To those thinking of a Christmas cruise 2014 and beyond

[hcat]

sorry to hear that Celebrity has finally joined the ranks of other lines in attracting badly behaved cruisers--all ages appaprently. They have been gunning for a diff demo for awhile now & seems they have achieved their goal!!! Even with lots of teens & kids on bd, Celeb in the past had well behaved familiy groups at holiday times...only once did we have an issue with a corporate group on century that got the cruise for free and spent their own money on every drink they could find!!! (broken glass in pools etc)

 

our worst experience to date was on Royal on an Easter cruise out of Miami-(the holiday was early that yr) Choc syrup over the rail onto an art auction, elevs in use all day by roving kids, no adult sup. of children & teens, room service totally disrupted by switching of cards, roving bands etc, diapers in pools, children in hot tubs--all a big turn off! adults pushing & shoving at the sidewalk sales...... From that time on we try to avoid school holidays, So, American teen group holiday times w/ poor chaperoning etc ...but sometime you get stuck. The cruiseline should have enough staff to enforce rules when they know the booking numbers are skewed,..

 

If you must book during the school break times, I suggest you try an all inclusive adults only resort so you can relax and enjoy or rent a family house in someplace warm...airport will still be crazy but your vacation may be more fun!

Edited January 4, 2014 by hcat

[beachchairs2]

thank you for bringing it to the attention of the cruise line....

 

if we dont, little will be done and those of us who need/want a peaceful, classy cruise can forget about it, not only holiday times but other times as well...

 

I have been here a long time advocating for action....bring it to the attention of the cruise line, demand that they limit the amount of children, since they are not able to control the situation....other lines do this much better as we have heard here....

 

no one should suffer a week or more as is described here, demand compensation....

 

I have been flamed over and over again, but if you do enough cruises like the ones described you will also become adamant that cruise lines obey their own rules....

 

there is no point wanting parents to have control over their children, that is never going to happen, many parents get on a ship and want freedom from their kids, no matter what they say here.....

 

it is a cruise lines responsibility to set and monitor the rules ....take names of staff who do nothing to enforce rules....tell them you will report them to head office...to the hotel manager....

 

three choices....sail only adult ships....and there are very few of those...

 

do not go holiday times, but that is not an answer either, we have cruised off peak times and had horrible experiences....

 

or fight back...that is also not great, since all of us want a relaxing experience....

[underthebluemoon]

Too many kids anywhere is annoying to me. Now that my kids are grown, I have very little tolerance for kids. So to me, this sounds like a nightmare. This is exactly why I have never considered a Disney Cruise, altho I've read that they are really good at managing the kid-to-adult ratio, and offer babysitting, etc. Maybe our notion of Celebrity being more upscale is sometimes just slick (and effective) marketing on their part. All cruise lines are in it for the money, anyone's money.

 

As far as Celebrity overbooking the cruise, though, the cabin capacity dictates how many bodies can be on a ship. Not all parents are irresponsible and have unruly kids, so limiting the amount of kids per cruise, thus turning families away, wouldn't be cool, either.

[lawgirl]

Wow! I thought I would be alone in this and would get slammed! I may write a letter to X, as many suggested, but only for benefit of future cruisers. Our last X cruise had a massive Norovirus outbreak on cruise before, so the CDC was onboard our ship. That led to a whole lot of lines and challenges i wont bore you with, as it is off topic. so I think I am not meant to sail on X! I am having a bad string of luck of the draw with them!

 

Probably we will limit ourselves to Royal, or vacation every other year and try Crystal or Regent. We have actually really liked Royal....even the mega ship Allure. They do a good job of handling and entertaining passengers, including kids. Granted food is not as good as X, but overall we like them and if you sail on the smaller vessels, in our experience staff and passengers are lovely and respectful and you have a nice, friendly experience.

 

However, even if we don't sail X again, I will write to benefit future passengers. Thanks!

[beachchairs2]

thank you for doing that...

[chicagopaul]

Wow! I was on the Eclipse 14 day & we did not have many children on board. Although most kids were still in school on the 14th. You are so right Celebrity is

not set up for all those children like RC

& NCL. I 'm concerned I booked next Christmas &. New Year on the Eclipse

Eclipse. Plan now Celebrity !'

 

Reading this post we are a bit concerned as well as we are booked on the Christmas and New Years Eclipse cruise too!! I'm hoping that since it is 14 days and since prices have increased recently it should keep some families off the ship. We also will be in Aqua so hopefully we don't have issues in Blu. I definitely don't mind a more lively cruise but teens and especially a bunch of babies being changed on the pool deck will have me jumping overboard.

[kevinyork]

Celebrity built these ships with multi occupancy capacity so clearly want to maximise the number of passengers on board, as do every cruise line.

 

However X doesnt particularly target families either through the facilities on board or marketing. It is unfair that they build ships that can accomodate so many kids with parents and yet they know there are not the facilities for them.

 

Weve sailed on P&O ( a British line under the Carnival Group whos ships follow the Princess design) over Christmas and we had 700 kids on board however we rarely saw one since they had huge kids clubs and lots of staff to entertain them all day plus adult only pools.

 

It makes me wonder why families would choose X when other lines offer better facilities for their little treasures.

 

I feel for the OP. Sounds like a nightmare.

[CathyCruises]

OP--glad you posted. What you are reporting is unacceptable, and I blame the parents AND Celebrity!

 

We took our kids on lots of cruises when they were young, but they would never have behaved, or been allowed to behave, in that way. Never unsupervised, plus they knew the rules and boundaries going in. Not angels, mind you, but smart enough to know their limits.

 

Having said that, Celebrity staff should never have allowed that behavior to take place. They have a responsibility to their paying passengers to provide adequate supervision around pools and in hallways, elevators, etc.

 

We had a situation on a TA several years ago where several 20-30 somethings (female) thought it would be a good idea to strip naked and play hide and seek with security in the glass elevators in the wee hours. They were apprehended and spent the rest of the Atlantic crossing confined to their staterooms, guarded 24/7 and put off the ship in the first port of call. Similar measures should have been taken on your cruise; those troublemakers and their parents should have been given fair warning, then disembarked at the next opportunity and made to find their own way home.

 

Very sorry to hear this; please please report it to the home office so they are aware that their security/safety measures need improvement especially on journeys with lots of kids--obviously they know exactly how many will be aboard ahead of time, no excuse for not staffing adequately.

[maggie.1008]

When we first started cruising we booked only high end cruises to avoid lots of kids. Then we tried X and loved it and for the price could cruise more often. Not a lot of kids onboard in those days. Now parents want to bring their kids along. The problem is X does not enforce their own rules. On a Alaska cruise we had a table of 8 children under 6 on their own in the MDR. Parents were at another table close by. Why was that allowed ? No matter how good the kids are a 2 hour dinner is too long for them to behave. The parents wanted to enjoy themselves at the price of others around. We moved tables the next night. HAL and Princess put a limit on how many kids are on board. I have never cruised at holiday times and if I decided to I would go on Azamara or another small ship.

[20pluscruises]

Reading this post we are a bit concerned as well as we are booked on the Christmas and New Years Eclipse cruise too!! I'm hoping that since it is 14 days and since prices have increased recently it should keep some families off the ship. We also will be in Aqua so hopefully we don't have issues in Blu. I definitely don't mind a more lively cruise but teens and especially a bunch of babies being changed on the pool deck will have me jumping overboard.

 

Yep! And they were changing the babies in the lounge chair right next to mine. Even when I asked that they please take them to the cabin.

 

If anyone could give me a description of the Celebrity babysitter uniforms I would appreciate it. I may want to blur the face in the picture as I don't want to get anyone fired...just want it the pool lounger/baby diaper changing to stop for all future guests.

Edited January 4, 2014 by 20pluscruises

[teecee60]

We had a situation on a TA several years ago where several 20-30 somethings (female) thought it would be a good idea to strip naked and play hide and seek with security in the glass elevators in the wee hours.

.

 

Who says transatlantic cruises are boring... :eek: :D :rolleyes:

[Presto2]

Have just read all of the posts and have to ask why having 500 - 700 children on a ship should equate to poor behaviour. I know of many schools with 450 - 500 children aged 3 - 11 (some with 120 of these aged 3 - 5 yrs) where the children behave beautifully, who follow the rules, are polite and are an absolute pleasure to be around. :) (And at Christmas time as well)

 

All of us, no matter how old, need to know our boundaries. Ironically, our main criticism of Celebrity in the past has been that people of all ages break the ship's rules and no one on the ship seems to do anything about it ... :(

[wwcruisers]

Wow! I thought I would be alone in this and would get slammed! I may write a letter to X, as many suggested, but only for benefit of future cruisers. Our last X cruise had a massive Norovirus outbreak on cruise before, so the CDC was onboard our ship. That led to a whole lot of lines and challenges i wont bore you with, as it is off topic. so I think I am not meant to sail on X! I am having a bad string of luck of the draw with them!

 

Lawgirl, I found your post rather distressing, as we finally bit the bullet and booked our very first Holiday (Xmas/NY) sailing on Eclipse, for this year. I really do hope that you will take the time to write that letter to X Corporate Headquarters.

 

Your original post leads me to believe that there simply weren't enough staff members to deal with the sheer number of cruisers, much less all of the under-18 crowd. I will leave the discussion of kids running amuk (and whose responsibility/fault it is) to others. But, I do expect that, when I sail on a ship filled to maximum capacity (whether with Shriners or 3rd graders) there will be sufficient staff -- especially Security -- to deal with that number of passengers. IMHO, if the rules apply to me, they should apply to everyone else. Those who repeatedly flaunt them (or allow their minor children to) should be put off at the next port.

Edited January 4, 2014 by wwcruisers

[kevinyork]

Have just read all of the posts and have to ask why having 500 - 700 children on a ship should equate to poor behaviour. I know of many schools with 450 - 500 children aged 3 - 11 (some with 120 of these aged 3 - 5 yrs) where the children behave beautifully, who follow the rules, are polite and are an absolute pleasure to be around. :) (And at Christmas time as well)

 

All of us, no matter how old, need to know our boundaries. Ironically, our main criticism of Celebrity in the past has been that people of all ages break the ship's rules and no one on the ship seems to do anything about it ... :(

 

Why should it equate to bad behaviour? It should not. However X doesnt have the facilities to entertain that number so its down to the parents.

[chamima]

[nngardener]

My husband and I had our own “cruise from hell” on NCL. It was our first cruise with friends who had sold us on the idea of a relaxing and fun time. Unfortunately, we sailed in March and unbeknownst to us, it was Spring Break. The ship held about 1500 passengers and 850 of them were college kids (drunk and obnoxious kids). I was later to learn these kids’ parents had purchased drink packages for them. I couldn’t imagine what those parents were thinking.

 

There were few if any places you could find on the ship to find some peace. There was no room in any hot tubs or swimming pools. In addition, it wasn’t unusual to find vomit in the elevators and other assorted places. The kids also thought it was especially fun to run through the halls at all hours of the night. We were on the promenade deck so they could also use that as their race track. To the best of my knowledge, NCL did nothing but make excuses for the behavior (and selling them the drink package).

 

Fortunately, the cruise was only 7 days because I couldn’t wait to get off that ship. Somehow we were persuaded this cruise was an anomaly and tried again at a different time of the year. I’m definitely putting the Christmas holidays on my personal “Do Not Cruise” list of dates.

 

I’m really sorry for your experience but am hoping you’ll try X again.

[cruisinggran]

Celebrity Soltice March 2013 Australia.

Same thing happened on our trip minus the diaper brigade.

We had 400 children on our lifetime cruise up the Barrier reef. They were jumping from the hot tub into the pool.the little darlings with not a parent in sight. When I spoke with management regarding Someone is going to get hurt if they miss the pool the answer was they are on vacation just the same as you are. You could not use the outside pool in the pm.

They were herds of them running free all over the ship.

I have been on all cruise lines at all times of the year and never had an experience like that before and I hope never again.

[Azulann]

i think it depends on when and how long Christmas break is each year and also the length of cruise and itenerary. I was on a 15 day Panama Canal cruise over Christmas and New years in 2012/13.

there were ,yes, many children and lots of generations of families present. the children of all ages were having fun and really no evidience of any being out of control. Many of the families were from South America so that might make a difference. On the sea days, which we had a lot of, the kids were well supervised. Love them doing a trivia contest and asking us passegners if we could help with the answers.

Pick you holiday cruise carefully and enjoy. I hope to do one on a South American itinerary in the future.

[CanWeGoYet?]

Wow, I hope some repercussion for kicking another passenger in the head happened to the brat in the pool. If nothing else he ought to be confined to his cabin, along with the non parents who need to supervise him (or her).

 

I have been on spring break cruises or holiday timed cruises on Carnival - I don't imagine there are many fans of this line on the Celebrity board - but as many kids as there were on board - I haven't seen this kind of bad behavior. I see more problems from the adults than the kids, to be honest.

 

I had a problem with a loud, rude, drunk obnoxious couple in the suite next door to ours - short cruise and 4AM on disembark day. I imagine they thought "let's get drunk, sing, yell the F bomb - what are they going to do kick us off the ship?" I called security - they were knocking on the door within 3 minutes. Read them the riot act - no more guff from the other side of the wall for the rest of the night. Don't know if it was something Security was made aware of when they called on the cabin, or just a process of luggage going past Customs, dogs, etc. But that morning when I came back from breakfast, there was a whole Customs, Immigration & Security convention going on in the hallway to this room. A cheap 3 day Bahamas cruise, but Security was up to the task of keeping order.

Edited January 5, 2014 by CanWeGoYet?

[Gig103]

That makes me glad that Celebrity was charging $3300/pp for a verandah on the "Around the horn" Infinity sailing, so I didn't do a B2B or take that itinerary over the repositioning cruise we ended up on. Both my X cruises have been blissfully low on children, helped by the fact we take the late seating.

[JanineM]

Thanks for posting this, lawgirl. It's been our experience that cruises over a week have fewer kids - but I guess Christmas break trumps this.

 

We have sailed Royal Caribbean during spring break with over a thousand kids on board & barely noticed them ... So it's probably a combination of lack of activities, lax staffing - but more than that it's BAD PARENTING. Parents need to be the first line of attack against bratty behaviour.

 

All of that said, appreciate you posting this. I'll keep it in the back of my mind.

[DebbieMacG]

Thanks for posting Lawgirl. I'm sorry you had such a terrible cruise. 700 kids on board is unthinkable, the ship just doesn't have the facilities and staff to cope with that number of kids. The kids club isn't big enough, the pools aren't big enough to handle all those children even if they were all well behaved, which they obviously weren't.

 

We took our five year old grand daughter on our last cruise in November, she was one of 20 under 18's onboard. She is very very well behaved (we wouldn't have taken her if she wasn't) and there is no way we would have allowed her to do anything to disrupt or spoil anyone else's enjoyment of their cruise, just the same as we wouldn't behave like that ourselves. The way some parents allow their children to cause chaos is unbelievable :(

 

I'm grateful for the heads up as we were thinking of taking a Christmas and New year cruise but won't be doing that now. Our six celebrity cruises have all been in May, October or November. We work in tourism so can't go in the summer, maybe that's a good thing! :)

[jasm8449]

Talking to a Celebrity Hostess a few years back, she described school holiday cruises as a "nightmare".

 

I would never go to Disneyworld during a school break or a cruise.

[RocketMan275]

Lawgirl, I found your post rather distressing, as we finally bit the bullet and booked our very first Holiday (Xmas/NY) sailing on Eclipse, for this year. I really do hope that you will take the time to write that letter to X Corporate Headquarters.

 

Your original post leads me to believe that there simply weren't enough staff members to deal with the sheer number of cruisers, much less all of the under-18 crowd. I will leave the discussion of kids running amuk (and whose responsibility/fault it is) to others. But, I do expect that, when I sail on a ship filled to maximum capacity (whether with Shriners or 3rd graders) there will be sufficient staff -- especially Security -- to deal with that number of passengers. IMHO, if the rules apply to me, they should apply to everyone else. Those who repeatedly flaunt them (or allow their minor children to) should be put off at the next port.

 

Not so sure this can be attributed to a lack of staff, especially security. There have been many threads recounting similar behavior and security choosing not to get involved.

 

It's not a lack of security, it's a lack of rules enforcement. The lines (not limited to Celebrity) want to offend the least number of passengers so that, in many cases, they choose not to get involved. The only way to deal with this is to complain long and loud.

[PORT ROYAL]

I debated long and hard about posting, as any negative comment on X seems to draw criticism. But, I thought it may help others decide....

 

So, our Equinox 10 day December 20 to 30th cruise just ended. Caribbean out of FLL. Out of all of our cruises, it was in some ways the most disappointing. Food and service were good, ship lovely. But, X seems to have oversold the cruise so to speak with many cabins with 3rd and 4th beds full, meaning a VERY crowded ship. But it was the kids...we were told by staff there were 700 onboard. Staff also told us they had no idea what to do with all the kids.

 

This is what we dealt with for 10 days

 

Diapers and more diapers in pools

Pools so full of kids you couldn't move

Being kicked in face by kid in pool..hard

Being hit by a football in head

Cannonballs in hot tubs

Running from pool, to hot tub, back and forth again

Screaming in halls at all hours.

Yelling out crazy stuff during hot glass show

Using elevators as a game of racing

Constant yelling on balconies

Tag in the library.

Running through the solarium chasing each other

Screaming Tweens in the ladies spa changing area

A kid running smack into my husband and spilling his $12 drink on his tux, which the family of the kid thought was cute apparently.

And an exchange of gifts of thongs by teens at the dining room table next to us

Complaints to pool attendants and customer service disregarded.

 

I could go on.

 

Is this my fault..yes, in part, for booking a Christmas cruise. However, in my defense, our other cruises on X had maybe 25 to 50 kids. Did I think it would be three or four times that? Sure! I even did research and people said 10 days on X over Christmas, maybe 200 or 300. NOT 700.

 

Do I blame the parents? Yes...have some respect for others. You may think your screaming child is cute, but everyone paid for the cruise....this is not your personal yacht. And yes, i could go in the shady solarium -- where kids ran thru too-- but i paid for this cruise...cant i get some sun? And, btw, adults, seriously grabbing French fries with your hands instead of using tongs?? WHat?

 

Lastly, do I blame X? You bet!!! Why overbook like this (I know, short term money to the detriment of worrying if people like me will cruise with you again). More importantly, why book this many kids...limit it. You do NOT have the capability of entertaining kids well on X, with no children's pool or significant other children's area like Royal or Princess. In fact a ton of kids on X are worse than a ton on other lines because of this. You can't sell yourself as an upscale, enrichment, sophisticated line and then let kids stand and scream on chairs and climb in windows at late seating dinner.

 

And why can't they have pool attendants and security etc. control the situation better? You can't have a drink in the pool, but you can throw footballs or jump onto of adults? Or use huge baby floats and diapers? It's OK for 7,8,9 year olds to run the halls at midnight and race the elevators all night? Celebrity could, and SHOULD set limits, curfews on unattended kids, etc.

 

So, be warned, unless you want to feel like you are vacationing inside a Chucky Cheese or Daycare center, avoid Celebrity at Christmas.

 

 

Dear Lawgirl

 

So sad you had to suffer this appalling experience. But I thank you for the heads up as we were considering a X Christmas Cruise this year. We, like others, will steer clear of Kids Holidays leaving the ships to those will enjoy the acts of a crass and disrespectful nature.

 

Thank you again. Your courage to post must be recognised and applauded.