Help with planning a family Christmas cruise

[gopackgo]

Hi Regent sailors,

 

My husband and I have cruised 3 times on Regent and loved it. I am now in charge of planning a family Christmas cruise for my family. I need some advice on which cruise line to choose! If any of you have cruised on HAL, Princess or Royal Caribbean, I would love some input.

 

There will be 6 kids ages 4 to 15, moms and dads in their late 30's, grandpa in his 60's, aunts and uncles in their 50's. (I am one of the aunts.) Of course there has to be lots of activities for the kids, so that is why I am thinking of the cruiselines I mentioned. But I also want to make sure that the food and service is very good. That is where I need help. We are spoiled since the food and service on Regent is so wonderful. Since I have no experience on these cruiselines, I need to find out about their food and entertainment from others. By entertainment, I mostly mean the evening shows.

 

Have any of you cruised on these other lines and if so, how was the food, service, and the shows? Any recommendations?

 

Thanks,

 

Ginny

[ChatKat in Ca.]

Hi Ginny,

 

I am helping my non-cruising friend plan a family cruise over the Christmas Holiday as well for her family of 14 - she's taking them all because it's a special birthday for her.

 

I looked at Celebrity, HAL, Princess and Royal Carribbean and I looked at the Carribbean (Round Trip for Fort Lauderdale) and Mexican Riviera (Roundtrip San Diego). I've sailed all but HAL. Since we're booking 2007 for her I have time, and I am doing a RCCL cruise again this summer with my granddaughters, so that will be more recent to compare to Regent.

 

In all fairness, I haven't cruised on any of the other lines since 2002, but I do know that the rooms will be all similar, the dining experiences maybe slightly better on HAL and Celebrity, but I think Royal Carribbean might be best for the variations in ages of the children. The ships are bigger.

 

We are still trying to make the final decision - but for the moment, we're leaning towards the HAL cruise, since they have the cooking program on board and probably some of the best food as well.

[Oliver's Mom]

We are taking our whole family (grown children and their kids, 6 of them ranging from 8 to 14) on the Navigator from Fort Lauderdale to the Western Caribbean and Mexico. There will be camp activities for all ages of children and teens and Regent assures me that there will be plenty for them to do.

 

We've had this booked since we were on the Navigator exactly one year ago and are getting extremely excited (but are waiting to surprise the little ones and haven't told them yet). :cool: :cool: :cool:

[gopackgo]

Hi ChatKat!

 

Since you have sailed on Royal Caribbean already and think it would be good for all the activities, just how was your experience as far as the food and the crowds? I do get the feeling from reading postings that the food is okay, but not that great and that there can be tons of people by the pools, chair hogs, etc. Of course, this is just from what I read!

 

I noticed HAL has started doing more kids and teens things on their ships and I understand that they are a little better in the food and service department than RCI. So that could be an option also. But then, will it be an "older" more sedate crowd?

 

Also, any input on Celebrity? I really have no idea what that is like other than they supposedly have very good food. Do they offer much for the kids and teens?

 

Thanks for your help!!!

 

Ginny

[ChatKat in Ca.]

We did the Celebrity Millennium during May/June in 2002 when the ship was new. We generally try to avoid peak kids seasons for our vacations. They did have a program, but, it was a 12 day itinerary and there were few children on board.

 

I will say that the sophisication/rudeness of some of the guests was such that we had chair hogs, jeans in the dining room, shouting across the room and other inappropriate behavior from grown adults in conjunction with service issues (dirty room/broken tiles in the shower/poor bed linen and making skills) that I was very displeased with (I hate waking up on the matress pad - yuck).

 

All that being said, I doubt that I (being totally RSSC Spoiled) would go again on Celebrity - the Megaship being a particular issue now for me.