Mecury or Zaadam Mexican Riviera or Zenith

[Cruise Arizona]

Hey we're back from our Infinity Hawii and trying to figure out what to do for our next cruise.......

 

We have it narrowed down to two Celebrity and possibly a Hal.

 

Hal and Mercury do basically the same itenterary, though on Hal kids miss less school.

 

Zenith is less time away from school, but no fun factory, just they play room and they many activities about the ship.

 

Mexican Riviera is more relaxing as we don't really do excursion or even get off the ship in some ports.

 

Zenith does they big circle around the Carribean thing with stops in Colon Panama, Beliz and Cozymel. I thinK I'd have to take an excursion to the locks and they Mayan Ruins as I have never seen either.

 

Any thoughts, Kids loved snorkling in Hawaii, loved the kids program, loved the productions shows, loved the formal dining. They'll be 8 and 10 next year. Mercury was my first large ship and Infiinity even larger was no problem.

 

Any thoughts??? DH will be back from trip on Friday and we'll pobably book some thing then.

[Ine]

We have done Mexico on Statendam (HAL) and mercury (Celebrity).There was no big difference, itinary was more or less the same.

Just the minor details like food(a little better on X), shows (a litttle better on HAL), on both cruises we had great table-mates.

We love Cabo, P. Vallarta, Zihuatenejo, were disappointed in Acapulco. (too big, too busy).

Only if your children want to snorkel, I think the caribean cruise will be better.

[Arubalisa]

Suzanne, check out my review at the link below from our Zaandam cruise last year. Different itinerary but dailies are posted, as well as info from kid's club. This should give you some base for comparison for shipboard life on Celebrity and HAL.

 

I was underwhelmed by their kids club, but let's face it, HAL is not a line which caters to families. I am not sure, but in addition, age demographic on Zaandam would perhaps be a consideration for you and your husband? We were on a Christmas cruise so there were families aboard, but nightlife was still very subdued. Nights are a show each evening, maybe a sing-a-long (NOT karaoke) in one of the lounges and "early to bed..."

 

Dh and I would have to carefully consider another HAL cruise on Zaandam, Veendam or Volendam. It seems their larger ships...Zuiderdam, Westerdam etc. do go a bit more out of their way to provide family cruise. My parents sailed the Westerdam 4 months after the Zaandam on a TA, and said it was a completely opposite experience. Much more in the way of activities, more up to date, better service...overall, even on a 15 night TA, with an even older demographic, much more lively!

[chessbriar]

We have done Mexico on Statendam (HAL) and mercury (Celebrity).There was no big difference, itinary was more or less the same.

Just the minor details like food(a little better on X), shows (a litttle better on HAL), on both cruises we had great table-mates.

We love Cabo, P. Vallarta, Zihuatenejo, were disappointed in Acapulco. (too big, too busy).

Only if your children want to snorkel, I think the caribean cruise will be better.

 

The show on the C class ships have improved drastically over the last year.. With 5 X cruises since the begining of of 2004, I've been able to monitor the difference.

[Cruise Arizona]

I found out that because we are only a family of 4 on the Mercury, we can't book a family view until 30 days prior to sailing. Only families of 5 can book before that, so we could do a regular ocean view for 4 down on the lower two decks and then hope to upgrade (paid) to a family view last minute.

 

Or we could do a sky suite but that would leave us with-out much floor space because it is a single sofa bed and a roll-away configuration that would be available.

 

On Zenith we are in a similar situation, no 4 person room on the higher decks.

 

 

So I guess in general the room sizes are equal, Any more thought on itenerary or kids programs on either one?