New to Carnival...best ship for kids ages 15, 12 and 7?

[loveysbydesign]

We're thinking of cruising on Carnival (or maybe RCCL or NCL---comparing them right now)for the 1st time this fall, in Oct. or Nov. My kids love Disney cruises but right now it's out of our price range and we are all lookign forward to another cruise. Last time we cruised was Oct. 2011.

So we're looking to cruise to the Caribbean and I'm hoping others with kids in the same age range as mine can offer some guidance as to what ship might be best for them as far as activities and good ports go.

TIS!

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Yikes. You have a better history with DCL than I do, but I have gold status with CCL and I can tell you that its going to be hard to down grade to CCL, at least as far as I am concerned. Be prepared for a much different atmosphere with clientele. Some things are geared towards families (a lot of families like the Breeze, we personally hated the Dream so I can't recommend it) but sometimes if they don't think there are enough kids on board, they won't play family movies on the big screen etc. So don't be surprised if it has more of a Daytona at Spring Break feel than the Disney ships did. It is what it is, not being mean. I've been on 4 weeks with CCL and there is plenty to support this reputation.

 

Cruising on DCL was a breath of fresh air! Sometimes literally. No smokey casino to funnel people through to get to the show room, no bingo in your face while you wait for the show to start (buy buy buy!), not having to pay $1.96 for a can of Coke Zero when your stomach gets upset (the waiter just nodded and smiled repeatedly when I said "gluten free?" and did not understand hardly anything I said), and no g-strings and high kicks from dancers on the main stage. No vulgar sexy man contests in the middle of the day on the big screen in front of the pool deck. One older lady saw she was on screen at an evening deck party (before sunset though, so not in the club and not late) and did some vulgar things with a banana and it was displayed for everyone to see. I NEVER had to feel uncomfortable like that on my DCL. This is just the kind of baudy entertainment CCL lets to display on the main deck.

 

Some people enjoy their kids clubs, but you should look into the limits. For instance, they don't stay open as late as DCL and charge after a certain point and sometimes you have to pick them up for lunch or dinner. I don't have direct information about this, just saying to do your research if the kids clubs are a big part of your trip.

 

I will say that the itineraries are usually good and the port excursions have been great. But the on board activities were WORLDS APART. I LOVED the family lounges where the kids could sing karaoke, it was hilarious, entertaining and SO talented. On CCL, only the bars/lounges have karaoke and I have never seen kids singing there.

 

Its just a very vegas different kind of vibe, and I just wanted you to realize that when you book. I wouldn't go on a CCL if someone gave it to me for FREE right now, and I'm not kidding. When my CCL Dream was done, I packed up with delight and for the first time, did not experience an overwhelming "I can't believe its over!" post cruise feeling. It was like, 'are we going? Ok great. Let's go home and see our dogs." That's about the most I've paid just to want to be home. AND I LOVE cruising.

 

And don't even get me started on the service... *sigh* CCL service used to rank with ALL OF THEM. Last year, it started to get worse and this year, they went to 3 servers for a lot of people and it was chaos and horrible service and our team didn't even use real names so we couldn't describe our service on the post cruise survey. Dinner is a big draw to us. Our DCL service was like jaw dropped, as was the technology all over the ship. (CCL still uses karaoke CDs and rolls them around the ship. DCL has it all modern and computerized. Altho our CCL Dream Entertainment crew was very high energy! Kudos to them!)

 

Going CCL from DCL is going to be tough. The Breeze may have more things for what could compare, as it has the VR movie ride thingy and ropes course I think and seems to be well reviewed.

 

But if it were me, I'd find a good deal on a 4-5 Day DCL, (we use our Rewards card and have $600 to pay for half our cruise this year so far!) and add a few days at Universal or WDW or something. That's what we are doing.

 

7 days on CCL is 4 days too long... (The 3 port days we had this year were great. The 4 sea days, not good.) I'd look into getting on the Oasis, that's the other one beside the DCL Fantasy I want to get on in the future. RCCL is likely to offer your family a lot more (although you may notice more pay-for items on it vs DCL, and DCL lets you BYOWhatever for Adults, so keep that in mind if that is a factor and consider On Board tabs, not just getting on board. RCI makes you buy a soda card if you want etc, DCL includes it, etc. Just do the comparisons.)

Edited January 13, 2014 by TwinPrincessMermaids

[klpalp]

We have only been on 1 cruise with our 4 kids and have another booked, but I made sure to book ships with Water works. The first time around, we hung out there a lot! My kids ages range from 5-14, and there was something they could all do. We have a pool and hot tub at home, so we didn't really use either on the ship. So I would definitely book a ship with Waterworks if you book with Carnival. This is a silly thing, but my kids LOVED being able to walk up and get an ice cream cone anytime! I heard NCL has changed their "ice cream cone" stations and there are certain times they are closed. Like I said that was a silly one, but we cruise in 70 days again, and they are already looking forward to "anytime ice cream cones!"

[loveysbydesign]

Yikes. You have a better history with DCL than I do, but I have gold status with CCL and I can tell you that its going to be hard to down grade to CCL, at least as far as I am concerned. Be prepared for a much different atmosphere with clientele. Some things are geared towards families (a lot of families like the Breeze, we personally hated the Dream so I can't recommend it) but sometimes if they don't think there are enough kids on board, they won't play family movies on the big screen etc. So don't be surprised if it has more of a Daytona at Spring Break feel than the Disney ships did. It is what it is, not being mean. I've been on 4 weeks with CCL and there is plenty to support this reputation.

 

Cruising on DCL was a breath of fresh air! Sometimes literally. No smokey casino to funnel people through to get to the show room, no bingo in your face while you wait for the show to start (buy buy buy!), not having to pay $1.96 for a can of Coke Zero when your stomach gets upset (the waiter just nodded and smiled repeatedly when I said "gluten free?" and did not understand hardly anything I said), and no g-strings and high kicks from dancers on the main stage. No vulgar sexy man contests in the middle of the day on the big screen in front of the pool deck. One older lady saw she was on screen at an evening deck party (before sunset though, so not in the club and not late) and did some vulgar things with a banana and it was displayed for everyone to see. I NEVER had to feel uncomfortable like that on my DCL. This is just the kind of baudy entertainment CCL lets to display on the main deck.

 

Some people enjoy their kids clubs, but you should look into the limits. For instance, they don't stay open as late as DCL and charge after a certain point and sometimes you have to pick them up for lunch or dinner. I don't have direct information about this, just saying to do your research if the kids clubs are a big part of your trip.

 

I will say that the itineraries are usually good and the port excursions have been great. But the on board activities were WORLDS APART. I LOVED the family lounges where the kids could sing karaoke, it was hilarious, entertaining and SO talented. On CCL, only the bars/lounges have karaoke and I have never seen kids singing there.

 

Its just a very vegas different kind of vibe, and I just wanted you to realize that when you book. I wouldn't go on a CCL if someone gave it to me for FREE right now, and I'm not kidding. When my CCL Dream was done, I packed up with delight and for the first time, did not experience an overwhelming "I can't believe its over!" post cruise feeling. It was like, 'are we going? Ok great. Let's go home and see our dogs." That's about the most I've paid just to want to be home. AND I LOVE cruising.

 

And don't even get me started on the service... *sigh* CCL service used to rank with ALL OF THEM. Last year, it started to get worse and this year, they went to 3 servers for a lot of people and it was chaos and horrible service and our team didn't even use real names so we couldn't describe our service on the post cruise survey. Dinner is a big draw to us. Our DCL service was like jaw dropped, as was the technology all over the ship. (CCL still uses karaoke CDs and rolls them around the ship. DCL has it all modern and computerized. Altho our CCL Dream Entertainment crew was very high energy! Kudos to them!)

 

Going CCL from DCL is going to be tough. The Breeze may have more things for what could compare, as it has the VR movie ride thingy and ropes course I think and seems to be well reviewed.

 

But if it were me, I'd find a good deal on a 4-5 Day DCL, (we use our Rewards card and have $600 to pay for half our cruise this year so far!) and add a few days at Universal or WDW or something. That's what we are doing.

 

7 days on CCL is 4 days too long... (The 3 port days we had this year were great. The 4 sea days, not good.) I'd look into getting on the Oasis, that's the other one beside the DCL Fantasy I want to get on in the future. RCCL is likely to offer your family a lot more (although you may notice more pay-for items on it vs DCL, and DCL lets you BYOWhatever for Adults, so keep that in mind if that is a factor and consider On Board tabs, not just getting on board. RCI makes you buy a soda card if you want etc, DCL includes it, etc. Just do the comparisons.)

 

Thanks for your advice! :) I appreciate it! Dh is very worried about switching to Carnival. I think I'll take a peek at prices for RCCL and NCL as well. we would rather sail out of Port Canaveral or Tampa and I see the Breeze sails out of Miami and I think as far as Carnival ships go that would be our 1st choice, but not looking forward to the extra 4+ hours drive. (we drive down from PA).

[fuddrules]

If you sail out of PC, Sunshine would be a very good ship to sail.

 

I have 3 girls, ages 15, 13, 11 and all three loved the Sunshine. They liked the Dream too (we just returned) but Sunshine a little better.

 

The Sunshine had a little better sportsdeck and....I think they liked the group of kids better on the Sunshine but that would vary by each sailing.

 

Pools on all Carnival cruise ships are small if that's important to you. It wasn't to us as we do our swimming/beach stuff at ports and not on the ship.

 

About the only negatives we had with the Sunshine was the small Comedy Club area (we go most nights), small Liquid Lounge (not too important to us) and a few areas of the ship that were a little aged. Otherwise, it was all positive.

 

Any specific questions ask away.

 

Edit: Nov. 1 sailing of Sunshine looks very promising to me :)

Edited January 13, 2014 by fuddrules