NCL or Carnival with 2 yr old?

[gupsmom]

We'd like to take a Western Caribbean cruise. Specifically, we want to go to Jamaica and climb Dunns River Falls with our oldest 3 children (at cruise time, they'd be 12, 11 and 9 1/2). We also will have twin 2 yr old girls. We'd like to do a cruise line that has children's programming for 2 yr olds.

 

We've done Carnival before and did not have a great experience...BUT, that was the Fantasy long before it was refurbished. I hear the new make-overs are great and there's also the newer ships. We've never done NCL. The idea of freestyle cruising sounds nice with toddlers.

 

Our other otpion would be to wait another year (as it is, this is 18 months down the road from now)...and then do RCI.

 

What does everyone think?

 

Jess

 

PS...hopefully the twins will be potty trained. If they are, I figure they'll be allowed in the pools. If not, what's available for toddlers to splash in?

[Quincella]

We sailed NCL the day my now 5 year old turned 2. She had a great time in the kids' club, and we love freestyle cruising. That said, the NCL Kids' Crew staff does not change diapers, so I dont think you would be able to leave your twins on board (unless they're potty trained) while you leave for an excursion.

 

I've sailed "old" Carnival (Ecstasy) and "new" Carnival (Pride) and have to say it's like sailing two different lines. Although I did not have my children with me on the Pride sailing, it's a beautiful ship and I would not hesitate to go again.

 

Hope that helps!

[gupsmom]

We sailed NCL the day my now 5 year old turned 2. She had a great time in the kids' club, and we love freestyle cruising. That said, the NCL Kids' Crew staff does not change diapers, so I dont think you would be able to leave your twins on board (unless they're potty trained) while you leave for an excursion.

 

I've sailed "old" Carnival (Ecstasy) and "new" Carnival (Pride) and have to say it's like sailing two different lines. Although I did not have my children with me on the Pride sailing, it's a beautiful ship and I would not hesitate to go again.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Oh...I would never leave them onboard while we ALL left the ship. I should have been more clear about that. My parents are coming too. That's part of why we don't want to wait too many more years (they need to still be capable of climbing...they currently are very capable). My husband is actually going to stay onboard with the twins while we do the falls. Tom and I climbed the Dunns River on our honeymoon. He doesn't mind hanging back this time.

 

I just want a 2 yr old program so that my husband and I get some free time on the ship and so the twins have someplace fun to go play.

 

Thanks for the info...

Jess

[I&MsMom]

Well, we've only sailed Carnival, so I can't speak to NCL. We choose Carnival for our first cruise as we were with DD, then 25 months, and she was not potty-trained. Since Carnival changed diapers, and NCL did not, we choose Carnival. I didn't plan on leaving her on board while we were in port, I just disliked the idea of having to disrupt whatever I was doing to answer a page to go to the kid's club to change her diaper.

 

That said, we had such a great experience with Carnival, and we feel it's such a great value, we've never been tempted by another line.

 

Whichever you choose - have a great cruise!

[crusinmama06]

I love Camp Carnival. I think it's a wonderful program for the kids. If I had to choose between the 2, I would choose a newer Carnival ship.

[jam82]

With 2 year olds, I would choose Carnival. We just returned from the Carnival Conquest with a 14 month old. We have also done the Ecstacy with him when he was 11 months. There is a huge difference between the ships, but the babysitting serivces at Camp Carnival was offered both times. It was the deciding factor when we chose Carvinval. The kids program looks great, and all the 2-5 year olds we saw seemed to really like it. I may be wrong, but it seems more comprehensive to me than the NCL program.

 

I have also sailed on the NCL Sun without my son. I found that the only advantage to freestyle cruising was that you can choose your restaurant and time of dinner so you don't have to eat in the main dining room every night. However, my experience was that unless I had a reservation, I had to wait about 10-15 minutes to get a seat at the alternative restauants. I loved the sushi restaurant, but the other restaurants weren't any more impressive than the main dining room. I don't mind an assigned dining time and my son does well on a schedule so I would rather feed him a snack before dinner than to have to wait in line for a table.

 

Overall I liked NCL better than Carnival because the public areas were less crowded and it seemed to cater to a 'nicer' more calm group. I'm sure every week has a different feeling and that was just my experience.

 

That said, I will continue to cruise Carnival until my son is 3 due to Camp Carnival. I can hardly wait until he can attend.

[ljtee]

We took our oldest on Carnival when he was 2 and he loved it. We are just about to go on another cruise - he's now 5 and has a 2 year old brother - and this time around we've chosen NCL.

 

For us, the itinerary on NCL was more interesting (we are doing the 9 day southern), the mini suite was a better value than the options on Carnival and the kids club (including "kids buffet restaurant) were appealing. The bowling alley and water slide are also big attractions for my kids. And, having cruised on Carnival and Princess in the past, we felt that we might like the cruise better than the Carnival crowd.

 

We did not use Camp Carnival all that much on our last cruise - a few hours in the afternoon or for a nice dinner... but were very happy with the program. I imagine the same will happen this time... the NCL program looks great - and we're glad to have it as an option -- but can't wait for the rest of the cruise as well!