Level with me- Kids and Celebrity

[ashmac8]

So I am booked on a Celebrity Cruise for this Spring. We picked based on schedule, ports, itinerary. I liked my Royal Cruise and thought that since they were sister lines I would be equally as satisfied.

 

However, doing my research over the past few months I am seeing lots of negativity towards kids amongst Celebrity cruisers. Of course not all, but the most disgruntled tend to be the most vocal.

 

We are taking our 5 year old son. We don't tolerate poor behavior and would remove him from a situation in the unlikely event that he decides to show his tail. He has cruised before, knows how to behave and is really looking forward to the trip.

 

I don't understand folks attitude about not wanting to "see" kids on their vacation. If you arent dealing with them why care? My husband and I took a kid free trip to Italy and a fellow patron's 3 year old child chucked a dinner roll at me while mom wasnt looking. Didnt bother me in the least because she had to deal with him while I resumed my peaceful meal in Venice. Of course she apologized and life moved on.

 

So my question after all that typing.... will I be shunned on my trip? It is not during Easter break so there will likely not be many kids on board. I'm not expecting to meet a lot of others. I just want to spend time with my husband and son without getting the stink eye. Luckily, no snarky comments thus far from my roll call....

 

Thoughts?

[cb at sea]

Do not worry yourself....there will be kids on every cruise ship...and Celebrity is NOT unfriendly towards kids...some CC posters might be, but Celebrity is NOT!

Go, enjoy...you won't be "shunned" by anyone who matters!

[cantw8togo]

Celebrity is my favourite cruiseline and we took both of our DS's when they were 4 1/2yrs and 15 mos. The fun factory is great and we didn't get any "stink eye" when we were onboard. This was the cruise that my youngest learned to walk as he didn't like the way the carpet felt when he crawled. Talk about your sea legs!

 

It sounds like you are respectful of others enjoyment with regards to your son's behaviour which will go a long way to preventing being shunned. Stink eye happens on any cruiseline.

 

Enjoy Celebrity while your son is still young; as they get older they may prefer the bells and whistles of rock climbing walls, flowriders and other activities which Celebrity doesn't offer. It's not that I wouldn't take my 2 DS's now 8 & 11 on this cruiseline if the itinerary and price were right; it's just that they enjoy the activities that RCI and NCL offers and happier kids equals happier parents.

 

I'm sure you'll have a great time.

[capriciousc]

Thank you for asking this question - it's something I've wondered about myself. Thus far we have only cruised on Disney with our daughter, and that's like a floating romper room :)

 

We have traveled a lot with our daughter, and in my experience, there are just some people who don't want to have to deal with kids (or even see them) when they're on vacation. My husband travels very frequently for business and so we always have a lot of frequent flier miles at our disposal. We often use these to either purchase airline tickets outright or for upgrades. If I had a dollar for every time I got the hairy eyeball from someone because I had the audacity to sit in first class with a child, I could buy a really nice pair of shoes :)

 

When our daughter was a toddler, we boarded a flight from Buenos Aires to Dallas - the man across the aisle from us looked at me askance and then grumbled for 20 minutes about how they shouldn't allow children in first class. At the end of the 11-hour flight, he complimented me on how well-behaved our daughter had been (in all fairness, she was asleep for about 8 of those hours). I wanted to say, "Yes, better behaved than you," but I just smiled and thanked him.

 

Personally, I love to see (well-behaved) children traveling with their parents. I think it's beneficial for kids to be exposed to other places, other people, and other cultures. Broadens their horizons :)

[ashmac8]

Thanks for the feedback. This is reassuring.

 

My take is kids don't learn how to behave or appreciate travel/nice meals unless we teach them.

 

Happy Travels to you all.

 

Ashley

[kitty9]

I cruise Celebrity quite frequently, and the only negative I see for families is the time of year you cruise. Celebrity doesn't tend to attract nearly as many kids as other lines, especially when school is in session. I've been on a number of cruises where you could count the number of kids on one hand, and therefore the kids club was quite limited in both hours and activities. Other than that, there's absolutely no problem with kids cruising Celebrity.

[junglejane]

Don't be put off by the attitudes of some of the posters on the Celebrity board. They don't reflect the actual onboard experience. Let's face it, these forums attract a small core of cruise enthusiasts who feel strongly about certain topics. You can get the impression from a few active CC'ers that Celebrity is full of kid-hating fashion police. But our experience has been very positive. Don't worry. You won't be shunned. :)

[lmg1230]

We also had a very positive experience on Celebrity this past summer and I wouldn't hesitate to sail with them again. It's very easy for someone who is essentially anonymous to post negative views about traveling families on internet message boards. Most of the posters with the harshest opinions wouldn't dare talk like that to someone in person so it's unlikely that you would ever actually meet someone on board your cruise that would react so negatively to the mere fact that there is a child in their presence. Go on the cruise with your husband and son and have a wonderful time!!

 

Lisa

[gecko12]

We did a 11 day Celebrity cruise in 2010. My boys were 5 & 6 at the time. We had such a wonderful vacation as a family that we'll be cruising again this year. If kids understand what is expected in different environments and act accordingly, there shouldn't be anything for anyone to complain about. Enjoy your cruise, Celebrity is wonderful.

[scarlett81]

I will also be a first time cruiser with little ones this coming year, for Celeb's Mediterranean cruise. I'm not so nervous about my 5 yr old-she's a really good traveler and she can sleep anywhere. (love that)

But I am nervous about accomodating the needs of my then 1 yr old. Diapers...baby food...etc

So I know how you feel!

 

Regarding other passengers, in our experience you will find an anti-kid fellow traveler wherever you go and however your child in behaved, even if its the best behaved kid in the world. We've even seen adults not wanting to see kids while at Disney hotels! hello, kid capital of the world.

For me, I know that we won't tolerate noise or bad behavior. If they act up, we're outta there, bottom line. Outside of that, if anyone has an issue with my child's mere presence...as long as they're behaving?-They can switch their seats. C'est la vie. This is a big world-there is room for everyone ;)

[capriciousc]

I cruise Celebrity quite frequently, and the only negative I see for families is the time of year you cruise. Celebrity doesn't tend to attract nearly as many kids as other lines, especially when school is in session. I've been on a number of cruises where you could count the number of kids on one hand, and therefore the kids club was quite limited in both hours and activities. Other than that, there's absolutely no problem with kids cruising Celebrity.

 

Thank you for sharing this information, kitty9! It's helpful to know this detail so we can add it to the decision criteria when planning future cruises.

[TheCalicoCat]

Don't worry about it.

1. he is a paying passenger too.

2. Celebrity (I thinnk) has children's programming...

3. How many people will be on that cruise - what are the odds that you will run into a kid hater who has b@!!$ big enough to say something to your face...

4. If you do run into a kid hater - what are the odds that you would run into them again?

5. It's your vacation too.

 

We took our 2 & then 3 year old son on a cruise & 95% of the time he was great - loved seeing the water, birds, & other boats when we were in port.

 

We'll be taking him on HAL next summer to Alaska & I haven't given one iota of time into worry about what anyone else cares about regarding that fact.

[gelo7]

I had that same concern before our X cruise last spring. There were indeed a few anti children posts on the X board. It was by far our favorite cruise. We had zero issues, enjoy your cruise.

[Onessa]

. . .When our daughter was a toddler, we boarded a flight from Buenos Aires to Dallas - the man across the aisle from us looked at me askance and then grumbled for 20 minutes about how they shouldn't allow children in first class. At the end of the 11-hour flight, he complimented me on how well-behaved our daughter had been (in all fairness, she was asleep for about 8 of those hours). I wanted to say, "Yes, better behaved than you," but I just smiled and thanked him.

When our DD was 8MO I flew with her from Milwaukee to San Jose (with a stop in Minneapolis). The businessman in the row behind us made a HUGE fuss with the flight attendant DEMANDING to be reseated. He got his wish and was reseated about 10 rows back (a textbook case of "be careful what you ask for"! :D).

 

Midway through the flight another businessman came back from first-class. He smiled at me and my sleeping daughter and made a particular point of smiling and making a little fuss over how beautiful my baby was on his way back. After deboarding, the original business man came hurrying up behind me and apologized profusely for being rude and making a fuss. Turns out Mr First Class was his boss, boss had heard about the fuss, went back to find out that yes indeed it was his employee and made him apologize!

[Onessa]

DD is now 16YO but has been to 35 US states, 8 Canadian provinces, and at least 12 counties -- that includes four X cruises -- two when she was under 12YO and two since she's been in her teens -- (in addition to an NCL, a couple Princess,and a whole lot of RCCI).

 

You hear a lot of bravado on the boards with people dissing kids. You don't experience as much on board.

 

Many of the crew members are parents who are far from their own kids. These folks generally appreciate being around kids. Most of the crew members are "people people" who like kids. Most of the pax have kids, have had kids, and almost all were kids at one time :)

 

While X may not have the sheer number of kids, and may not have some of the whiz-bang on-board attractions that some other ships have, most kids will have a great time just because they are on vacation with their family.

 

Be a "good" parent - let your kids know what is expected of them, remove them if they are causing a ruckus, don't ask to let them go places where they are not allowed, etc. and everything will be fine