Celebrity with kids

[cclarke12]

Can anyone advise on suitability of Celebrity cruises for children - our son would be 3. Prices for next year on Celebrity Solstice are coming out quite a lot cheaper than Royal Caribbean and the ship looks like it will be lovely. Thanks

[oavcech95]

Hi, I have the same question, except that my kids are one of 8 the other of 13. And I also start a thread very popular, and heres the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=763541.

As I have been told the cruise has very good progams for kids.

An above a chart that can be helpfull

 

 

At sea days -

9am - noon - kids activities ALL FREE

noon - 2pm - you need to pick up your kids for lunch and then you can drop them off again during this time period for quiet play, unless you arrange for X to feed them if so, $6 per hour per child

2 - 5pm - kids activities ALL FREE

5 -7pm - same as the lunch time period

7 - 10pm - kids activities ALL FREE

10pm - 1am - Slumber party $6 per hour per child

 

If you used X club to the max on this particular at sea day, you would have to pay $42 per child for a total of 7 hours.

 

Port days

9am - noon - kids activities ALL FREE

noon - 2pm - CLOSED unless you sign up for the lunch party $6per child per hour

2 - 5pm - kids activities ALL FREE

5 -7pm - CLOSED unless you sign up for the dinner party $6per child per hour

7 - 10pm - kids activities ALL FREE

10pm - 1am - Slumber party $6 per hour per child

 

If you used X club to the max on this particular port day, you would have to pay $42 per child for a total of 7 hours.

[Flipflopsnfrozendrinks]

Hi,

We brought our 2 kids (seasoned cruisers ages 8 and 10) on Celebrity for the first time this year, and are so happy with the experience, we are doing almost the same trip next year. We brought the kids for lunch each day (they ate fast to get back to Fun Factory), and never had to pay anything to FF. We did not use the late night slumber party though. My little one was way to tired, and my son would have had the place to himself, so he just came back to the cabin with us. I did see a couple of little ones enjoying the FF while I dropped my kids off. I think that as long as your son is potty trained, he will have lots of fun on Celebrity.

 

We also take longer (10 or 11 night) cruises during the school year, so there are alot less kids on the ship, so my kids get great personal attention from the Fun Factory staff members.

[cclarke12]

Thanks for your replies. The price on Celebrity is so good compared with Royal Caribbean, NCL or P&O (we are in the UK) and they have great reviews, but I was just a bit worried that they do not seem promote themselves as being a child-friendly as some of the other lines, and I struggled to find much mention of children on the Celebrity board on here. It is port intensive so I am not too worried as we would be out and about a lot, and if the formal dining doesn't work then we can always at in our stateroom or one of the informal venues. Although he goes to nursery during the week my little one is very shy in a new environment! I may look at one the sailings a week earlier as it ties more with half term holidays in the UK so there may be more children. We might feel more comfortable if there are more families with children on board as I am worried about 'older guests' being disapproving and making us feel uncomfortable if my son goes into meltdown (which does happen - he is a toddler!)

[kitty9]

I'm a very frequent Celebrity cruiser and I wouldn't worry about disapproving looks from other passengers. The only time you'll see the looks is if the meltdown happens during dinner and the child isn't taken from the area. But all other times, there will be no problem. Since Solstice isn't sailing yet, there's no real way of telling how things will be on that ship, and each ship does have a different personality. If your cruise is in this part of the world, basically the Caribbean, and the cruise you're planning is during school time, you won't find many kids on board. Celebrity has a great kids program, but during school time, you'll find very few kids on board.

[Keith1010]

I am glad that you will go with Celebrity. Our children are no longer children but starting with our second cruise my wife and I took the children on several cruises and those were all with Celebrity before we tried some other lines. The both adored the children's programs and were always treated nicely by other passengers regardless of whether they had children or not.

 

And we found that Celebrity was the perfect cruise for us at the time. They had a nice chlldren's program but at the same time offered nice amenities that my wife and I enjoyed. So, we found them to be a great choice for us. There are also other cruise lines that are very good for the entire family but we have wonderful memories of sailing with Celebrity with our children and wholeheartedly recommend it.