1) It really does depend on the ages of the children. For younger kids, Disney is the best, period! But even my 89 year old mother loved Disney!! There are no casinos on Disney ships, but their private island is wonderful.
2) If the kids are older, it's really tough to beat the new Freedom-class ships of Royal Caribbean. These offer something for everybody. The Voyager-class ships are right behind those. Overall, Royal Caribbean is preferred by families more than any other cruise line.
3) Princess offers a wonderful product for families. Not quite as many amenities as RCCL, but their pools are all fresh water and kids love the Movie Under The Stars.
4) Kids love Carnival, but be prepared to be innundated with sales pitches and announcements.
We have just come back from our 4th NCL cruise. Our kids are 12 and 9 and they love the kids programs and kids area that NCL has. We have been on the Majesty twice, Spirit, and Dawn.
In addition, Freestyle dining offers us flexibility in dining times for our family. Freestyle also gives us the option of feeding the kids early, having them go to Kids Crew, and my wife and I having dinner for 2 later while they are with their friends and supervised.
I have not been on RCCL or Carnival in several years so I will not comment on the kids programs. I am sure that we will give RCCL, Princess, and Celebrity a try someday but NCL has really worked well as a family vacation for us.
I totally agree, I think it depends on the age of your children. Only a handful of cruise lines cater for under 2's, Disney Cruise provided the best facilities.
For toddlers and older children I would 100% recommend Royal Caribbean, Carnival and P&O's Ventura, had amazing facilities onboard.
My little girl played in the ball pond, and ran around in the children's club for ages, there was so much for all ages. They had a set dinner time, in one of the restaurants, where all the children could go along, choose from all the kiddies favourites, and sit and eat to their hearts content.
In the evening, we put her in the night nursery where they have little rows of cots and beds, and then we collected her before bed.
It really was great, and very much designed for children. You will find some cruise lines, have great kids clubs, but do not provide baby sitiing service for certain ages, or group services, but The Ventura actually has a designated programmes for days, eating times and night times.
5/5, highly recommended.
Disney definately came in number one when the kids were younger. Since then we've done Carnival and Norwegian. Neither Carnival nor Norwegians clubs had anything they were interested in doing. On Norwegian they liked the basketball courts and Wii and on Carnival they liked the mini-golf and slides. I guess it would be a tie.
I know this is an old thread but I figured I'd throw in my 2 cents.
I can say that for MY kids, it's a toss up between Royal Caribbean Freedom class and Camp Carnival.
They like Disney, but not enough for us to sail them again before the new ships come out.
All of the kids activity schedules are at the link in my signature if anyone needs them. You'll see the kid menus for the different lines and most main stream cruise line kid programs.
For us, it's:
1. Royal Caribbean
2. Carnival
3. Disney
Well, it will be nice if Cruise ship did have programs for the kids. At least, couples who want to go on Cruise , they can bring their kids with them. And not worry where to left them, when they are gone. Regards, Rose from Florida Vacation Rentals
Most cruiseships do have a program for kids. Just take a look at Michelle's excellent blog (see the post above mine and click on her link). Our first vacation, after becoming parents, involved taking our little one on a cruise, and ever since then, we've taken our girl on a cruise every vacation we've gone on (except the two-day trip up the coast last summer). She went on her sixth cruise at the age of 8.
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