Celebrity Eclipse Question

[Minnie29]

Can anyone answer a few questions to compare this ship to Cunards Queen Elizabeth?

How does the entertainment compare?

My husband and I are considering a Med cruise on Eclipse in September but are concerned that there may be children onboard and that would ruin the cruise for us.

Any comments would be much appreciated.

[LzyCruiser_NWA]

Lol the sights of children ruin your cruise?

[DYKWIA]

We've done this cruise on Eclipse the last two years - last year it was a week earlier than this year. It's right at the end of the school vacation or just as they go back.

 

On both occasions there have hardly been any children on board, there might have been a few more last year owing to it being a week earlier, but not very many at all.

 

Whether a recent High Court judgement on parents being fined for taking their kids out of school will have any effect in the future remains to be seen.

[BigJH]

My first comment would be "why do people always think children will ruin their holidays", in my experience they always enhance it...

[neverbeenhere]

Celebrity do a great job entertaining the children. Think Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. :)

[Ebbwboy]

We cruised on Eclipse to the Canaries last September and saw very few children on board.

[Minnie29]

My husband and I have no children and want to cruise with adults especially when it comes to dinner.

A romantic meal would be ruined with badly behaved children crying on the next table.

Are there any adult only ships?

[bookitdanno]

Can anyone answer a few questions to compare this ship to Cunards Queen Elizabeth?

How does the entertainment compare?

My husband and I are considering a Med cruise on Eclipse in September but are concerned that there may be children onboard and that would ruin the cruise for us.

Any comments would be much appreciated.

 

So Cunard doesn't allow children on the Queen Elizabeth?

Remind me to NEVER sail with them!

[HelenREMfan]

As a teacher I do not wish to share my precious holiday time with poorly parented children. Children themselves I do not mind - especially if I am in charge of them, but modern parenting leaves me often seething so I understand your concern. I have sailed Celebrity quite a few times now and one of the reasons I continue to choose them is that it is a more adult only environment.

I have done the Western Med cruise 3 times now and saw very very few children. With Celebrity there aren't the water slides etc that might attract families. The solarium area is an adult environment - adult only swimming pool and that area is filled with loungers with hot tubs and lovely Aqua spa cafe.

So I would say go with Celebrity with some confidence. Yes, there is the court judgement in the British courts regarding parents taking their children out of school in term time but as I said Celebrity is an adult product. :)

[bengaltiger1]

I can see both sides to this. I have two adult children. When they were small and as they grew up we taught them manners, kept them occupied and made certain they did not bother others. If they started to disturb anyone, we took them away from the situation. My son is disabled and had occasional meltdowns.

Now we are on our own, I value those same things we gave to others. I do not want badly behaved, ill mannered and noisy children or adults spoiling my well earned recreation time. The key word for me is respect. Too many parents think everyone wants to engage with little Jonny. Or they ignore the behaviour. Consideration for others goes a long way in keeping all happy.

 

 

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[ghstudio]

My husband and I have no children and want to cruise with adults especially when it comes to dinner.

A romantic meal would be ruined with badly behaved children crying on the next table.

Are there any adult only ships?

 

I am not aware of any major cruise line that bans children on their cruises. You could possibly find a charter...I believe celebrity has had both "adult" and "LGBT" cruises (note adult here is means clothing optional)...but even those would likely allow children.

 

I have been on cruises with children where the children are far better behaved than many of the adults. Stereotypes are generally not a good thing...but if you believe that the site of any child will spoil your romantic meal, I suggest you eat at home since I am also unaware of any restaurants, other than private clubs, where children are not permitted.

Edited May 24, 2016 by ghstudio

[BigJH]

As far as I'm aware Queen Elizabeth do allow children? Sounds like you need to stay away from Celebrity just in case you bump into "a family" with those nasty things called children running wild throughout the ship. In my experience you generally need to look at the older more established cruising generation for poor behaviour and bad manners...

[DYKWIA]

I am not aware of any major cruise line that bans children on their cruises.

 

Maybe not a major cruise line, but P & O has a couple of ships Arcadia and Oriana that are adults only and do a lot of cruises around the med in the summer.

[sandancer]

Best stick to Cunard. We have cruised for many years with Celebrity and have never yet taken a childless cruise. We have also never seen a child behave badly enough for it to be noticeable. Seen lots of badly behaved adults (think buffet).

 

 

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[ClaudiaB]

The only time in our 13 cruises with Celebrity that we've seen more than maybe a dozen children is on one of our Alaska cruises. Those children were the most well behaved and sweet kids. Like others have said, it's the "grown-ups" that you have to sometimes wonder about.

 

In my experience, those who have young children and travel are usually some of the best passengers. Those kids grow up learning so much and are enriched with their travel experiences, and they learn how to do things in situations - in other words, I find them very adaptable and quite delightful. (I was one of those children who was fortunate enough to travel a lot with my parents growing up).

 

I do know what you mean though. There are other cruise lines like Carnival and Royal Caribbean and Disney (among others) where there will be lots and lots of children. Those ships also have a virtual amusement park up on the top decks. Celebrity is not Carnival or Royal Caribbean or Disney. When we take our grandchildren (which we've promised we would when the youngest is a wee bit older) we will likely cruise Disney or RC.

 

I would just book the cruise and don't fret that you might see a child. We were all children once.

[Adammara]

Well in over 400 days at sea, on 39 cruises, we have only seen one really badly behaved child on P&O. If you do decide on Celebrity, go for an Aqua cabin, and dine in Blu, we have dined in Blu 69 times, and cannot remember seeing any children at all. Most of the children we have seen on cruise have been impeccably behaved, unlike some adults.

[Redtravel]

As a former teacher, i had the pleasure of sailing duriing school vacations. . It was okay when I brought my kids. Now it's okay when I bring my grandkids. Other times, I prefer adult cruises. Travel when school is in session amd you won't see many kids.

[milamber]

I can't get into the children argument as we tend to cruise outside of the school holidays and on itineraries that wouldn't be popular with families. There were no children at all, apart from a couple of babies and toddlers, on our Celebrity cruise last week. Go in the school holidays to the Med and it will be packed, obviously.

 

However we have been with both Cunard and Celebrity recently. It's obviously a very personal observation as we are all different, but in a nutshell.

 

Celebrity have less formal and, in our opinion, happier and better trained crew. Whilst the crew on both are excellent, we feel more relaxed, especially at dinner, with Celebrity. We get the impression that the Cunard crew always have someone looking over their shoulders and this impacts on the service.

 

The food on Celebrity is marginally better in the main dining room and considerably better in the buffet. That said, it's almost impossible to get a seat in the buffet on Celebrity at peak times, whilst that's never been an issue with Cunard.

 

Likewise with seating around the ship - there always seems to be fewer spaces available with Celebrity than Cunard, especially on a cooler itinerary.

 

Shows are broadly similar with many of the same tired old acts cropping up on both lines. Shows by the ships teams are of similar standard, though Cunard's are well past the sell by date now.

 

The big difference for us is the range of activities available on a sea day. Whilst we barely fit everything in on Cunard, we were bored stiff this time on Celebrity. The few things that were available that we might like cost extra on Celebrity, unlike Cunard. No proper dance classes, no afternoon tea served, Zumba cost extra. The few lectures were of a poor standard. The daily programme on Celebrity consisted largely of shop open days, presentations on art/jewellery/watches for sale, wine tasting (at a cost) and silly officers vs guest games.

 

Celebrity is considerably less formal in the evening so that will be a personal choice for you. It wasn't so much a free for all as we were led to believe - most people made an effort, but it's not Cunard if that's what you like.

 

Everything felt just a little tacky and commercial on Celebrity this time, but guess that's the way they are all going to an extent. It was vastly different to our first Celebrity cruise around 4 years ago which still remains one of our favourites.

 

We enjoy both lines, and others. As long as the itinerary is right we would be happy to sail with both.

[russy1]

We have done the med cruise on Celebrity in September and we had the grand total of 6 children on board :)

[DYKWIA]

We have done the med cruise on Celebrity in September and we had the grand total of 6 children on board :)

 

Yes, I would have said about that 2 years ago, and maybe about 10-15 last year with the cruise a week earlier

[Banjo]

I have done 3 September Celebrity cruises in the Med, I think I could count on my one hand how many children I seen. Also, the small number of children I seen were very well mannered.

[Jack Staff]

Perhaps Celebrity should have a ''child catcher" as in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

Although we travel in UK school holidays I have never seen a problem child on Celebrity (other than the ones I have to take with me)

[Jack Staff]

Perhaps Celebrity should have a ''child catcher" as in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?

Although we travel in UK school holidays I have never seen a problem child on Celebrity (other than the ones I have to take with me).

 

Are cases of Noro more prevalent on cruises where ther is a good percent of children? Or does the cruise with older people tend to suffer more?

[GordonJasmine]

Does anyone know if there will be many children aboard Eclipse for the 2017 2-week Southern Caribbean cruise that ends on Easter Sunday? Just curious. Thanks!

[keithm]

So Cunard doesn't allow children on the Queen Elizabeth?

Remind me to NEVER sail with them!

Geesh! Cunard does not ban kids. Cunard has an older crowd, so there's less kids aboard. You'll see more kids during school break times on any line. We generally choose to cruise Cunard/Celebrity when thee are less kids. Not because of the kids, but because of idiotic parents who feel it's fine for their kids to go unsupervised. Nothing like children hitting every button on the elevator. I mean really. With all the fissionable materials gone missing, you'd think they'd be up to some REAL mischief! (this is snarky humor for those who don't get it)