Kids on Celebrity's Mexican Riviera 11 night cruise April 2006

[Billmont]

Hi all,

 

I posted this same question on Celebrity's board, but haven't received much feedback so I thought I would try to post here.

 

I would love any feedback.

 

We are contemplating booking a 11 night Mexican Riviera cruise with Celelbrity departing from San Diego on April 17, 2006.

 

My concern is our lonely only daughter (she will be 4 as of cruise time). She loves to be around other kids and thoroughly enjoyed RCI's Adventure Ocean.

 

1) Perhaps with some spring breaks occuring the week of April 17th, perhaps there will be a few more families on board. But with an eleven night cruise, will there be many pre-schoolers aboard?

 

2) Have cruise critic members have any knowledge about the Kids program on the Celebrity ships?

 

Thanks.

[Roz]

As a general rule of thumb, you'll find few families with children on cruises over 7 days in length. Celebrity is geared more to adults than children, so the situation will be compounded. You should probably check ahead to see what type of children's programs will be offered on this itinerary.

 

Roz

[suzsummit]

Did a canal cruise with my 3 kids in May of 2005 -- there were 21 kids onboard. Only about 14 used the kid's club -- rest must have been infants.

 

The staff was GREAT! I think my kids liked the attention AND with fewer kids onboard the staff is free to change around and mix up the schedules. One afternoon a lot of the kids were tired and just wanted to watch videos so the staff got out pillows and had a fun video afternoon. The kids liked it-- they needed a break. The next day they were once again ready for a high activity level.

 

You have a better chance of finding 'under 5's' on these cruises since most parents have a hard time pulling kids out of school during that time. It is also during some school's (CA) spring break so you should find some kids onboard. State testing begins the very last week of April so that is when most kids can not get out of school:(.

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

 

-s

[Chucksta63]

Hi all,

 

I posted this same question on Celebrity's board, but haven't received much feedback so I thought I would try to post here.

 

I would love any feedback.

 

We are contemplating booking a 11 night Mexican Riviera cruise with Celelbrity departing from San Diego on April 17, 2006.

 

My concern is our lonely only daughter (she will be 4 as of cruise time). She loves to be around other kids and thoroughly enjoyed RCI's Adventure Ocean.

 

1) Perhaps with some spring breaks occuring the week of April 17th, perhaps there will be a few more families on board. But with an eleven night cruise, will there be many pre-schoolers aboard?

 

2) Have cruise critic members have any knowledge about the Kids program on the Celebrity ships?

 

Thanks.

Hello Bill

your not going to find many kids on a 11 night cruise at this time of year!!! Most have to be back to school.. I have a group cruise going that same week out of Fla. to the Caribbean this cruise will have over 1000 kids at sail time!!!! Not sure what X will have... I did see an X ship last year in the Caymans but I don't recall seeing many kids on her??? Like the other poster said X is more geared for the adults..

Good luck come join us if you like..

Chuck

[Billmont]

Thanks for all the input.

 

It is extremelyl helpful to hear the experience of other cruisers.

 

Anybody else have an opinion for me?

 

Cheers

[kitty9]

I've done three Celebrity cruises that were 10 and 11 days in length, and they didn't have many kids on board. The one 11 day at the end of March, had about 50 kids, but 90% of those kids were from Mexico and they didn't participate in the kid's program. The 10 day we did, also in late March during the spring break "window", had 6 kids on board, so there wasn't a program available. As the others have said, the longer cruises tend to not attract many children and Celebrity is more geared towards older adults.

[dkjretired]

I noticed that your cruise is over Easter and I have traveled with my children during that period on Celebrity. There were loads of kids probably a couple hundred traveling with their parents. I know that most Celebrity cruises have a lot of families over the Easter holidays. The wild card is the 11 day cruise. Celebrity is very much geared towards families and has wonderful Childrens programs. Their counselers are not babysitters and spend quality time with the kids unlike some other lines I have seen. They have also instituted a learning program on their ships in the kids programs. Celebrity is a little more formal as far as dress in the evening so you may want to take this into account and their dining options are not as extensive as other lines. There still are plenty of options but they do not have a buffet for dinner as other lines do.

[cmds]

hi, we are going as well on a 11 day mexican cruise with 2 kids 8 & 11, just a bit earlier (Jan 2nd), just wondering how can I find out how many kids their going to be on board? Is their a webside wich will tell me.I also like to know if the cruise will be full or what, by the way the whole month of January is holiday over here. What are the California holiday times????

thanks

[suzsummit]

CMDS -- The kids in California usually get off a 3 day weekend around Jan 15th for Martin Luther King's B-day. They are usually back in school after Christmas break by the 3rd. January is pretty much a no-holiday time here. In Feb. they get off for president's day and most schools are off sometime in the month for 'ski-week' (some schools do not do this and get off eariler at the end of the year in June)

 

-s

[Avery's mom]

Took the 11nt Mercury on 1-17-05. I had my 23 month old daughter and my two nieces, 4 & 6. There were a grand total of 9!! kids on board. While this had its advantages and disadvantages, I'd not do it again, especially if you are traveling with an only child.

 

Pros - A LOT of personal attention from the staff (who were all fantastic, BTW) whatever our kids wanted to do - they did. At the family bingo we won all the prizes (we have a lot of X logo stuff now) If we had a request, it got fulfilled. They got TONS of attention from the other cruisers, who mostly said that they reminded them of their grandkids. It helped that we dressed them all alike on formal nights, so they got a lot of oohs and aaahs.

 

Cons - There were no other kids onboard! I provided 1/3 of the total kids onboard! If I had just brought my daughter, she would have gone stir crazy with no one to play with. Luckily, all 3 girls were very well-behaved for dinners - we went every night! Since there were no other kids (the other 6 kids were 14 and up) we didn't get an accurate representation of the kids program.

 

Since I am only bringing my daughter (who will be just barely 3) on my next cruise, I decided that my experience on X was not what I wanted for my daughter. Since she too is an only, she craves time with other kids. I just don't think that she'd get what she (and I) is/am looking for. Granted, I knew going in to an 11nt that there'd be fewer kids, but I went ahead since I brought her cousins, too.

 

FWI - I booked us on the Mariner for our next cruise, primarily because I wanted more kids around.

[cruisead]

Did a 10 nite Celebrity that started on January 23. Only three kids on board and they were all toddlers and two were from Scandinavia. One of the reasons people cruise in January right after Christmas is there are hardly any kids on board. The average age was right near ours which is mid-60's. Did another X cruise a couple of years earlier, and that one started around Jan 6 and there were only 6 kids on board, and no kids program. We were told they needed at least 20 kids to have a program. That cruise too had mostly those over age 60.

[mommykim]

Hi there,

I am not sure if it is the same with X as it iis with Prinvess but I have always called peincess and asked how many kids were on the ship. In general everything the others have said is true. Your one saving grace kidwise might be that you are travelling over Easter. I would just call and ask.

[Billmont]

Thanks for all the wonderful input.

 

Avery's Mom, I especially appreciate your experiences. You and I can relate as our only child too craves to be around other kids and it is her vacation too. There needs to be other kids around or she will be bored out of her mind.

Even though it is over Easter I don't think we can count on there being very many kids around just because it is on a longer cruise on a more adult oriented cruise line. I guess I will call Celebrity to see if they have any idea how many kids there are on board, if they even know that information in advance.

 

Thanks.