First cruise - 4 kids, Mexico. Ideas?

[SnowRider250]

We are planning a cruise on or around Oct. of 2010. We are planning on leaving from LA or San Diego and doing a Mexico cruise. We have 4 children ages 4,6,8, and 10. Our plan now is adjoining rooms. But, we are stuck as to which cruise line. We are looking at R.C. (Mariner of the Seas) and Princess. We are not at all into formal dining and like the idea of a flexible dinnertime. We also are hoping to find lots of activities for the kids. Price also does have to be considered. Also, hoping to find one, maybe even an 8 day, that goes to Ixtapa and/or Zihuatenao. ANY input would be much appreciated.

[cb at sea]

Both RCI and Princess have formal nights...both also offer some version of "anytime dining", but the dress code is the same, whether you do traditional dining or the anytime thing. All have buffets, if you'd rather do that on the "formal" evenings.

 

Generally speaking, cruising is more formal than a land-based vacation. Some lines are more-so than others.

 

NCL doesn't have "formal" nights---you may want to consider that. Carnival has done away with "formal" and now has "elegant" (not quite sure what difference that makes!!)

[Kerry's Girls]

I think they'll all have activities for the kids. On Princess, you can join them in the kids club if you want for arts and crafts, etc, but Princess does not have adjoining rooms (just adjoining balconies, which I wouldn't do with a kids that young).

 

October in Mexico can be really hot and humid - once when we went it was too hot to enjoy the outdoors, but last time it was absolutely fine.

 

Best,

Mia

[erinpdx]

Princess does actually have adjoining rooms. We are booked in 2 adjoining rooms with our kids for an upcoming Mexican Riviera cruise in November. The rooms are adjoining and the partition between the balconies can be removed also to make one large balcony. I have heard lots of good reviews about the kids program on Princess. We are keeping our fingers crossed!

[boulders]

What you will want with young children is connecting rooms, not adjoining. Adjoining just means next to each other and doesn't allow you to keep tabs on the kids. There are no locks that will keep the kids in. I wouldn't trust a 4 or 6 year old to not open the door on their own.

 

Mariner of the Seas also has several staterooms that sleep 6. You may want to look into those. They are often less expensive than 2 regular staterooms.

[kitty9]

Remember there's a difference between adjoining and connecting cabins. Every cabin has adjoining cabins, but very few cruise ships have a large number of connecting cabins, meaning you have in interior door connecting the cabins. With kids as young as yours, I would say you absolutely need connecting cabins with the door, and not just cabins next door to each other.

 

As for your ports, many of them have the dolphin swim which kids absolutely love.

[doclove]

My family of 6 with kids the same age as yours will be taking a Christmas Cruise this year on the Oosterdam. HAL was the cheapest line we could find that went to the Mexican Riviera during that time. We also liked the idea of sailing out of San Diego rather then LA.

 

HAL has plenty of connected rooms which is what we are doing with an outside room. We liked the idea of having natural sunlight for the kids, but didn't feel safe with having a balcony. I have heard that the balconies are difficult to get to for little kids, but I'm sure mine would find some way to do it.

 

I have heard good things about the HAL kids club, but I have heard good things also about all the kids clubs. Hoping that my kids will have fun, but with it being Christmas I think it will be hard for them not to have fun.

[calikak]

We did an October sailing last year on NCL Sun with our 2-year-old. It was an 11-night sailing out of San Francisco, going to Zihua, Acapulco, PV, Cabo and Mazatlan. Nice itinerary, LOVED Zihua, gorgeous place and not nearly as overrun with vendors as the other ports. Not sure if they're doing the same itinerary next year, though.

 

In October, it was warm enough for adults to want to use the pools all but the first and last sea days (so, north of LA), and kids were in the pools the whole sailing. It was really hot when we got to Mexico, definitely wanted to find water to be in most of the time down there.

 

Since DS wasn't old enough for the kids' facilities, I can't really comment on that. They did have a time when under 2's could come use one of the kids' club rooms and play with their toys, so we did get a look at the space and meet a couple of kids' club staff, and they seemed nice.

 

Note that NCL Sun is a somewhat smaller ship than a lot of the other ones going down there, so it doesn't have things like a rock wall or a mini-golf course. So, if those are important to your kids, it's probably not the best choice.

 

We booked an aft suite, and it connected with the balcony cabin next door (although, we didn't use the connecting door, since we didn't know the people next door). Suite guests on NCL get treated like royalty--it's insane all the perks you get, and I think they have a program where if you book a connecting cabin with the suite, everyone gets the suite perks. We ended up getting a screaming deal on the suite with a union discount--we don't normally do the suite thing, but the price was right on this sailing.

 

Definitely flexible dining on NCL, since there's no assigned dining at all. Most people chose "Not" on the "Dress Up Or Not" nights. Downside is that it's easy to end up spending a lot eating at specialty restaurants because there are so many of them onboard. Not that the dining room food was bad, I thought it was just as good as dining room food on other lines we've been on. It's just easy to get sucked into going to the specialty restaurants to try them out.

 

Hope this helps!

[PHXscuba]

I just booked a 7-night cruise on the RCI Mariner with our 4 kids (who will be 5-14) for next October. I liked the idea of the many kids' activities -- rock wall, in-line skating, ice-skating, mini-golf, etc. They have a form of My Time dining where you can eat when you want by walking up, or make reservations for the same time of your choice each night.

 

If you are thinking about how many kids on board, remember that the longer the cruise over 7 nights the fewer kids there will be. We have a full week off in October, and I've heard the water temps are very nice that time of year in Mexico, although it will likely still be hot and humid. It's a great time of year for us to travel.

 

We have a balcony for us and an interior across the hall for our kids, but my oldest is a bit older than yours. Probably I'd do the conecting rooms in your situation. We looked into the Family Oceanview rooms on RCI, but they were going to run about as much $ , only had one bathroom, mom and dad only had a curtain separating, and two kids would be on a pull-out couch.

 

Best of luck -- it's nice there are so many good choices on the Mexican Riviera now.

 

PHXscuba

[Cuizer2]

We are planning a cruise on or around Oct. of 2010. We are planning on leaving from LA or San Diego and doing a Mexico cruise. We have 4 children ages 4,6,8, and 10. Our plan now is adjoining rooms. But, we are stuck as to which cruise line. We are looking at R.C. (Mariner of the Seas) and Princess. We are not at all into formal dining and like the idea of a flexible dinnertime. We also are hoping to find lots of activities for the kids. Price also does have to be considered. Also, hoping to find one, maybe even an 8 day, that goes to Ixtapa and/or Zihuatenao. ANY input would be much appreciated.

 

I would look into Carnival, Royal Caribbean or NCL. While Princess is good with kids, the Princess ships are less kid friendly. Carnival, and NCL have water slides. The Mariner has a rock wall, an inline skate track and an ice rink. Princess has NONE of these.