Celebrity and Alaska, a back-to-back family adventure

[smoothy]

Having just returned from a back-to-back on Celebrity Millennium, I thought I'd throw some thoughts down, looking mainly at the family aspects of the trip.

There were 4 of us (myself, DW, DS6, DS4) in stateroom 9171, a balcony room right by the rear elevators. For those that don't know the design of the Millennium class ships, deck 10 is a fair bit wider than the lower decks creating a large overhang that (especially on deck 9) limits your upward view such as mountains, but gives excellent protection against the elements so you can sit on the balcony even during the hardest downpour. This gave us a bit of an oasis, a spot for me to read and for DS6 to settle his system (he gets seasick easily, after taking his dramamine the cool air outside and the view of the horizon helps until the pills kick in.)

4 in a room works well, once a routine gets established. DS6 slept in the pullman bed, we asked the attandant to leave it down during the day so when the kids were in the room they would both sit up there to have a snack or watch a show. Bathroom times, no problem either, the kids had their shower at night after Fun Factory (aka FF, more on it in a bit), DW and I had ours in the morning before waking the kids up.

Meals: On the first leg of the b2b, we brought the boys to the MDR twice, once on the first night, the second time the second formal night so they could see the Baked Alaska parade. Neither one worked out well, DS4 fell asleep at the table the first night (had been up since 5am eastern time, it was now after 6pm Pacific time, and no nap) and the second time the seas were rough so DS6 wasn't feeling well. In both cases I brought the offender back to our room and DW carried my main course back once she was finished. All the other nights we used the kids club meal setup. This program was awesome, the boys loved it and DW and I had peaceful suppers with other adults. The supper is free on sea days, $6/hr/child between the hours of 5-7pm while ship is in port. As the program doesn't bring the kids to the Ocean Cafe until 6, we would drop the boys off on our way to the MDR so we only had to pay for 1 hour of suppertime on the paid nights. Breakfasts and lunches we alternated between the Ocean Cafe, MDR and room service, no problems with any of those.

Ships facilities: Pool, didn't use, one parent said there was family time in the thalasso pool but I didn't check so I'm not sure of the hours/status of that. Cinema, already seen the movies that were showing, none that were particularly suited for kids. Staff on board were above and beyond with the boys. DS6 wanted to know how the waiters all knew his name, even the security guy knew his name (I didn't have the heart to tell my son it comes up on the computer screen after you scan your card when disembarking/embarking)

Now to the Fun Factory. I will preface this by saying that your mileage may vary depending on who is running the program on your ship as the head of the FF has free reign to design the contents of the program as he/she sees fit, apart from fleetwide rules such as hours of operation. If she feels (as I asked her) beer and cigars on deck 11 was the program of the day for the kids, thats what would happen. Having said that though, the FF does have its own survey at the end of each cruise and given how antsy other staff are about the main survey, I would suspect that the FF survey does play a large roll in future promotions or employment prospects. Ideas and activities that go over well with the kids are shared between ships so even though each ship has an independant program, I would expect there is a fair bit of repeat activities throughout the fleet. Another benefit to the local control on the programming was that the program head was able to modify the activities a bit for the second half of our b2b so the boys wouldn't get bored doing the same things twice.

The FF has the play day divided into segments- 9-12pm, 2-5pm and 7-10pm. As well meal times are sometimes covered (early morning club, lunch club while in port and supper club) and there are the late night activities. Many of the meal groups and late night stuff is subject to fees. There is also a rule that kids cannot stay in the FF for more than 6 hours at a time without taking a break, e.g. if you put your child in at 2pm and have them signed up for supper, you would have to take them out at 8pm and would not be allowed to bring them back until 9pm. If we didn't have a family shore excursion, we would put the boys in at 9-9:30, out at noon, back in at 2pm, take them out 4:30-5:00 to give them a break and return them in time for the supper club at 6pm. The staff bring the kids down to the cafe for a snack around 4pm so it was a good chance to get them out right after they had their bite. There is no problem going ashore while the kids are in the FF, we would usually book excursions in the morning, be back for lunch, put the kids in the club for the afternoon then go out and buy our junk..err souvenirs.

It's important to note that the kids must be signed up if they are doing any of the meals. Sign up must be done an hour or so before the meal(high season), or the evening before (low season)

I can't tell too much about the programs for the older kids (I did save the program sheets for them though), cruisinmama, if you read this I can send you copies of everything we kept for your database of kids programs. We were in a unique position of having week 1 fall into high season and week 2 low season so if some of the sheets betweent he different ages seem to overlap it's because I was religious in saving the cards from week 2 where there is some overlap due to reduced children and staff.

Celebrity has a great kids program, more than one night we had some very upset boys when we went to pick them up for bedtime as they didn't want to leave. someting to note is that Celebrity will also fly in extra staff right away if the staff/child ratio is over their threshold, so supervision is not a concern. I really think it's the sleeper hit of the kids programs, Celebrity doesn't go out of their way to advertise it too much but I would definately use it again and recommend it.

Any questions about Celebrity, the FF, or about the Alaska trip itself, please post.

[boulders]

Thanks for the review Smoothy!

I have a cruise booked on the Equinox next summer in the Med. Do you or anyone else know if they have the 6 hour maximum restriction on those cruises? I'm not a big fan of very long shore excursions, but for some of those ports, it may be necessary in order to see the historical sights that I'm taking the cruise to see. It would be so much better for my 5 year old to be in the kids club than on a bus for 10 hours in the heat.

[smoothy]

Originally Posted by boulders

Thanks for the review Smoothy!

I have a cruise booked on the Equinox next summer in the Med. Do you or anyone else know if they have the 6 hour maximum restriction on those cruises? I'm not a big fan of very long shore excursions, but for some of those ports, it may be necessary in order to see the historical sights that I'm taking the cruise to see. It would be so much better for my 5 year old to be in the kids club than on a bus for 10 hours in the heat.

I'm sure there would be some latitude in the ports that have longer excursions. If the staff on the Equinox are as accomodating as the Millennium, you should have no problem.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for posting your review. I enjoyed reading it.

Keith

[brazilgirl]

Great review! I really love Celebrity and their kid´s program is wonderful .

There is a 6 hour rule , but they are flexible about port days/ shore excursions , if you give them a heads up beforehand.

Kim

[akeogh]

We are a young family too (3 children, ages 8,6, and 3) who are considering a cruise to Alaska. How did you pick Celebrity? Did you base it on kids programming, or did you just luck out when you got on board? Which other ships did you consider, and why did you ultimately pick Celebrity for your family?

[smoothy]

Originally Posted by akeogh

We are a young family too (3 children, ages 8,6, and 3) who are considering a cruise to Alaska. How did you pick Celebrity? Did you base it on kids programming, or did you just luck out when you got on board? Which other ships did you consider, and why did you ultimately pick Celebrity for your family?

We had been on Celebrity a couple of times before (without the kids) and really liked their product. It didn't hurt that the price was very good, better even than Royal Caribbean. I knew they had a kids program and doing some research, it seemed to be rated highly by those who had used it before. It was a bit of a gamble doing the b2b, if DS didn't click with the program it would be a long 14 days, but all turned out well.