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Cruising on “other” lines with kids - thoughts?


MattG

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We’re a party of six, three adults and three kids (2, 3.5 and 5)  


The wife is curious about cruising on Carnival (hush) or Celebrity and what experience we would have with our party, but different lines. I priced out our Anthem cabin for a similar timeframe, and found Celebrity to be 3x the price for a 9-day instead of 7-day, and Carnival to be a tad less (5%) for a 5-day instead of a 7-day, all out of NJ/NY (it doesn’t make sense for us to fly to Florida with three kids at this point). 
 

What’s everyone experiences on other lines? What are the kids clubs and activities like? Splash pads? Play areas?

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Can't speak to either of those lines, but cruised Princess with the extended family, including kids of various ages.  The programming was very impressive, with lots of interaction, crafts, baking/cooking, planned activities and just fun downtime in the kids clubs.  The kids often didn't want to leave to join back up with the adults, and were very excited about each day's theme, which they learned about the day before.  

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Well to sail Carnival with kids, you have to apply for a vaccine exemption. They are only allowing a certain amount of unvaccinated kids/teens/adults. You are not guaranteed to sail. That might take carnival out of the equation. 
 

Celebrity is definitely geared more towards adults but kids are allowed. I don’t think their ships have any water slides for example. 
 

I’d personally stick with Royal

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Disney is phenomenal, particularly for the age of your kids, if you can get over paying 50+% more. Dining in different themed dining rooms each night is pretty awesome. And the general service and food quality is a step up as well. It's definitely worth doing once while your kids are this age, but I'd recommend doing it at an off-peak time so you don't completely break the bank. There's definitely more of that 'magic' quality on Disney cruises, but now that my kids are nearly 8 and 10, RC seems to fit them better overall. 

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20 minutes ago, jeffmw said:

Disney is phenomenal, particularly for the age of your kids, if you can get over paying 50+% more. Dining in different themed dining rooms each night is pretty awesome. And the general service and food quality is a step up as well. It's definitely worth doing once while your kids are this age, but I'd recommend doing it at an off-peak time so you don't completely break the bank. There's definitely more of that 'magic' quality on Disney cruises, but now that my kids are nearly 8 and 10, RC seems to fit them better overall. 

I strongly recommend waiting until after these restrictions are lifted before trying DCL. They price point is incredibly high, and we went on a cruise in October and were miserable due to Disney packing the boat but not adjusting capacity limits. Highlights included waiting 30 minutes to use the pool for 15 minutes, waiting 20 minutes in line to get a bowl of fruit, and waiting 30 minutes in line to drop my kids off at the kids club (they give you limited time in the kids club and don't care how long you wait in line).

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17 hours ago, MattG said:

We’re a party of six, three adults and three kids (2, 3.5 and 5)  


The wife is curious about cruising on Carnival (hush) or Celebrity and what experience we would have with our party, but different lines. I priced out our Anthem cabin for a similar timeframe, and found Celebrity to be 3x the price for a 9-day instead of 7-day, and Carnival to be a tad less (5%) for a 5-day instead of a 7-day, all out of NJ/NY (it doesn’t make sense for us to fly to Florida with three kids at this point). 
 

What’s everyone experiences on other lines? What are the kids clubs and activities like? Splash pads? Play areas?

Carnival (newer ships only) are great for kids. I wouldn’t personally recommend short voyages because it attracts more of a party crowd. They have a great kids program which is as good or better then RC. I’m not a huge fan of Carnival but based on the last couple sailings on the newer ship to the Southern Caribbean it was very much a positive experience. 

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17 hours ago, jeffmw said:

Disney is phenomenal, particularly for the age of your kids, if you can get over paying 50+% more. Dining in different themed dining rooms each night is pretty awesome. And the general service and food quality is a step up as well. It's definitely worth doing once while your kids are this age, but I'd recommend doing it at an off-peak time so you don't completely break the bank. There's definitely more of that 'magic' quality on Disney cruises, but now that my kids are nearly 8 and 10, RC seems to fit them better overall. 

Our experience with Disney was just the opposite. The kids club was largely just sitting our 5 year old in front of a video game and there were very few activities for our 2 year old. The kids club staff was calling our youngest by the wrong name when we came to pick him up (even though they wore name tags) and the guest services offered no help when my wife got extremely ill the last night. (Though, as you said, the dining was a good experience.) I don’t know if it was an anomaly on Disney, but RC is much more exciting for the kids and their service has been top notch. 

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4 hours ago, BowTieBrigade said:

Our experience with Disney was just the opposite. The kids club was largely just sitting our 5 year old in front of a video game and there were very few activities for our 2 year old. The kids club staff was calling our youngest by the wrong name when we came to pick him up (even though they wore name tags) and the guest services offered no help when my wife got extremely ill the last night. (Though, as you said, the dining was a good experience.) I don’t know if it was an anomaly on Disney, but RC is much more exciting for the kids and their service has been top notch. 

Yeah, this was definitely not our experience from the couple Disney cruises we went on vs. the Royals. On Royal, the kids club is an afterthought. On Disney, it's a focal point. It takes up almost an entire floor of the ship. Although the amped RC ships do have much, much better kids clubs on par with Disney's. 

But the real difference is what happens outside of the kids club. Everything outside of the kids club on a RC ship is mostly geared towards adults. Most things outside of the kids club on a Disney boat are for families/kids (dance parties, meet and greets, shows, etc.) Also the staff across the whole ship is SO focused on the kids and making sure the kids have fun. If your plan is to drop your kids off at the kids club and be on your own, RC is probably the better choice. If you're in it for a family vacation for kids under 8, I would absolutely go Disney if you can stomach the cost. 

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