mexican riviera help, please!

[kornuttle]

even though i am a born and raised california girl, i have still yet to go on a mexican riviera cruise. i am planning a mexican riviera cruise in december for the family...my parents, myself and my son (he will be 2 1/2 at time of the cruise), my niece (14), and my nephew (15). i have been cruising since i was 14 and i would love for my niece and nephew to have the same great experiences i did, and still have proper accomadations for my son. which cruise line do you think would be best for our needs? the choices are carnival pride or spirit, norwegian star, sapphire princess, and vision ots. personal experience would be much appreciated! thanks in advance!

[CWcruisers]

For your family, I would pick the Carnival Pride. They have a better itinary than the Spirit. There is more to do at the ports that the Pride visits that are kid and teen friendly. Plus Carnival has great programs for kids and teens.

 

The Princess crowd tends to be a little older so your kids may not enjoy the cruise as much. I've only been on 3 Norwegian's and never to the Mexican Riviera so I cannot speak on it except to say the Freestyle Dining experience is not a favorite for everyone.

[mii]

What might be a help to you is go to the Ports of Call board and then scroll down to mexican Riviera. All sorts of info there. Just go back to what I call the Table of Contents and scroll down to Ports of Call.

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

Marilyn

[maxamuus]

We cruised the Pride in March and had a GREAT time. Cabin was nice sized, crew was very nice and always on the ball, food was consistantly good.

 

We would sail the Pride and Carnival again in a heart beat.

[Jacquelyn11]

I have 2 teen boys that are 14 & 15. They have been on a cruise every other year since they were 5 & 6. They used to really enjoy the kids clubs, but as they have gotten older, they don't like them as well. Several of the "tween" and teen activites include 'boy/girl' stuff and they are just not into that. They did participate in the nintendo or arcade activities they had. We did Carnival Legend last year out of NYC and this was the first cruise they didn't "enjoy" that much!

 

Royal Caribbean has a plus in that the Voyager class ships have a lot of amenities that teens enjoy. Rock climbing, roller blades, mini golf, basket ball and "gag-a-ball" (like dodge ball), plus the ice skating rink. Freedoms add the Flow rider and water park. Carnival ususally has a good pool slide, but sometimes wind conditions keep it closed.

 

NCL has the Freestyle dining, but my boys didn't enjoy the Majesty cruise because the ship was smaller. Agree Princess is more for the 'older' crowd!

 

I'm planning my first Mex. Riv. next June, and they have zip lining, snorkeling, dolphin excursions and eco tours at the ports they would enjoy also.

 

If you know what your neice and nephew are "into", you can look at some of the activity lists for their age groups on CC posts or Webshots. They could give you feedback on what the do/don't like.

 

Above all, PLEASE impress upon them they cannot be one of the teens that wreck havoc by pushing all the elevator buttons, sitting on the stairwells and running the halls at all hours. Have fun, but don't go wild and crazy!

 

Have a great time what ever you decide!

 

Jacquelyn:D

[melika091900]

i would go with carnival pride, we just sailed on 2/24 and had a great time,

the pool areas are our favorite on all the ships weve sailed on ,

and the buffet areas are nice and EASY !!!! as far as having alot of stations so the lines arent long,

you can see our pics on our webshots link in my signature, if you have other questions please email me anytime

we also sailed NCL star and it was nice, but the freestyle thing can be a headache, to me personally , especially if there is a lot of people sailing with you ,

carnival pride had great service, bigger rooms, and a nice layout

[HUNNY BUN]

We did the Spirit last January and had a great time. It was an 8-night cruise and we especially enjoyed the cliff divers in Acapulco. We had a 15 adn 18 year old with us and they really had a great time. Layout of ship was really nice - didn't have the deck that was blocked in the middle by the galley.

[KC_fn]

I cruised on the Pride two years ago with a group of teenage girls (13-17). They enjoyed the cruise, but found the organized activities for that age group to be positively "lame," according to my then-13-year-old daughter.

[karatemom2]

Personally we prefer Princess. We have been on a number of different lines, but Princess offers us the best experience. We were on the Golden on a Mexican Riviera cruise last week (same itinerary the Sapphire will be doing starting fall). It was not an older crowd as some would have you believe. In fact it was a wide mix of ages from babies up to seniors. We find this on all our princess cruises.

 

My 14 year old son had a great time in ReMix, the Princess teen program. I'm sure your neice and nephew would have a wonderful experience.

 

Princess has the best food, great entertainment, freshwater pools and the choice of Anytime Dining which we prefer. There are always lots of families onboard and the nice thing is they offer something for everyone.

[Swtgypsy]

even though i am a born and raised california girl, i have still yet to go on a mexican riviera cruise. i am planning a mexican riviera cruise in december for the family...my parents, myself and my son (he will be 2 1/2 at time of the cruise), my niece (14), and my nephew (15). i have been cruising since i was 14 and i would love for my niece and nephew to have the same great experiences i did, and still have proper accomadations for my son. which cruise line do you think would be best for our needs? the choices are carnival pride or spirit, norwegian star, sapphire princess, and vision ots. personal experience would be much appreciated! thanks in advance!

 

I would go Royal or Carnival...we did Princess and were not happy at all. The ports were great and we had fun.

[blindrid]

We did the Star and it ws fine. I am a fan of anytime dining, freestyle (whatever you want to call it) and think it's a little more conducive to doing what you want, when you want.

 

As to Princess overall experience, I would rate them low of all your choices. IMO, the atmosphere on Carnival and NCL is a lot more fun. The service is about the same on the three you mentioned. Have not done RCL as I have found their pricing not to be favorable when we booked our prior cruises. Have heard good things about them though.

 

Regardless, with your choices I don't think you can go wrong as there is no such thing as a bad cruise....

[cruzeluver]

Jusr returned from a great trip on the NCL Star. Beautiful ship and the service was terrific. Check the NCL board for my review (thread titled Back From The Star, What a Week!!).

 

Mexican Riviera was great. Ports were beautiful and a lot of fun.