Kids Onboard

We are not new to cruising but have only been as a couple now our daughter and family what to try a cruise with us next year.so my question is which cruise line has best facility's for children (10,4) ,we will be looking at the Caribbean.:)

Disney or RCI.

Carnival- they have a fantasic kid's program and, for a fee, have babysitting from 10PM untiil 3AM! Kids have been known to cry when mom comes to pick them up because they don't want to leave.

Cruised once, on Carnival, with 2100 passengers and 1,000 kids. We never saw any kids, they were at Camp Carnival.

Holland America, Princess and Celebrity don't have many kids on board.

Disney, Carnival or RCI. If the adults can live without a casino on board then Disney but if the grown ups want casino go with CCL or RCI.

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

I have no personal knowledge of DCL but the GrandKids tell me they had a great time with NCL and CCL.

We are not new to cruising but have only been as a couple now our daughter and family what to try a cruise with us next year.so my question is which cruise line has best facility's for children (10,4) ,we will be looking at the Caribbean.:)

RCL gets our vote - After the children cruised for the first time do not forget to commence their journey to D/D+/P by enroling them as a member of the household on the "My Cruises Homepage" - They will thank you for this.

Enrol Other Members of Your Household

Carnivals kids program gets good reviews on these boards, Disney is another choice, but its an expensive vacation.

My vote would probably go to RCL's Oasis or Allure unless the children are very young. In that case it would be Disney with a visit to Disney World included. But all but the luxury cruise lines have good children's programs.

~Doris~

My kids loved the kids program on the Norwegian Epic. Both times.

My vote is actually for Princess. Our son says he likes Princess Kids club better than Carnival. This is a suprise to me because on Princess they did alot of crafts and group activities and Carnival he played video games and he hates craft projects and loves video games at home. Also the staff on Princess really catered to my son. He had chocolate chip cookies waiting in our cabin at night before bed, he would be with me when I went up to the bar and they would ask if they could give him a soda, one staff member handed him a plastic spider every time we passed him. Just a lot of nice little extras from the staff that we didn't see on Carnival.

My vote is actually for Princess. Our son says he likes Princess Kids club better than Carnival. This is a suprise to me because on Princess they did alot of crafts and group activities and Carnival he played video games and he hates craft projects and loves video games at home. Also the staff on Princess really catered to my son. He had chocolate chip cookies waiting in our cabin at night before bed, he would be with me when I went up to the bar and they would ask if they could give him a soda, one staff member handed him a plastic spider every time we passed him. Just a lot of nice little extras from the staff that we didn't see on Carnival.

I agree with you! My kids also preferred Princess' kids club over NCL and Carnival. They felt that there were way too many kids in the kids club on Carnival, and the staff seemed overwhelmed and stressed out. They also preferred the activities on Princess.

The staff on Princess was fantastic! A waiter we had once at breakfast remembered my 4 y/o and always said hi to him by name for the rest of the cruise. Also, my daughter was feeling a bit sea sick one night. The maitre d' noticed her and told us he was going to bring some slices of green apples to our table to help settle her stomach. DD ended up wanting to go lay down. The maitre d' actually sent the apples to our cabin, along with a dessert for her, if she felt up to eating it. There was no personalized attention like that on CCL.

P&O is the best for younger children, and RCI seems to come out top for older ones.

If you're planning to leave from Manchester, look at the all-in packages from MAN airport to Barbados with P&O's Ventura or Azura- both family friendly ships. The difference with the package is that you fly out on a chartered aeroplane, which takes you to part of the airport where buses are waiting to move you to the ship- your luggage goes straight there, with no waiting around for it.

Also, on the final day, you stay on board the ship until your 'plane has landed, in the afternoon, so you still have activities, food etc, until your coach arrives to take you back to the airport....no hanging around all day.

Thomson also do a package from most regional airports.

Enjoy searching! :)

My 14 & 10yo boys loved RCI. The 14yo wasn't that involved, but the 10yo LOVED it! He was very wary at first thinking he wouldn't like spending time in a "kids club", but he ended up spending a ton of time there. Good thing we had a rule that he had to spend excursions and dinner with us or we would have never seen us except when he was getting ready for bed!

Disclaimer time...it's the only cruise they've been on so far. We'll be on Celebrity this summer and the kids are 17 & 13 so it may be a little different for both of them. Although, last time we sailed on Celebrity, one of our CC members son's spent most of his time in the kids club and they said it was like pulling teeth to get him out of there at night to go to bed - and he was only 3 or 4 at the time!

I think many of the cruise lines will probably do a wonderful job with the kids. It will depend on when you go how many kids will be aboard. We went during Spring Break, so there were many kids. When I booked the cruise, I didn't really consider who had the best kids club. I looked first at itinerary and then considered the amenities - for DH and myself as well as the kids.

I looked at Disney, but it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more expensive than we wanted to spend and we were in a suite on Royal plus they didn't have an itinerary I liked.

We have been sailing NCL for the last several years and our (now 4 year old) LOVES the kids program. She actually cries when she has to leave and can't wait to get back again. If she had her way, she would just stay there the entire time. They do so many things with the kids and each day is geared toward something different. :)

almost any of the mass market lines(Princess, NCL, RC, etc) are good for young kids. Disney of course. If you are cruising some of the high end lines they aren't as kid friendly.