Family Cruises?

Question

I am looking to take our family on our first cruise. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to go, whens the best time, how much can I expect to spend (roughly),are there hidden fees I should I know about, whats best for the kids, and what is needed to travel?

Family of 5...., 2 adults 3 kids, 6, 6 & 7 months.

Any addtional info would be great as well.

Blessings!

Answer 1

you might want to check out age limits....i think RCL has put in place an age limit after the baby got ill a few weeks ago.

I would also suggest Disny, although it is expensive, it is geared toward kids. Ive been on many cruises and although i have taken my 13 year old, dont find cruises a place for small children, but other have differing opinions

Answer 2

I  have been on about 20 cruises on 4 different cruise lines and so here's what I say based on my experiences.

First you should know that all of the cruise lines give the best price for early bookings that are a year or more in advance. So its good that you are starting your cruise search process now. Cruise lines also list specials on their web sites so do look for those. The specials can many times save you a couple hundred per person over the price for the exact same cruise on a different date.

Second you should know that all cruise cabins are sold based on double occupancy and the prices listed will be per person and based on at least two people going on the cruise.   If you have more than two people in a cabin the price for the third and fourth persons are generally much lower, in the neighborhood of 50% less.  With there being five of you you may want to look at getting a family suite  or two cabins.  This page has information about family suites on Royal Caribbean ships:  http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruis...

NOTE: Cruise lines do have minimum age requirement; for example, kids must be at least one year old on some cruise ships:  http://www.royalcaribbean.com/customersu...

.

The price you pay for your cruise will depend mostly on the type accommodations that you choose. There are 4 basic types of cabins on ships;

- inside (no window), .....................  (cheapest)

- outside (a window or porthole),

- balcony/veranda, and

- suites. ........................................... expensive)

Royal Caribbean has some inside cabins on its Freedom and Voyager Class of ships that have a window overlooking an inside promenade mall.

The "FROM" prices you see will always be for an inside cabin.

You can reserve a cruise on line, by calling the cruise line, or through a travel agent by paying the minimum deposit which will be between $250 and $350 per person for a 7 day cruise, depending upon the cruise line. The minimum will be more for a longer cruise, for example $450 per person for a 14 day cruise. The balance will be due approximately 60 days before the cruise departure date. But you can make periodic payment on line or with the cruise line.

I have listed below the web sites for the medium priced cruise lines which operate from US ports. These are the cruise lines that most people use. The lines that I have listed below will have cruises starting in the range of $800 to $1,000 per person for a 7 day cruise, again depending upon the date and type cabin you select.  Then the fare for the 3rd, 4th and 5th persons would be about half that.

CELEBRITY:

http://www.celebritycruises.com/home .

ROYAL CARIBBEAN:

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/gohome.d.....

NORWEGIAN:

http://www.ncl.com/

PRINCESS:

http://www.princess.com/index.html

CARNIVAL:

http://www.carnivalcruiselines.com/

I have been on Princess, Celebrity, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean ships and can vouch that they are good cruise lines. However, there are some differences.

Princess, and Celebrity have great ships are more classy and reserved than the other cruise lines. If you want a better cruise experience for your money go on one of these cruise lines. The difference in cost of these two over the others is not that much.

- Holland America has more senior citizens cruising on its ships. It has great ships and service but the majority of the passengers will be seniors and so you may want to rule them out.

-Carnival is the budget cruise line that has more first time cruiser and young people (20 to 35 age group) who want to party, party, party. If that is what your parents are looking for then Carnival is the cruise line for you. Carnival is family oriented to an extent and will also have a good number of kids and also some older passengers. They, like the other cruise lines do have kids programs, for your age I think called Camp Carnival.

-Norwegian cruise line is good and I have been on many of their cruises. Its the line that you want to go on if you want to be informal for pretty much your whole cruise. They have formal nights like other cruise lines but they do not stress dressing up; the call it "dress up if you want to" night. In my experience their passengers tend to be a mixture of young and middle aged people.  They also have programs for the kids.

-Royal Caribbean caters most to families and has the most and best on-board activities. Many Royal Caribbean ships have things like ice skating, roller blade track, rock climbing wall, mini-golf course, full sized basketball courts, and adults only pool and hot tub area called 'Solarium", the surfing simulator on the Freedom Class ships called the "Flowrider".    RC also has kids programs called Adventure Ocean and on many ships a special area on the ship for them, plus  a teen disco called Fuel.  You cannot go wrong with RC.

Regardless of which cruise line your parents select, the things that are included are pretty much the same. The price of your cruise includes your cabin, all meals (including breakfast, lunch dinner, snacks and free room service)(you do pay to eat in the specialty restaurants), all shows and entertainment, and free use of all facilities on ship. The things that you will have to pay for are:

GRATUITIES: They will amount to about $10 per person in your cabin per day; about $70 each for a 7 day cruise.

ALCOHOLIC DRINKS AND SOFT DRINKS: Coffee, tea, milk, juice, and lemonade and punch will be provided free but you must pay for soft drinks and alcoholic beverages and they will add a 15% gratuity to each drink and soft drink order.

PHOTOGRAPHS: Cruise lines will take plenty of photographs of you all over the ship, in the dining room, and as you exit the ship in ports. These will cost a lot, like $15 to $20 for most.

TOURS/EXCURSIONS: You are not required to book any tours and can get off and on in the ports as much as you want. But the cruise line will offer a lot of tours and these are expensive.

SOUVENIRS: Anything you buy on ship from a gift shop or duty free shop goes on your on board account. Things that you buy on shore you pay cash or credit card for.

CASINO: If you plan to gamble on ship you will need cash for that.

OTHER: most cruise lines have what they call "specialty" restaurants where there is a gratuity/service charge. All other food on board is free and its not really necessary to budget for food; you cannot eat all of the FREE FOOD that will be available.

If you want/need to have your hair done, get a massage or wrap, or any services from the spa, you will have to pay for them. You can use the gym free but the spa stuff cost big bucks.

Ships now have internet cafe and some have WiFi but the there is a fee for internet access and it is very expensive (like about $50 to $60 an hour).

You cabin will likely have a minibar with soft drinks and munchies; you have to pay for them (but there is free room service 24/7).

II have found that the best deals can be had by going directly to the cruise line web sites and looking for their specials. Most will have their specials prominently displayed on their home page but I have found that Royal Caribbean and Carnival have the best web sites for this.

Another decision you will have to make is where you want to cruise to;in the Caribbean. There are really three basic types of Caribbean itineraries.

- Western Caribbean cruises typically go to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Jamaica and a private cruise line island.  If you go western Caribbean you will have great beaches to visit and the opportunity to buy tours to Mayan ruins.

-Eastern Caribbean typically go to St Thomas, St Maarten, a private cruise line island and maybe another island like Tortola or Puerto Rico. If you want to do a lot of shopping then pick a cruise with St Thomas as one of the port stops. St Maarten is also mainly a beach and shopping stop.

- Southern Caribbean cruise itineraries typically start in Puerto Rico and go either to Aruba, Curacao, and St Thomas and St Maarten, OR they go to the southern Caribbean islands like Barbados, Grenada, Antigua, St Lucia and maybe St Thomas and/or St Maarten. The main difference between these two itineraries, aside from the different islands, is the Aruba cruise has 2 "at sea" days with no port stops, while the other has a port stop about each day.

If you want to do a Caribbean cruise that is longer than 7 days you may want to consider one to the Panama Canal. Cruises there typically do stops similar to the Western Caribbean (as I mentioned above) including Jamaica, Cozumel or a Mexico port, and Grand Cayman along with Panama and Costa Rica.

I recommend Royal Caribbean because it has great kids programs in Adventure Ocean and in the teen's club called Fuel. Also, Royal Caribbean has the most things to do on their ships. The Freedom Class ships that I mentioned above also have a water park just for kids called the H2O Zone. It has a mini-lazy river, a small pool and a bunch of water cannons and other types of falling water to play in.

My suggestion would be for you to look at going on one of RC's cruises and specifically on a Freedom Class ( http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruis... ) or Voyager Class ( http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruis... ) ship. I have been on both of these class ships and they are great and I think your kids will enjoy them. The Freedom Class is a larger version of the Voyager class and it has THE most things to do. The Voyager Class is slightly smaller and has all of the on-board activities except the Flowrider. T

Answer 3

Check out the Disney Crusies.  I see them on travel channel all the time and they look fun.

Answer 4

you need to pull up the Q & A section of cruises.  if you have a family, think carnival cruises.  also, you can make payments on a cruise after making an initial deposit.  find out where you want to go and start planning step by step a year ahead of time.  go for it !!  start researching, reading, get out there and enjoy life !!

Answer 5

Try Carnival cruise line. You can pay a deposit of $250 per person and then make payments until about a month before you leave. There are tons of stuff for the kids to do on the ship, they have whole itineraries just for the kids, and it is free.  There are 24 ports you can leave from, and tons of destinations. Try to make sure you go to a beach, what kid doesn’t like the beach! You don’t even have to take the kids off the ship with you; you can leave them at camp carnival the entire day (including the baby). They all have neat pools with huge slides.  The cruise itself will run you about $500 PP with a discount for the kids (for a 7 day cruise). If you take a 7 day cruise there are 2 formal dinners, so your whole family gets to dress up (optional of course). They are much cheaper if you are thinking of only going for a couple of days. There is a $70 surcharge per person that they add to the bill at the end of the trip, so if you book, make sure they add that onto your bill. If you go off season, you can pay much less. You can still use birth certificates , but make sure you double check that. It all depends upon where you go. They have free sea sickness medications at the purser’s desk, so don’t worry about that. You can also book your excursions (side tours) right on their web site so you don’t have to wait in line to book on the ship, and possibly miss the tour. You can also fill out the fun pass online which will allow you to bypass long lines getting onto the ship. If you are thinking of going on a Disney cruise, be prepared!!! Long lines for everything, kids EVERYWHERE and everything is packed. Here is the Carnival website http://www.carnival.com/Default.aspx

Answer 6

Disney might be your best bet, but they are expensive, Carnival is just as good, less expensive and have all kinds of stuff for toddlers, kids, and teens. check it out at Carnival.com

Answer 7

Congrats on your first cruise!  Very exciting!

Personally, I'm a big fan of 7 day Caribbean cruises.  Beautiful warm weather, easy to get to (they leave from Miami or Ft. Lauderdale), a great selection of ships, and lower cost than more exotic cruises.

In terms of cost, it depends a lot on what you like -- it's possible to get a 7 day cruise for $1,000 a cabin.  But you wouldn't get a balcony.  FYI, there are cabins that fit five people (barely) but you might want to consider getting two.

The "hidden" costs of a cruise, the stuff that isn't in the ticket price, are: airfare, taxes (under 5%), fuel surcharge (around $7/day) gratuities (around $10/person per day), and then purely optional stuff like bar drinks (soda, alcohol), casino, spa, side trips, etc.  There's an article explaining the costs of cruising here: http://www.cruisesavvy.com/savvyguide/in...

You might also want to check out this guide to choosing a cruise: http://www.cruisesavvy.com/savvyguide/ch...

It covers picking the right cruise line, destination, and how to get the most for your money depending on what matters to you.

Hope that helps!

Answer 8

Hello,

With kids, I would suggest going to the Caribbean.  It is a lot of fun and you can just go to the beach and zone out or play in the water with your kids!  Cozumel has a wonderful beach, so if you can go there, I highly recommend it.

The best time for prices is to go during the off-season.  If you go during the summer, it will be the most expensive.  I have gone on cruises to the Caribbean in February, and it was still very hot and nice, but the prices were a lot cheaper!

The cost would be very hard to predict.  It depends a lot on the cruise line you decide to take.  It also depends on the time of year and what type of cabin you want!  The length of the cruise also plays into the cost.  I have found that the internet has better deals than the travel agent that we used to use.  Use sites like Expedia.com and Priceline.com to find great deals!

Soda and alcohol are not included in the prices of most lines.  There will probably be a fuel surcharge and port fees that you will have to pay in addition to the price.  If gratuities for the staff are not included, you will have to pay those as well.  This will probably add only a few hundred dollars or less to your trip.

With kids that age, they will probably enjoy Disney.  There are a lot of Disney characters to interact with, and I've heard that kids just love it!  I would also recommend Carnival if you are interested in putting your older ones in the kids' program, because they have the most wonderful childrens' program.  So, I would take Disney as my first choice and Carnival if you would like to spend less money but still have a wonderful time!

To travel, it's safest to have passports.  I believe that you can still use birth certificates, but I'm not sure how much longer that will last.  Passports take a while to come back to you, so if you get them, allow time for them to arrive before your trip.

If you are prone to motion sickness, be sure to bring seasickness medications!  Also, book a cabin near the bottom of the ship, if you get seasick.  There is less motion back and forth at the bottom.

Have a great time!  I hope this was helpful!

Answer 9

Don't go disney, it's super expensive

Try royal carribean

Since your kids are in school most of the year the only time to go in during the summer. Which has the highest cruise fare of the entire year. Fees are not that expensive. but the highest cost is the gas subliment.

Answer 10

for kids like 6 months, i prefer disney cruise lines. on board are mascots,mickey,minnie,and the other disney characters to entertain kids.