Princess or Royal Carribean for 3 kids 5 and under?

[OregonGirlie]

We've narrowed our choices down to:

Golden Princess

RCI Vision of the Seas

 

Our kids will be 20 months (girl), 3.5 years (boy), and 5.5 years (boy). We've been on one cruise before when they were 8 months, 2 years and 4 years. Past and upcoming cruise will be Mexican Riviera. Last cruise was Carnival (awful). We didn't use the childcare room that much for the boys, so it's not a huge factor for us.

 

Which line would be a better option? Princess or RCI? The total price is like $200 more for RCI compared to Princess but the RCI one would leave a week sooner (LOL - impatient!).

[Keith1010]

Many will tell you RCL but honestly I believe that either cruise line is great for the ages of your children. Princess has really developed a nice chldren's program over the years.

 

Given that I would make my decision based on the other factors; possibly the itinerary if per chance there were any differences.

 

Keith

[larronry]

Cruisinmama I'm sure will come and post about her RCI experiences at some point today. I can tell you that when I was on the Caribbean Princess last year (I didn't bring my son) there were children all over the place. My cabin steward warned me I would miss my son and he was right. The staff love children. There were some wait times for the anytime dining so my suggestion would be if you are with the anytime dining and get make reservations ahead of time I would go ahead and try to do so because I think waiting in line with the 3 kids could be problematic but you know your kids.

 

I would definetly sail Princess again & I would bring my son.

[myraid]

I have sailed Princess twice with my 2 1/2 year old and we loved it. We haven't used the kids program, so I can't comment, but there was a lot for him to do even without the kids program. We had a kids pool on both the Star Princess and Grand Princess, and yes, he was allowed to go in with swim diapers. (There was NO sign and we also asked both times and were given the green light, so no flaming please).

 

I sailed RCCL before I had kids (well, he was technically with me as I was 5 months pregnant at the time). We had a fun time, but think the food and service was better on Princess (JMO). I would recommend Princess to anyone.

 

We plan to do the 10 day Emerald next year with him. He will be 3, so we might get a couple of hours of him in the kids club, but if we don't, that's okay too.:)

 

Whatever you decide, have a great cruise!

[crusinmama06]

Cruisinmama I'm sure will come and post about her RCI experiences at some point today.

 

LOL...what do you mean? ;) :p

 

Actually between Princess and RCCL it's a toss up. I have never sailed Princess...but those on the RCCL board that have, they have said that they had a comparable experience.

 

Now if it was a RCCL Freedom class that was only $200 more, then heck yes I would say take RCCL. ;)

 

I do have some "Princess Patters" uploaded along with the RCCL kid's schedules. Go to the bottom of my signature and click on the link provided, then the cruiselines are listed on the left hand side. You will be able to see the different activities for each kid's club.

[Kerry's Girls]

One thing I like about Princess is that I can go into the kids play area with my twins and all play together. In Jan, I'm taking my twins on their 3rd Princess cruise to the Mex Riviera, so I obviously love it.

 

The plus with RCCL from what I understand is that you'd have the option of nighttime babysitting in your cabin. Also RCCL has activities for toddlers (with their parents), where Princess offers nothing for children under 3 (though you can go into the play area together).

 

Besides that, I enjoy both cruise lines (and in my opinion they're both better than Carnival - at least in the Mex Riviera).

 

You'll have a great time on either.

 

Best,

Mia

[larronry]

LOL...what do you mean? ;) :p

 

:) Well I certainly can't comment on a cruiseline I haven't used.

 

Now reading Kerry's Girls's post man I don't know what my future cruises will be, but I'm still doing Splendor because it really looks like an interesting ship and I don't think I'll be disappointed. I haven't had a horrible experience on Carnival but most importantly I won't have to stress out about whether he is potty trained yet or not. But after that I don't know. Man I need to pick a cruise line and build up cruises already. :p

[Kerry's Girls]

I should have been more specific with my comment about Carnival - I'm an older mom, and have been cruising for ages, so I still enjoy the more formal, traditional kind of cruise (dress up/set dining times, etc.). I do think the Carnival program is much better for young children than Princess. Since the original poster wasn't interested in that part of the cruise, I didn't mention it, but I should have so others would know.

 

I promise you, we had an amazing time on our Carnival cruise - and LOVED lots about it (24 ice cream and the slide looks like fun, and the buffet area is supierior to any I've seen). I'm just an old fart who finds that Princess is a perfect choice for us.

 

You'll have a great time!

 

Best,

Mia

[crusinmama06]

I should have been more specific with my comment about Carnival - I'm an older mom' date=' and have been cruising for ages, so I still enjoy the more formal, traditional kind of cruise (dress up/set dining times, etc.). I do think the Carnival program is much better for young children than Princess. Since the original poster wasn't interested in that part of the cruise, I didn't mention it, but I should have so others would know.

 

I promise you, we had an amazing time on our Carnival cruise - and LOVED lots about it (24 ice cream and the slide looks like fun, and the buffet area is supierior to any I've seen). I'm just an old fart who finds that Princess is a perfect choice for us.

 

You'll have a great time!

 

Best,

Mia[/quote']

 

I'm with Mia. :D No cruise is a bad cruise. Camp Carnival is a wonderful program for the kids, no doubt. I just prefer another cruiseline.

[rebeccalouise]

I have sailed on both Princess (Sapphire) and Royal Carribbean (Radiance) and I would suggest Royal Carribbean.

 

First of all- the buffet ( I am really into buffets) on Princess is horrible. Not only don't they have trays, no one offers to help you at all. With two kids in tow in a really horribly designed buffet- nightmare. Secondly, they don't always have juices available. Only in the AM. The rest of the day you have to buy juice it is not provided.

 

On Royal Carribean there were many free drink choices in the buffet and a better layout- although I wish there were trays like on Celebrity. But the staff is pretty helpful with the kids on Royal Carribean. The buffet food is the best I have had on any line.

 

Now for the ships themselves- without a doubt a 3 and 5 year old will love the waterslide and there is a nice large shallow pool for the little ones to enjoy (on Radiance) and even more things on the newer, larger RCL ships.

 

There is incabin babysitting, which Princess does not offer.

 

The youth program is good on both lines. I think my son preferred Princess in this regard. He is easy to please though and loves arts and crafts. Royal Carribean has a good program also but I felt the staff was nicer on Sapphire.

 

All in all- I still prefer Celebrity for this age group though. But if you are choosing between Princess and Royal- go Royal.

[larronry]

I should have been more specific with my comment about Carnival - I'm an older mom' date=' and have been cruising for ages, so I still enjoy the more formal, traditional kind of cruise (dress up/set dining times, etc.). I do think the Carnival program is much better for young children than Princess. Since the original poster wasn't interested in that part of the cruise, I didn't mention it, but I should have so others would know.

 

I promise you, we had an amazing time on our Carnival cruise - and LOVED lots about it (24 ice cream and the slide looks like fun, and the buffet area is supierior to any I've seen). I'm just an old fart who finds that Princess is a perfect choice for us.

 

You'll have a great time!

 

Best,

Mia[/quote']

Both my husband and I are 40+ so yeah we are older parents. Our favorite cruise line is Celebrity. I just saw the layout and e-brochure of Carnival Splendor and thought we'd do it once. After all it's regular location is going to be LA so we will take it out of Ft. Lauderdale while we can. I thought it would be a perfect ship with it's water park on the top of the ship. For once I would pick a ship for my son and not for us.

 

He really can't do all those exciting things RCI has to offer and having hit every milestone late and the fact that he will be 3 years 2 months I just won't hold my breath that he'll be potty trained.

 

BTW Michelle the kid who can hardly say any words besides mama and dada is starting to parrot and even parroted a sentence. I said "Do you want to go to bed? and he said "Go to bed" and he really wanted to go to bed. Yeah!!! OK it wasn't clear but I'm pretty sure that is what he said.

 

OK got to go back to packing.

[TropicalSnowflake]

We just got off the Crown Princess and I am pleasantly surprised with our Kid Zone experience. I've been monitoring these boards for a while, particularly family forum. I was dreading taking my son to the kids program (heard about how you can either get a good, flexible staff or a stern, not so flexible staff.)

 

The Princess kids team on Crown were awesome--I can speak for the 3-7 group. They were flexible and helpful. They did not make the kids do anything. They offered crafts, but if the kids did not want to do them, they did not have to. They could go play in the gym area or something. They limited PS2 time, gave kids about 1 hour before making them stop and do something active and there were only 2 movies a day--once during port time and once late at night (appr. 8-9 pm).

 

There were not a lot of kids. They had the demographic of our ship...our ship was heavy on the 3 y/o boys with a whopping seven on board. The next biggest group was probably the 7 y/o boys with 5 aboard. The rest of the groups ranged from 3-4.

 

I have the Pelicans press. Each night was a theme (under the sea, pirates, Prince/Princess etc.). There was face painting, crafts, "races", and lot of prizes given out. My son "won" a liquid ring toss game, a pelican, a turtle, not too mention the paper hats and crafts he made. Every night after dinner he BEGGED to go. He even participated in a talent show.

 

Bonus--they offer port day kids program. IE you can get off the ship and leave kids there. Although, we personally would not go on an excursion and leave them behind, it might help some people who wanted to get off the ship and shop for souveniers without having to watch if little hands are grabbing everything. :D It helped me when I needed to get my 1 y/o down for a nap midday, the 3 y/o could go to the kids program.

 

Also, they offer group babysitting from 10pm to 1 am.

 

I agree with rebecca--RCCL ships are better laid out. We really disliked how the Crown Princess buffet area was designed. Too cramped and confusing, really hard to find a place to sit because there are too many 2- 4- tops. With RCCL the buffets are open, room to move (IE you can take a stroller around with you) and the tables are set up so that you can share with someone without getting too cozy.

[rebeccalouise]

Tropical Snowflake- I agree that Princess and their youth staff were very good. My son really liked it there and there are fewer kids on Princess than compared to Royal Caribbean.

 

Frankly, I think kids have great fun on all the cruise ships and when I have based my cruise around the kid things- sometimes I was in for a rude awakening.

 

Now- mind you I have had fun on all my cruises but sometimes I have picked ships solely with my son in mind and it backfired.

 

For instance- one year I picked Norwegian Spirit because it has the coolest looking Pirate ship pool. Guess what? My then 4 year old got in the first day and hated it because it was salt water and never got in again. So that aspect was a bust.

 

We did Carnival Victory to Canada (which was totally worth $ 300 per person and I would do it again) and thought he would love the Waterslide. He did, we used it while docked in NYC but the rest of the trip it was too windy and cold to use it. And frankly, that waterslide on Carnival gives me the willies! It sits so high up from the ship. I just picture the ship suddenly leaning to one side and my kids flying off! But admittedly I worry and suffer from vertigo.

 

I did Royal Caribbean instead of Celebrity Century this past Easter because Radiance of the Seas had a waterslide. After boarding I discovered it was only open from 2-4 PM each day and most days they got there late. I felt like we were basing our whole day around the water slide unveiling.

 

My favorite line is Celebrity. It has no waterslide, saltwater pools and a tiny arcade but my son is happy as a clam each time we sail them. What's more- so am I.

 

Another line that I thought was great and under-rated for kids was QM2. It has four pools available to kids- one indoor that they can use all day.

There is the Planetarium, board games and a nice youth program (though not as good as Celebrity) that isn't packed with kids. They have a neat aft pool with built in water guns and a little play area outside. The pools are freshwater (so are Princess pools) which kids definitely prefer. So don't discount QM2- I loved it. And they have trays in the Kings Court- althought this area is also poorly designed- long and narrow- easy to loose a kid in.

[TropicalSnowflake]

Oh, yeah, same here. I thought it was great the Crown had a small toddler pool...my son spent 15 minutes in it one day and ignored it the rest of cruise.

 

With kids, my motto is: be flexible and expect the unexpected. :D