Children on Princess

[meredith]

We have taken our children on 5 cruises, mostly Royal Caribbean. We have been on Princess once, to Alaska w/o kids. I am trying to find a cruise for next spring break. RCI has a Panama Canal cruise, but it is already so booked, they won't book anymore cabins w/ more than 2 people, so this means we would have to have 2 cabins, so that makes it cost more. I just found out that Princess has a Panama Canal cruise in March, so I would consider this, but I'm not sure if there are a lot of children on board, or if Princess really caters to the kids, as far as activities go. They will be 10 and 17 when we go next year. Has anyone taken their kids w/ them, it will be on the Coral Princess.

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=9400d3&cdt=2004;5;16;17;0;00&timezone=GMT-0800[/img] 'til we sail away on the Vision

[parkerlisa]

Hi - I just returned from the Caribbean PRincess with my 2 daughters 7 and 10. The kids program were pretty good. When we boarded, we had the schedule for the entire week. You will need to register them on the first day. You decide if you want the older ones to have self sign-in / sign out privileges. My daughter was 10 and we said no way...we wanted to know for sure where she was at all times. The 10 year olds program included:
Jewelry making,
tee-shirt coloring
disecting squids,
bingo and blackjack for prizes,
ice cream socials,
picture frame making,
and many many more that we did NOT attend.

There is an older club for 13 and above but we did not see too many kids in that program so I cannot comment. THey did have their own area which always had funky music playing.

The 7-9 year old program was also good - lots of craft time and prizes galore.

One early evening they had a kids carnival with face painting, hair brading, cookie decorating, and icecream eating. They really liked this.

IT is funny, we also booked 2 cabins instead of a quad which was sold out. We loved it so much. They were not adjoining, but the balconies opened up so we could pop in any time. It was also nice to have 2 showers and toilets. Two cabins is the way to go if you can afford it.

Hope you have a wonderful time!

lisa

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Caribbean Princess - May 29, 2004!

[serene sea]

Meredith, curious when is your spring break?

[brucejr]

Our kids (9 & 13) really enjoyed their cruise in March. As stated before, lots of activities. My kids got on quite well with the staff.

Also, If you are trying to save money, you might also price your cruise this way. Get a cabin that is able to accommodate 4 people, like a mini-suite, but instead of booking 4 people in that cabin, book 2 people in the cheapest inside cabin you can get, then move them to your cabin once you get onboard. Sometimes the price is less for an inside cabin than it is for the 3rd and 4th in a quad cabin. Then you can either all use the

We saved $300 a person by booking our kids with my parents in an inside, then moving them to our mini-suite once we got onboard.

<font color="FF6600">
if there's a way to construe my post as non-argumentative, please do so.</font>
Cruise photos on my [url="http://www.brobertson.org/"]Home page [/url]<font color="990066">
Spring Break was on the Grand Princess </font>21, March 2004
So when is the next cruise?

[Lauire]

Ditto to what brucejr said.
We also have had a minisuite for 4 on the Grand 2002 . . . & this Easter we booked an outside w/ balcony & inside cabin for our family of four on the Golden & it was basically the same price maybe even a little cheaper.
We also loved that extra bathroom & privacy at night.
The kids program on princess for the 10 year as stated above is very good. Your 17 year old will probably not par take in any of the arranged activities. Our oldest son (15) just found a bunch of kids his age & "hung" with them.
Enjoy!
Laurie

[jmalstrom]

Lisa!

My name is Lisa also and we are taking our 7 and 9 (10 in August) year olds on the Caribbean Princess next week!!! I wonder if you could answer a few questions for me:

Our 7 year old is a girl and is a bit anxious about going to the kids program. I think she would be happier to go with her older brother. We've read alot of conflicting info about the age groupings. Do I understand from your post that 7-9 year olds are together on the Caribbean Princess??

How were the staff? We were on the Rhapsody of the Seas at Christmas and the staff seemed a bit weary. They were mostly good, but not helpful in getting our youngest to come in and have a good time.

Our son really enjoyed the shipwide scavenger hunts on RCCL at Christmas. Do they have that type of activity on Princess?

Love the idea of having the whole schedule on day 1!

Were you on an Eastern or Western itinerary? We are doing Eastern. Just wondered if you found any great beaches/activities for your kids in port that we shouldn't miss.

We also JUST figured out that it's about the same price to book side by side cabins and not all try to cram into one. We don't have balconies, so we'll be back and forth in the hallway alot (quietly, I promise for those who might be sailing with us), but we are really looking forward to having two bathrooms and a bit more elbow room. Santa was a really challenging gig in a quad with 2 kids asleep in upper berths!

Any other tips for sailing with that age children on the Caribbean Princess??

THANKS SO MUCH!
Lisa

[jmalstrom]

Lisa-
I found your most excellent review a few posts down - after posting here.

I think you answered all my questions there.

Thanks for a super, kid oriented review. We can't wait for Saturday to arrive!

Lisa

[meredith]

Serene Sea,

Our spring break for 2004/2005 is from March 18 and they go back on the 29th, unless they have a bad weather makeup day, in which they would go back on the 28th.

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=9400d3&cdt=2004;5;16;17;0;00&timezone=GMT-0800[/img] 'til we sail away on the Vision

[mom2three]

Our spring break is March 12th, and I booked our cruise a month ago.
The ship is already limited on cabins [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Grand Princess 03-12-2005

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[url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=4763056957&m=75110066"]click here[/url] for our roll