I am talking about a family cruise? What cruise line did you take? Where did you cruise to? How much did it cost? What did your kids do? Is it worth it?

nikmom@yahoo.com

Hey!

We went with our 2 kids, ages 9 and 4, back in September. We took Carnaval Cruise out of Port Canaveral Monday-Saturday for $250 a person. Tips were extra.

Well worth it. Cant talk well enough of the great service, staff, and the great tiem we had. Most cruise lines have kid clubs that cater to children when the parents want a coupld of minutes or hours to themselves. They give out beepers if they need to get in touch with you. It was fabulous. Well worth it for us. We went to bahamas, Grand turks, a private island, and back to Florida. HTH

www.cruisecritic.com will help you a great deal

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Terrie ptdbell@hotmail.com

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DH won a cruise on Carnival. We didn't care for - the promised activities for kids didn't happen and every time you turned around somebody wanted a tip for something. The joke around here goes: Second place was two trips...

Only a Disney cruise, twice. Can't beat the kid's activities (this is Disney, afterall) the stuff available for adults and the service. I have never gone with another cruise line because I am afraid I will be disappointed after the disney cruise. Tons of info here

http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9

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We took our family on a Costa cruise. For families, I highly recommend them. The food was not what we have experienced on other cruises, but if it is your first cruise, you will be very happy with what they have. They are a European line, and so some of their dishes are prepared true to culture... and sometimes, it won't be to your liking.

But, there are always things that you *will* like, and even if there aren't in the main dining room on one night, the pizzaria and hamburger places are always, always available. Room service, as well.

What I appreciated was the fact that the evening shows were very family oriented and not extremely Las Vegas showgirly. They were very entertaining, and there wasn't anything we didn't feel comfortable seeing with children.

I believe we paid around $550 per adult for a seven night/eight day cruise, and the kids sailed free.

We feel the same. Our first cruise with Disney was just my husband and myself on our 20th anniversary. We LOVED it. Disney doesn't come cheap but the cruise is awesome. They have great things for everyone in the family. The shows are good. First run movies, the food is good. Their island is where I want to be deserted at!

There is a place on the disneycruise.com website that gives some good prices for cruises in the near future at good prices. Otherwise.. the earlier you book, the better the price will be.

Been on three cruises and hope another is in our future!

Nancy

[quote=AMCOHUNOME]I am talking about a family cruise? What cruise line did you take? Where did you cruise to? How much did it cost? What did your kids do? Is it worth it?

nikmom@yahoo.com[/QUOTE

We will be going on our 2nd Carnival cruise this Easter. We went Easter last year also. Kids are 12 and 14 they loved it that is why we are going again this year. They will never run out of things to do. Worth the money yes. I checked into all-inclusive resorts this year but cruises were so much cheaper. We did Western Carbi. last year and this year doing the Eastern Cari. Cost varys just do your homework and airfare always adds some money.

We have been on many cruises. We cruise with Carnival. We just took my son on a 7 day Alaskan cruise and in April we are going on a 7 day western Carib. Our Alaskan cruise was very pricey by the time you added the cruise fare. airfare, excursions ( helicopter rides, Float planes, dog sledding on the glaciers) But our Bahamas cruise was cheap. The Western carib I can't really compare as we are having a Vow renewal and reception for our family and friends onboard the ship so that is factored into the cost.

We took a 7-day NCL cruise 17 years ago on our honeymoom - no kids yet, so not sure about kids activities. It was awesome. It was Western Caribbean - Bahamas, Ocho Rios Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Playa de Carmen & Cozumel.

2 years ago we took our then 11 & 9 YO daughters on an 8-da Eastern Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean. It was awesome as well - lots of kids activities. They have whats called the Royal Caribbean Adventure Club that has babysitting and lots of activities for the kids. We went to Nassau Bahamas, San Juan Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Antigua & St. Thomas Virgin Islands.

We're now talking about a Southern Caribbean in the next year or two. It will be on Royal Caribbean again. We love cruises. Tips are part of the cost - you have to plan for it. They are expected/required.

A cruise is a great vacation. The price seems somewhat high, but it includes your place to stay and all your food - and there is plenty available any time you want it. You see several islands and it is just a blast! You can't go wrong on a cruise, IMO!!!

Lisa

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We did the Disney cruises when the kids were younger and were always pleased...Now we tend to go places of interest...the best was an Alaskian Cruise.....

We took our grandson on an Alaskan cruise a couple of years ago.
We all had a great time.
There was a kids club but DGS, at 12, felt a little too old for most of the activities.
He played video games, ate his weight in ice cream, and really had a good time.
The shore trips were wonderful! Alaska is beautiful and there was quite a lot to do.
It was expensive, but worth it.
I would love to do a Disney cruise with our daughter and family because we all love Disneyworld.

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We take our family on a 7 day cruise every year! This year is Italy, we can't wait!!!

So our Carnival Cruise is scheduled for July 7th out of Tampa. If anyone lives in the Tampa area or ever went on a cruise out of there, I need a nice cheep hotel for the night before. We are flying in from Allentown, PA to St. Petersburg but I would rather be close to where we dock. Can anyone help me?

I feel so left out...I've never been on a cruise! ~Lisa

Hi.
We went on a family cruise in the summer to Mexico from Southern California. This was almost 2 years ago. Our kids were ages 15 and 12. It was a Carnival cruise and the name of the boat was the Pride.

We drove to Southern Ca. as we live in northern Ca. Many of the hotels near port (and i think most ports) offer a park and sail package. We stayed at the motel 1 night, they brought us and picked us at the port and kept our car for us. Was $120., very worth it.

There were 4 stops in Mexico. We had a great time at all. There are cheap and expensive things to do at all. My daughter loved dolphins so we did a excursion where we swam with them, that was the most expensive thing we did and I cant recall the price, but it was just my daughter and I, my husband in son did something else.

The kids had the best time ever. MY kids made lots of friends and were always with them. There are tons of activities for all ages. I thought it might be hard for my son (15) to go to the activities alone as he is a little bit shy, but i was wrong, he made tons of friends. My daughter 12 makes friends easy and met a lot and had fun with them.My kids liked that they could order room service for free and they could go with friends and have a pizza or there favorite snack whenever they wanted. They liked that there were activities even though they were older. Actually toooo much to do!

I cant remember the exact amount we paid. We had 2 rooms with a connecting door and a balcony, it was really nice. I think it was somewhere around 3,000? There were not people asking for tips on this cruise, in fact i never had my purse out as you don't use money. If you want alcohol, photos, gift shop stuff ,you just charge it to your room. At the end there is a place you can tip whoever you want or something like that.

There are lots of cruise message boards and they were very helpful when we were planning our trip. We had a fun, time of our life trip that I would do over and over!

Took the whole family on a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Western Caribbean this past January. Cruise was nice, but the kids didn't really enjoy it. The teen activities were labeled "lame" by my group and they didn't participate in anything after the first afternoon. The adults all enjoyed the shows in the evening, but again the teens did not. Excursions off the ship were a hit all around though! Next cruise - Norway - no kids!

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We left out of tampa last year for our cruise we stayed at the Doubletree Hotel. Real nice and the kids loved the warm free cookies. They ate and ate. They have a free shuttle to the dock. Free parking for the week also but you won't be driving so I guess you really don't care about that.

My dh and I went on our first cruise in April (the week after Easter). I won airline tickets to any where Southwest flies. So we went to New Orleans for a day and then on Royal Carribean. We had a great time.
I am a teacher so that was a good time for us to go. We meet lots of teachers and families with kids. We paid about $600 for 7 days to the Eastern Carribean. We loved it. In fact, we are going on another cruise for 5 days out of Baltimore which is about 30 miles from my house. We take off in 2 weeks. It is the same ship.

I LOVE CRUISING.. We've been on Carnival, Princess, and Royal Carribean. For the kids.. Carnival is by far the best we've been on. Princess and RC have nice childrens programs, but Carnival is more active and the staff was awesome. Best Food was Princess. We're going on a Costa Cruise to the Eastern Carribean in December. RC was great, but I felt like they overpriced everything and their service left a little to be desired IMO. Dollar for dollar a cruise is the way to go.

My DH and I are leaving Saturday for our Alaskan cruise from Seattle. We've been on 4 caribbean cruises and are really looking forward the our Alaska cruise.

We do lots of RV'ing so other than travelling in our motor home, there is nothing better than a cruise!

We have been on several cruises.
Carnival 3 times
Princess 2 times
NCL 1 time and NEVER AGAIN

We have had great cruises. It is really a good deal for the money. The prices vary greatly. My husband will only go now if we have an balcony cabin. We have always had at least outside with a window. I did take my teen girls 2 years ago and we put them in an inside cabin across the hall from us. I could not of been in that type of room with no windows that would of drove me nuts. I do love the balcony but would also be ok with just the window.
Also since our children no longer go with us because they are 18 and over. I do not like going when the kids are on summer or spring break. There are just too many kids around. More and more families are bringing thier children since we went on our first cruise 8 years ago.
Each cruise line is different also. I love Princess and we have put a down payment for our next princess cruise already. We just went April 21st out of LA. I was wanting to do a love boat cruise, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo. It was wonderful. We normally go out of Florida, and once New York. I do like Carnival also. But it is more party all the time kind of ship.
I do not like Norweigeon at all. I got severely ill along with quite a few other passengers and did not like the variety of the food, nor the availablity. But they did have really nice bathrooms in the cabins.
We are going to try Royal Carribean in 2 years. ( We have a Royal Carribean credit card and in 20 months will have enough points for 2 free cruises)
Cruising is my favorite type of vacation.

We have cruised and I prefer The Princess Line. We are going on the Crown Princess this August and this line is nice for the kids has excellent food, staff is excellent and I like the fact that the crowd on princess is a bit more refined in my opinion than some of the other lines such as Carnival. I travel with 3 DD's and hubbie and extended family and Cruising is definitly a blast. I like the fact that this ship goes right out of Brooklyn to the Caribbean and althought the cruise is pricey I save on the airfare for 5 people.

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Don't feel bad, I've never been on one and probably never will......I have issues with not being able to see land close to me when I'm on a boat.....

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O-H-I-O

I haven't been on one either and I have desperately been trying to get dh to take me on one for years!

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