Sky or Enchantment cruise with 6 children?

[2910car]

We are going on a family cruise in June with our children their spouses and 6 grandchildren ages 2-7. Trying to decide between 4 night NCL Sky and 5 night RCCL Enchantment of the Seas. Any opinions on either one would be appreciated. Interested in knowing about camps and babysitting and child friendly activities. Thank you.

[kitty9]

No in cabin sitting on NCL. RCCI has both in cabin sitting and group sitting at night, for a charge.

[rgjarrell]

I took a 7 night cruise on NCL Spirit out of New Orleans on Feb 1.

The NCL kids program for our 2 year old was very good. While our son was NOT okay with the "club" the first time he went and we were paged to pick him up, they worked on how to make him comfortable, and the 2nd time he went to the group sitting, he was willing to stay because they asked us what it would take to keep him happy.

 

NCL did a good job of making it work even though our son was only interested in watching pixar movies (Finding Nemo) in particular. But the ship only had 9 2-5 yr olds signed up. They warned us that if too many kids show up, they would resort to the planned activities, and we might get paged if our 2 year old didn't want to do the activity. Also, they paged us to do a diaper change, but were well set up for me to do the actual diaper change. It's just that they don't do that. Does RCCL requires potty training?

 

I think NCL Sky will have more kids on it because it's less expensive and a shorter cruise to the bahamas. So the attention in the babysitting club might not be very personalized.

 

Also, NCL charged for using their kid's club during port times and later night times $5 per hour. It was worth it.

 

The in cabing sitting probably won't always be available on that other line, and I wouldn't count on it. Has anyone else used private in-cabin sitting?

[beachchick]

RCI's Adventure Ocean children's program starts at age 3 (and fully potty trained), no exceptions. If having all the kids have access to the children's program is important, then NCL is the better choice.

 

beachchick

[crusinmama06]

I commented to you on the Royal Caribbean board but I will paste my comment over here as well...

 

Well, 5 nights is always better than 4 nights. ;):D

 

On one hand, I think Adventure Ocean is a better children's program than NCL Kid Crew. And the Enchantment has an infant splash area for non-potty trained tots. So if the 2 year old isn't potty trained then he/she can still go into the splash pool.

 

On the flip side, NCL Kids Crew starts at 2 and does accept kids in diapers (the parents will be paged when the diaper needs to be changed). But I think there are still some day time charges at the kids crew on port days....not the case on Royal Caribbean.

 

Overall though, my personal opinion is that the service is better on Royal Caribbean. And for the rest of the group overall, will have a better experience on Royal Caribbean.

[Citizen Jane]

We did the 5 night on Enchantment last summer and loved it. The only young, non-teenager in the family group was our daughter age 5. I'm happy to tell you more about the experience, but in a nutshell: Adventure Ocean was Great AND they had group babysitting in AO until 2:00 a.m. Our daughter is a total night owl and loved it. I haven't cruised on NCL, so can't speak to them, but crusinmama06 (Michele) has yet to lead me wrong!:)

[stsomewhere]

We have siled on the Enchantment when our kids were younger. They enjoyed it.