Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

More kids on X

Bootstrap77

By Bootstrap77,
in Celebrity Cruises

 Share

Recommended Posts

Bootstrap77

Bootstrap77

Posted
Posted

Has anyone been on a recent X cruise with the promo “kids sail free”? We have noticed more kids on celebrity in recent years, the amount of families with young kids  growing and wondered if this promo has increased the amount of them by a lot. We have cruised with X for 10 years. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Luvcrusn

Luvcrusn

Posted
Posted

I really think is depends on the time of year, itinerary and length of the cruise. We generally don't sail during school holidays and choose longer itineraries and don't see many children. However there was a thread recently about a sailing from Southampton UK that complained about a cruise that had many and wasn't equipped to handle them. I looked but can't find it now.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
davekathy

davekathy

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Luvcrusn said:

I really think is depends on the time of year, itinerary and length of the cruise. We generally don't sail during school holidays and choose longer itineraries and don't see many children. However there was a thread recently about a sailing from Southampton UK that complained about a cruise that had many and wasn't equipped to handle them. I looked but can't find it now.

Agree. We just did a 14 night cruise on the Summit (8 to 22 September 2019) and heard there were less than 5 kids on the cruise. We saw none. Nice. 

  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites
morfred

morfred

Posted
Posted

As a former teacher parents were constantly taking their children out of school for family vacations and cruises. When asked, they explained that airfare and cruise prices were too expensive on school vacation weeks. Invariably the ones who missed school were the ones that needed it the most.

  • Like 7
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bootstrap77

Bootstrap77

Posted
  • Author
Posted
18 minutes ago, morfred said:

As a former teacher parents were constantly taking their children out of school for family vacations and cruises. When asked, they explained that airfare and cruise prices were too expensive on school vacation weeks. Invariably the ones who missed school were the ones that needed it the most.

thanks for the info. Appreciate your insight. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Luvcrusn

Luvcrusn

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, DebInAntigua said:

I cringe every time I see this promo come back. We’re cruising next month and really hope we won’t see many kids onboard. I wish X would stop doing this promotion but I guess it’s to attract younger demographics than DH and me. 

It is indicative of an identity crisis.  X advertises itself as a "Modern Luxury" line and has this promo for "Kids Sail Free" yet offers little for young children and teens. I love the children in our family and enjoy traveling with them, yet would never choose X when sailing with them, there are other lines that offer so much more  for them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
morfred

morfred

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Mike981 said:

 

Thank you for your input. How were you able to come up with this conclusion?

 

It was more of a disappointment with the parents. After all the hard work that I had done with students that needed more help or who had fallen behind the parents would have no regard for the work that needed to be done and would take them out of school promising that they would "catch up" when in fact a week off was the last thing that the child could afford. Parents were the eventual reason that I retired at 65yo not my love of teaching. Sorry/not sorry for getting off topic.

  • Like 7
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Oville

Oville

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, DebInAntigua said:

I cringe every time I see this promo come back. We’re cruising next month and really hope we won’t see many kids onboard. I wish X would stop doing this promotion but I guess it’s to attract younger demographics than DH and me. 

We’re on the same cruise and not the least bit worried. I would think November 8th isn’t very appealing for a family getaway to the Caribbean, but of course I could be wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gretan

gretan

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, PhoenixCruiser said:

What exactly draws parents traveling with children to Celebrity?

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

DH and I have been on over 30 cruises in the last 20 years.  We are Elite with Celebrity, but have not cruised with them since adopting our son 7 years ago.  Land trips to Hawaii and Mexico are now our preferred vacation.  

 

Regarding cruises in general we feel other lines (like Royal and Princess) have more to offer children.  But we are cruising Celebrity again this Thanksgiving on a 9 day Silhouette cruise.  It was the itinerary to So Caribbean, 9 days vs 7 days and a decent price that made our decision.  While the ship doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a RC ship, they do have a kids club and a pool, so our 7 year old will be in heaven.  He has become quite the traveler and this will be his 5th cruise.  Like Mom and Dad he thinks a day on a cruise ship is better than a day at home!

 

Hope this helps shed some insight into a parent’s decision to cruise Celebrity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
chemmo Holiday Sharing Rare

chemmo

Posted
Posted

Recently off Equinox, we saw two babies and one toddler once during the full cruise...

 

I would also add that we cruised on RC Oasis during January and there were very few children on board, just a few families with under fives...

 

Re the post about a Southampton Cruise, I am fairly sure there was bad weather, pools shut, decks closed off resulting in lots of adults and children sharing the same inside space. I am also fairly sure it was during U.K. Summer school holidays.

 

We did have one Summit cruise over Easter that did have more children on board, really not a problem. Those we saw in the MDR were behaving well, poolside was busy on sea days so we enjoyed the Solarium, the only time we saw several together was some sort of supervised treasure hunt. The presence of the children didn’t particularly impact on our cruising pleasure.

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
dkjretired

dkjretired

Posted
Posted (edited)

Sailing for 25 years with Celebrity and don't see any change in the number of kids.  As a matter of fact, our last cruise which was the end of summer had less kids than I have seen on summer cruises in the past.    The kids sail free promotion was short lived. 

Edited by dkjretired
Link to comment
Share on other sites
hcat "Live from...." Rare

hcat

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 hours ago, DebInAntigua said:

I cringe every time I see this promo come back. We’re cruising next month and really hope we won’t see many kids onboard. I wish X would stop doing this promotion but I guess it’s to attract younger demographics than DH and me. 

 

I don't think there will be that many children on the Nov 15th ABC 9  night on EDGE. (see you soon!)

 

We avoid school holidays as much as we can.  A small number of children on board..usually young ones does not bother us but larger numbers obviously do have an impact...One cruise we took  on Royal C out of Miami at Easter vacation time was a nightmare with  many unsupervised children running amok..never again!.

 

  Sometimes  on X , we've had more than expected.  The main neg for us was having children using the  outdoor hot tubs as kiddie pools, or teens hogging them all day!  Sometimes parents  let kiddies stay up late and they are scurrying on the dance floor which can be a bit annoying. Or they seat them  up front in the theater where some become restless.....but they are guests too! 

 

The new promotion is great for families but with less for children to do, they will be more visible  than on Royal. Celebrity also has a family swim hour in the Solarium on some itins...usually around dinner hrs..so avoid  that if you are not into that,

 

 You can also book AQ class which limits staterooms  to 2 per cabin. That  makes for quiet hallways ( usually) & cuts down on children in BLU,  although they are welcome and always well behaved!

Edited by hcat
Link to comment
Share on other sites
EatonDoolittle

EatonDoolittle

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Oville said:

We’re on the same cruise and not the least bit worried. I would think November 8th isn’t very appealing for a family getaway to the Caribbean, but of course I could be wrong.

 

I like to start the winter sailing season with an early Nov date for the same reason - usually a few hundred dollars cheaper, and no kids.

I was very surprised last year (on another line, bit still..) to find the ship loaded with kids.

 

Apparently, many schools are off for veterans day. Who knew? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bootstrap77

Bootstrap77

Posted
  • Author
Posted
1 hour ago, hcat said:

 

I don't think there will be that many children on the Nov 15th ABC 9  night on EDGE. (see you soon!)

 

We avoid school holidays as much as we can.  A small number of children on board..usually young ones does not bother us but larger numbers obviously do have an impact...One cruise we took  on Royal C out of Miami at Easter vacation time was a nightmare with  many unsupervised children running amok..never again!.

 

  Sometimes  on X , we've had more than expected.  The main neg for us was having children using the  outdoor hot tubs as kiddie pools, or teens hogging them all day!  Sometimes parents  let kiddies stay up late and they are scurrying on the dance floor which can be a bit annoying. Or they seat them  up front in the theater where some become restless.....but they are guests too! 

 

The new promotion is great for families but with less for children to do, they will be more visible  than on Royal. Celebrity also has a family swim hour in the Solarium on some itins...usually around dinner hrs..so avoid  that if you are not into that,

 

 You can also book AQ class which limits staterooms  to 2 per cabin. That  makes for quiet hallways ( usually) & cuts down on children in BLU,  although they are welcome and always well behaved!

Thanks! Appreciate your insight. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mike981

Mike981

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, morfred said:

It was more of a disappointment with the parents.

 

Oh I think you and I could talk about this for hours. My wife has run a very successful in-home daycare for 25 years and the decline in parenting is, sad.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail Beyond the Ordinary with Oceania Cruises
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: The Widest View in the Whole Wide World
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...