Need help choosing ship!

[Spike5556]

Hi everyone I am hoping to gain some insight from all of your experience. Our family has four ships to choose from for the dates we can cruise and they include RC anthem, RC grandeur, Celebrity Summit, and NCL breakaway. Traveling is my husband and myself and our three boys ages 12, 15, and 17. I was ready to book the new anthem but am now hesitant due to an overwhelming number of negative reviews. The summit looks lovely but others have suggested that our kids would be bored on the ship. Please help and thank you in advance!

[OCruisers]

Welcome to Cruise Critic! :)

 

My grandchildren have always loved Celebrity ... even now that they are in their teens. They always make lots of friends and have a wonderful time! :D

 

LuLu

[138east]

Hi everyone I am hoping to gain some insight from all of your experience. Our family has four ships to choose from for the dates we can cruise and they include RC anthem, RC grandeur, Celebrity Summit, and NCL breakaway. Traveling is my husband and myself and our three boys ages 12, 15, and 17. I was ready to book the new anthem but am now hesitant due to an overwhelming number of negative reviews. The summit looks lovely but others have suggested that our kids would be bored on the ship. Please help and thank you in advance!

 

Try posting this on the East Coast board where you may reach a wider audience that has experience with these ships. Also post the dates you are interested in, whether you will be driving or flying, cruise price for 5, and what the itineraries will include (I'm thinking Bermuda because of the Summit).

 

Anthem will have many activities for your boys - IFly, bumper cars, flowrider, Xbox 360 zone, rock climbing, and North Star in addition to the usual pool areas and a lot of techy stuff like the robot screens in the 270 Lounge. I sailed on the Quantum and really enjoyed it - didn't understand what other folks were not liking. However, I went with the flow instead of getting obsessed with making excessive reservations that I had to show up for. There is always someplace to eat on the ship. I reserved the shows I wanted to see and let the rest of the stuff just happen.

Edited December 13, 2015 by 138east

[Bonnie J.]

I agree on RCCL. LOTS of things for the boys to do. The Flowl Rider is surfing on land (Look at the pictures on Google!) and even I, at 71, did it 7 times but the kids are so good at it they are more fun to watch!

Celebrity is more of a county club type of cruise. A friend, on their 1st cruise, was turned away from the dining room because he wasn't wearing a jacket. This was on the Summit. We saw very few kids on Celebrity.

NCL is OK but we hate the Freestyle dining. We tried it again last year and still didn't like it so we won't cruise again on any NCL ship.

You didn't mention Carnival. Have you thought about them? They are now a big family cruise, no longer a party cruise. On one Carnival cruise there were just under 1,000 kids and it was on Carnivals oldest and one of their smaller ships!

[snyniew]

I love the Summit as I was on her last year and am taking my 18 year old niece with me this March. She understands that there may not be too many kids on board but with it being a Southern Caribbean cruise we will be in port most days so only leaving one sea day. I know last March when I cruised there were more kids on board as it was Canada's March break. If you are going during spring break time you may encounter more kids on board than you may normally.

[Velvetwater]

We were on one of Celebrity's bigger ships in the summer and as a young couple we found it waaay too sedate.

 

NCL would be a good choice if you are unsure about RCL's big Anthem offering but want a big ship. However I would probably pick RCL out of the choices if I had a family like yours as RCL seems to be the leader for children/teen activities.

 

Take many reviews with a grain of salt...if the itinerary were right I would not hesitate to book the anthem.

[SPacificbound]

I recommend you go to each cruise line and ship you are interested in and look at what is available for you kids to do. Also if you look at the deck plans that are available you can pretty much see what all is there in addition to the pool.

 

You could also do a Google "search activities on" and then the ship's name.

Edited December 15, 2015 by SPacificbound

[KKB]

Our 14YO DS says the Celebrity cruise was his least favorite (19DS & 16YODD had a great time on every cruise...) He was quite bored.

 

I recommend Anthem. We cruised Allure as a couple & have said over & over how much the children would love that ship since there is SO SO SO much to do. You won't be disappointed.

 

Glancing over the reviews...most of them are from people who have written one review...always take that with a grain of salt. I didn't read thoroughly, but I did notice a number of those with negative reviews were older...and mentioned that this isn't for older passengers. (not you!:p) These were also longer cruises, which tend to bring an older crowd, and activities often reflect that.

 

I think if you are considering a 7 day Caribbean cruise you will find the right demographic & activities to reflect that.(I imagine RCCL keeps close tabs on these reviews & will make adjustments...upon closer look there are some things to consider. But I recall a cruise we took--we have those we liked better than others but enjoyed them all--and I read a woman's horrid review about it & all I could think was "Were we even on the same ship??!!")

Edited December 15, 2015 by KKB

[LuCruise]

I agree on RCCL. LOTS of things for the boys to do. The Flowl Rider is surfing on land (Look at the pictures on Google!) and even I, at 71, did it 7 times

 

That's awesome! :)