Kids Dinner On Celebrity

[rimmit]

Hi!

I am typically over on the RCI forum and have extensive knowledge of how RCI, NCL, DCL all run their kids programs.  I have been on X 3 times,  on the Constellation, Mercury, and Solstice,  but never with kids and now I have a 4 and 8 year old.

 

I have tried to search the forums for info but I cant seem to hit the right search terms And X website is none too helpful.

 

What are the kids dinner options on X?  As in do the kids counselors bring them to the buffet for food from 5-7 if they are signed up for a kids dinner?  Is there even a kids dinner on X?  Is there a kids lunch for port days?  If so are there fees for either?  

 

In in particular I am interested in the Millenium.  Thanks a bunch.

[cruisestitch]

I have seen the kids counselors eating dinner with children in the buffet, so I assume that is an option.  As to port days, I have not ever seen the counselors eating with children at the buffet, so I am going to say that this options is not available on Celebrity.

Edited March 8, 2019 by cruisestitch

[rimmit]

So, I continued to search heavily throughout the Internet, and I finally found a PDF explaining all of the children’s activities dated March 2017 from Celebrity.  For anyone else interested, there is kids dinner from 5 to 7 every night of the cruise. There is also a port day lunch from 12 to 2 any day the ship is in port.

 

 

[jkgourmet]

45 minutes ago, rimmit said:

So, I continued to search heavily throughout the Internet, and I finally found a PDF explaining all of the children’s activities dated March 2017 from Celebrity.  For anyone else interested, there is kids dinner from 5 to 7 every night of the cruise. There is also a port day lunch from 12 to 2 any day the ship is in port.

 

 

 

No kids here - but I wouldn't assume that a 2 year old pdf is still accurate.  Especially with X.

[rimmit]

6 minutes ago, jkgourmet said:

 

No kids here - but I wouldn't assume that a 2 year old pdf is still accurate.  Especially with X.

 

I agree. I found many older posts from 2012 and 2015 stating the same thing as the pdf, and was looking for more up-to-date information but 2017 is the newest.  . We have some friends going on the 12 night southern Carib on solstice this month with two children, so I will have them report back to me.  She called celebrity to ask you about kids dinner before booking in nov., and that is what they stated. However, sometimes what is on the website and pdfs is not what is happening in reality.

 

We typically either sail royal Caribbean or Disney, but right now celebrity is running the kids sale free promo, and it is a real sale, not smoke and mirrors (I watch the prices as I really like X itineraries.), so we are looking at some celebrity cruises.  Mainly the SE Asia ones.

[Pier290]

Yes...u can sign them up for the Fun Factory dinners...they are in the buffet.

 

There's also kids menus in the main dining rooms as well 😎

[rimmit]

5 minutes ago, Pier290 said:

Yes...u can sign them up for the Fun Factory dinners...they are in the buffet.

 

There's also kids menus in the main dining rooms as well 😎

 

  Yes, I saw the kids menus on the X website.  Only cruise line I have seen that specifically posts The Kids MDr and room service menus online.  Guess they really want to reassure parents that there is kid friendly food on board.

[jkgourmet]

again - no kids here.  But it does seem possible that the kids programs may vary by ship, itinerary and, especially, demand (meaning how many kids are on board.)

 

I'm very sure that there will be more kids on the solstice in the Caribbean than on an Asia itinerary.  Your friend's experience may not apply to your sailing.

 

(PS re: Asia itineraries.  Do check the distances between ports and the sites.  You end up spending a lot of time traveling to sites in many of those ports.  And the cost of any required visa's should be considered.)

[rimmit]

6 minutes ago, jkgourmet said:

again - no kids here.  But it does seem possible that the kids programs may vary by ship, itinerary and, especially, demand (meaning how many kids are on board.)

 

I'm very sure that there will be more kids on the solstice in the Caribbean than on an Asia itinerary.  Your friend's experience may not apply to your sailing.

 

(PS re: Asia itineraries.  Do check the distances between ports and the sites.  You end up spending a lot of time traveling to sites in many of those ports.  And the cost of any required visa's should be considered.)

 

That is why I was specifically asking on a forum to see what the most recent updates are on the Millenium.

 As the Millenium does mainly Alaska and Asia.  With RCI despite child numbers they are incredibly consistent with child offerings, but I do not cruise enough X to know all the inner workings.

 

Thanks for the advice.  We travel a lot, and have been on cruises with as few as 6 total kids out of over 4000 pax.   We have also been to many ports with notable travel times such as Aqaba to Petra (2 hours) and Citavecchia.  We also recently doled out 1000 dollars in Visas when we went to Moscow independently traveling so I know visa pain all to well.   And I will tell you the Russian visa process is an absolute pain.  Thank you for the heads up though, as there is nothing worse than unexpected circumstances, many of which are unpredictable.

 

 

[turtleko]

We were on the Solstice in Alaska last summer with a 7 and 10 year old. It was the end of August so there were not a lot of kids on board (looked like 3 to 12 kids in each age group whenever we stopped by) but they still held a full kids program except the 3-5 and 6-9 year old groups were sometimes combined.

 

Lunch and dinner was by sign-up if you wanted them to attend. Lunch was on port days only from 12:00 - 2:00 pm, dinner was every day 5:00 - 7:00 pm, and they were taken to the Oceanview Cafe.

 

Dinner was free on sea days and when the ship sailed from port by 5:00 pm. Otherwise there was a $6/hour charge for lunch, dinner or 10 pm - 1 am "slumber party". There was a note that if there weren't enough children, we might have to sign up for meals the day before but that didn't happen. There was a "Party Pass" option that included all lunch, dinner, slumber party times plus a tour of the ship for $105.

 

The kids program did close from 12:00 - 2:00 and 5:00 - 7:00 except for those signed up for lunch and dinner. There was also a rule that they could only stay in the program for 6 hours before taking a minimum 1 hour break.

 

We will be on the Millennium in October in Japan and hope that will be a similar experience!

[rimmit]

1 hour ago, turtleko said:

We were on the Solstice in Alaska last summer with a 7 and 10 year old. It was the end of August so there were not a lot of kids on board (looked like 3 to 12 kids in each age group whenever we stopped by) but they still held a full kids program except the 3-5 and 6-9 year old groups were sometimes combined.

 

Lunch and dinner was by sign-up if you wanted them to attend. Lunch was on port days only from 12:00 - 2:00 pm, dinner was every day 5:00 - 7:00 pm, and they were taken to the Oceanview Cafe.

 

Dinner was free on sea days and when the ship sailed from port by 5:00 pm. Otherwise there was a $6/hour charge for lunch, dinner or 10 pm - 1 am "slumber party". There was a note that if there weren't enough children, we might have to sign up for meals the day before but that didn't happen. There was a "Party Pass" option that included all lunch, dinner, slumber party times plus a tour of the ship for $105.

 

The kids program did close from 12:00 - 2:00 and 5:00 - 7:00 except for those signed up for lunch and dinner. There was also a rule that they could only stay in the program for 6 hours before taking a minimum 1 hour break.

 

We will be on the Millennium in October in Japan and hope that will be a similar experience!

 

Thanks!  That is exactly what I was looking for.  I really appreciate it.  Kinda nice they have an all inclusive purchase option for $105.  Do you know if that’s ship dependent?

 

We are debating the Oct 26th sailing on the Millenium right now.  We’ve been trying to hit all the Disney theme parks and that would let us knock Shanghai and Tokyo off our list.  RCI doesn’t have the best itinerary options for SE Asia and Disney doesn’t go there period, so we are looking at other lines.  Thanks again for the information.

[Covepointcruiser]

With the new promo “Kids sail Free” we may see changes in the kids programs.   Should make for a great increase in the number of kids so Celebrity will need to step things up to keep the kids happy.

[rimmit]

1 hour ago, Covepointcruiser said:

With the new promo “Kids sail Free” we may see changes in the kids programs.   Should make for a great increase in the number of kids so Celebrity will need to step things up to keep the kids happy.

It will be interesting to see how much of an impact this have on kids numbers.   Regardless of whether it’s KSF or not, Celebrity still pales in comparison to RCI, Carnival, NCL and Disney in kids amenities.  HAL, PCL both run 3rd and 4th guest free often and due to their marketing and itineraries do not seem to be over run with kids.   I would state it’s the exact opposite,  in that there are very view except on the Caribbean itineraries.

[mandream]

3 hours ago, rimmit said:

 

Thanks!  That is exactly what I was looking for.  I really appreciate it.  Kinda nice they have an all inclusive purchase option for $105.  Do you know if that’s ship dependent?

 

They call it the VIP package and I don't believe it is ship dependent.  They have had it on all the cruises my kids have been on. 

 

Mike

[rimmit]

5 minutes ago, mandream said:

 

They call it the VIP package and I don't believe it is ship dependent.  They have had it on all the cruises my kids have been on. 

 

Mike

Thanks again for your response.  Have you sailed many other Kid friendlier cruise lines?   If so how does the kids program compare?  We don’t need all the bells and whistles that the large ships have.  We frequently go on the Grandeur or the Seas with Royal which is a smaller ship with less stuff than the Millenium.  We just need a kids program with decent counselors.

 

My kids are super social and love the kids programs.   The counselors always remember them even when they change ships and see them on another ship.   That could be a good or bad thing lol...

[mandream]

2 minutes ago, rimmit said:

Thanks again for your response.  Have you sailed many other Kid friendlier cruise lines?   If so how does the kids program compare?  We don’t need all the bells and whistles that the large ships have.  We frequently go on the Grandeur or the Seas with Royal which is a smaller ship with less stuff than the Millenium.  We just need a kids program with decent counselors.

 

My kids are super social and love the kids programs.   The counselors always remember them even when they change ships and see them on another ship.   That could be a good or bad thing lol...

 

Sorry - we're pretty much Celebrity cruisers.  My kids are 7 and 8 and we just got off their 9th Celebrity cruise 2 weeks ago.  My 7 year old is VERY social and he LOVES the Fun Factory.  My 8 year old is not so social and doesn't want to go as much as he used to - BUT he always has fun when he does go.  2 weeks ago, there were 2 counselors on the Edge that remembered us from the Silhouette in August.  

 

The nice thing about the Fun Factory is that the program is fairly structured.  Instead of just a big supervised room - they have different activities each day and evening and the staff interact with them.

 

Mike

 

[MarLieb]

37 minutes ago, rimmit said:

Thanks again for your response.  Have you sailed many other Kid friendlier cruise lines?   If so how does the kids program compare?  We don’t need all the bells and whistles that the large ships have.  We frequently go on the Grandeur or the Seas with Royal which is a smaller ship with less stuff than the Millenium.  We just need a kids program with decent counselors.

 

My kids are super social and love the kids programs.   The counselors always remember them even when they change ships and see them on another ship.   That could be a good or bad thing lol...

We just sailed on X for the first time over Christmas week on the Summit with our son who is 11-years old.  We have done 6 DCL cruises plus a few NCL and one Paul Gauguin cruise.  My son loved Fun Factory.  He was ok in the DCL clubs but he became overwhelmed in there when he was younger and was then bored there on our last cruise on DCL (when he was 10).  Even on a Christmas cruise where there were probably more children than usual (it was a southern Caribbean cruise), the Fun Factory never felt overwhelming.  He liked that they divided the ages up more than they do on DCL and liked the structured activities and all of the counselors.  He also made a few friends.  He really enjoyed it and is looking forward to the next X cruise we've booked for this upcoming Christmas.

[rimmit]

33 minutes ago, mandream said:

 

Sorry - we're pretty much Celebrity cruisers.  My kids are 7 and 8 and we just got off their 9th Celebrity cruise 2 weeks ago.  My 7 year old is VERY social and he LOVES the Fun Factory.  My 8 year old is not so social and doesn't want to go as much as he used to - BUT he always has fun when he does go.  2 weeks ago, there were 2 counselors on the Edge that remembered us from the Silhouette in August.  

 

The nice thing about the Fun Factory is that the program is fairly structured.  Instead of just a big supervised room - they have different activities each day and evening and the staff interact with them.

 

Mike

 

Thanks so much for your responses.   Our 8 year old has spent over 140+ nights on various cruises, mostly RCI,  but also DCL and NCL.  Our 3 turning 4 this month year old, is at 90+ days at sea.  They have loved all the Kids programs on all the lines with no issues.  

 

We love structure and that is one of the reasons that as much as wel love DIsney,  we are not as big of fans is the kids club there.  It is basically pleasure Island for kids.  If they want to do the organized activity they can,  but if they want to play on one of the 50+ iPads that are spread throughout their kids club they can do that the WHOLE TIME they are there.  Basically as long as they aren’t interfering with another child they can do whatever they want.   Which is great in keeping them entertained but... I would prefer for my kid not to spend all day on an iPad.   Some time is fine but not ALL day.

6 minutes ago, MarLieb said:

We just sailed on X for the first time over Christmas week on the Summit with our son who is 11-years old.  We have done 6 DCL cruises plus a few NCL and one Paul Gauguin cruise.  My son loved Fun Factory.  He was ok in the DCL clubs but he became overwhelmed in there when he was younger and was then bored there on our last cruise on DCL (when he was 10).  Even on a Christmas cruise where there were probably more children than usual (it was a southern Caribbean cruise), the Fun Factory never felt overwhelming.  He liked that they divided the ages up more than they do on DCL and liked the structured activities and all of the counselors.  He also made a few friends.  He really enjoyed it and is looking forward to the next X cruise we've booked for this upcoming Christmas.

 

Glad to hear they enjoyed the fun factory.  DCL can definitely be intimidating as there are soooo many kids.  The counselors are there more to referee than interact with them I feel.  They don’t have the same relationships as the boats with less kids.

[pixieprincss]

Thanks for the scoop on the kids' program and food! I am a veteran cruiser and cruising parent, but my first time with kids old enough to drop off. From what I hear here, the program sounds right up our alley.