Which cruise lines offer "Kids sail free"?

[Extra Kim]

Which lines offer "Kids sail free"? 

I know that MSC does and that Royal Caribbean does sometimes.

 

I also know that it's not free, they use several different trix to make you pay more then you would if you sailed only as a couple. But still it's often a better deal then the other "deals" they claim to offer.

[Donald]

The answer to your question changes frequently.

Cruise lines / ships that offer “Kids sail free” are usually doing it out of desperation.

They have a ship or itinerary that cannot compete with the others. They cannot fill the ship.

So they offer free travel for kids, hoping to get more families onboard.

The ploy often works, but it also drives away those without kids, who are trying to have a quiet non-family cruise.

 

The result is a noisy all family cruise with lower revenues for the ship.

But the families onboard, who cannot or will not afford a regular cruise are happy. 

[CPT Trips]

The answer does change regularly. Kids sail free is on of the perqs that NCL

 seems to offrer with some regularity. RCCL also offers it from time to time. They are the two lines I follow, so wait for others to weigh in on other lines.

 

That part of PP's post I agree with.  He over states negative point of view. Sure it's a marketing tool to get people with kids to book. But when it is offered it typically is offered on a number of ships and perhaps fleet wide for cruises during a fairly wide range of dates. For example book by July 31 for cruises departing before June 30, 2020. That doesn't concentrate large numbers of children on any particular cruise. 

[mjkacmom]

NCL sometimes has 3rd/4th sail free, adults included.

[Extra Kim]

Donald, your answer is both wrong and pointless. Since MSC always have KSF and Rccl have that offer at least 3-4 times every year and when they do it's for more or less every ship and the sailing period can up to a year.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Extra Kim

[leaveitallbehind]

3 hours ago, Extra Kim said:

Donald, your answer is both wrong and pointless. Since MSC always have KSF and Rccl have that offer at least 3-4 times every year and when they do it's for more or less every ship and the sailing period can up to a year.

 

With RCI when offered it may be with most ships, but it is not with every itinerary offered.  Often they will exclude certain time frames, such as spring break and certain Holidays.

 

But I also agree with your assessment of the comments made by Donald - they are, at the least, inaccurate.  The only statement that is accurate is the opening statement implying that the promotions change frequently.  Everything else is totally incorrect.

[jocap]

P&O offer free places on some family friendly ships at certain times. Probably in term time, because UK children aren't allowed out of school for a holiday... although certain parts of the UK such as Scotland/NI have different holidays to England/Wales.

[Shmoo here]

 

9 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

 

... The only statement that is accurate is the opening statement implying that the promotions change frequently.  Everything else is totally incorrect.

Not totally.  I've been on a Kids Sail Free cruise.  And this comment is correct

23 hours ago, Donald said:

....

 

The result is a noisy all family cruise ...

The madhouse of kids running wild (even during the shows) was apparent every day.  The number of parents whose prevailing pattern of thought was "I'm on vacation, someone else can watch the kids" was mind boggling.  

 

I'm so glad that Disney no longer does the KSF promotions.  

[leaveitallbehind]

1 hour ago, Shmoo here said:

 

Not totally.  I've been on a Kids Sail Free cruise.  And this comment is correct

The madhouse of kids running wild (even during the shows) was apparent every day.  The number of parents whose prevailing pattern of thought was "I'm on vacation, someone else can watch the kids" was mind boggling.  

 

I'm so glad that Disney no longer does the KSF promotions.  

 

That can be - and often is - on any cruise line that targets family demographics and that is during a high family cruising period, such as the US summer months, spring break, and Christmas and is not necessarily the result of a KSF promotion.   I've experienced that kid behavior and parental attitude on several cruises where in fact there was no KSF promotion in place for those bookings.  I just don't think you can make a blanket correlation to that behavior and KSF promotions.

Edited July 8, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[Shmoo here]

56 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

and that is during a high family cruising period,

Well, while Disney may be a "cruise line that targets family demographics" our cruise was early October.  Not really a high family cruising period.  

 

I can only say (with several DCL cruises under my belt) that on that cruise there were much larger numbers of children onboard than I usually see onboard.  Most of which were unsupervised.  

[Extra Kim]

How about we keep it on topic instead of off topic?

 

I didn't ask about pros and cons about children onboard, did I? 

 

I know that some people just hate that children are able to cruise, start your own topic because this isn't about that.

 

Our daughter have 48nts at sea so far and will have 75nts before she turns two years old. We have had zero issues so far and we will keep on cruising until it becomes a problem.

[CPT Trips]

No problems.

You'll be cruising for a long time. 

[mo&fran]

I have always wondered if they only do it at times when kids are normally in school.  We booked a cruise in October and they had a KSF promotion. 

Edited July 8, 2019 by mo&fran

[zqvol]

On 7/6/2019 at 5:14 PM, Extra Kim said:

Which lines offer "Kids sail free"? 

I know that MSC does and that Royal Caribbean does sometimes.

 

I also know that it's not free, they use several different trix to make you pay more then you would if you sailed only as a couple. But still it's often a better deal then the other "deals" they claim to offer.

 

NCL does 3rd and 4th sail free sometimes and other times does 3rd - 8th sail free. You just have to watch and catch the sale.

[Extra Kim]

56 minutes ago, mo&fran said:

I have always wondered if they only do it at times when kids are normally in school.  We booked a cruise in October and they had a KSF promotion. 

That's how it works on Royal. The promotion can show up anytime of the year, but the sailing dates are never during school holidays.

[gymbomb]

We've taken advantage of kids (actually 3/4 passenger) sail free on NCL several times. And it was an actual savings -- once we booked the trip before the perk was available, then later when it became available our travel agent adjusted our booking and saved us over $1000.

[Extra Kim]

Do NCL offer this several times a year? I have only sailed one time on NCL and it was back in 2011.