Carnival vs Celebrity

Hi,

We are looking for a last minute after Christmas cruise and are a family of 3, me, my husband and our 9 year old son.

YEARS ago I went on a Norwegian cruise but other than that we have been on a Disney but mostly Celebrity. Last year we did the repositioning cruise from NYC to San Juan with my family as a last vacation for my dad who passed away shortly after. They had a fancy suite with a butler and we did concierge class but the awesome butler just looked after us all. Before that we did a Mediterranean cruise on Celebrity

I'm looking at Carnival for after Christmas because it's cheap and the boat looks like it would be super fun for a 9 year old boy. There was also a Norwegian one I was looking at.

My travel guy says we wouldn't like Carnival and quoted me a $19,000 cruise (um no thank you). Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this matter? We just want to escape our needy moms, my husband has been working insane hours so he wants to check his brain at the door and enjoy massages and eat and drink. I like to spend time at the pool with drinks and snacks and my boy loves any kid programs. Thanks in advance

I believe most kids like Carnival. And you need a new travel guy. A travel agent with cruise line prejudices is just looking for a larger commission. It would help us to guide you if yu could tell us which ships you are considering. EM

I believe most kids like Carnival. And you need a new travel guy. A travel agent with cruise line prejudices is just looking for a larger commission. It would help us to guide you if yu could tell us which ships you are considering. EM

My sentiments exactly about our "guy"

I was looking at Carnival Freedom that goes to Belize and Honduras and Cozumel

or now I'm looking at NCL Getaway to the similar destinations

I would suggest reading reviews on this site of both ships. I got a lot of information from those reviews. But before you get too into it, make sure there are still cabins you would want for your dates on both ships. At least on the Carnival site, you can do a booking up to the point of choosing your room without paying.

Most children enjoy Carnival.

We did that exact cruise on carnival and chose it for the ports (which were great by the way). The food was made up of less expensive components than the other cruises we've taken, but everything was very well cooked and tasty. We sailed a long time ago, but there was really good freshly made pizza and the employees were all outstanding. We sailed prior to having kids, but would sail again with our children if we found the right itinerary

Thanks everyone. We booked it. Can't beat the price and it's going neat places we've never been can't wait

In Roatan, Bodden's adventures can provide transportation all over the island. They have a great animal refuge center at Victor Bodden's home, where you can feed monkeys and visit parrots. Just don't zip line there - some of the tripadvisor reviews indicated that it wasn't safe. We also really liked on our eco walk at South Shore through the suspension bridges. The bridges are a bit challenging for a three year old (which we fully anticipated prior to booking) but overall quite manageable for a child (yours will be fine at 9). There is zip lining there too. The iguana farm is very nice also.

In Belize, the zoo is small but outstanding. If you are also going to Grand Cayman, the turtle farm there is great plus there is hand feeding the stingrays if you are comfortable with that (they are completely wild creatures, quite used to tourists but still stingrays that live in the ocean and got used to showing up in the same spot where fishermen dumped their chum at the end of the day for an easy meal. Eventually someone realized tourists would pay good money to swim with the stingrays and feed them.

Wishing you a wonderful cruise.

My only suggestion is when you board that you put out of your mind Celebrity or any other cruise line because it will be different. Some things you might like better while other things you likely won't.

Your child will have a great time. That was my experience with the children and if you have the right approach you will too.

Keith

I will second the vote for the turtle farm. Our kids loved it.

We did the Freedom last January with 4 kids (6,9,9,11) and they had a really good time. The older one moved up into the 12-14 year old group and really fit in and spent most of the cruise in circle-C. The 9 year old twins really enjoyed playing mini-golf and shuttle board as well as swimming and using the slide.

We have booked another cruise with Carnival in March of this year as we are comfortable with them and they meet all of our needs.