Aggiecruiser01

Just wanted to get some feedback about this cruise. We booked Navigator of the Seas end of May 2017. Sailing from Southampton- Le Havre/Paris- Lisbon- Vigo. We are sailing with a 7 and 9 y/o. I know we will love it but will the kids? We like our outside activities- swimming, rock climbing, flow rider.. but is it too cold? And how about the ports with kids? We want to go to Paris but a 2.5 hour coach ride seems a bit boring. Thoughts? Thanks!!

Oooops! Sorry about the misspelling! :D

Anyone out there just get off the Navigator of the seas cruise that sailed out of South Hampton, England? How was it?! We booked it for next year but before we commit to the plane tickets would like to know if it was a good one! We will be sailing with a 7 y/o and 9 y/o. Was it warm enough for outside activities on deck- swim, rock climbing, flow rider? Fun ports (with kids)? I don't want anyone saying 'I'm bored'... :D

We booked a cruise out of South Hampton for the end of May 2017. We are taking our two kids (7 & 9)- wondering if it's too cool to swim/ enjoy the outdoor activities? Checking to see if this is a 'kid-friendly'/ family cruise with activities for 'all'... ports are Le Havre/Paris; Vigo, Lisbon. Anyone done this with children.. or seen any kids :D

I’m writing this thread for anyone contemplating trying a family cruise on Royal Caribbean. We just got off the Liberty of the Seas with our family of 4 (kids ages 6 and 8) and.. we loved it! Prior to RCCL we sailed with Disney twice. We thoroughly enjoyed our Disney dreamy vacations but this time around we wanted to save a little $$ and see if taking our kids on another cruise line would be just as good. I have to admit the first 24 hours I kept thinking ‘this is not Disney’ but shortly got over it. It is NOT Disney- it’s Royal Caribbean. Yes, there are obviously many differences but let me tell you the good stuff about Royal. First of all my kids said they loved it way more than the Disney cruise (what?). They enjoyed the kids club much better and constantly wanted to go. This is a big score as my daughter never wanted to go to the Disney kids club. Royal’s club was much more structured, counselors knew the kids by name, and there was no ‘down time’-always a game/activity going on. My kids loved that. We figured the best sea day schedule for us was- eat breakfast; go swimming early/ play at Splashaway bay in the morning; late morning flow rider/ big water slides; eat lunch; ice skating- or ice show; rock climbing; afternoon kids club; dinner; evening kids club. We stayed away from the pool in the afternoon as the ‘scene’ was a little too PG13 for my kids (and for me- not into the world’s sexiest man contest). I would say that’s the biggest difference between the two cruise lines- Disney is more ‘rated G/PG’ with their activities/etc and Royal is more PG13- even pushing it a little. (That’s the best way I can describe it). You will not see Mickey, sodas are not included, the shows are not all family friendly like Disney, and the service is not ‘Disney grade’ but it is still really good. We enjoyed ourselves so much we booked another cruise with Royal. Hope this information is helpful to someone.

I just got back from the Navigator Transatlantic on Saturday. We stopped at

All the same ports you are visiting. In Lisbon we took a ships tour to Fatima.

But if religious places are not your things. Several passengers told me they

Took the Hop on Hop off bus with great success. Lisbon looked like a great

City to see as we drove though it. Don't miss sailing into Lisbon Harbor. It's

Breathtaking.

 

In Vigo we took a private tour to Santiago de Compostela. Another famous

Religious site. If you've see the movie "The Way" with Martin Sheen, you

Will enjoy a visit there.

 

In LeHavre. We took the Paris on your own tour with the ship. I've been to

Paris before, but my friend had not. You only get maybe 4 hours of free time

In the city, and it's a 2 1/2 hour bus ride each way. I get the impression that

The people who took a tour to Paris, are people who felt they will never get an

Opportunity to visit. And this was their chance to say "I've been to Paris". Also

Just about all the ship tours from LeHavre were expensive. Some going over

$200 a person. Of course price for kids were less than adults.

 

I enjoyed the Navigator. My only gripe was they kept messing up on board

Credits for our cabin, and messed them up even more when we tried to get

Them fixed. Finally just gave up. The ship was beautiful and very clean. Food

Was good, especially Chops.

 

Since it's a European cruise. You need to do a lot of research before hand. The

Shore excursions team knows virtually nothing about the ports. Their only

Concern is to sell you tours. Also try to book any tours from the ship before

You go. We pre booked the Fatima tour, but didn't for the Paris tour. The

Second day of the cruise just about all the Paris tours were sold out. We were

Put on a wait list and finally got on. But put a little damper to our original

Plans.

Great information! We are going back and forth with this cruise! Especially the Paris part We have family in London so we will be staying and 'touring' the London area with them for 5 days... then we thought what a great opportunity to hop on a cruise. My husband and I have both been to Paris (many years ago) but we wanted to show our kids- especially our girl who 'loves Paris'. The Paris for a day is what we are considering.. and maybe an actual tour for safety/ easy travel (won't get lost) with kids. But it is SO PRICEY. I priced leaving from London and taking the train to Paris- then taking a 'big tour' and it was about the same.

I like the Lisbon hop on bus idea... and for Vigo we will probably do a beach/town excursion.

Just got off Liberty of the Seas.. they had an amazing 'book your next cruise' so we booked Europe... We were able to book a corner aft balcony/deck 10 and will be sailing with our two kids ages 7 & 9... Sailing in May- London/South Hampton, Paris, Lisbon, Vigo. Anyone out there have suggestions/ experiences/ port excursion thoughts, etc.? I realize I have LOTS of research to but wondered if anyone had 'thoughts to share...'. :D:D

We are about to set sail on our cruise in a couple of days- Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Falmouth/Jamaica... However I keep looking at the weather for these 3 ports (maybe I shouldn't).. and I see rain :eek: But the weather report also seems to change daily... Is it typically the quick afternoon showers then sun.. or is there lots of rain hanging out in the Caribbean? We have beach excursions for all 3 ports. (maybe I should stop looking at the weather reports)

got the same message for 5/15

Ok. Once upon a time sailed with rccl quite a bit... Our loyalty just moved to Disney and princess and always got on pretty early. Will wait a little later.

Thanks all! Also, what is a good time to arrive.. coming from the Houston area and wanting to know what time we should leave- I think I read someone arrived at 10:30 and got on the ship at 11- sound right?

What is open besides the windjammer on embarkation day? Rock Wall? Swimming pools? Waterslides? Hoping to bring our swim suits in our carry on bags.

are there any 'extra special' deals if you book your next cruise while sailing on your current cruise (future cruise sales)... I know about the reduced deposit but is that really it?

Hello! I just came off the Oasis 4/9 sailing and did a lot of searching and reading on CruiseCritic to find answers about traveling with kids. I found some great info, but most over 3 years old so I wanted to post a little about our experience. My hope is that more people chime in with their experiences and/or questions here.

 

First let me start by saying this was our first family cruise. My husband and I cruised together about 10 years ago, as late 20 somethings and found that cruising was not the best vacation for us at the time. We liked to explore places and felt that a few hours per port was not enough for us. Fast forward to this year, where we were searching for an all inclusive beach vacation for our family of 4- my husband and me in our early 40's, an 8 year old boy and a newly 6 year old girl. Somehow it was mentioned to look into a cruise, and before you know it, the Oasis/Allure are on our radar. With so many promising activities, we decided to give cruising another shot. Let's just say this trip exceeded our expectations. We have been to Disney twice, the last time in September 2015, and this trip by far was much more relaxing. I am happy to say it was kid friendly and really felt like a vacation. The kids really enjoyed themselves.

This Review will focus primarily on things kids related and what we did with our family.

 

Adventure Ocean We were very happy with the Adventure Ocean program. It is broken up into age groups. 3-5, 6-8, 9-11. Sometimes they combine the ages if not enough kids were there. A typical schedule for a sailing day are sessions: 9am-12pm, 2pm-5pm, 7pm-10pm. You can opt to send the kids all day, or just for a little bit. If your kids are there during lunch or dinner, they will take the kids for the meal. From 10pm-2am there is a fee of $7 per child per hour.

Each day, they print a page for the day's activities. Most of the time, our kids opted to attend the evening sessions. Or travel agent booked us for the 6pm dining time, because at 6:40pm some Adventure Ocean Counselors gather outside the dining room to pick up the children as we finished our dinner.

We found our wait staff knew nothing about this and the one night we took advantage of it, they missed dessert. (Not a problem in my mind.)

We found all the staff to be wonderful, excited and engaging. They had many team activities inside the main room, but also some outside. Going in, our worry was that they would be cooped up in the room. But we found each night had new activities in a new place. One night, there was a fun Pirate show on the Promenade. They painted the kids faces and did a little march down the Promenade, sang and danced. Another day there was a talent show. Another Evening there was a dance party in Fuel, the Teen club, where Puss in Boots came out to dance with the kids. There were games on the basketball court one night also.

My son was skeptical about going to Adventure Ocean before the trip. My daughter was excited to go. We told them that had to try at least once. Reading the daily flyer about the activities got them excited to go. Both kids had a Blast.

 

Family Activities We found many family activities scheduled on port days and sailing days. We did not take part in the Adventure Science but that looked like fun, Family Karaoke, Family Mini Golf, Family Dancing, Ice skating, Rock Climbing, and a ride on the Merry Go Round.

From 4pm-5pm each night is a Family Fun Carnival on the Boardwalk. This consisted of coloring, small games, and other fun activities. I would say this is best for the little ones- ages 2-5.

 

Character interactions This was an extra bonus that our kids did not seek out, but it was fun to see different Dreamworks characters on the ship. There is also a Character breakfast that you can sign and pay for. My kids were not into it so we opted out.

 

H2O Zone When all else failed, we were at the H20 Zone. Both of my kids loved this area. There is a pool up to 3.5 feet deep and a small splash park. All of this is flanked by a hot tub (the only one I saw kids going in and out no problem) and on the opposite end was a current pool. The current Pool is a circular pool that has a constant current going to make the kids go around and around.

Also nearby was a towel station, pool bar, and of course a frozen yogurt machine. My kids made friends easily in this area, and saw them more than once.

 

Shows Following some advice on Cruise Critic we opted to skip Cats for our kids. I did book 'Frozen in Time,' 'Come Fly With Me' and 'Oasis of Dreams.' before we set sail. They scan your SeaPass card before you walk into the show. We enjoyed all of the shows. But by far their favorite was Oasis of Dreams, and sitting in the front row aka The Splash Zone. Make sure you wear your bathing suits for that- you get very wet.

 

Just an FYI the Zipline and Flowrider have height restrictions and unfortunately my kids were unable to utilize them. Even though we prepared them, my 8 year old was very sad that at 50 inches tall he could use the Flowrider.

 

Food We ate in the Main Dining Room every night for dinner with the exception of one formal night. Most of their meals were preferred at the Wipeout Cafe.

 

Rooms We opted to get adjoining oceanview balcony rooms. This worked very well for our family. We had the adjoining door open the whole trip and well as on the balcony. This meant 2 bathrooms so 2 people could shower at the same time. Also 2 tvs which was great for downtime in the room and keeping the kids separate for a bit. Something I wished we had done on a port day was order breakfast to the room and eaten on the balcony. The kids were in bed by 10/10:30almost every night and I am glad we had the Oceanview balconies vs the Boardwalk ones because its is quiet and private.

Hope this is helpful!

Thanks for this post.. we are actually going on the Liberty of the Seas but have a 6 and 8 y/o as well. I'm curious how they will like RCCL as we have sailed Disney the last 2 cruises... But, what is the height restriction for the flowrider!? They've always done them at water parks so I didn't even think about a restriction.. they are 48 and 50 inches. (they will be so sad if they can't do it)

Hi there.. posting from the Houston, Tx area where we are flooded out.. and not going anywhere. Our area is fine.. but much of the city is closed.

So... wanting to hear any favorites regarding this cruise.. We leave May 15 and we are really looking forward to it. Haven't been on RCCL with our kids (6 & 8) as we have sailed Disney the last 2 cruises.. wondering what is 'better about RCCL- waterslides? explorer program?

thanks for any thoughts/info as we are stuck at home.. :) and taking a break from watching the news..

Thanks for the review. One question and my apologies if it seems unreasonable: If you still have your Compasses, would you mind posting them? We're going on our first RC cruise in June and we'd like to know what to expect onboard (we've been in Disney 4 times and Carnival twice so we aren't new to cruising). Again, I apologize if it's an unreasonable request.

http://www.robinsons1874.com/Liberty/

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2329004

Thanks for the review. We are doing the same itinerary May 1 in reverse order. Did the staff happen to mention anything on when the Tidal Wave slide would open?

just read June 1:(

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/class/ship/home.do?shipCode=LB

our cruise is may 15

Hi everyone,

 

We just disembarked on Sunday for our absolutely AWESOME Freedom of the Seas cruise. We absolutely loved it.:)

As you can see from my signature and username we are usually loyal to the Disney brand name. We are Disney Vacation Club members and have sailed on all of DCL's ships. Disney, however, is getting stupidly expensive so it was with some trepidation that we booked our spring break cruise on FOS.

We need not have worried as we decided (myself, DH and DS16), about halfway through our cruise last week, that we would be hard-pressed to book another DCL cruise.

Our experience on FOS met and, in many cases, surpassed DCL.

We loved our interactions with the friendly crew, the terrific food (MDR, Chops, Giovannis, Sabor, Windjammer), entertainment (fabulous shows and so many choices), beautiful ship...I could go on and on....:)

 

We booked for next spring break on the Allure. Can't wait!

 

If any DCL cruisers have any questions about the differences/similarities; feel free to fire away!

Hooray.. this is the post I've been looking for! :D I recently posted the below thread/question.. any insight (encouragement) would be greatly appreciated! We have been on Disney twice when our kids were really young and now are going on Liberty of the Seas-

I keep 'pondering' on this topic- Disney Boat vs. new Liberty of the Seas... The last two cruises we sailed were Disney... Incredible. But we decided to try a 'less expensive' option.. we are sailing on the new Liberty of the Seas in May. Hoping the adding of all the water slide fun will make it just as good as our Disney experience (the kids will also love the rock climbing, mini-golf, flow rider, an ice skating that RCCL offers). My kids are 6 and 8 and will be in the same kids club together so that will be nice.

Anyone out there have a Disney vs. the new Liberty of the Seas comparison? Or even a boat that is similar to Liberty (with all the new add ons) It will be interesting to see the difference between the two... my expectations are reduced as I know it is not Disney.. But would love to gain a renewed loyalty to RCCL for our family- the price sure is right! And after this cruise we will be platinum members (sailed on RCCL a bit before kids)

I keep 'pondering' on this topic... The last two cruises we sailed were Disney... Incredible. But we decided to try a 'less expensive' option.. we are sailing on the new Liberty of the Seas in May. Hoping the adding of all the water slide fun will make it just as good as our Disney experience (the kids will also love the rock climbing, mini-golf, flow rider, an ice skating that RCCL offers). My kids are 6 and 8 and will be in the same kids club together so that will be nice.

Anyone out there have a Disney vs. the new Liberty of the Seas comparison? Or even a boat that is similar to Liberty (with all the new add ons) It will be interesting to see the difference between the two... my expectations are reduced as I know it is not Disney.. But would love to gain a renewed loyalty to RCCL for our family- the price sure is right! And after this cruise we will be platinum members (sailed on RCCL a bit before kids)

Thanks!

Thanks for this review! I keep 'pondering' on this topic... The last two cruises we sailed were Disney... Incredible. But we decided to try a 'less expensive' option.. we are sailing on the Liberty of the Seas in May. Hoping the adding of all the water slide fun will make it just as good as our Disney experience (the kids will also love the rock climbing, mini-golf, flow rider, an ice skating that RCCL offers). My kids are 6 and 8 and will be in the same kids club together so that will be nice.

Anyone out there have a Disney vs. the new Liberty of the Seas comparison? It will be interesting to see the difference between the two... my expectations are reduced as I know it is not Disney..

thanks! we may just do it... I love a scenic beach and my kids can play in the sand for hours..

thanks! exactly what I wanted to know! :)

Hi there. I just 'discovered' the Royal Caribbean Visa and was wondering is it too late to gain any benefits if we get one now? We are paid in full and leave mid May but would love the 'extra'onboard credit and any perks. I obviously need to read up on it but would love any thoughts (sounds like you guys know how to work it:D)

Thoughts? Is it really worth paying $90 (2 adults, 2 elementary-age kids) to go to Red Stripe for the day? Or should we just stay on the ship and play- and maybe check out the port (within the bubble)? We will have already been to the beaches at Cayman and Cozumel. thanks! (tough decisions here )

Thoughts? Is it really worth paying $90 (2 adults, 2 kids) to go to Red Stripe for the day? Or should we just stay on the ship and play- and maybe check out the port (within the bubble)? We will have already been to the beaches at Cayman and Cozumel. thanks! (tough decisions here )