New to Princess, not to cruising, tell me about it..

[gouda]

Rnay, interesting info about the children's programs. We have sailed Disney, and without a doubt agree that they are the BEST cruiseline for kids, but I thought the food was only OK and we all know that it is incredibly expensive. We'll cruise them again in 2006, but we can't do it every year as our annual cruise.

 

I'm interested in those hours. No cruiseline has the kids program running from 9am-midnight straight through like Disney (well, Carnival comes very close). I know, I researched the kids program hours on every line after our NCL cruise which ran the kids programs - get this - for only 3 hours every night, from 7-10! Talk about skimpy. Plus, all they did was pop in a Disney video. On port days you not only had to register your children, you had to pay $5.00 an hour for it and then it was just babysitting, no organized program so naturally I didn't put my children in them. Really bad kids program that I would never in good conscience recommend to anyone cruising with children. The Princess hours aren't that short, are they? If so I will stop right now and look elsewhere, but I thought thier hours were pretty much all day with breaks for lunch and dinner. Can anyone comment on that?

 

Again, thanks for all the input, and trvl911, if by "cheap" your TA meant it was a good price, grab it! If the Galaxy is nearly as nice as the Mercury you won't be disappointed!

[ahracer]

I don't recall the hours but I thought the kids center was open most of the time. I cruise to be with my kids so I actually wish the kids centers were less appealing and they didn't want to go so I could spend more time with them.

 

Scott

[gouda]

Thanks ahracer, I thought from the literature that it was open quite a bit. I'm with my kids pretty much 24/7, day in, day out, year after year, after....well, you get the picture. I spend lots and lots of time with them. We cruise to get a break from eachother :D :D :D !

[RNay]

Gouda,

I have the papers here in front of me from the Grand in April (waiting to scrapbook) and the hours were as follows: At Sea 9am-Noon, 2pm-5pm and 7pm-10pm. As I mentioned before, during the port days it was strictly by preregistration and we did not find a way around this. I think I had read this and then forgotten it. Not a huge deal, but we had planned to spend the day shopping. I found the facilities REALLY limited. I know I am comparing to Disney and no one does it like that, but I think the GP needs to be revamped to appeal to this market. There was a small room for the young ones (3-7) which we didn't have. There was a small disco room for the teens where the 8-10 group met sometimes and the older group (11-12) just met in the aerobics studio in the evenings. I have not been on ships newer than the GP, so maybe their facilities are better? We don't cruise with our kids every year, but I would be tempted to try RCCL to entertain them.

[ahracer]

We were on the Grand in April and our impressions of the kids facilities were quite different. For instance I consider 9 hours a day to be open most of the time. Also when in port they are open all day you just need to sign up in advance.I haven't been on Disney and I'm sure they are hard to top but I thought Princess's facilities were as good as the other cruiselines. We booked the Star for our next cruise even thought Royal was cheaper. Mainly because of PC dining, with kids I consider it a must.

 

Scott

[starsjohn]

We find Princess offers a great cruise experience for a very good price. It has activities that interest us, goes to great iteneraries, and has good food and entertainment. Its seem kids may find more things to do than perhaps on Celebrity which we also like but is more expensive.

 

Each cruise line develops its own brand image, which is good as it creates many different vacation options among the lines.

 

John