Cruising with kids on Celebrity Line???

[kelbre]

Hello! Just curious to see if anyone has cruised Celebrity line with children? We have two children aged 9 and 12 and have cruised two Carnival and one Princess (both of those had excellent kids programs!!!) . I am currently checking out the Celebrity Millenium out of San Juan on a ten day Caribbean itinerary due to the fact that I like the places that it goes to and the timing of the dates works really well for us. However, I am a little hesitant as I am not sure of the ages of the passengers. Upon reading a little bit about the ship, I see that the passenger capacity is around 1950 to 2000 which is a lot smaller than the ships we have sailed on previously.

 

If anyone out there has sailed on a Celebrity ship with children I would love to hear replys back from you on this thread. I'm not 100% sure we are doing a cruise this spring but am wanting to get as much information as possible while researching dates and itineraries.

 

Thanks in advance!

Kathy

[txjeffrey]

I would also love to hear of anyone with teens on Celebrity. We are looking to sail from Seattle to Alaska on the June 10th voyage on Infinity. Any info shared will be greatly appreciated.

[The_Big_M]

You should check out the Family crusing section. However, to answer the above questions, yes, Celebrity has a great children's program. You've probably seen that it doesn't have all the bells and whistles in onboard activities e.g. rock climbing, but for the kid's program they do a great job, with separate age groups, councillors, daily activities schedule and so on.

[trabeler]

My daughter (now 13 years old) has sailed with Celebrity three times and always enjoys the programs. For kids less than 12 years old, there is more structure. The older ones have more self-directed activities.

 

A lot will depend on how social your kids are and how many other kids are cruising on that trip. We've been on Celebrity trips with as few as 12 total kids (Baltic in May) or several hundred (Caribbean over Thanksgiving). She actually had more fun on the trips with less kids because there was more personalized attention from the kids staff. On cruises with a lot of kids, as long as yours can find a group to hang out with, they should have a great time.

[brown-eyed girl]

We are just back from the Celebrity Solstice 7 night E. Caribbean cruise over Christmas. While most things I'd read said there were usually very few kids on the Solstice, there were about 500 the week that we cruised. The problem we had is that we have an 11.5 year old girl and a 14 year old girl (both in middle school) and one must be 12 to be in the "teen" group. We asked about moving the younger one up, but they insisted that they could not. Also, kids 11 and under get an arm band and the older ones do not, so it was easy to tell she was under 12. So, long story short, they were both a little nervous to participate in their separate programs "alone." Plus the 11 year old felt that all the kids in her program were "much younger." When she did go to participate in some specifically scheduled activitiy, she often found that the counselors were just having "free play time." One even commented that they just list the specific activities to make the parents happy. I had the impression they were overwhelmed with so many kids.

 

I would have liked for them to have someplace to go hang out together . . . not necessarily babysitting or supervised activities, but the teen couldn't go with the younger one to play the Wii or other games in the kid area, the younger one couldn't go play ping-pong with the older one, etc. Beyond what was in their respective areas, there wasn't much for them to do. There was a basketball court that was always occupied by older teen boys. There was also an arcade game room that cost about $2 and up a game.

 

All that said, they still had fun on the cruise. They liked the pool, meals, shows, port days, etc. I don't know if a different cruise line would have provided a different experience . . . some of it was just a function of their ages.

[Redtravel]

Celebrity is okay. I prefer Royal Caribbean when I travel with the whole family. My kids and grandkids like Royal better. The kids program on Royal is better. There's more activities. Also, since there are more activities, the kids on board are busy and don't annoy the adults. When I travel with my spouse or adult family only, I prefer Celebrity/Azamara. The only time that Celebrity caters to kids is during school vacations. The rest of the year, it's dull. Even my grown kids ( 30s) prefer Royal. They say that Celebrity attracts older folks....and they are right. Of course when I pay the bill, everyone goes with my choice. When we share the bill, Royal is the winner. Even my old Mother who is 90 loves Royal when we travel as a family. She says that the spa is better. As for teenagers, they will usually be creative. If there are no activities they will create their own amusements....or just pester you.

[dkjretired]

My children traveled on Celebrity for many years and they loved the Celebrity childrens programs. I have seen them with several hundred children on a cruise and they handled them very well. I disagree vehemently with the previous poster that the only time they cater to children is during school vacations. My children went on cruises at odd times and they had the same treatment and programs as during busy weeks. That statement is just factually incorrect. They do not have the bells and whistles of Royal Caribbean but I have actually seen people on this board who have said their kids enjoyed Celebrity better than Disney... You will not be disappointed..

[brown-eyed girl]

To add to my earlier post, let me say we did find things to do as a family during the day on sea days that the kids enjoyed, like the galley tour, group trivia, Hot Glass show, etc. (and of course the pool). It was usually around 10pm (after dinner and the show) that we would have liked to have gone to the casino or something as adults, but the kids didn't have much to do or a place we could suggest to send them. Sometimes they went to the arcade or back to the room to watch a movie. One night the older girl went to the disco for the teen party for about an hour.

[dwjoe]

Celebrity had a fine kids program on the Solstice. My daughters (aged 10 and 8) enjoyed it very much. Celebrity does attract more seniors and fewer kids than RCCL. But if you cruise during school holiday periods there should be plenty of children aboard.

[Onessa]

We've cruised Princess, RCI, NCL, and X with our DD (now 15YO).

 

For the U12 set I think all lines have decent kids' programs that most kids will enjoy. Outside of the formal kids programs, most RCI ships have the most "other" kid friendly stuff -- ice skating, rock climbing, wave riding, etc. X doesn't have a ton of kid-friendly venues and/or activities outside of their formal programs.

 

For the 12 and up set, none of the lines really excel (and as someone who just came back from a trip with 5 14 and 15YOs, I can relate). Kids of this age primarily want kids of a similar age with whom they can "hang out" -- watch movies, listen to music, and (primarily boys) play video games. It is the individual teens and the teen counselors (rather than the teen programs) that seem to determine how well the kids will really mix.

 

Since entering the over 12YO program, DD has primarily used the teen club as a way to meet other kids her age. They then primarily use it as a meeting place and little else. On our last S-class cruise DD met up with two other girls her age and they spent all ship-board time playing trivia games, watching all the hot-glass shows, and watching free on-demand movies in one of the cabins. The last "at sea" day, a bunch of the teens got together to finish up homework assignments in the teen club (and DD was the math tutor:))

 

As to the issue of U12's being allowed in the teen club -- I applaud X for finally standing their ground. We were on two cruises recently where 10 and/or 11YOs were allowed to age up into the teen program. The "real" teens then avoided the teen club at ALL costs since "little kids" were there.

[Denny01]

Just came back from the Mercury Thanksgiving cruise with our 2 1/2 yo granddaughter and our frieinds with older kids. They had a great kids area and programs. They all loved it. Their own pool, gym, reading and puppet stage and lots of kids and things to do.

 

If a toddler isn't potty-trained, you must stay with them in the kids play area. We used babysitter a few times and it works very nicely.

 

The S-Class had a teen area I would have loved to try - lots of computer games and so on.

 

Have a friend who is planning on a cruise next year and is looking a Disney because of the kid-focused programs. Told them I'd heard it was a fine Line, but RCL and Celebrity (ones I know about) have great programs also and I've found Disney to be very expensive for similar SRs. Not an expert, but I think Celebirty is great for families.

 

Denny

[brown-eyed girl]

I think Onessa's assessment is very fair. And I guess whatever cruise you are on, I'd suggest that you insist that your kids go to the kids programs at the first opportunities. It seems like that is when friendships are formed, particularly in the 12 and up set.

[kitty9]

Hello! Just curious to see if anyone has cruised Celebrity line with children? We have two children aged 9 and 12 and have cruised two Carnival and one Princess (both of those had excellent kids programs!!!) . I am currently checking out the Celebrity Millenium out of San Juan on a ten day Caribbean itinerary due to the fact that I like the places that it goes to and the timing of the dates works really well for us. However, I am a little hesitant as I am not sure of the ages of the passengers. Upon reading a little bit about the ship, I see that the passenger capacity is around 1950 to 2000 which is a lot smaller than the ships we have sailed on previously.

 

If anyone out there has sailed on a Celebrity ship with children I would love to hear replys back from you on this thread. I'm not 100% sure we are doing a cruise this spring but am wanting to get as much information as possible while researching dates and itineraries.

 

Thanks in advance!

Kathy

 

If you cruise when US schools are on holiday, then there will be more kids on board. But if you cruise when school is in session, it could be your kids will be the only ones on board, excepting the infants and young toddlers. Celebrity's longer cruises, those 10 days and longer, tend to attract an older demographic. I've been on those 10 day and longer cruises and I could count on one hand the number of school age kids on board. Here's an example. Last year we cruised on X, the week before President's week in February. We had a total of 10 kids on board, and that included the babies. This was only a 7 day cruise. The following week, when a lot of kids have vacation, there were 312 kids on board.

 

So, if you cruise when school is in session, and because you're taking a longer cruise, your children may very well be the only school age kids on the ship.