Celebrity with littles?

[bobbie0253]

My boys are 7,5,2. Anyone have any experience with kids this age sailing Celebrity? We usually cruise RCCL but they have done Disney and Carnival too. The "fun" stuff isn't a huge draw for us. I am looking for better service and less chaos and lines. I worry that the line may not be kid friendly and my kids would be viewed negativitly by fellow passengers. We got off the Anthem yesterday and I feel like RCCL is slipping :(

[cb at sea]

Your kids will be fine! Cruises are a "family affair" nowadays...on ALL lines! The 7 and 5 year old can take advantage of the kids club....they are at the PERFECT age to enjoy the activities. Unfortunately, there isn't a "program" for the 2 year old but they do open the play room for parent and child at certain times....look in your daily newsletter for times!

 

Do NOT worry about what anyone says on here about kids on cruises.....your family will have a blast!

Edited March 8, 2016 by cb at sea

[OCruisers]

They'll be fine! My grandchildren loved Celebrity! :)

[bobbie0253]

Thanks for the reassurance :) I think after our Independence cruise we will try out Celebrity. That is unless a hot deal pops up for the Allure/Oasis/Harmony. We have been wanting to try that class ship eventually but the price would have to be great. I wish RCCL didn't lose touch with their loyal cruisers so much the last few years :(

[Keith1010]

They will do great. When our children were of that age they had a nice time on Celebrity.

 

Keith

[Queen of Oakville]

Can't speak for the 2 year old but your 7 and 5 should be fine.

 

You can see my cruising history. My kids have been on all of the cruises since Carnival Dream (except GOTS). Their favourite is Celebrity. YES, they like celebrity better than Disney.

 

The kids club is awesome.

 

The service and food are awesome.

 

I think because there are not so many kids on board that kids are treated great.

 

It's like anything - be aware of your kids. Make sure they are polite and courteous. Don't disrupt someone else's meal, entertainment, pool time. A bratty kid will not be received well on any cruise line. Not saying your kids are bratty (you know what I mean!).

 

 

And if any of your kids happen to have allergies, X is awesome for that too!

 

FWIW, my kids were 9 and 8 when we sailed Silhouette. They were 8 and 7 when we sailed Reflection. Both cruises were amazing!

Edited March 9, 2016 by Queen of Oakville

[bobbie0253]

My kids didn't love Disney either :/ the 2yr old will probably be glued to us for at least the next two cruises. He loves cruising but isn't ready to be apart from us yet. He just did great on the Anthem with us.

 

How is the buffet for dinner on Celebrity? He doesn't have the attention span for a sit down dinner and we don't mind buffets. My 5 yr old has a sensory processing disorder so the dining rooms are too much for him too but he is happy to eat a hamburger and go play in the kids area. The 7 yr old will just roll with anything.

 

We are "elite" on celebrity due to our Royal C&A status. Does anyone know if the perks will be decent?

 

I am really excited to be thinking about trying a new line.

[Queen of Oakville]

I thought the lunch buffet on Celebrity beat any buffet I ever had on Royal. Opinions will vary as it comes to food, but we were very pleased.

 

Lunch stations include a carving station, pasta (made to order), salad, pizza, indian, Mexican, and then a few other mixed stations. We were always pleased as it came to lunch.

 

To be honest, we never tried the buffet for dinner. We like the MDR experience.

 

Reflection/Silhouette have a few little quiet nooks/corners in the MDR. You could speak to them to see if you could secure a more quiet area off in a corner.

 

We are also Elite on X (for the same reasons!). I don't really pay a lot of attention to perks but you get:

-(usually) shorter check inline

-photo discount

-casino match play

-free scoop of gelato

 

It was a full page of coupons and we probably were not interested n the rest because I can't remember what they were!

 

 

My son's first cruise he was 2 1/2 or so. He hated Camp Carnival. He would cry until we picked him up. He had only ever known time with us or his nanny, so he wasnt' used to being "Dropped off". By the time we sailed Eurodam he had started pre-school (he must have been 3 1/2 or 4) and he loved ClubHAL! It was a night-and-day experience.

 

 

 

You can always try out the kid's club and if they don't like it - they don't have to go. I'm not sure what you mean by sensory processing disorder, but the kid's clubs on X are trained in special needs, especially autism. I think you will find them making the extra-step to involve your son and make sure he feels comfortable. Depending on when you sail, there may not be more than 20 kids in the club, so it should not be too overwhelming for him.

[Joel&Hall]

We sailed Celebrity Eclipse a few years back when our daughter was 2 & had an amazing time! The staff & service were really great & we felt spoilt the whole cruise. Our daughter was to young for kids clubs but we took her once a day to the open play which she enjoyed & we would also sit up on the grass area & relax while she played. We liked the buffet for lunch and dinner I would say 90% of the food we had was enjoyable & only a few times we werent impressed but that can happen anywhere. Mostly the other guests were lovely but we did get a few comments about why we would bother bringing her etc but we didnt let that worry us, we were sailing in the Baltic though so hardley any kids at all on board. I would definitely book with Celebrity again. Have a great time!

[frawnsay]

My DH and I were on the Solstice, and the particular glass blowing show that we attended involved the kiddos from the kids program. They had already completed some amazing activities (great, creative prep work with which this teacher writing to you was very impressed). One kid's work was actually the inspiration for a design! I was thoroughly impressed with the connection the staff had to the children and the curriculum (both the pre-event activities and the utilization of the ship's offerings) that there is no doubt that we will use X when we take our boys to Alaska!

[croozen]

Another vote here for Celebrity kids club. We consider it the best of four we have experienced. I did a post today on topic in this family forum.

[RCKM43]

We are taking our kids on their 4th Celebrity cruise to Alaska this summer. We are Elite...having sailed long before kids with Celebrity. They have done two Bermuda cruises on the Summit and one Reflection Caribbean cruise. They love the fun factory. They start Ed sailing after just turning 2 and 4. We have been in both the 3-5 and 6-8 groups. This will be our first time in the 9-11 group. They will be 7 and 9. We do eat in the MDR but when they finish one of us walks them to the fun factory and we finish out dinner and have a drink and see the show and retrieve them around 9:30-9:50. We have to drag them out every trip. As far as the 2 year old. Mine was 26 months and fully trained when we sailed years ago. So she was able to swim. They invited her to join the club (she was extremely verbal) during certain activities but we never felt the need as she was happy swimming and exploring the ship. My kids love Celebrity, are treated like princesses and ask when they a sail again.

[Syrreal]

We took our then 3 and 7 year olds on their first cruise on the Celebrity constellation. It was a 12 night cruise with only about 10 kids on board. The kids had a BLAST and can't wait until the next time they go on the big blue ship again.

They spent time with us on the ship and the ports, played in the kids club (and would get upset when we'd go pull them out), hung out on out balcony, etc.

We didn't experience any issues with the kids being looked down on by other passengers (quite the opposite) but we also didn't just let them run around and be rude (same rules applied as when we are at home).