Kids on European Cruises

[lettrich]

My family & I are from NY & cruising to the Eastern Med on Equinox next July. Are there a decent amount of children on board? And do a good number of the children speak English? My son will be 12 & is thinking of going down to the 9-11 year kids group so he can be with his sister who will be 9. Is this a good idea or should he stay with his age group - 12-17? Is the food in the MDR similar to the food on Summit or is it more "european"? We just got back from a Bermuda cruise on the summit & booked our next trip. Very excited about it even though it is 11 months away!

[kitty9]

There will be a good number of kids on board in July. But, they will not let your son go down to the younger group. There are liability concerns with letting kids do this, so they don't ever allow older kids to go down to a younger age group.

 

Menus don't generally change because of the area in which you cruise. They may introduce one or two things from the region, but they don't do a wholesale change of the menus.

[johnb0529]

Cannot comment on the number if kids in July, as we have always done European Cruises in October and November and there are very few children, but always a few. I would assume this is due to the time of year we are there. One thing i have noted is the children in European Cruises tend to be much more mature (behavior) than children on Mexican or Caribbean Cruises.

 

As for food, the menu (IMHO) are pretty much American based, with perhaps a little influence from the region. But for example, the italian tends to be very American-Italian and not what you find in Italy (outside tourist restaurants)

[junglejane]

We took our kids (ages 10 and 14) on the Equinox to the Eastern Med in June. There were a fair number of kids onboard, probably there will be more in July and August. The majority spoke English. I know that 18 year olds are not allowed with the teens for liability concerns, but I have never heard of 12 year olds not being allowed with the Ensigns (9-11). In fact, I commend you for thinking about what group is most suitable for your son. There are way too many parents anxious to "promote" their kids to the older age groups without regard to what is really appropriate.

 

On our cruise, there weren't enough kids to break down the teens into 12-14 and 15-17, so they lumped together 12-17. The older kids definitely didn't like hanging out with 12 year olds (even worse, with 11 year olds whose parents demanded they be promoted). Also, remember that the teen group is pretty unsupervised, so your 12 year old may be hanging out with kids who are sneaking smokes or raiding the mini-bar. If your 12 year old is mature enough to handle that, then that's fine. Just something to consider.

[jomf]

The number of children on board will depend on the date in July to some extent.

English schools break up mid-late july, so if you are going at the beginning then there will be fewer kids.

[kingstontricia]

Just to say that when we took our first cruise with Celebrity we had our youngest son, who was then 15, travelling with us. It was August and we were sailing from Barcelona on the Summit. I was concerned that Alex would be bored so on boarding I asked the staff how many children would be on the ship? The reply was 450 children on board. Needless to say Alex had a wonderful time and we hardly saw him! The vast majority of the kids were either North American or British.

 

A year later we did a similar trip around the Med in July and again no problem - just as many children. Have a great trip.

[lettrich]

Thanks for your replies. I am relieved to hear that there are a decent amount of children. And after hearing that some of the older teens sneak smokes,etc maybe I will keep my son in the ensigns!

[4774Papa]

We were on an NCL cruise in July 2010 and there were a good number of children on the ship.