Best children programs

[ELA]

My first choice is Celebrity (my twin girls will be around 4.5 yr old at the time of the cruise) but for some reason Celebrity is not offering any 7 night Carribean cruises in the Fall 08. So I'm resigned to look elsewhere and since we've really only cruisec Celebrity pre-kids, I don't know where too look. The choices I would consider are really Princess, Holland and RCCL.

I am just lost with all the choices!

 

Thanks!

Ela

[#1TravelMom]

We just returned from the Crown Princess with our 3 1/2 year old. She LOVED the kids club. She says everyday that she wants to go back. The staff was wonderful - tons of fun activities. If you have any specific questions, I'd be glad to answer. I can send you some photos of my daughter in the kids club. I prefer not to post publicly, but if you want you can email me.

[Keith1010]

Princess has an excellent children's program. I would go with Princess.

 

Keith

[FionaMG]

We've only cruised with RCCL so I can't comment on the other lines, but RCCL's Adventure Ocean is very good indeed. My daughter was the age of your twins when we sailed for the first time and she's a bit shy but the staff were wonderful and she had a fantastic time. Some of the ships have separate areas for each age group, whereas others have an area that is shared by 3-11 year-olds (although with separate activities depending on age group) so that may be something you'd like to keep in mind.

[gracie65]

Carnival offers the most flexible hours. At sea days there are 2-3 times when they can go for a few hours at a time. Then what I like is at night you can take them to the Windjammer Cafe at 5:45 & they will serve them dinner. You are then free to get dressed & do the lat dinner without the kids if you want.. Our son is 8 & at that age he prefers the casual dining with the camp. Till 10:00 everything is free. After 10:00 it's $5.00 per hour for the first child then it reduces some after that. The camp is open in a pajama party style till 3:00am (never made it that late but it is available). All the other lines I researched the latest was 1:00am including Princess & RCCL. RCCL only offers the kids dinners a few nights a week.

 

I just think a cruise overall is the best value & flexibility for a family vacation. You have plenty of things for the whole family to do together plus a safe place to leave your children & enjoy couple time.

[Onessa]

DD is now 12YO but has been cruising forever! We've done NCLA, RCCI and Princess with her. She loves all of the programs but talks the most about RCCI activities. RCCI really seems to have excellent counselors that have always worked REALLY hard to keep everyone included and really seem to adapt their standard programming to accommodate the groups of kids they have on any particular sailing.

[OnTheBrink]

We just returned from the Crown Princess with our 3 1/2 year old. She LOVED the kids club. She says everyday that she wants to go back. The staff was wonderful - tons of fun activities. If you have any specific questions, I'd be glad to answer. I can send you some photos of my daughter in the kids club. I prefer not to post publicly, but if you want you can email me.

 

Princess has an excellent children's program. I would go with Princess.

 

Keith

 

I am so glad to read both of these! We'll be going on the Emerald Princess in March/April. My son will be 3.5 and my daughter will be 7. They'll be in the same age group (right?) and I'm really hoping they'll enjoy it!

 

#1TravelMom - if you are willing, I'd love to see the pictures of your daughter. My email is MosesFamily@earthlink.net.

 

Thanks!

[TropicalSnowflake]

I am sure that most cruise lines have great kids programs, but I was pleasantly surprised with Princess and it was our first cruise that we were able to "drop off" our son to a kids program.

 

We were on the Crown in mid December and my 3.5 year old also LOVED it. Wanted to go there ALL THE TIME. We had to negotiate family time with him. But, our son is very social. Another 3 y/o girl we met on ship did not like it as much, but her mom said she was not surprised as her daughter had fewer social opportunities.

 

I have included a few pictures. one of him on pirate night (they made a hat and eye patch and got face painted) and another of my 1 year old enjoying the kids area (babies allowed under parent supervision) and then a pic of my son at the last day talent show where he and the other boy sang Twinkle, Twinkle.

 

A little known fact about Princess (at least the Crown) was that they would have port day sitting while you were in port. Most cruise lines do not offer this. I never partook in that because port time was family time. But I thought it was a nice option esp if you wanted to just do some souvenir shopping right off ship.

 

Princess Pelicans are ages 3-7, yes, same room. There were not a lot of kids in the program. The most I saw at one time was about 7 kids.

[Suzanne74]

My daughter was 5 when we went on Navigator of the Seas and loved everything about RCCL Kids Club called Adeventure Ocean. We would have to drag her out of there, lol. It was our best vacation to date because my husband and I had much more downtime then we imagined, I never heard "I am bored!" and we also had great family times.

 

With a 5yr old, I picked this line over NCL and Carnival because they had a 2-5yr old group where RCCL, Princess, Disney has 3-5yr old group. Since she was in the older aspect of this group, I thought she might think it was too babyish with 2yr olds toddling around her. Now, if I had a 2-3yr old, I would have picked them.

 

I think you (the adults) should decide what islands you want to visit and figure out what ships go to them. I think the actual cruise ship and their own particular activities/kids space/kids club hours etc... are more important then what line.

 

Here is a helpful article...

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/features/articles.cfm?ID=389

[crusinmama06]

I've never done Princess - everyone seems to love the kids club but the ages are clustered together more than other lines (ages 3-7 are together)

 

My oldest (age 7) prefers RCCL over any other kids club (out of Carnival, RCCL, NCL and Disney)

 

My youngest (age 3) prefers Camp Carnival over all of the others.

[adamsmom]

We've done RCCL, Carnival, and NCL, and our kids love them all! They've never commented about one being better than the other. They are 8 and 12 and have cruised since they were about 5 or so. I guess they figure a cruise is a cruise! LOL! :D They are always whining about going on a cruise, but they have never been specific about what line. Our last cruise was in September when most kids are in school, and mine did comment that it wasn't as much fun without many kids. There were usually only 10-15 in Adventure Ocean, and they lumped the ages together. So the oldest was pretty bummed about having to participate with his sister.:rolleyes:

[rebeccalouise]

honestly all the lines offer good programs. My son was quite happy with each cruise we have done.

 

I have sailed Princess, NCL, Royal, Celebrity, Carnival, Cunard, Disney and Princess with my youngest.

 

I would pick the cruise and the ship that most interests you.

 

Of all the youth programs- Royal and Celebrity offer the same hours. So you will find a similar (not identical) program on RCL. Princess has fewer kids in general (like Celebrity)- so they get more one on one attention. Princess does not offer meals every night to the kids. So this might be a change from Celebrity. Princess does shut down for certain hours everyday- unlike Celebrity.

 

Have a great time and don't pick the cruise based on the kids programs. Pick the itinerary and the ship that most appeals to you. The kids will be fine.