Celebrity and Kids

[tocruiseguy]

Hello, we are thinking of booking an 11 day Med Cruise on Celebrity Equinox with a 12 and 17 yo. The cruise leaves Rome on August 29th so it will go into the first few days of the Canadian school year so that will restrict the number of kids, but it looks like the Italian school summer break will still be on.

 

Generally, just wondering how Celebrity is for Kids, I know there won't be many on this cruise, my kids don't need a ton of them on board. Just wondering how the activities are for kids and how fellow passengers feel about them onboard. Trolling some of the posts on the Celebrity board some of the posters almost seem to be discouraging families with kids from booking, although I am sure that is not a majority view.

 

A Med cruise is all about the itinerary and this one is great.

 

Thanks.

[Keith1010]

Celebrity has an excellent children's program.

 

At that time of the year you may not see many kids as many of the schools are back in session.

 

As you note the cruise is about the itinerary and on most days you'll be in port and off the ship anyway.

 

Keith

[Scrapchick]

You might not have searched thoroughly enough... There are a few naysayers on the Celebrity board, but I think that's true of most of the boards. However, there are also many people like me who have cruised Celebrity with kids and had a very positive experience and thankfully, haven't run into many of the kid haters on board at all.

 

We've taken several cruises with Celebrity and love their kids clubs. Our 9 year old had an absolutely marvelous time on the Millennium over Easter.

 

There will be a lot less kids on board for your sailing but it will affect the 12 year the most, as there aren't much in the way of organised activities for the 17 year old, as is the case on most lines.

 

However, it's a packed itinerary and not a lot of ship time is involved. I can't imagine there being a lot of time to be bored.

 

We love Celebrity for our small family and think they do a wonderful job with kids.

[ellp]

We just came off of the Millennium (Alaska) last week with our 2 kids and they had a blast. They begged to go to the Fun Factory every day.

 

We were told that there were 75 kids on board on our sailing but honestly we never saw more than 10 at a time. The kids are split into their relative age groups and on our cruise the majority were in the 5-8 age range. I did notice 3-4 teens though with a Fun Factory staff member in their "reserved" seats at each of the nightly shows.

 

I never heard or witnessed any negative comments about the kids on the cruise. Quite the opposite in fact, especially when the kids got all dressed up for formal nights.

[kitty9]

With fewer kids, the club could be restricted with less activities. And believe me, the 17 year old won't be participating in the club because the older teens find them lame. But the itinerary is so busy, they really won't have much time to use the club. With all that, you picked an excellent ship. Celebrity is an upscale experience, the formal nights are lovely and the food and service are exceptional.

[junglejane]

We're flying to Rome on Tuesday for the 6/6 sailing of the Equinox 11 day Eastern Mediterranean cruise. We are traveling with our 10 and 14 year old DD's. I'll report back afterward on our impressions of the kid and teen activities. I tend to agree with Darcie though that the 17 year old may find the organized activities too lame. We will post a review about our experiences though.:)

[tocruiseguy]

We're flying to Rome on Tuesday for the 6/6 sailing of the Equinox 11 day Eastern Mediterranean cruise. We are traveling with our 10 and 14 year old DD's. I'll report back afterward on our impressions of the kid and teen activities. I tend to agree with Darcie though that the 17 year old may find the organized activities too lame. We will post a review about our experiences though.:)

 

Thanks everyone for your responses. My 17 yo will just want to be able to hang out with other teens so hopefully there are at least a few on the ship. My 12 yo gets along with adults as well as other kids so he should be fine. As some of you have said we will be busy except for the 3 sea days anyway.

 

Look forward to your impressions. Hope you have a great cruise.

[alj1208]

As the mother of an active four-year-old boy, I don't really consider 12 and 17-year-olds to be kids in terms of travel. Celebrity is definitely an "adult" experience, but they will do fine at that age mingling with grown-ups and making their own fun. I am sure there will be at last a few kids for them to befriend. My parents took us to Europe at that age, including a Greek Islands cruise, and we loved it. Meanwhile, my DH and I had a great time on Eclipse with our four-year-old in the Caribbean this past winter. The Fun Factory was excellent. I would suggest a more active cruise line like Royal Caribbean for elementary school aged children, but teens and younger children are fine on Celebrity because they don't need too many kid-oriented bells and whistles, IMHO.

[tocruiseguy]

True, my 17 yo wouldn't categorize herself as a kid...... of course I always will........:)

 

Actually one of the reasons we want some other "kids" there is so we can get some non-kid time by ourselves...

 

My 12 yo will be fine if we can get him on a PS3 for at least few minutes every day.

 

 

 

As the mother of an active four-year-old boy, I don't really consider 12 and 17-year-olds to be kids in terms of travel. Celebrity is definitely an "adult" experience, but they will do fine at that age mingling with grown-ups and making their own fun. I am sure there will be at last a few kids for them to befriend. My parents took us to Europe at that age, including a Greek Islands cruise, and we loved it. Meanwhile, my DH and I had a great time on Eclipse with our four-year-old in the Caribbean this past winter. The Fun Factory was excellent. I would suggest a more active cruise line like Royal Caribbean for elementary school aged children, but teens and younger children are fine on Celebrity because they don't need too many kid-oriented bells and whistles, IMHO.

[alj1208]

True, my 17 yo wouldn't categorize herself as a kid...... of course I always will........:)

 

Actually one of the reasons we want some other "kids" there is so we can get some non-kid time by ourselves...

 

My 12 yo will be fine if we can get him on a PS3 for at least few minutes every day.

 

 

You will definitely get some kid-free time. I would guess the Fun Factory has enough video games and such to keep a 12-year-old busy. The 17-year-old can find things to do either in the teen club or on her own (assuming she is careful and understands cruise ships have predators just like anywhere else). The best part is Celebrity kids' clubs are not crowded, and the staff will work hard to give individual attention. Have fun! We enjoyed are cruise so much that we are considering the Mediterranean next summer with our son, who will be almost 6. We might do Royal, though, because we like the itinerary better.