checking things out. I added Celebrity to the list when I found out they are the same company as RCL. I didn't realize NCL departs out of Charleston...that would be a nice drive too.

 

We've already planned our vacations for Spring Break and Summer this year...I'm a little bummed about waiting til 06 for a cruise!

[Kuffam]

Everyone seems to bash Disney because of price. We went two years ago and found the cruise very enjoyable (if you like Disney). The only negative I have to say is they don't have much in shore excursions. We stayed on the ship (it ended up to be a enjoyable day though), from what my in-laws said we didn't miss much in Nassau.

[caseythegr]

We are going on The Grandeur in April of 05 with our 2 children, it will be our 6th cruise and our 3rd with the kids. Definately go for the bigger cabin. Most ships have connecting cabins, I would go for a suite connecting to a smaller cabin. Last year we were on the Navigator and had a grand suite for the 4 of us and I thought it a bit to small so this year we are trying the owners suite. My younger son (5yo) loved the kids program, so much so that he spent 90% of the time there. My 13 yo, hung out in the teen center most of the time. I would recommend RCCL-Voyager Class.

Laurie

[shirleygr]

Hi.

We have 4 kids, 16 and 12 yo boys, and 4 and 2 yo girls. On the two times we have all gone together, we have booked two cabins, one for the boys with the 4 yo, and one for my husband and myself and a crib for the littlest one. It is a joy to have two bathrooms and all that storage space. We had an ov and the kids were across the hall in an inside. We brought a baby monitor so we could hear what was going on over there and it worked great.

We are going on the Norwegian Dawn in October with just the two girls and we booked a minisuite instead of connecting cabins so we could have a balcony and a tub. I think Freestyle is going to work great as the kids are sometimes confined by the assigned dining times. On our last cruise with my 4 yo, she crashed just before dinner the last night and I missed dinner so I could stay with her while she slept. It would have been nice if we could have let her nap and then had dinner on our schedule. Since your youngest is 4, you might want to look at NCL or Princess as they both have the flexible dining options. I have also heard that Princess also has very good food and an excellent kids program.

It can sometimes be a challenge to find something all 4 of my kids will like, but I found if we stay with nature-oriented excursions and beach days, just about everyone is happy. This usually works out to be pretty economical too.

Hope this helps and good luck booking your first cruise.

[karen2cruz]

You say you are Disney fans, Then you have to do a Disney cruise. Yes, it is expensive but our family had a fabulous time. Wish we could go back, but daughter in college now, gotta watch the $$. The kids were 16,14 and 11 at the time and loved it. The kids programs are great and they even have shore excursions for the kids depending on the port. I liked that with the 11 year old, we had the choice whether he could check himself out of the program or not. We chose to let him do that knowing we had a pager that told us he was leaving and where he was going (usually to eat or to the stateroom). We liked the food and loved Animator's Palate. The staterooms are the best of any cruiseline. It is so nice to have 1-1/2 baths, especially with three kids.