Princess or Celebrity Baltic Cruise with 8-year old

[MarLieb]

Hi! We are considering a Baltic cruise for next summer. It will be me, my husband and our 8-year old son. We have sailed on NCL and DCL. My son liked the kids clubs on both (though he MUCH preferred the DCL one) and we would sail DCL again, but their Europe itineraries don't really appeal to us for 2016 (we did their entire Norway/Iceland itinerary last year and we've already been to Italy).

 

My husband and I would really like to do a Baltic cruise, but a kids program is really important to our son. He is great on the excursions, but in the evenings and on sea days, he likes to go to the clubs, do the activities and play video games. My husband and I didn't really care for NCL (we thought it was a little tacky). We liked DCL (I'm a huge Disney fan), but my husband got a bit sick of being immersed in Disney after a while.

 

I guess we are looking for an experience that is a little more upscale than NCL, but will still offer our son some entertainment and a place to kick back and be a kid when we are on the ship.

 

What do you think? Princess or Celebrity? We would book RCCL, but the suites on their Baltic cruise are all booked up already for summer 2016.

 

Thanks!

[A&Jfamily]

Hi! We are considering a Baltic cruise for next summer. It will be me, my husband and our 8-year old son. We have sailed on NCL and DCL. My son liked the kids clubs on both (though he MUCH preferred the DCL one) and we would sail DCL again, but their Europe itineraries don't really appeal to us for 2016 (we did their entire Norway/Iceland itinerary last year and we've already been to Italy).

 

My husband and I would really like to do a Baltic cruise, but a kids program is really important to our son. He is great on the excursions, but in the evenings and on sea days, he likes to go to the clubs, do the activities and play video games. My husband and I didn't really care for NCL (we thought it was a little tacky). We liked DCL (I'm a huge Disney fan), but my husband got a bit sick of being immersed in Disney after a while.

 

I guess we are looking for an experience that is a little more upscale than NCL, but will still offer our son some entertainment and a place to kick back and be a kid when we are on the ship.

 

What do you think? Princess or Celebrity? We would book RCCL, but the suites on their Baltic cruise are all booked up already for summer 2016.

 

Thanks!

 

We have done Princess twice - Caribbean Princess on Southern (2013) and Grand to Alaska (2014) with our then 8 (almost 9) and 10 year old son, respectively. His big brother was also along, then 14 and 16. My youngest likes Princess kids club better than Carnival. They had a huge space for his age group, and were very active with lots of sports which appeals to him. The only cruise that "may" have topped it for him was the Sunshine but that is an active kid's paradise with the sports square.

 

I have not done NCL but have done RCCL and have found the food better on both CCL and Princess - we like some things better on each line. And the service IMHO is better - done with a smile on both CCL and Princess where RCCL is just blah. Princess has a very nice, comfortable, classy but not stuffy feel to it, whereas there is a reason Carnival calls themselves the "fun ships."

 

I have heard that Celebrity is much "older" and as we are in out mid-40's, we found Princess to be a perfect fit for us, even on the Alaska cruise, which did tend to be "older." Both my boys never lacked for evening activities with Princess and we will sail them again gladly. I would highly recommend them to you.

[kitkat343]

We didn't think NCL was the best line we'd ever sailed, but were very impressed with their Baltic cruise and kids club program (although the hours weren't the best since they close for two hours for lunch and dinner, and that's tough if you have a kid who naps).

 

The big issue to keep an eye out for with Princess is whether or not the Regal/Royal Princess are given clearance to dock directly in Stockholm. This has started to happen during the summer of 2015. If they are docking in Nynäshamn, you would miss out on the amazing sail in through the Stockholm archipelago, plus need to deal with a tender and then a 45 minutes - an hour train to Stockholm. Our son was only 3 at the time of our Baltic cruise in 2014, so we decided to sail on NCL since I didn't want to risk being an hour away if my son had a meltdown. Princess has an outstanding kids club program, and they are a very good choice.

 

Oh, and the last link in my signature line is a review of the Baltic cruise for children - just ignore everything about NCL.

Edited December 1, 2015 by kitkat343

[MarLieb]

Thank you both so much! Princess sounds like it might be a good fit!! And thank you kitkat343 on the tip about the Stockholm port!! I never would have known that! There is an itinerary this summer on the Emerald that goes into the Stockholm port and not Nynashamn, so that's probably the one we could pick.

 

Thank you both for your feedback!

[kitkat343]

It's actually even more confusing than I posted - apparently the Regal/Royal was given clearance for some of the voyages in the summer of 2015 to dock directly in Stockholm, but some of the passengers did not know this ahead of time. They were mostly thrilled, except some were frustrated since they hired tour guides wanting them to handle transportation, and were disappointed they had wasted money since Stockholm can be easily DIY if you dock directly (it is fairly easy to DIY the train into stockholm too, but more logistics to organize)

 

Here are some forums where they discussed the 2015 docking and there may be more if you search.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2221572

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2231508

 

 

 

I don't personally know what is going on (the best speculation for what happened in 2015 seemed to be that the ship passed the test to sail directly into Stockholm, but perhaps after most of the berths directly in Stockhom had been assigned.) However, that doesn't explain why the Regal is not scheduled to dock directly in Stockholm in 2016. Some people have speculated that because the ship needs to travel slowly through the archipelago you wind up with more time in Stockholm overall if you dock in Nynäshamn. For me, I don't think it would quite work out that way since I wouldn't want to take a chance waiting for the last train and tender if you are so far away from port, but maybe if you take a ship excursion you get more time.

Edited December 2, 2015 by kitkat343

[mjmalino]

We have only cruised Princess and Carnival. My kids were always very happy with the kids' programs on Princess. I'm our first cruise back in 2006, my older son was hesitant to go to the kids camp, and I convinced him to go to the meet the first morning and told hi he didn't have to go back...I think that was one of the last times we saw him in board because he wanted to spend all of his time in the camp. By the way, we are scheduled on the Emerald Baltic Heritage scheduled to embark on July 9.

[OCruisers]

Princess does have a very good children's program. He will be happy! :)

 

Just noting that Celebrity also has a way better than you might expect program for children. My grandchildren were equally happy with both Princess and Celebrity.

They did NOT like NCL or RCCL.

 

Look forward to having a great cruise! :)

 

LuLu

[Syrreal]

We did the arctic circle with our then 3 and 7 year olds on Celebrity. They LOVED the kids club. There weren't a lot of kids in that itinerary, but the kids club staff told us they were expecting about 200 kids on each of the Baltic itineraries so there should be kids for yours to play with.

The people working the kids club are all very friendly and genuinely like the kids. It was great to see. The kids would get upset when we would "drag them" into the ports or get them at 11pm for bedtime. Lol!

 

While Celebrity is considered a more "older" crowd, especially with the longer itineraries, we've never had an issue finding things to do and keeping everyone busy.

[MarLieb]

Thanks so much everyone!! We ended up booking a Celebrity Baltics cruise and we are VERY excited!!