Celebrity with kids?

Hi

Our last 5 cruises have been with RCCL - but we're thinking of doing Celebrity this time because we like the itinerary better. I tried doing a search but couldn't find much on Celebrity with kids. What are your thoughts? We're looking at the Equinox next February - I think it is an 11 day .

I've read that Celebrity is much more layed back than RCCL - which is just fine by me...there is nothing like sitting by the pool with a good book :) But is there enough for the kids to do (including my big kid - my husabnd!)? It will be my husband, myself and our 11 year old daughter. Plus my parents (both in the 70's), my sister and her 7 year old daughter.

Thanks for any input!

Patty

Hi

 

Our last 5 cruises have been with RCCL - but we're thinking of doing Celebrity this time because we like the itinerary better. I tried doing a search but couldn't find much on Celebrity with kids. What are your thoughts? We're looking at the Equinox next February - I think it is an 11 day .

 

I've read that Celebrity is much more layed back than RCCL - which is just fine by me...there is nothing like sitting by the pool with a good book :) But is there enough for the kids to do (including my big kid - my husabnd!)? It will be my husband, myself and our 11 year old daughter. Plus my parents (both in the 70's), my sister and her 7 year old daughter.

 

Thanks for any input!

 

Patty

Celebrity has excellent childrens programs, I found that they gave more individualized treatment to the kids. They do not have rock climbing walls or surfer areas. I would however state that an 11 day might not find too many kids on board.

Celebrity has excellent childrens programs, I found that they gave more individualized treatment to the kids. They do not have rock climbing walls or surfer areas. I would however state that an 11 day might not find too many kids on board.

We've done 5 cruises with our kids who over the years ranged from 7 to 13. They loved Celebrity and the cruises they loved the best were the TA's in early December when there weren't many kids on board. The kids club staff gave them lots of individual attention and gave them plenty to do. They also liked doing stuff with us too so it was a great time for both kids stuff and more grown up stuff. My son when he was 13 liked watching the on demand movies in room when there wasn't any thing exciting going on, but over all I would recommend Celebrity for families who like a more low key vacation, if you need non stop activity like skating and rock climbing RCL is a better choice, but Celebrity works great for my family.

Hard to say whether the parents think the Kids are having more fun on Celebrity or if the Kids themselves would rather be on RCCl or Disney.

Every Celebrity cruise I've been on spotting a child has been a bit like "Where's Nemo"?. I would think it takes a very quiet child to enjoy Celebrity.

The chances of having other school age kids on board is pretty small. Not many parents can take kids out of school for 11 days. I've been on numerous cruises on Celebrity that were longer than the usual 7 days, and you could count on one hand the number of school age kids on board. So, you might find a VERY limited kids program, so that's something to consider.

Hard to say whether the parents think the Kids are having more fun on Celebrity or if the Kids themselves would rather be on RCCl or Disney.

 

Every Celebrity cruise I've been on spotting a child has been a bit like "Where's Nemo"?. I would think it takes a very quiet child to enjoy Celebrity.

Not true, they have great programs for kids and my son is very outgoing and friendly, daughter just the opposite. They enjoyed Celebrity more than Royal and a couple of other lines. They are adults now.

I'd say that a lot depends on your kids. If they like groups of kids, team activities, etc... they might not have many playmates on an 11 day during school time.

If they prefer individual attention, they might enjoy it very much.

My daughter has been with us on Disney, Carnival, RCL, Celebrity, and Princess. So far her favorite kids club experience was with Celebrity on a 14 day Baltic trip when there were only 12 other kids under 18 onboard. DD was 10 yrs old. On that trip we knew all four kids club crew members by name and they had a great time.

Just got off Solstice with our four grandchildren, ages 4 through 10. They all loved it, spending some time in the Fun Factory, some time with the family. To be fair, there were over 200 kids on this cruise and they did enjoy the group activities: scavenger hunts, talent show, etc.

We'll be traveling with a 16 year old. Anyone know how the teen program works?

We'll be traveling with a 16 year old. Anyone know how the teen program works?

To be honest, teens generally don't care for the program---they find it lame. Teens tend find each other and hang out as a group. But if your teen wants to be in the program, they just go to the teen area during operating hours.

I'm expecting our teen will go along at the beginning. Quickly find a couple of other teens and then they'll do their own thing. Just chillin in the sun and around the pool. To be fair she's 15;)

I'm expecting our teen will go along at the beginning. Quickly find a couple of other teens and then they'll do their own thing. Just chillin in the sun and around the pool. To be fair she's 15;)

Yup, that's pretty much what the teens do...

Yup, that's pretty much what the teens do...

I guess it's awhile since our kids were younger that I forget how they work! :o Thanks.

We are going to be sailing on the Reflection April next year when my son will turn 3 and my daughter at 5. We have heard from our neighbor that the Celeb did a great keeping the kids entertained during the day and they had baby sitters in their cabin for those late night parties for a small fee.

3-5 years will be in the same group so my two kids are going to be hanging out together. :D

I'm expecting our teen will go along at the beginning. Quickly find a couple of other teens and then they'll do their own thing. Just chillin in the sun and around the pool. To be fair she's 15;)

My teen DD enjoyed our Equinox cruise last summer. She thought the teen activities were a useful way to meet up with other teens. She'd show up for scheduled events but if the activity was "lame" then she and a few newly made friends would go off on their own. One nice thing about the activities was that they often closed off an area for the teens to use for a special event. For example, one night they had a private teen pool party at the Solarium pool, which is normally adults only. Another time they had a teen dance party in Quasar. She said that these events were pretty well attended.

My teen DD enjoyed our Equinox cruise last summer. She thought the teen activities were a useful way to meet up with other teens. She'd show up for scheduled events but if the activity was "lame" then she and a few newly made friends would go off on their own.

Will the scheduled teen activities be posted in the daily newsletter? :o

Will the scheduled teen activities be posted in the daily newsletter? :o

As I recall, there was a daily activity sheet for the teen activities and one for the children's activities. (Our DD's were 14 and 10 at the time.) They were delivered to our stateroom each night and listed the next day's activities.

My very active two boys who were ages 9 and 11 at the time loved our cruise on Celebrity Summit at Spring Break a couple years ago. We just went on RCCL Voyageur of the Seas last month and they told me that they liked their Celebrity Cruise better. There was plenty to do in the Celebrity kids club and they got to know the kids on board better because there were so many less of them.

Just returned from spring break cruise on Celebrity Summit. My 6 & 8 year olds loved it and really liked the Fun Factory program. After reading here, I was a little concerned that there wouldn't be very many kids since Celebrity is not as popular with families as RCL, Carnival, Disney etc. I was wrong - we heard that there were approximately 400 kids under 18 on the cruise! So if you go during the holiday weeks, they'll be there!

400 out of 2000 guest?. OMG.. That is a really high ratio. For those of us seeking a quiet vacation I'll be spending most of my time in the adults only areas!!!

Hi there! We just got back from a 14-day cruise on the Constellation and our almost 5 year old daughter had a GREAT time! Due to the length of the cruise, it was an older crowd onboard but there were 13 kids on the ship and she was in the 3-5 year old group. The Fun Factory staff is AMAZING! There were 4 crew onboard for the youth program and they were beyond fantastic.

We did get the VIP package for her and she was the only one on the entire ship that trip to get it but it was great.

Each night in our stateroom, my daughter got the Fun Factory info sheet for what was going on the next day. There was a morning 'theme' (9am-12pm), then quiet time from 12-2pm and the afternoon 2pm-5pm, optional dinner party from 5pm-7pm and the evening 'theme' from 7pm-10pm. There is an optional slumber party from 10-1am ($6/kid/hour) but nobody stayed except for one hour of the entire 14 days so my daughter didn't stay either. Which was fine for our schedule :)

I'm more than happy to answer any questions! This is my daughter's 3rd cruise. We did Princess the last two years until this year (they also have a great youth program but Celebrity was just as great if not better!).

Happy sailing!

Amanda

400 out of 2000 guest?. OMG.. That is a really high ratio. For those of us seeking a quiet vacation I'll be spending most of my time in the adults only areas!!!

We sailed on RCI's Mariner of the Sea the week before Thanksgiving last year. The crew told us they were expecting almost 900 kids on the cruise following ours. I can't even begin to imagine................. :eek:

Amanda,

We are going to be sailing with a 3 and a 5 on the 4/6/2013 cruise, would like to know what quiet time is (from 12-2pm)

Did you have the babysitter in your room when you go out at night?

Our family loves Celebrity! We are quiet people, and we also enjoy doing things WITH our kids, so we are not necessarily looking to dump the kids for hours and hours while we go drink. So even though we have kids, we did not want a loud, child-centric cruise, if that makes sense. We are trying to teach our children to fit into the adult world, not to expect that everything is "all about them" all the time.

We just got back from Millennium and there were 600 kids on board!

The ship didn't feel loud or crowded with kids though. Most seemed very well-behaved. One night a couple of teens were running loudly up and down the hall, but that was the extent of bad behavior that I saw.

The fun factory did not seem set up to handle that many kids, though, and this was the larger, pre-solsticization fun factory. I would have serious concerns about spring break on a solsticized M class ship if I wanted to use the fun factory.

My 5 year old daughter loved it. My introverted 8 year old son who is bothered by a lot of noise and commotion (as I am) was not a fan. He went the first day and said, "I watched some kids play video games and saw a lot of people getting time outs." after that , he chose to hang out with us,going somewhere quiet and comfy to read, doing the galley tour, and attending the crew talent show and Celebrity cooking challenge, and listening to live music in thr Cova cafe while sipping a San Pellegrino or mocktail while mom and dad had a cappuccino. (His favorite was the a cappella quartet.) He absolutely loved the cruise and had a great time, just did not want to go back to the noise of the fun factory.

The fun factory staff was fine, I just think there were too many kids for them to get to know them, and they were in "putting out fires" mode. I heard "One, two, three, Zip it!" from the staff a number of times to try to get the kids to be quiet. I saw a group of kids being escorted around the ship on some sort of activity. The staff was using proper safety procedures with one staffer in front, another in the middle, and another in back holding the hand of a boy who seemed to need a little help, but there were 30 kids in that group, which I think is too many when you don't know the kids well. However, on a longer cruise in Feb. you willl probably have far fewer kids on board and get plenty of attention from Fun Factory staff.

You will get a card that lists daily activities for your child's age group in your daily every night. There is also a junior cruisers talent show at the end.

My 12 year old enjoyed most of the teen activities, which probably means that a 16 year old would find them lame. He said the arcade was lame, too. But don't teens find any activities planned by adults "lame"? I think what they mostly want is to be with each other.

And please don't be intimidated by the people on this board who say that Celebrity is not for kids, they would not want to be in the MDR with them, etc. People were SOOOO nice to my kids on board. They got so many compliments on their manners from other adults in the restaurant, in the theater, etc. People also complimented my boys on their tuxes on formal night and my daughter on her dresses pretty much every night. The staff also made them feel very special. Many staffers we saw were missing their own kids, whom they had not seen in months, so seemed to have a soft spot for our kids, and I think they must be trained to call every little girl "princess," which my daugher loved. I will have no hesitations about bringing my kids on Celebrity again. I think the anti-kid people are a vocal minority and not typical of the passengers I saw on board.

So, while Celebrity may not be the best fit for every family, and will br very different from RCCL, it is perfect for us.

Your kids will find plenty to do.