royal caribbean vs celebrity

We are considering an eastern caribbean cruise, with nearly identical itineraries. One is royal caribbean, and the other Celebrity. We've never sailed with either line, and were wondering if one or the other has better kids clubs or food. Thanks so much. So far, Princess is my husband and my favorite line, and my son really loved the kids clubs on NCL.

How old is your DS and/or the other kids who will be joining you? Kids clubs for the under 10 year old set in particular are fairly similar. There may be a few more kids on a similar sized RCCI ship and length cruise than on a Celebrity cruises. (so if you are cruising "off holiday", RCCI may be preferable in that you will be more likely to have kids his age; If you are cruising "on holiday" Celebrity's clubs may be a bit less "over populated")

As your kids get a bit older the RCCI cruises tend to have more non-kids club amenities than Celebrity. Larger/more sports courts, climbing walls, and while they vary from ship-to-ship RCCI ships is where you will find kid's water parks, wave pools, zip lines, skating rinks, etc. While Celebrity's amenitites skew more toward adults. Some kids really like the fancy activities while others may not use them.

You may like Celebrity's food better...very subjective!

What age are the kids? Both have clubs...kids seem to like them both!!

My son will have just turned 4 prior to the cruise.

You will see more kids on RCI than Celebrity but with that said there will be more than enough children on Celebrity.

Each line has a range of ships. Have you narrowed it down to which ship you are considering on each line?

Keith

My family has cruised twice and have sailed both Celebrity (Solstice class) and Royal (Freedom class). I can give you my thoughts but ultimately take everything with a grain of salt and choose what's best for your family.

Celebrity had better food overall but dining experience wasn't as kid friendly as Royal. Royal had kids menus and activity sheets to colour on etc.

Celebrity had fewer kids which meant our little one got extra attention from crew and other passengers. It was amazing how many people knew who our daughter was and made a point to say hello to her everyday.

Both offer kids clubs and both looked like fantastic areas. We never used either but be aware that kids clubs are usually only open to the 3+ crowd. Royal offers a nursery area for those younger than 3 which we visited. It looked like a great area and I would not have hesitated one bit to leave our little one there if we wanted some kid free time. Royal also offers toy lending which was fantastic. We took out two bags of toys and had them in our room all week. One less thing to pack.

The biggest deciding factor for us however was their water facilities. Royal (Freedom/Oasis class) ships have a splash pad in addition to regular pools. However, they also offer a little wading pool for little ones that aren't toilet trained yet. Our little one wasn't quite 100% trained at the time so having a space for her to play in the water while on the ship pushed us towards Royal vs. Celebrity. Our experience with enforcement of the pool rules was that it was monitored 50% of the time. When it was monitored the rules were enforced. When it wasn't we saw many people taking their non-toilet trained children into the splash pad area. I won't comment on whether or not the rule should be better enforced or if parents should be more obedient because that will stir a fire storm that will hijack this thread taking it away from your original question.

If you forced me to pick one over the other with a child 0-3 I would go Royal. Once our little one is 3+ I would let the itinerary be the deciding factor between these two lines.

Happy sailing!

Celebrity is hands-down our favorite cruise line....but not for kids. We took our then-3-year-old son on a Celebrity cruise a couple of years ago. The ship staff were all very nice to him and he enjoyed dining with us in the dining room, going to the shows, even hanging out at some of the lobby bars with us (don't judge). ;-)

He did not, however, enjoy the Kid's Club at all. Even though it was Spring Break and there were plenty of kids on board, they expected kids in his age group to mostly sit and color or do crafts. Our son is waaaay too active for that. So he hardly ever stayed at the kid's club and was with us virtually all the time.

We said we would try Royal Caribbean for our next cruise. In fact, we are leaving tomorrow on a Carnival Cruise Line - not because we like Carnival better than Royal Caribbean (quite the contrary) but because the port is only an hour away from our house. We're hoping for a better kid's club experience for him this time (he's 5 now).

We are considering an eastern caribbean cruise, with nearly identical itineraries. One is royal caribbean, and the other Celebrity. We've never sailed with either line, and were wondering if one or the other has better kids clubs or food. Thanks so much. So far, Princess is my husband and my favorite line, and my son really loved the kids clubs on NCL.

We are considering an eastern caribbean cruise, with nearly identical itineraries. One is royal caribbean, and the other Celebrity. We've never sailed with either line, and were wondering if one or the other has better kids clubs or food. Thanks so much. So far, Princess is my husband and my favorite line, and my son really loved the kids clubs on NCL.

My DW and I did one cruise on Celebrity, but without the kids. We enjoyed it and found the food good and the pace very slow (we have cruised NCL, Carnival, and RCCL before). I have heard great things about their kids program on Celebrity, but there is not much else to do on the ship for one who is 4.

The RCCL ships offer an incredible amount of other activities that your child would enjoy. Our children loved the kids program on NCL, hated it on Carnival, and love it on RCCL (ages 3-11). The larger RCCL ships offer the Dreamworks characters (lots of great photo opportunities and shows with them), 3D movie theatres showing Dreamworks movies, ice skating (equipment included), amazing kids' splash areas, merry-go-rounds, mini golf, and more. Hands down if you are looking for activities to do WITH your child, do RCCL over Celebrity. If you are looking for simply putting your child in a program, both have good programs from what I have read.

(Look at the Oasis class ships or the Freedom).