Question about cruising Princess with kids on Spring Break

[ruatha65]

We are planning a family cruise at some point in early April 2011 for Spring Break. My DW and I have gotten hooked on cruising in the past two years ( yes, I know we are preaching to the choir here :D) After using this site heavily for our last cruise on the Ruby, I decided to heed the advice of the site editors and go with RC or Carnival. However, my TA told me neither line had connecting rooms for us (we have three children ages 6-10, and we need an inside connecting door between the rooms, as they do need considerable supervision yet). The TA recommended Princess, much to my surprise!

 

We have cruised twice with Princess (Crown and Ruby), both in November. At that time, we saw maybe 5 children under 12 among the passengers. The kids' clubs were deserted.

 

I realize that Spring Break cruises will have lots of children on board, but has anyone had any experiences, positive or negative, with Princess' kids clubs and kids programs? Do the kids get to spend time with peers, or do they have to deal with mom & dad hovering around in the background?

[Colo Cruiser]

We are planning a family cruise at some point in early April 2011 for Spring Break. My DW and I have gotten hooked on cruising in the past two years ( yes, I know we are preaching to the choir here :D) After using this site heavily for our last cruise on the Ruby, I decided to heed the advice of the site editors and go with RC or Carnival. However, my TA told me neither line had connecting rooms for us (we have three children ages 6-10, and we need an inside connecting door between the rooms, as they do need considerable supervision yet). The TA recommended Princess, much to my surprise!

 

We have cruised twice with Princess (Crown and Ruby), both in November. At that time, we saw maybe 5 children under 12 among the passengers. The kids' clubs were deserted.

 

I realize that Spring Break cruises will have lots of children on board, but has anyone had any experiences, positive or negative, with Princess' kids clubs and kids programs? Do the kids get to spend time with peers, or do they have to deal with mom & dad hovering around in the background?

 

 

Only Princess ships with a few connecting cabins are.

 

Sapphire

Diamond

Island

Coral

 

On the Island/Coral some are right across from the kids center.

 

and the small ships I believe.

[Liz54]

We've had kids in the kids clubs on Princess and they have been great! Lots of kids during holidays. Well run program.

[Cruisin' Chick]

My daughter was 5, 7 and 8 on her Princess cruises. The first time was in February and she was only one of three 5-yr-olds. The program was not full-fledged, not all the activities and more ages in each group. She still enjoyed it.

 

The next two cruises were with many kids on board and there were many activities, including itinerary-based ones (making models of glaciers in Alaska, etc.). there's also a partnership with the California Science Center to provide science activities such as the popular squid dissection. So unless you're going with one of the smaller ships, which aren't on that list above anyway, your kids should be able to met kids their age.

 

When you first get to your cabin, there will be packets for the program with instructions on how to register and a day-by-day listing. Probably one for the Pelicans (usually 5-7, I think) and Shockwaves (8-12). As with other cruiselines, it's based strictly on age (no moving up to the next grouping) and they can participate as much or as little as they want. There is group kid-sitting, past 10pm (for a fee) and port kid-sitting (it was free five years ago, prob. still is), but you do need to tell the counselors a day ahead.

 

There's also at least one kids' dinner. You drop them off on one side of the Horizon court (the two-entrance buffet), where the "closed for a private party" sign is, and after the dinner, the counselors will take the kids up to the Fun Zone for the evening's activities.

[RN1986]

We cruised during spring break on the Ruby and on Carnival Valor. Carnival won hands down. Princess is boring, not enough kids, supervisors have zero energy! Carnival was fun, loud, wacky, interesting, with crazy energetic supervisors. My girls could not find anything positive to say about the Ruby.

Good luck with your decision. Happy kids make happy parents!

[gingera]

If you want to take children on a cruise, why not Disney cruise lines?

[karatemom2]

Princess has an excellent progran for kids. My kids have been on a number of different lines, including Disney, and by far if you asked them they would pick Princess. They have both enjoyed the excellent collaboration with the California Science program for they fun, but also educational activities. My daughter loves the Junior Chef at Sea and the Talent Show offered every cruise. And that doesn't even cover all of the fun and age appropriate activities offered everyday in the clubs. They have never been bored, in fact far from it. And we have found the counselors to be excellent, well-trained, attentive and super engaged with the kids.

[karatemom2]

If you want to take children on a cruise, why not Disney cruise lines?

 

I can't speak for the OP, but I can tell you why I would pick Princess over Disney any day for our family. We started cruising with Disney and it was wonderful, but after discovering that other cruise lines offer great children's programs we would likely never pay the greatly inflated prices for a Disney cruise again. Plus, Disney only has had two ships. They are just about to add a third. This makes their itinerary offerings very limited. I'm glad we tried a Disney cruise and it was special, but not special enough to justify paying what I would now consider outrageous prices. And ironically enough, my kids prefer the kids program on Princess.

[Wishing on a star]

Have cruised Ruby, and Disney....

 

Would NOT chose to take kids on Ruby (or probably any Princess ship)

 

Would LOVE to go on a family cruise on the new Disney Dream!!!!

Yes, the prices are completely overboard.... but you might want to see what kind of deals you can find.

 

PS: Check the deck-plans... I don't think you will find those adjoining staterooms on the Ruby.

[Scrapchick]

My DD has sailed on Princess many times and should be Platinum at least by now. She has always had a great time on Princess in the kids clubs and there have always been plenty of companions in the kids clubs during school vacation times. Princess is one of our favorite lines for a family vacation!

 

We spent Christmas on board with Karatemom2 and her DD last year and the girls had a blast together in and out of the kids club on board the ship. I agree with all of her comments above!

[ruatha65]

Thank you all for your replies. I believe we will book the Crown, which my TA assures me has adjoining rooms. Disney is limited in their itineraries, and overpriced, so no go there.

 

I'm glad to hear so many had positive experiences with Princess and their kids program. I was hoping that the number of children on board really made a difference, and that appears to be the case.

 

I'm hoping that we can now combine our love for cruising with a family vacation experience. Best of both worlds, wooohoooo!:D

[mailmama]

don't know why the TA told you RCCL didn't have connecting rooms . We just got off the Liberty of Seas and had a connecting room. Deck 2. Check out the floor plans online for yourself.

[ShelbysMom]

The Princess kids club have been great in our experience, but as others have already said, the Crown does not have any connecting staterooms. Go to princess.com and take a look at the deck plans. There are no staterooms which show the door between two staterooms on the Crown. (The Family Suite is two connecting staterooms, a mini and an inside, but that's a completely different animal from two normal staterooms with a connecting door.)

 

I'd be concerned that my TA doesn't really know much about Princess. It's also my understanding that Royal Caribbean ships have connecting staterooms.

[junglejane]

Maybe your TA is confusing adjoining and connecting rooms. Adjoining just means side by side, which is not the same thing as connecting. Connecting means there is an interior connecting door. We have had connecting rooms on both RCCL and Celebrity, and adjoining balcony rooms with Princess (where you can connect via the door in the balcony partition). In the past, on Princess we have always ended up having me and DH split up when it came time to sleep, and one of us was in each room. The truly connecting rooms you can get on RCCL and Celebrity are certainly more convenient, especially for young kids. This coming Spring Break, our girls will be 14 and 10, and we have booked a balcony and an inside across the hall on the Sapphire Princess. We may finally take the plunge and let them share the inside. But no final decisions until we get there!

 

I would agree with the comments of Cruisin' Chick, Scrapchick and Karatemom2 about Princess having a great program for the ages of your kids. We have cruised numerous times during Spring Break and there will probably be hundreds of kids onboard a Spring Break cruise to the Caribbean or Mexican Riviera (I remember one of our cruises when there were 700 kids onboard the Diamond Princess). Look here for samples of the Princess Kids Patters: http://s204.photobucket.com/albums/bb196/cruisinmama06/Princess%20Patters/

 

I've also been in the Family Suite and posted a review with photos here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1077929

[Colo Cruiser]

Thank you all for your replies. I believe we will book the Crown, which my TA assures me has adjoining rooms. Disney is limited in their itineraries, and overpriced, so no go there.

 

I'm glad to hear so many had positive experiences with Princess and their kids program. I was hoping that the number of children on board really made a difference, and that appears to be the case.

 

I'm hoping that we can now combine our love for cruising with a family vacation experience. Best of both worlds, wooohoooo!:D

 

 

I agree, adjoining on the Crown means next to each other only as there are no doors between the insides of cabins.

[Cruisematic]

Different kids just like adults enjoy ship board experiences that fit their personality. Our son has been cruised Princess 8 times and loved the kids zone every time (he is now 13). We go when there often are few kids on board and found he always enjoys the special friends he meets and the individual attention the staff give when they were not spread too thin. We don't usually cruise during spring break, in our experience the party atmosphere did not add much to the cruise we could appreciate. Choose the cruise style that fits you and yours, and you will not be disappointed.

[ruatha65]

Thank you all for your continuing comments and suggestions. I just contacted my TA with the info about the Crown (i.e. no inner cabin connecting doors) and she realized she had misread my booking request and set up adjoining, but not inner door adjoining rooms. Sadly, the Crown is out for us for now, unless we decide to split up sleeping arrangements. The Crown is a great ship, and this itinerary rocks, so we may come full circle yet.

 

I'm asking my TA to revisit RC and Carnival, and even Celebrity, which I hear has a good kid's program. Time will tell, and we have a bit of that yet I hope.

[skh716]

Revisit with your TA - we had adjoining cabins on the Freedom of the Seas last spring. They were inside cabins and we have 2- 5 year-olds and it was great to have all that space and it was still cheaper than having the four of us in one outside room. We just left the door open between the rooms. Having 2 bathrooms alone was worth it! Our boys loved the kids program on FoS and the counselors were great. I think you can even do a search on RCCL's web site for adjoining rooms when you are booking.

 

We also did Disney 2 yrs ago. We didn't have such a great experience. One of the boys HATED camp because there were just too many kids. We had a good time overall on the cruise but were disappointed that they did not like the kids club since that is a big part of why we chose the cruise. We don't put the kids in all day but it is nice to have an hour or two to ourselves after dinner. On RCCL the boys would hurry through their dinner with us so they could get to camp.

 

DH and I have sailed Princess before we had the kids and loved it. Now we are trying it again with the boys in January so I can't comment on the club yet but we are excited about it!

 

Good luck.