Royal Caribbean or Celebrity?

[mayabee]

I’m looking for advice and recommendations for Australia & New Zealand cruises in December. We are looking at the Royal Caribbean - Serenade of the Seas or Celebrity Eclipse cruises.  There will be four adults and two kids (both will around 12 months old). What's the weather like in December? Did the cruise feel too long? We’ve never done more than a nine day cruise and that was before children. Also, which cruise is more kid friendly?  We've sailed on RC before, but never tried Celebrity. Thanks in advance!

 

[GUT2407]

No idea if you will find it too long or not, firstly you don’t say how long it is and some find a week too long, others haven’t found what they might consider too long (35 nights and still didn’t want to get off)

[mayabee]

Good point! The cruise we were looking at is between 11 - 13 days.  

[GUT2407]

Certainly not too long for me,

 

I haven’t sailed Royal yet, but have four booked with them, like Celebrity a lot, only done two with them so far but no doubt will do more in future.

 

If the kids are only 1 I don’t see any reason to leant one way or the other.

[GUT2407]

Ohh and December is likely to be Hot, but at sea it’s not too bad.

[lyndarra]

I've cruised on both. Celebrity is a little more upmarket I suppose and is my preference but either would be a good cruise. My determining factor would be ports, the more the better, especially if I've never been there before. From what I've seen kids are always well catered for on both brands. All ocean cruises I've done (about 17) have been 14 days or more except for two Inside passage cruises of 7 days (does that count as 14?😀). Less than 10 days seems a bit short.

[GUT2407]

21 minutes ago, lyndarra said:

I've cruised on both. Celebrity is a little more upmarket I suppose and is my preference but either would be a good cruise. My determining factor would be ports, the more the better, especially if I've never been there before. From what I've seen kids are always well catered for on both brands. All ocean cruises I've done (about 17) have been 14 days or more except for two Inside passage cruises of 7 days (does that count as 14?😀). Less than 10 days seems a bit short.

I agree that less than 10 seems short, we tend to do a Tasmanian cruise most December’s which is normally about 8 days, and it is certainly a little too short, shortest we have done is two nights, longest 35, current bookings range from 3 to 34.

[MicCanberra]

On 10/4/2019 at 9:50 AM, mayabee said:

I’m looking for advice and recommendations for Australia & New Zealand cruises in December. We are looking at the Royal Caribbean - Serenade of the Seas or Celebrity Eclipse cruises.  There will be four adults and two kids (both will around 12 months old). What's the weather like in December? Did the cruise feel too long? We’ve never done more than a nine day cruise and that was before children. Also, which cruise is more kid friendly?  We've sailed on RC before, but never tried Celebrity. Thanks in advance!

 

I think Royal will cater for your kids a bit better than X as they cater for families better and have slides and such.

[ELep]

Given that your little ones will only be 12 mths old, I don't think it will matter to them. They are way too young for pools, slides, kids club, skating etc. So if I were you I would pick on itinerary and price that suits the four adults. 11-13 days would not be too long for me. But only you can answer that. December very warm, but lovely at sea. Small chance of a cyclone, which may change your itinerary. Happy planning.