Where to Next?

[Herbaltees]

My family and I usually cruise for Thanksgiving and thus far we've only sailed on Carnival. The accommodations for the price seems very reasonable.

 

However, the itin offered on Carnival are in a word, boring. It seems almost every ship stops in the Bahamas or islands we've already visited as part of a land based vacay.

 

We'd like a more upscale experience for the adults while still providing fun for the younger ones. I think we'd like something that in effect is a combination of Carnival for fun, coupled with the itins offered by Windstar and/or Chrystal for atmosphere.

 

I am not familiar with the options. IS there a cruise line out there like that?

[cb at sea]

You could try Celebrity....it's a bit quieter than Carnival or RCI, but they do have a fantastic "kid's club"! Many folks also love HAL or Princess....

 

I'd suggest heading to a local travel agency and picking up some brochures on the different lines. That can really help, to have multiple booklets to compare at your leisure!

[Herbaltees]

Thank you.

 

 

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[emo]

I would also suggest Celebrity, especially if your kids are over 3 and can fully utilize the children's programs. All of the other parents we talked to said that the kids were really enjoying it (our daughter isn't old enough for the program yet, so we were only able to bring her to the club to play at certain times).

 

We have also cruised with RCI, before kids, but the service and ambiance is not quite what we were accustomed to on with Celebrity. Will be sailing on Cunard next month for the first time and have heard great things about their kids program as well. And under 2's sail free!

 

 

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[phxbne]

We have not sailed Carnival, so can't help from that end in terms of comparison.

We have an 11 year old, and her favorite cruise line is Crystal - ours too! The reasons include the ship not being crowded and the kids club having a great ratio and so a personalized experience. We have only cruised Crystal in the summer, and with only 2 ships it can hard to make dates work, especially as they tend towards 10+ day itineraries.

We also enjoy Celebrity - it is our second favorite in terms of food and the kids club.

Not sure if you are planning on sticking to the Thanksgiving time. We had done 3 Caribbean cruises and started to get a bit bored and wondered if we really liked cruising - and then we ventured to Alaska - that was amazing! We have since cruised the Baltics, Med, Norway and Iceland and been back to the Caribbean. There are so many places in the world to see and cruising makes it easy.

[kitkat343]

Our 2 year old son loved both the Panama Canal cruise we took on Princess, which offers a very convenient 10 day roundtrip from Ft. Lauderdale (very nice line with excellent kids club and programs) and the Baltic cruise we took on NCL when he was 3 (that line isn't as high end, but the kids club was great and the Baltics were amazing). The review for both cruises are in my signature line if you are looking for more interesting itineraries. Alaska is also an amazing destination, and great for kids (we did that trip when I was pregnant with my first).

Edited October 22, 2016 by kitkat343

[MandyGirl]

Our girls are now 10 and 6, but each have over 100 nights onboard under their belts. There has never been a complaint with Cruiseline or itinerary except our youngest didn't like the shore excursion guide once in Finland. Fathom in May with my oldest had no kids club or waterslides, but she raved about the library and the on-ground impact activities serving others. Upcoming is Celebrity Panama Canal next month, RCCL Caribbean for spring break and Holland America for Alaska when school is out in June. Don't be afraid to try new cruiselines and itineraries with kids - they are resilient and can make friends anywhere or enjoy family bonding time. We have a four-day school weekend right now and I took mine to Costa Rica for some immersion - no kids club but a deck of cards and mommy / daughter bonding time immersing in another culture like you do in ports of call. [emoji106] If you do reach out to an agent look for one that does have those kid experiences personally to share a bit from the "mom perspective" as well as the agent perspective from multiple cruiselines versus a rep from one line. The worst thing I found over the years is picking up the phone and finding out the person you are speaking to has never even been on a cruise but is a booking agent giving you the same answers you would read in a brochure. [emoji51]

[OCruisers]

Princess would be a great choice for you and the children. :)

[williamsk]

Pick the cruise based on itinerary. Most have decent kids clubs. My daughter has been on Holland, Celebrity, NCL, RCI, and Carnival. Her least favorite club was carnival...

Edited October 24, 2016 by williamsk

[BlueSkiesTX]

Our girls are now 10 and 6, but each have over 100 nights onboard under their belts. There has never been a complaint with Cruiseline or itinerary except our youngest didn't like the shore excursion guide once in Finland. Fathom in May with my oldest had no kids club or waterslides, but she raved about the library and the on-ground impact activities serving others. Upcoming is Celebrity Panama Canal next month, RCCL Caribbean for spring break and Holland America for Alaska when school is out in June. Don't be afraid to try new cruiselines and itineraries with kids - they are resilient and can make friends anywhere or enjoy family bonding time. We have a four-day school weekend right now and I took mine to Costa Rica for some immersion - no kids club but a deck of cards and mommy / daughter bonding time immersing in another culture like you do in ports of call. [emoji106] If you do reach out to an agent look for one that does have those kid experiences personally to share a bit from the "mom perspective" as well as the agent perspective from multiple cruiselines versus a rep from one line. The worst thing I found over the years is picking up the phone and finding out the person you are speaking to has never even been on a cruise but is a booking agent giving you the same answers you would read in a brochure.

 

This is excellent advice!

OP-We are trying Celebrity in 2018 for my daughters' first European cruise. We are ready for a change from RCCL and I have heard wonderful things about the Celebrity kids' club. My girls do love Adventure Ocean on RCCL, BTW.

[BlueSkiesTX]

Our girls are now 10 and 6, but each have over 100 nights onboard under their belts. There has never been a complaint with Cruiseline or itinerary except our youngest didn't like the shore excursion guide once in Finland. Fathom in May with my oldest had no kids club or waterslides, but she raved about the library and the on-ground impact activities serving others. Upcoming is Celebrity Panama Canal next month, RCCL Caribbean for spring break and Holland America for Alaska when school is out in June. Don't be afraid to try new cruiselines and itineraries with kids - they are resilient and can make friends anywhere or enjoy family bonding time. We have a four-day school weekend right now and I took mine to Costa Rica for some immersion - no kids club but a deck of cards and mommy / daughter bonding time immersing in another culture like you do in ports of call. [emoji106] If you do reach out to an agent look for one that does have those kid experiences personally to share a bit from the "mom perspective" as well as the agent perspective from multiple cruiselines versus a rep from one line. The worst thing I found over the years is picking up the phone and finding out the person you are speaking to has never even been on a cruise but is a booking agent giving you the same answers you would read in a brochure.

 

This is excellent advice!

OP-We are trying Celebrity in 2018 for my daughters' first European cruise. We are ready for a change from RCCL and I have heard wonderful things about the Celebrity kids' club. My girls do love Adventure Ocean on RCCL, BTW.

[MandyGirl]

This is excellent advice!

 

OP-We are trying Celebrity in 2018 for my daughters' first European cruise. We are ready for a change from RCCL and I have heard wonderful things about the Celebrity kids' club. My girls do love Adventure Ocean on RCCL, BTW.

 

 

They ended up loving our 15 night Celebrity Panama Canal full transit in November :) Excellent Kids club. We have done a couple in Europe - both nestled into 5 week trips with two cruises and land time. Europe is usually port intensive so having that place to "be a kid" when coming back from extensive shore excursions really helps. They would grab a quick dinner and go to kids club while hubby and I would grab our rick stieves book and head to dining room to study up on the next day.

Our next two are RCCL in March for typical spring break Caribbean and northbound Alaska in June on Holland America. As a fellow Texan, gotta say "Have fun"!! Don't hesitate to reach out with any questions. Can't believe I forgot to respond with the November update on Celebrity earlier.