Kids on Xmas Cruises

My partner and I love an itinerary on the Eclipse over Xmas 2015. It's a 9-day cruise with fabulous ports. My concern is about the number of kids on Xmas cruises. Has anyone sailed on Celebrity over the holidays? I am paranoid about kids over-taking the Solarium and pool area. We can cruise on alternative dates, but the itineraries aren't as special. Thanks for any input.

Michael

We were on the Silhouette over Christmas 2013 and the ship was FULL of kids. Mostly teens and pre-teens (as were our own kids). They did not overrun the solarium but instead chose to hang out in the elevators. Literally. An elevator would open and there would be five or six girls, sitting on the floor,backs against the glass, legs straight out in front of them. I just firmly said "excuse me, you have to make room" and they obliged. That was really the only place I found them to be a nuisance (even my own teens were annoyed).

I would still sail X over the holidays. It was a great cruise and we have wonderful memories.

My partner and I love an itinerary on the Eclipse over Xmas 2015. It's a 9-day cruise with fabulous ports. My concern is about the number of kids on Xmas cruises. Has anyone sailed on Celebrity over the holidays? I am paranoid about kids over-taking the Solarium and pool area. We can cruise on alternative dates, but the itineraries aren't as special. Thanks for any input.

 

 

 

Michael

We usually cruise in the weeks before Xmas and find very, very few kids on these. Would never consider a cruise over Xmas due to so many children...Love our children, but a cruise is about just the two of us!

The 5-6-7 days sailings will be the ones with more youngsters on board. The longer sailings tend to have more 'scooters' than kids :D

There was a thread early in January about just this subject. Judging by the responses and discussion, we - as adults who do not want to sail with a lot of kids - will never sail over Christmas. Most schools close for 2 weeks so it's not uncommon for parents to book 7 night and longer cruises.

That said, we've sailed on Royal Caribbean at the height of Spring Break a couple of times and had no problem with 1000+ kids, maybe because those ships had more diversions for kids & teens?

We have had good and bad experiences with lots of kids on Xmas cruises.

Our elevator experience with kids was a group of boys acting out the scene in the "Psy" video for Gangem Style. It was hilarious. They were at it for a half hour or so and moved when requested.

One New Years' there were really obnoxious kids and adults on the pool deck blowing noise makers in peoples faces, but that I blame the parents' for not correcting their kids.

I am a teacher and have limited travel days, all of which coincide with summer vacation and christmas vacation.... kinda can't avoid it. I do try not to use my "teacher voice" on the cruise and redirect kids... I save that for school.

it will be CRAMMED with kids, scooters and generally large/multigenerational family groups. never ever again will I take a cruise the last two weeks in December.

since the outdoor pools tend to be too cold yes the indoor ones will have kids in them.. either limited to certain hours( which a good third will ignore anyway) or as a free for all. forget any hope in hell of snagging a hot tub that is not being used as a swimming pool unless it is midnight.

NO itinerary would be good enough to make me sail over any major holiday again. especially at the premium prices they tend to command.

We've sailed on RCCL, Cunard, and HAL over Xmas. All had many more children than usual and also more multigenerational families (think scooters). The most children were on RCCL, but that ship at least catered to families and had lots of activities for them.

And yes, when the whether is not good for swimming outside they come into the Solarium and it is more common to have bad whether on a Xmas cruise.

Michael, believe me, when even a luxury line like Crystal has 148 kids, out of 960 passengers, during a 14 day Christmas cruise, you can bet there will be a whole lot more on a mass market line. It will be way overloaded with kids.

Thanks for all the feedback. Eventhough it's a great itinerary, I think we will avoid cruising over the holidays - especially since we aren't limited to a holiday vacation schedule. It sounds a little risky. Thanks again and happy cruising! :)

Michael

it will be CRAMMED with kids, scooters and generally large/multigenerational family groups. never ever again will I take a cruise the last two weeks in December.

 

since the outdoor pools tend to be too cold yes the indoor ones will have kids in them.. either limited to certain hours( which a good third will ignore anyway) or as a free for all. forget any hope in hell of snagging a hot tub that is not being used as a swimming pool unless it is midnight.

 

NO itinerary would be good enough to make me sail over any major holiday again. especially at the premium prices they tend to command.

X2. Now if it were free..... There is no reason for us to cruise over the holidays as our kids are grown and our jobs allow travel at basically anytime. We did go to Disney the week between Christmas and New Years once. I'm still recovering :)

Thanks for all the feedback. Eventhough it's a great itinerary, I think we will avoid cruising over the holidays - especially since we aren't limited to a holiday vacation schedule. It sounds a little risky. Thanks again and happy cruising! :)

 

 

Michael

You won't regret booking another time. DH and I were on a 10 day Panama Canal cruise during the Christmas holidays on Princess Cruise Line one year, and I swear it seemed almost like the kids outnumbered the adults! They completely took over the pools and the hot tubs, and you couldn't even come out of your cabin without having packs of kids screaming and running down the hall, almost mowing you down! We said if we could live through that experience we'd never ever book a cruise during the holidays again. Hope you find an alternative cruise that's wonderful.

Thanks for all the feedback. Eventhough it's a great itinerary, I think we will avoid cruising over the holidays - especially since we aren't limited to a holiday vacation schedule. It sounds a little risky. Thanks again and happy cruising! :)

Michael

Great move. You'll be happy you made that choice.

We sailed on the INFINITY starting 12/22/13 from Valparaiso, Chile/ around Cape Horn, ending in Buenos Aires on 1/5/14----- there were many kids/teens on board, but they were well behaved, + just having a good time. Maybe South American kids/teens have + exhibit better manners?

We sailed on the INFINITY starting 12/22/13 from Valparaiso, Chile/ around Cape Horn, ending in Buenos Aires on 1/5/14----- there were many kids/teens on board, but they were well behaved, + just having a good time. Maybe South American kids/teens have + exhibit better manners?

Not from my experience on at least 3 cruises with any SA families. Kids are kids, regardless of location.

I did a New Year's Eve cruise on Holland America a few years ago and don't remember it being that over-run with kids.

But I can tell you the BEST time to avoid kids has got to be in early September, right when school goes back in session. Nobody's pulling their kids out for a vacation then. I think that's when we did Solstice (first week of Sept.) and there were a handful of babies/toddlers, but that was IT.

(Of course you have to worry about hurricanes in the Carib then, but it was worth it!)