Still not convinced about cruising…

[Fly and Sail]

1 minute ago, SoloAlaska said:

M class in Alaska last September had 3 children onboard. One of which was adorable and very well behaved, the other I never really saw, and the last one the parents really should have not done a late dinner every night (past bedtime with time change was wayyyyy to late and the kid was difficult because of it). Literally that was it for kids. 
 

Smaller ship with less kid friendly amenities, during the school year, longer cruises, and less kid fun destinations is the list I try to follow. The more boxes you check the less likely to have kids onboard.

 

I am slightly dreading the screaming children I will encounter on Freedom of the Seas (March, Caribbean, 8 night, full on water park on board). It was not my choice but I don’t want to miss this family cruise.

 

2022 was a totally different ballpark compared to 2023. Occupancy was still low across the board, but now ships are packed to the brim.

[SoloAlaska]

3 minutes ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

2022 was a totally different ballpark compared to 2023. Occupancy was still low across the board, but now ships are packed to the brim.

Yes but even if let’s say there is 3 times the amount of people if the ratio holds for that type of cruise it would be 9 children onboard. I’ll post in 6 weeks when I’m back on the same ship southbound and it looks like we are sailing at 100% capacity.

[stan1980]

Try (Ultra) Luxury cruising like Seabourn.

Yes it's more expensive, but if you can afford it, it has way more value. 

Small ships, no constant upselling, all inclusive fare's, almost no kids, smaller ports, overall a more intimate atmosphere. 

[CruisinBanka]

This is the demographic that Celebrity is now targeting, younger families with children. That is why they now heavily advertise Coco Cay. Can water slide tubes on the ships be far away? 

[Kelownadon]

I don’t think we’ve ever seen more than about 2 or 3 kids on any of our 7 cruises in the Caribbean and Europe with Celebrity. But we stay home and golf all summer and avoid spring break and Christmas. We also don’t take a cruise shorter than 11 nights. 

[Stem to Stern]

This thread provoked me to look at my signature below.

I have never cruised in May, June, July, or August.

I have never encountered an abundance of children.

I guess timing is everything.

Crowds of sun seekers on the pool deck is not uncommon on warm-weather cruises.

I am glad you enjoyed many aspects of your first Celebrity cruise.

[hcat]

1 hour ago, Fly and Sail said:

Say thank you to the new Celebrity management for pushing the "Royalization" of X.

 

It's grotesque.

why do they need 2 lines catering to the same demographic?

[Stem to Stern]

7 minutes ago, hcat said:

why do they need 2 lines catering to the same demographic?

Royal = family cruises

Celebrity = girlfriends cruises

At least that is what I see in their marketing efforts.

[Carried_Away]

I've never seen more than a few kids on my Celebrity cruises. I've sailed to the Caribbean in October, November, December, and January, but not over the holidays when kids would be out of school. I've also sailed to Bermuda in late May and very early June.

[hcat]

32 minutes ago, Stem to Stern said:

Royal = family cruises

Celebrity = girlfriends cruises

At least that is what I see in their marketing efforts.

girlfriend cruises..have not seen many groups like that on X..

[Stem to Stern]

20 minutes ago, hcat said:

girlfriend cruises..have not seen many groups like that on X..

Exactly.  What the heck are they thinking?  And any marketing toward the LGBTQ community has evaporated.

[SoloAlaska]

17 minutes ago, hcat said:

girlfriend cruises..have not seen many groups like that on X..

I definitely don’t see celebrity as a family line. If anything I find the marketing to not reflect the reality. It skews much older than I expected. This is why I’m trying out different lines. The decor, food, and service match what I wanted but the clientele and entertainment do not. If the clientele was slightly younger I would be planning a girlfriends cruise for sure.

[Gracie115]

7 hours ago, Cruiscs said:

I guess its much more quiet and relaxing during spring and fall?

 

If you want to consider the Caribbean then I would look at early to mid-December.  Kids aren't out of school then and pricing is usually a bit better. 

 

Or you could try a transatlantic in late Spring or mid-Fall.  There are never a lot of kids on those.  

 

This holds true for both Royal or Celebrity.  No matter what Royal is much better equipped to keep children busy so they aren't running rampant around the ship as they may do on Celebrity sailings which are definitely NOT accented towards children.

[hubofhockey]

8 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

 

The Caribbean is about the worst possible choice for relaxation. The most relaxing cruises in our experience are transoceanic cruises. I would also avoid summer travel.

 

Agree with this and would add that those newer huge ships are probably more kid magnets than the older smaller ships.  My kids were 18 & 20 when we were on the Millennium in Alaska and they agreed that it’s not a great ship for kids.  They loved the cruise and the vacation though.  

[Texed]

8 hours ago, Cruiscs said:

Just completed our first cruise on Celebrity. July 29 on Edge from Rome to Barcelona.

 

We joined my wife's brother and SIL on this exact cruise.  We told them they picked one of the worse times for the Med.  We told them it would be hot and have a lot of kids.

 

We did a B2B with the July 22nd cruise.  We had wonderful weather.  Although there were quite a few kids, we still had a wonderful 14 days on Edge.  😊

[Duanerice1]

8 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

 

The Caribbean is about the worst possible choice for relaxation. The most relaxing cruises in our experience are transoceanic cruises. I would also avoid summer travel.

I disagree.  We sail mainly in the Caribbean but do so when kids are in school and cruise 8+ days.  Very relaxing.  Weather is great, islands aren't filled with summer vacation peeps..... 

[Stem to Stern]

1 hour ago, Stem to Stern said:

Royal = family cruises

Celebrity = girlfriends cruises

At least that is what I see in their marketing efforts.

Received this email on 8/1.

[newtocruiseinblue]

10 hours ago, Cruiscs said:

Just completed our first cruise on Celebrity. July 29 on Edge from Rome to Barcelona. Last year we went on RCL Wonder of the Seas. Had a great time time then but wanted to try Celebrity as it is supposed to be more upscale, quiet and relaxing than Royal. In short: we didnt get that impression… 

The ship is stunning, the food and service was better than Royal. But we missed the upscale premium atmosphere - there were loads of kids and teens on this cruise running around and screaming all the time. There was almost impossible to find a quiet place onboard. The solarium was badly located as people used is a walkway to the pooldeck. Did not have that problem on Wonder were it is located in the front. And adding the port intensive itinerary with masses of people everywhere we felt that we needed a vacation when the cruise was over. 
I know people will say that we choose the wrong dates as it was summer brake but we have been to many all-inclusive resorts in the summer months and never experienced so many kids before. 
So if we spend more money on cruises in the future - any advice when and where is the best time to cruise to experience true relaxation? In the Caribbean? Which time of the year?

Thanks.

September in the Med

 

You can’t ignore that it is summer break and place the blame of your timing on Celebrity ☺️ I would also guess that January in the Caribbean is a good time besides the US holiday weekend. I know most families are back in school the first week of January. We did the Mediterranean in September and saw maybe a few little ones. Summer is a completely different story. I’ve been to the Mediterranean for the last two summers wishing it was September …but we had time constraints. Best of luck! 

[newtocruiseinblue]

4 hours ago, Kelownadon said:

I don’t think we’ve ever seen more than about 2 or 3 kids on any of our 7 cruises in the Caribbean and Europe with Celebrity. But we stay home and golf all summer and avoid spring break and Christmas. We also don’t take a cruise shorter than 11 nights. 

Good point about the length as well

[Travel-and-See]

7 hours ago, SoloAlaska said:

Yes but even if let’s say there is 3 times the amount of people if the ratio holds for that type of cruise it would be 9 children onboard. I’ll post in 6 weeks when I’m back on the same ship southbound and it looks like we are sailing at 100% capacity.

I was on Millenium this June and there were definitely more than 9 kids on board - I was very surprised at how many tweens/teens were running around on a Celebrity ship. That hasn't been my experience in the past even in the summer but to be fair June is probably THE MONTH for familiy vacations but I still blame the new Celebrity marketing a bit. 

 

I don't mind a few kids on the ship, but when you go to the late-night buffet and you feel like you walked into a school cafeteria / hang out something isn't right (that's only a small exaggeration...).

 

Virgin's no kids policy is really nice though... totally changes the vibe of a cruise experience. 

 

 

 

 

[hcat]

4 hours ago, Stem to Stern said:

Received this email on 8/1.

wishful thinking marketing? 

Mixing a girls ( or guys) vacay with a family fun area seems odd.. We have not been there since all the changes have been made,  but it looks very different  nowadays!

 

Cocoa cay was an unspoiled natural criuse stop with nice beach areas, a good snorkeling area,  outdoor bbq lunch and  some shops. Some excursion  groups went to more remote areas to explore but most pax stayed around the main  beach.areas.

 

   We did our first snorkeling there many years ago. In bad weather, it was  missed  as a stop, and a few times we would get off island just before storms hit.( rough seas)  I believe one group got stuck there overnight.

   

Seems it has been turned into an amusement park..even more so than Labadee ( Haiti is  now dangerous)

 

We would not be interested unless with our grandkids. My idea of a girls' trip would be more to a top rated spa with yoga etc.

 

 

[Cruiscs]

13 hours ago, kwokpot said:

 

The Odyssey on the other hand was just shear craziness with the amount of families on board. We were at capacity and there were some interesting statistics given at the Diamond and up event. Only 20% of the passengers were previous RCL customers and about the same % were Americans. The Europeans sure love sunning, The pool decks were just a mass of people EVERYWHERE and with the heat it was stifling and honestly uncomfortable to be on the pool deck. 

Not my idea of vacation. Sounds like a nightmare

[Boatharbour]

We have sailed Celebrity four times usually September-November in the northern hemisphere and once  in March in the southern hemisphere. Very few children.
 

In mid July we boarded the Apex in Rotterdam and found there were a lot of children on board which was to be expected at this time of the year. However at no stage did we find them disruptive except for one sea day when the kids club decided to have a scavenger hunt around the ship. We didn’t use the pool deck however. 
 

We did note that overall the demographic was much younger and more diverse than all of our previous cruises- more representative of the general population.

 

What did annoy us was the constant piped music everywhere, often inappropriate for the time of day. There was nowhere to sit quietly to read, chat or just watch the world go by unless we sat on our verandah. 

[Cruiscs]

1 hour ago, Boatharbour said:

What did annoy us was the constant piped music everywhere, often inappropriate for the time of day. There was nowhere to sit quietly to read, chat or just watch the world go by unless we sat on our verandah. 

Never understood that either 

[tfred]

13 hours ago, CruisinBanka said:

This is the demographic that Celebrity is now targeting, younger families with children. That is why they now heavily advertise Coco Cay. Can water slide tubes on the ships be far away? 

younger people - yes,  but not necessarily with kids.  Every hospitality business has to find new customers especially those that have money.  

 

CoCo Cay is a natural replacement for Nassau which has a low attendance rate for cruise ship pax