Children’s activities on equinox?

[Birdnutty]

We’re considering a cruise on the equinox in early November. The itinerary and timing work well for us, and the pricing at this point is excellent. We’ll have our 8 yr old daughter with us. This lucky little kid (only child) has cruised many times, and is not a big fan of the kids’ clubs and programs. What kind of family oriented activities are there on this ship?  Is there enough to do for a kid?  

[rossco_p]

Our 9 and 11 year old boys were on the Silhouette 2 months ago. The Kids Club was very focused on engaging activities for the children and the staff were genuine and kind. Both boys enjoyed it immensely and they went freely every day. Celebrity has no water slides etc, so the only children oriented activities were provided at the Kids Club. They encouraged social interaction with other kids and my two boys made good friends very quickly, which seemed to be the motivation to them wanting to keep going back there (and not have to hang out with mum and dad!).  

[spitfire13]

Maybe she'll like the lectures.

[MarLieb]

We have only sailed on the Summit with our son, who was 11 at the time, so can't comment on the Equinox programming, but I would assume they are quite similar.  Other than the kids' clubs, there really isn't a lot of "family" programming on Celebrity.  The kids club did host one family "camp" night with games and s'mores, otherwise, the programming consists of mostly live shows, musicians, comedians, wine tastings, etc.  We participated in a trivia game one night which turned out to be a little PG-13, but my son was ok with that.  When he wasn't in the kids club, we played basketball together and spent time at the pool.  I found most of our days were half-days on the ship anyway because we were out exploring the ports.  I'm not sure what other cruise lines you've sailed on, but the Celebrity kids clubs are much different than what you will find on lines like DCL, RCCL and NCL.  My son actually does not like the bigger, chaotic kids clubs on those lines.  He really enjoyed the Celebrity Fun Factory where they split the kids up into smaller age groups - the rooms are smaller, quieter and the activities geared more to those smaller age groups.  Our typical day consisted of morning port adventures, afternoons at the pool, playing basketball or watching a movie, dinner and then about 2 hours or so in the kids club for him.  Consider booking a dinner at Le Petit Chef - your daughter might enjoy that!  I wouldn't expect a lot of family programming during the day.  It was definitely a quieter experience than the bigger, more family-focused cruise lines.      

[twodjs]

I thought this would become a problem when Celebrity started marketing "family oriented" cruises. I always thought of Celebrity as more geared to adults. Since your daughter is not fond of the typical kid club activities, why not ask her what she would like to do and we can let you know whether Celebrity offers this. 

[the_dylaness]

My daughter, who was 7.5 when we sailed on Reflection for 10 days in November, really liked Celebrity.

The kid's club is less chaotic than it was on Disney or NCL.  My son, 4, also liked it.

Basically their days were something like this:

 

Wake up

Eat breakfast

Kids club

Lunch

Nap

Snack

Swim

Early dinner (usually in buffet or room service- MDR took too long for their attention span)

Maybe kids club vs watch a movie in the room or hang out on the lawn

Bed

 

They thought it was SO COOL that you could watch a movie in your room (we don't watch a lot at home so it was a treat) AND someone would BRING YOU FOOD!  We like to keep expectations low so even the small things seem really fun.

 

Having said this there is another thread currently active about X pulling the complimentary in room movies.  This is a HUGE problem for so many, but especially I think for those of us with small children.  Sometimes they just need some downtime to veg out and watch a movie.  This keeps them happy and cooperative and prevents them from being whiny, obnoxious, cranky children that so many folks are worried they will encounter. I would encourage you to CALL CELEBRITY and inquire about why this is being pulled, and if it impacts your decision to book, I'd let them know that too.