Please help me choose!

[Eclipsepearl]

Hi everyone,

 

Sort of virgin cruiser here (Anarctica 10 years ago, pre-kids). I'm driving myself nuts here. We're in France and have three kids, ages 3, 5 & 7, all fluent in English. They are very active and like kids' activities. We have done Club Med successfully in the past, if that gives you an idea of what works for us.

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/cruiseDetails/itineraryAndPricing.do;jsessionid=0000eYi58e2vBhD9kWGZpC0zmDw:10ktdmpjo?packageCode=BR12MED2&date=20073&selectedCurrencyCode=&promoType=

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/cruiseDetails/itineraryAndPricing.do;jsessionid=0000eYi58e2vBhD9kWGZpC0zmDw:10ktdmpjo?packageCode=LG12M009&sailDate=1070730&date=20073&selectedCurrencyCode=&promoType=

 

The dates don't work well for us for this one;

 

http://www.crystalcruises.com/cruise_itinerary.aspx?CID=7317

 

Nervous about "Party atmosphere" here;

http://www.carnival.com/Itinerary.aspx?embkCode=CIV&itinCode=EVA&durDays=12&sailDate=8/5/2007&shipCode=FD&sailingID=42201&subRegionCode=E

 

This is what the travel agent is proposing but on the Celebrity board, they warned me that it was very formal and possibly kid-unfriendly.

 

http://www.celebritycruises.com/search/vacationItinerary.do;jsessionid=0000T2B_pahcQT07qzrMsw81Fw8:1051tg60i?packageCode=GL11RMR4&backPageName=Itinerary+Search+Results

 

I've elimated Disney for a number of reasons. NCL doesn't have dates that work with our vacation dates. We can't leave till late July at the earliest.

 

I'd love to hear from anyone who has crusied with any of the above with kids, even if it wasn't the Med.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

P.S. Annoying, I can't book with many of the sites. Some seize up due to three kids, others wont do it for bookings outside the U.S.

[annski]

We had a magnificent cruise with Celebrity San Francisco to Alaska and there were 5 children that we noticed at varying times, however there was a kid friendly function in the theatre one afternoon and the number under 12 was no more than 15. Even on the shore excursions it was rare to see a child and that is why many people choose Celebrity. Carnival we used several years ago had a large activity centre for children and camp leader type programs advertised. Check out the Cruise Lines activity program.

[Onessa]

We've done RCCI, Princess, NCL, and Celebrity with our DD (now 11YO).

 

We were lucky to have done a Celebrity cruise with a decent number of kids - although I can see that some itineraries and some times of year might have fewer kids. A Late June through Mid August 7-10 day cruise might have a good number of kids. Celebrities kids program is very good, but the most fun for kids is having peers.

 

We did a Baltic Princess cruise and an RCI Mediterranean cruise when she was a bit younger 4 for Med, 8 for Baltic. She enjoyed both cruises (both cruise lines and itineraries) - probably RCI a bit more. We've also done RCI AK and Canadian Maritime. Our sole NCL cruise was HI.

[I&MsMom]

Hi! We've discovered cruising as a family vacation relatively recently, and we love it! For our first cruise DD was 25 months. So, purely for their policy regarding young children and camp (they welcome 2 year olds, and they are willing to change diapers), we chose Carnival.

 

We had such a great time (each of us individually and together as a family) that we're hooked. Each time I plan another trip, I look at what's out there. Each and every time I come back to Carnival, in part because when I'm looking and where we want to go, it's always the best value. In part, I return to Carnival because I know we're all going to have a great time. Funship Freddy is as popular in our house as Mickey Mouse!

 

We're on the Freedom doing the Eastern Med. itinerary in April. I know there will be at least one girl DD's age (she's now 4) - they've "met" on line, and exchanged photos. I don't think there will be a ton of kids, but who knows? We will also be bringing DS who is 8.

 

I would just say that, in doing my research, it seems that the July and August cruises in the Med. have many more children than the "off" season. In addition, and as I am sure you are aware living in France, late summer, and August in particular, is a bit more difficult, between Europeans being on holiday en masse and the temperatures being potentially uncomfortable.

 

If you like, I'll post how we found it when we return. Whatever you decide, happy cruising!

[SleepingUgly]

Hey Sharon!

 

We are actually taking our two daughters on an 11-night Southern Caribbean cruise late next month. They are 7 and 4 now (can you believe it!) and the lack of so many children on Celebrity ships was the very reason we chose that cruiseline (much to the chagrin of the more elderly passengers, I'm sure :rolleyes: ). Plus, we really fell in love with the itinerary.

 

I think the Southern Caribbean and the Med itineraries are similar in that they are quite port-intensive, and thus, your children would not be spending much time on board anyway. So whether or not a ship has enough activities for youngsters is pretty much moot, IMO. For instance, out of our 11 nights, we have only two days at sea, and believe me, that is plenty for us! We will be exploring select islands at length, while others, we'll just walk around on our own and then head to a beach for the remainder of the day. This is exactly why we love cruising -- We have the choice of how active / lazy we want to be, and if we are in the mood to do something, there are plenty of options. Another reason why we like the port-intensive itineraries.

 

I've heard mostly good things about Celebrity's children's programs. True, they don't rival Carnival or Disney, but we chose Celebrity because we had heard it's a line that maintains some sense of formality (which we were looking for). We're not party-into-the-night people, so Carnival was ruled out (and like you, I was concered about the party atmosphere as well), and our kids are still too young for activities such as rock climbing (thus we ruled out RCCL). However, they are at an age where they still want to do everything with Mom and Dad, so we feel pretty safe with Celebrity -- If they want to do something with us during the at-sea days, we'll do something together. If not, they can hang out at the Kids Club, which may not be award-winning, but at least it will hold their interest for a few hours a day, I believe.

 

Anyway, good luck with your decision. Have you considered Princess? Crystal Cruises is definitely the most formal of 'em all, and I do not recall my NCL cruising days fondly, but that is just me. Let me know if you have any questions. It's nice to "talk" with you again!

 

Linda

(the same Linda from the Multilingual Babies board on BC)

[kitty9]

I think you can be quite surprised by Carnival. They are no longer the party till you drop cruise line and have really upgraded their food and service. In the Med, you're not going to find those party-hearty types as they don't tend to travel all that far and don't usually spend the type of money that goes with a Med cruise. I wasn't much of a Carnival fan, but a recent cruise showed me that they have upgraded their product.

 

Personally, after 48 cruises on most of the lines out there, I feel that in reading the things you've written, Celebrity might not jive with what you desire. Of all the mass market lines, it is the most formal, and when compared to other lines, their kid's program, while decent, doesn't come close to the likes of RCCI, Carnival or NCL. Crystal is not at all child friendly. I've done 15 cruises on Crystal, and you're lucky to see more than a few children on board---to be honest, I can count on one hand the number of children I've seen on all my Crystal cruises, combined. Plus, Crystal is the most formal of ALL the cruise lines, with 98% of the men wearing tuxes on formal night and the women wearing long gowns.

[KimberlyC]

We had a magnificent cruise with Celebrity San Francisco to Alaska and there were 5 children that we noticed at varying times, however there was a kid friendly function in the theatre one afternoon and the number under 12 was no more than 15. Even on the shore excursions it was rare to see a child and that is why many people choose Celebrity. Carnival we used several years ago had a large activity centre for children and camp leader type programs advertised. Check out the Cruise Lines activity program.

 

That's 15 more kids than we had on our X Med cruise, perhaps because we sailed later in the fall. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I never saw a child and to my knowledge the youngest person was a very nice young lady 16 years old - not even another teen for her to hang out with. I LOVE X, but I've given it up for toddler cruising time. Sadly, I too must advice against it, not because its too formal (I'm putting my toddler in a tux for our DCL cruise) but because of the likelihood that there will be less kids to play with.

[GoofingOff]

Just a note about Celebrity. Although Celebrity's avg. age tends to be older than the other lines you're considering (other than Crystal), it is not at all unfriendly toward children. We were on a 14 day Panama Canal cruise with our 2 and 3 YO and although there were only about 8 kids on the ship, the Fun Factory was always open and our kids loved having the place to themselves (almost). The counselors and the facility for kids were great! And although the cruisers were elderly, they seemed to really enjoy our two little girls because there were so few kids on board. So many passengers told us how they missed their grand-kids and so they got their "fix" looking at our little ones. Anyways, Celebrity is definitly not kid unfriendly.

[crusinmama06]

I think you can be quite surprised by Carnival. They are no longer the party till you drop cruise line and have really upgraded their food and service. In the Med, you're not going to find those party-hearty types as they don't tend to travel all that far and don't usually spend the type of money that goes with a Med cruise. I wasn't much of a Carnival fan, but a recent cruise showed me that they have upgraded their product.

 

I agree with this 100%. I had heard all of the negative comments about Carnival...being a party boat. So I reluctantly booked a last minute cruise this past December. I couldn't pass up the price. The food was honestly the best out of any cruise we had ever been on. The cabin was bigger as well.

 

I am a reformed snob. I say that if you find the itinerary you want and the price you want on Carnival, then go for it.

[Eclipsepearl]

Anyway, good luck with your decision. Have you considered Princess? Crystal Cruises is definitely the most formal of 'em all, and I do not recall my NCL cruising days fondly, but that is just me. Let me know if you have any questions. It's nice to "talk" with you again!

 

Linda

(the same Linda from the Multilingual Babies board on BC)

 

Whoa Linda!

Great to hear from you. How are the girls? How have you been keeping up the Portuguese and Chinese?? You were such an inspiration as a trilingual family and helped give me the courage to add the third language. They just sang happy birthday to my mom in all three over the phone (although she only understood one and it woke her up but she was happy:D).

 

I'm not getting the level of cooperation that I was hoping from the travel agent. Unfortunately, I have to use an agent since there are five of us and we either need a suite or connecting rooms. NCL didn't have the dates we needed. There was a similar problem with Princess. It's down to two; Celebrity, the one cited and RCCL, although not the one I linked. The next one which swings around Italy. I'm still leaning towards X because of the food and the itinerary.

 

Thanks for the encourgement everyone!

 

Any other tips? The hubby wants a room with a window. I'm not getting the level of cooperation I'd like from him either!

 

Sharon

 

P.S. Linda, come visit us on Multilingual FAMLIES sometime (like babies are multilingual lol!) I'm host now that Lorraine "retired".