another cruise question: kid friendly?

[dAZ]

Sorry for all the questions today. We just did a NYE Disney cruise with our kids and it was great. We're looking into another cruise/vacation for Spring Break (West Coast). If we don't do a Disney Cruise, which other cruise lines have kids clubs and are family friendly we should look into?

[Deleted]

I find almost all cruise lines have kids clubs, but I think from experience either Royal Caribbean or Carnival tend to have the most families so I would look into those. When we were on a Holland America cruise, there were very few young adults, families or kids.

[Deleted]

I liked Cunard because everything was included in my fares. I could drop my kids off at the kids club at 9am. Pick them up for lunch, drop them off after lunch, pick them up for Tea and then send them back for the evening so we could eat dinner and such. It isn't as elaborate as Disney, but my kids always have fun doing behind the scenese scavenger hunts, etc.

[thelurkylulu]

We have also cruised Royal Caribbean with our oldest daughter. It was nice, not as nice as Disney though. After cruising Disney, I don't know if I could go back to RC. lol

[CloudBee]

Jan 13, 2014 15:58:53 GMT -5 @septimus said:

I liked Cunard because everything was included in my fares. I could drop my kids off at the kids club at 9am. Pick them up for lunch, drop them off after lunch, pick them up for Tea and then send them back for the evening so we could eat dinner and such. It isn't as elaborate as Disney, but my kids always have fun doing behind the scenese scavenger hunts, etc.

Did you notice how popular toddler care was?

[Deleted]

I'm not a parent, so take this with a grain of salt. We spent the holidays on a Costa Cruise. There were quite a few kids and I know that kids were either free or half the price of adults. They had a kids club that was pretty well attended from what I could see and what our friends told us. The pools were not the best and our friends' kids were a little disappointed in them (no slides and very small). A lot of kids seemed to roam pretty freely around the boat. Most of the shows at night were not super kid friendly - lots of pretty risqué dancing and outfits.

[Deleted]

Jan 14, 2014 9:07:37 GMT -5 CloudBee said:

Jan 13, 2014 15:58:53 GMT -5 @septimus said:

I liked Cunard because everything was included in my fares. I could drop my kids off at the kids club at 9am. Pick them up for lunch, drop them off after lunch, pick them up for Tea and then send them back for the evening so we could eat dinner and such. It isn't as elaborate as Disney, but my kids always have fun doing behind the scenese scavenger hunts, etc.

Did you notice how popular toddler care was?

We've used it every crossing because they have the room set up for 2-5. There are probably about 10 kids. 

[orval]

We did a Carnival cruise on New years eve this year. My ds loved Camp Carnival. He is 6. He liked the different activities and hanging out with the other kids.

[pbandj]

We have done several Royal Caribbean cruises with our two kids. The older one loved the kids program, but she was 3 and potty trained. Our younger one was too young for the kids activities. They did have a room set up with toddler toys that we were able to go to on the at-sea days. We also did use the babysitting services.

We did look into Disney Cruises too, but the cost was significantly higher. I had heard a few years ago, that Royal Caribbean was remodeling a lot of their ships to have nurseries to accommodate infants and toddlers.

[miss1180]

we just took DS, who is 3 years old, on Norwiegen Cruise Line. They had a good kids club program- Splash Academy. its for kids 3 and over. DS is a momma's boy and wouldn't stay LOL but they did all kinds of cute theme activities- a pirate night, a jungle night, etc. The ship we were on (the Breakaway) had a cute kids splash area for him to run around- with SpongeBob characters that sprayed water. They also had a mini ropes course for the younger kids- he got a kick out of wearing the harness thing :-)
I also like the "Freestyle Dining" on NCL, where you don't have to have a set dinner time at night to have a sit down dinner. that makes it nice with younger kids.