are celebrity cruises child friendly?

[kelda]

we are a well traveled couple in our late 30's thinking of taking an alaska cruise this coming August. This will be our first cruise and we would like to take our children (11,9 and 5) with us but are worried that they would get bored. We want a kids club with individualized attention. I have posted in another thread and the majority felt i should take a disney cruise but i don't think i would last a week with just Disney entertainment.. Personally, i want the equivalent of the four seasons in the cruise world and felt the celebrity cruises is the closest to that. From my reading it also seems the least crowded and most elegant. What do you all suggest?

[Gonzo70]

While sister line (RCI) has a lot more activities and features geared towards children, most people who sail on Celebrity with children report that their children had a nice time and have positive things to say about the children's program. Personally if I was sailing with children I would opt for RCI, but Celebrity is definitely an option. Generally Alaska cruises are fairly port intensive, so the activities are not quite as important as on a cruise with many sea days.

 

Celebrity is a very nice line, but do not go expecting it to be akin to a Four Seasons. Celebrity is at the upper end of the mass market spectrum whereas Four Seasons is a luxury brand. You would need to step up to a luxury line such as Oceania or Regent for a Four Seasons type experience - and the luxury lines would generally not be a good option for bringing children (and are considerably more expensive).

[beachchairs2]

NO!!!

 

you can see all my other posts on this subject...

[Softball20]

we are a well traveled couple in our late 30's thinking of taking an alaska cruise this coming August. This will be our first cruise and we would like to take our children (11,9 and 5) with us but are worried that they would get bored. We want a kids club with individualized attention. I have posted in another thread and the majority felt i should take a disney cruise but i don't think i would last a week with just Disney entertainment.. Personally, i want the equivalent of the four seasons in the cruise world and felt the celebrity cruises is the closest to that. From my reading it also seems the least crowded and most elegant. What do you all suggest?

 

I think it would be fine. While our kids are older now, they've been cruising since they were about 8 & 11. We've done most of the major lines (would never do Disney!). They've always liked Celebrity and they weren't impressed by the gimmicks, etc. of RCI. If you are going at a time when they would presumably be out of school, there will likely be other kids their ages.

[dkjretired]

NO!!!

 

you can see all my other posts on this subject...

 

From someone who has actually taken their kids on a cruise, celebrity is very kid friendly. They have more individualized treatment on their ships. They don't have all the bells and whistles but you can't go wrong with Celebrity.

[NJtomato]

Yes. Celebrity offers Fun Factory for kids. We are bringing our kids on their 4th cruise next week.

[wallie5446]

They will love it, our DD did, and ended up going to work on ship.

[villauk]

we are a well traveled couple in our late 30's thinking of taking an alaska cruise this coming August. This will be our first cruise and we would like to take our children (11,9 and 5) with us but are worried that they would get bored. We want a kids club with individualized attention. I have posted in another thread and the majority felt i should take a disney cruise but i don't think i would last a week with just Disney entertainment.. Personally, i want the equivalent of the four seasons in the cruise world and felt the celebrity cruises is the closest to that. From my reading it also seems the least crowded and most elegant. What do you all suggest?

 

Our children absolutely loved Alaska. In fact they will tell you it's their favourite holiday destination, and we have travelled to some amazing places (including every kid's paradise - Florida and the Disney parks). I agree about DCL, don't think I could cope with Mickey morning, noon and night :eek:.

 

We didn't sail with Celebrity to Alaska, however we have cruised the Baltics on Constellation. There tend to be less children on these itineraries, which is great if your kids prefer smaller groups with more individual time with the staff. Occasionally, they group the age ranges together if there are fewer children e.g. ours included 9 to 16 year olds on Constellation (this wasn't the case on Solstice).

 

Luckily, our kids enjoy sightseeing and exploring new destinations, and they have been on more cruises than their father (see signature - they've done them all...:D). In fact, we are considering Iceland for next year - not your traditional child's vacation destination ;). For us, this year is going to be such a change from the norm: two weeks in the hot Caribbean sun (not sure how the kids will cope :p).

 

So my advice - the kids will love Alaska! Get them involved in the planning stage for tours etc. We included the lumberjack show, whale watching, a bear hunt adventure etc.; this will spur their interest and lead to a more enjoyable trip.

 

Hope this helps and have a great cruise ;).

[kfrey68]

We are getting ready to board our 3rd Celebrity cruise with our now 11 year old and he has loved each one. He has also sailed Carnival (for us never again) and NCL and also enjoyed those. We were a bit nervous the first time but he had fun just as he had on the others.

[Shake]

From someone who has actually taken their kids on a cruise, celebrity is very kid friendly. They have more individualized treatment on their ships. They don't have all the bells and whistles but you can't go wrong with Celebrity.

 

Celebrity is kid rated behind Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Disney, NCL.

 

Parent/grandparent friendly yes ...... kid friendly maybe, but not "kid fun" friendly. :rolleyes:

[OCruisers]

Celebrity has always been my two grandchildren's favorite cruise line. They're now in their teens and still like Celebrity best! :)

 

LuLu

~~~~

[Beachdude]

My experience with Celebrity is limited to one cruise, however all five kids we saw on that ship seem to have a good time.

 

Our family has been cruising for many years on many difference cruise lines since our kids were very young and hands down, no debate Disney is the best. I'm not sure what you think a Disney experience is and why you think your kids would get bored, but they have the most activities for kids, teens and young adults of any ship you will ever sail. You pay a premium for a Disney cruise, but you get what you pay for.

 

That being said, the Alaskan cruise keeps you family pretty busy on shore through the week, so I don't think you will have any problems with kids getting bored on any ship.

 

Burt

[cruiser61262]

I agree with many of the above posts. Celebrity is by far my daughter's favorite cruise line. That being said, her favorite cruise was to Alaska on HAL. She started going on Celebrity when she was 4. We could not keep her away from the Fun factory. Since that first cruise she has been fortunate enough to go on one other Celebrity cruise, one RCCL, and the HAL cruise. When we were planning this years vacation, she said the she would rather not go if we were not going Celebrity. Sure it does not have those "infamous" bells and whistles, but she is not the type of kid that wants those things. She has always met very nice girls that she would pal around with all week. I would not worry about your kids not having fun. I personally have always been surprised that she preferred Celebrity over RCCL. I thought she had more things to do but she liked the atmosphere on Celebrity better.

As far as Alaska, it was her favorite cruise. We did HAL because my mom was a TA and she would not go to Alaska on anything but HAL (they and Princess have been doing it the longest). We went for my parents 50th anniversary and there were about 6 kids on the whole boat with 3 being a part of our group. It did not matter, my daughter loved the whales, the otters, the eagles, the dolphins and all the ports of call. Just a word of advice. Don't go all the way to Alaska without going up to Denali on a pre or post cruise trip. To me that was the best part of the trip. I loved the Grizzlies, the wolves, and the Caribou. That is a trip I will never forget.

Have fun planning the trip and I am sure whatever you decide you will not regret :)

[GuinnessGal]

we are a well traveled couple in our late 30's thinking of taking an alaska cruise this coming August. This will be our first cruise and we would like to take our children (11,9 and 5) with us but are worried that they would get bored. We want a kids club with individualized attention. I have posted in another thread and the majority felt i should take a disney cruise but i don't think i would last a week with just Disney entertainment.. Personally, i want the equivalent of the four seasons in the cruise world and felt the celebrity cruises is the closest to that. From my reading it also seems the least crowded and most elegant. What do you all suggest?

 

My daughter has been sailing with Celebrity since she was eight (and we've just completed our 5th Celebrity Cruise (we've also sailed on Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Disney). She loves Celebrity and loved every minute of time spent at the Fun Factory!

 

Yes of course she loves Disney, but the truth is that Celebrity is the one (out of all that we've tried) that delivers a true win win for both of us...she's happy and she recognizes that I'm tremendously happy too when we sail Celebrity! And we've done two European, an ancient empires cruise a caribbean cruise and a pananma canal with celebrity and all were enjoyed. That being said...my daughter enjoys making new friends, loves art and craft type activities as well as playing games and is highly participatory...so the Fun Factory offering worked for her....to the point where she would spend the maximum amount of time I would let her (day or night).

 

Having experienced other kid's programs on other lines, I can't say that Celebrity's offering is vastly different. What is different is that the general ship activities (outside of the children's program) are not geared towards families/kids as they would be on say Disney or RCI. But that doesn't mean that kid friendly service is absent outside of the programme (our state room attendants have always embraced having a young guest with lots of good humour and fun (from arranging my daughter's teddy bears each day into a different type of party setting...sometimes with props like my sunglasses or iPod etc....to towel animals as we had last month on our spring break cruise). Even in Blu, we sail aqua class, the waitstaff go out of their way to engage her (from magic tricks and napkin folding to simple conversation when they are busy).

 

Net net its going to come down to your children and their personalities...the children's programme is akin to a fun summer camp...a mixed bag of group activities with great counselors who are caring and personable. If they enjoy something like that, then they will have a ball on any cruise line. But on Celebrity you are guaranteed to have one too :)

[lawblond7]

We didn't sail with Celebrity to Alaska, however we have cruised the Baltics on Constellation. There tend to be less children on these itineraries, which is great if your kids prefer smaller groups with more individual time with the staff. Occasionally, they group the age ranges together if there are fewer children e.g. ours included 9 to 16 year olds on Constellation (this wasn't the case on Solstice).

 

 

I am taking my boys - granted they are a bit older 16, 16 & 20 on the Constellation this summer to the Baltics - 12 days - While I know there are going to be some kids there age my boys love history and very excited about the sites and have worked with me - they are looking forward to a vodka tasting during the overnight in St. Petersburg and seeing a concentration camp in Berlin and the wall. We did the Eastern Med 2 summers ago on RCI and can tell you even when the boys were a few years younger they basically played in the arcade or hung with some of the other teens the met. They never saw the skating rink or rock climbing wall. In my boys opinion as long as there are a few other kids they are fine. And my boys prefer not to have so many little toddlers (me too) as this is my 50th b-day present to myself just taking everyone and my mom

 

Sharon

[jgnova]

We've taken several Celebrity cruises and every time we've seen kids they were having a great time. One sailing we saw some tweens on a scavenger hunt. On our last we saw a group of younger kids with 2-3 counselors on some kind of hunt for clues, all wearing pirate outfits and singing pirate songs. Our signature below has a link to scans of the kid activity schedules for all of the age groups so you can get an idea of what they'd be doing when not with you.

 

j

[dkjretired]

Celebrity is kid rated behind Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Disney, NCL.

 

Parent/grandparent friendly yes ...... kid friendly maybe, but not "kid fun" friendly. :rolleyes:

 

Have you ever taken your kids on a Celebrity cruise, we have taken ours on several as they grew up and totally disagree with your assertion.

[wallie5446]

Celebrity is kid rated behind Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Disney, NCL.

 

Parent/grandparent friendly yes ...... kid friendly maybe, but not "kid fun" friendly. :rolleyes:

Hummmmm, according to whom's kids? Not ours.

[Shake]

Have you ever taken your kids on a Celebrity cruise, we have taken ours on several as they grew up and totally disagree with your assertion.

 

Yes on 2 Celebrity cruises, 1 RCCL and 2 Princess. My children loved RCCL and told me next time please don't book another Celebrity but go with RCCL or Disney.

 

They were pretty much bored out of their minds on Celebrity and said it the venue was not fun for them at all.

 

Next time we all go we will be on Oasis of the Seas which is much like our cruise taken on the Allure of the Seas last December. They can not wait for Oasis and are extremely excited.

[Shake]

Hummmmm, according to whom's kids? Not ours.

 

Old people need their sleep.

[kitty9]

I believe I posted to your other thread that your kids will not get individualized attention in the kids club because there will be too many kids on board. In all reality, no cruise ship offers individualized attention in their kids club unless you take a longer cruise when school is in session---14 day cruises during school time can attract less than 10 kids.

 

Celebrity is definitely not a Four Seasons equivalent. For that you'd need to cruise one of the luxury lines, but of those, Crystal is the only one with an organized kids program.

[Boo's Mom]

we are a well traveled couple in our late 30's thinking of taking an alaska cruise this coming August. This will be our first cruise and we would like to take our children (11,9 and 5) with us but are worried that they would get bored. We want a kids club with individualized attention. I have posted in another thread and the majority felt i should take a disney cruise but i don't think i would last a week with just Disney entertainment.. Personally, i want the equivalent of the four seasons in the cruise world and felt the celebrity cruises is the closest to that. From my reading it also seems the least crowded and most elegant. What do you all suggest?

 

We have a long history with the children's program on Celebrity.

My daughters were 6 and 9 when we started cruising, and Celebrity is our favorite cruise line.

The girls are now 17 and 20.

Celebrity has always provided well in their children's department.

Enjoy!

[Softball20]

You can't go wrong with Celebrity, and it will be a great first cruise experience. My kids were 6 and 9 (they are now 20 & 23) when we started cruising, and had done land trips as well. Over the years they have always preferred the cruises where the food and service was better over the gimmicks on board. We tried a Carnival cruise when they were 9 & 12, and even the 9 year old wasn't impressed. For us, it's a family vacation, and we all had fun doing things together. They didn't need, nor want to be doing stuff all day long to keep from getting bored, but if they wanted to join in with something, on all of these lines, there is always something to do. On a port intensive cruise you aren't going to have much time on the ship anyway. By the time you get back from your day of exploring, you'll want some down time before dinner, etc., and then starting all over again the next day.

[wallie5446]

This will be our first cruise and we would like to take our children (11,9 and 5) with us but are worried that they would get bored. quote]

 

Well it looks like you have a good overview, 12-15 with positive thoughts, and 1 kinda so-so. Have a great cruise.

[Softball20]

Oops - sorry. I hate finding spelling mistakes in my own posts!

 

"On a port intensive cruise you aren't going toO have much time on the ship anyway."