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So I have a travel (cruise) question

WVDominick

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Dec 5, 2001
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@Vernon, we've never been on a cruise, but the wife wants to go on one to the Caribbean. We have a 7 and 3 year old. What's the best cruise for kids besides Disney? Disney seems to be very expensive and unaffordable for us.

Thanks in advance!
 
While there may indeed be a fair amount of adult fun going on that you might not consider especially appropriate for young kids, I don't think you'd be making a mistake, in general, selecting Carnival in order to save a few dollars. For the record, that opinion is not based on recent experience, as it's been 20+ years since I last cruised on a so-called "Fun Ship".

Meanwhile, I myself also don't believe you'd be making a mistake selecting either of their two major compeitiors......Royal Caribbean (RCCL) or Norwegian (NCL) .....for this trip if budgeting is a key issue (as it is for most of us). I believe RCCL remains viewed as a step above both Carnival and NCL (and I believe their pricing generally reflects that). But their Oasis class ships are the biggest on the sea; those alone might represent a neat experience for your family. OTOH, Carnival and NCL also have giant ships cruising the Caribbean as well; so you don'[t have to choose RCCL solely for that reason.

Like eveything else with which its name is associated, Disney always requires one to pay their premium prices. JMO.....and I please note I myself am not an especially vocal Disney (as a company) proponent......if you happen to be approaching this trip as a so-called "once in a lifetime" vacation, it might indeed be worth paying their freight.
 
Thank you very much for the info.
Dom I didn't see this until his Cool's response but he did give you some very good advice. I sell a lot of Disney but I don't push it on people 'at all' because of the price. If your kids are old enough to appreciate the Disney cruise and it's a really important vacation for your family you may be able to justify the price but as you've likely seen it can be as much as two times the price of other cruises.

I've been on all of the cruise lines and I think they all do an excellent job with kids. Personally I cruise Carnival a lot and they have a good kid's club and a lot for them to do but Royal is excellent as well. Norwegian has spent a great deal of time improving on what they offer for families and I'm getting the best feedback on them over any line right now.

I don't think you can go wrong but I would start with some basics about where you want to go, when and your budget. After that you can start to narrow down your choices. I would be glad to help you with that and of course there is always some savings and free time on the site when you book with my agency. Shoot me an email anytime: vbailey@cruiseplanners.com
 
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Thanks, Vernon, for the reply. I figured this wasn't the best way to officially talk to you in regards to a cruise, but I was hoping other people would chime in as well with their experiences. (Thanks @COOL MAN).

We love Disney, but for that much money I'd rather just go to Disney World instead. I've looked at RCCL a bunch, but like the others your experience with kids may vary depending on the actual ship you are on. This is my first time looking at cruises so obvious things to cruise veterans are new to me.

Ideally we can find a departure port that we can drive to so we don't have to pay for a flight, but it's not a deal breaker of we have to fly. (Southwest FTW!)

We're also not sure when we want to go other than "next year". Going in the winter would be fun, but we don't know if that's the busiest time to go or not.

Anyway, I'll send you an email.
 
I've been on all of the cruise lines and I think they all do an excellent job with kids. Personally I cruise Carnival a lot and they have a good kid's club and a lot for them to do but Royal is excellent as well. Norwegian has spent a great deal of time improving on what they offer for families and I'm getting the best feedback on them over any line right now.

I myself had a very good experience the single time I cruised NCL......but like that other time I cruised Carnival, that was a pretty long time ago. But I know their reputation took a pretty big hit back in the 00's, and I'm intrigued to learn their reviews have (evidently) improved quite a bit.

I get the impression their Freestyle Dining concept proved pretty popular, and find myself assuming their own move to the mega-ships ended up working as well for them as with Carnival and RCCL. Speaking in general terms, are their fares the lowest among the Big 3 ??
 
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Cruise ship, aka floating petri dish. :scream:

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