Royal Caribbean or Celebrity?

[mayabee]

I’m looking for advice and recommendations for Australia & New Zealand cruises in December. We have narrowed it down to Royal Caribbean or Celebrity. There will be four adults and two kids (both will be around 12 months old). What's the weather like in December? Did the cruise feel too long? We’ve never done more than a nine day cruise and that was before children.  Also, which cruise is more kid friendly?  We've sailed on RC before, but never tried Celebrity. Thanks in advance!

 

[Kiwi_cruiser]

Welcome to Cruise Critic mayabee 😀

You might be better asking the which cruise is best question in the Australia & New Zealand Cruisers forum:  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/564-australia-new-zealand-cruisers/

 

But I will give you a little bit of info about New Zealand:

 

The weather in New Zealand in December ( I use to live in NZ), is normally unsettled, and you could and can get rain or it could be nice and sunny.

Also the temperature in New Zealand can be all over the show in December, with the south Island still been cool/cold while the North Island could be warmer or it could be the other way around!

 

Australia will be a bit warmer then New Zealand, but they could also be a bit wet or a mix bag.

 

I would be prepared for all weathers, from rain, to cool weather.

 

Also if the weather gets very windy / stormy don't be surprised if you miss a port or two.

[The_Big_M]

Royal Caribbean has more activities/family things (though 12 months old are a bit young for those), whereas Celebrity is more sedate. That's the main difference and probably the best thing to help you choose, if everything else (itinerary, price, timing) is similar.

[Chiliburn]

12 months old is a bit young, but shouldn’t be a problem.

Royal Caribbean has good child care called adventure ocean . You can leave the kids there and go see a show.

 I’d suggest ovation,has a massive adventure ocean.

I love the longer cruises,especially NZ.

 Most people with young ones like to feed them in the cabin,where it’s peaceful.Both charged for room service .So try to get a cabin close to the buffet and one of you can whip up and get something for them.Take some plastic containers so you can have some snacks in the fridge.

Edited October 3, 2019 by Chiliburn

[mayabee]

Thank you all for your feedback!

@Kiwi_cruiser I just posted the same question on the other forum, thanks.  🙂 

[MMDown Under]

I would check with both cruise lines what facilities are available for child minding of twelve month old babies before you make a decision on cruise line. 

I personally think cruising with a twelve month old baby is no holiday for the parents.  At that age, I would consider an island holiday, such as Fiji/Cook Islands, where the staff love looking after babies.  

[aharris0614]

mayabee - old post I know but I am curious...

Did you end up going to NZ with the children?  How was it?  We are considering an 11 night AUS to NZ  in Feb on Celebrity.  Going with the family which includes our (then) 1 year old grandchild.  

Is it a crazy idea?  lol  

BTW, coming from the east coast so there is a looooong flight involved.  Would love to hear your thoughts on your experience!

Thanks.

[zalusky]

We did Celebrity in 2016 with the sailing starting on Jan 5.  The weather was perfect the whole way.  We arrived on New Years Day and stayed a few days in Sydney which was awkward because a number of things were closed.  

 

We also took the Celebrity overnight from Milford Sound through Queenstown to Dunedin.  Absolutely loved that.  We got to see a lot of stuff you would not see otherwise.  They stopped at the famous bungy jump over a river gorge and allowed anybody who wanted to buy a ticket and do it.

 

The hotel in Queenstown and the sheep shearing / steamboat ride was a lot of fun.

 

We would have been on Royal Caribbean to do a bottom half run this month from Perth to the south Island but that was cancelled due to the pandemic.

 

Feb would probably be a better period avoiding the local school off holiday period of January and maybe more reliable weather.

 

The one thing I did not enjoy was the long bus ride in Akaroa.  We did the mountain train ride and jetski excursion.   It was a very long bus ride to get there and return since you have climb out of the Akaroa mountains.  Had the ship ported in Christchurch outright it would have been much quicker to get there.

 

We want to go back but next time we want to do a smaller ship and hit the Penguin Parade outside of Melbourne which.