Cinderellie Posted April 9, 2004 #1 Share Posted April 9, 2004 Hello, all. I'm new to the message board. I was hoping you could help steer me toward the best decision on a cruise for my family -- me & hubby, 14 year old boy and 10 year old girl, both sports-lovers. We are expeienced cruisers, have travelled on RCCL years ago (pre-kids), and loved their service & food -- but we've never travelled on Carnival. (Last trip was 7 days last year on the Disney Magic -- awesome!) Have you cruised either lines/ports with kids? I have a business trip to Texas that last week in August before my kids go back to school, and thought we'd take a cruise out of Galveston. Did anyone take either of those cruises? Your ratings, please, with kids in mind. Thanks, all! Cinderellie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbabaian Posted April 17, 2004 #2 Share Posted April 17, 2004 Hi, My daughter is much younger than your kids - she's 15 months - but you haven't received any responses yet, so I'll try to help. We just got back from a cruise on RC's Splendour of the Seas. They have what seemed to me to be a nice youth program. Lots of teenagers having fun on the ship. (it was Easter weekend, so there were quite a few families.) The teens really enjoyed the line dancing lessons, virgin drinks by the pool and hanging out at the teen club, from what we saw. I don't know anything about Carnival - this was our first cruise ever. Hope this helps some. We really enjoyed Splendour of the Seas. It's now on a transatlantic trip I think, but Rhapsody of the Seas also sails out of Galveston. Enjoy your trip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hilltopfamily Posted April 17, 2004 #3 Share Posted April 17, 2004 Have never sailed on RCI so I won't offer opinions on a product I know nothing about. I think it is most helpful (at least to me) when you hear from people who have been on these lines in the not-too-distant past, as the ships and cruise lines change over time and a sailing 5 years ago probably won't compare to one now. My family of 5 have also sailed on Disney Magic, during July/Aug '03 (our 1st cruise ever). We have 3 kids, ages 13, 10, & 6. We had a great trip, paid a great price for it. We have now been on 1 Carnival cruise out of Galveston (Celebration last month) & have another planned for August (Elation). We had a terrific time on the Celebration, which is a older & smaller ship than what we had been on! We were worried about Carnival's bad reputation, and found it to be~~in our case~~ totally false. Others may disagree, but we now have no qualms about sailing with CCL. I have done a pretty extensive review on the review board here and on the Carnival board. When choosing our summer cruise, I felt comfortable going with the Elation since there have been numerous glowing, wonderful trip reviews written about her very recently. And since I now know that, for us, Carnival has a great product at a very reasonable cost. Hope this helps, and if you want to read my review, you can do a search for "Hilltopfamily" and it should come up, otherwise post back here & I can put the link in. Penny Disney Magic Eastern 7/2003 Spring Break 5 days onboard Celebration! Mar 22 '04 Aug 1 '04 Carnival Elation--Our 3rd Cruise!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atakkat Posted April 22, 2004 #4 Share Posted April 22, 2004 We have just returned from Rhapsody for the Easter cruise and had a great time. While my children are younger than yours(4 and 6),I noticed that the tween and teen crowd seemed to enjoy themselves.This is my second time on Rhaosody and I highly recommend her. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimcald Posted April 22, 2004 #5 Share Posted April 22, 2004 Just got back from the Elation and our 10 year old daughter loved it. She spent about half the time in Camp Carnival and half with us. The first day she got her childrens activity sheet for the week and broke out the hightlighter and informed us of what her plans were for the week Jim... Adventure of the Seas - Thanksgiving Cruise 2004 Carnival Elation - Easter Cruise 2004 RCI Explorer of the Seas - Feb 2003 Carnival Inspiration - Feb 2002 NCL Seaward (AKA Norwegian Sea) - June 1992 USS Dale (CG-19) - 1990 USS Coontz (DDG-40) - 1988 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barbarajoy Posted April 29, 2004 #6 Share Posted April 29, 2004 We took our three year old twins on RCCL's Voyager last October, and are taking them again this October. Same ship, same Halloween week! I have only gone on Carnival in my younger, single days a long time ago, so cannot compare RCCL with Carnival. Our kids had a great time, but it looked like the older groups had even more fun! Scavenger hunt, building a volcano, rocket launch, beach activities, etc. Check out this gal's web site. http://www.cafekarina.org./cruise/scans.html She was nice enough to scan all the Adventure Ocean activity guides for the week. I'm not sure when she went, but it sounds pretty similiar to our cruise last fall. I don't know what your kids are like, but if they are at all sociable they will have a wonderful time! Have fun on either RCCL or Carnival! Barbara Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
countesspottymouth Posted April 27, 2006 #7 Share Posted April 27, 2006 We booked for July and it is our first cruise. We are taking our four girls, ages 2, 4, 5, and 14. Any tips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBMN Posted April 27, 2006 #8 Share Posted April 27, 2006 I have 2 teens and have been reading these boards for the past 2 months for info. Your 14yr old needs to make sure and make it to the teen get-together/ dance on the first night. Evidently, that is when all the kids meet, make friends the easiest, and group up with kids that have similar interests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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