Can Anyone Compare Celebrity with DCL?

[mom2grace]

We are fortunate that my dad is taking us on a Celebrity cruise in January. We have been on DCL twice.

Our kids will be 3 1/2 & 16 months, can you give me any tips, comparisons, etc. We (DH, DD, DS, and myself) will be in a Royal Suite.

Thanks!

 

[MortimerM]

Which Celebrity ship will you be on? My DW and I cruised on Celebrity's Horizon to Bermuda this past May (our first cruise) and my DW loved it so much that she booked DCL for Feb '05 with our DD. I can't do a comparison since DCL will only be our second cruise, but I can say the food is great and the crew are fantastic.

Mike

 

[mom2grace]

We will be on the Galaxy, one of the C-class ships. It's a 12 night Panama Canal itinerary from Galveston, TX.

My dad has cruised Celebrity many times and he assures us we won't be the only ones with children on the cruise.

 

[AladdinsPrincess]

My parents cruised with Celebrity to Bermuda a few years ago and loved it. They said the service, food, and ship were all fabulous.

When my husband and I were on Cayman during our Disney cruise we met several people on the beach who were off the Celebrity ship also in port that day and they also had rave reviews. Of course, they all did say "but the Disney ship looks really nice..."!!!

 

[lookingforward]

I will not be sailing on DCL until September but I have sailed on Celebrity and absolutely LOVED it. It is a great line and the service, food, etc. are wonderful. I think you will love it.

 

[Sabor]

We have sailed on Celebrity , RC , Carnival and DCL.
We have found that Celebrity has had the best food.
we have also found that Celebrity had the worst Entertainment.

DCL by far has the highest production quality in the shows.

 

[kaseyC]

We have sailed Celebrity twice. My eldest DD got her first cruise experience on the Celebrity Meridan in 1997, she was 18 mos old. We had a great time. When she was 6, in 2002 we took a 10 day on the Galaxy out of Baltimore. Celebrity is more of a traditional cruiseline. My DD rates their children's program up there with Disney's. Also the Dining room staff are excellent with the kids. Oh yes, the food on Celebrity is awesome, especiall the chilled soups.
I think you will have a great time!

 

[mom2grace]

Thanks everyone!

I don't think we'll necessarily hit many shows with 2 young children and early dinner. It's nice to know I probably won't be missing much!

I hope the food isn't too good! 12 nights is a long time to eat well!

 

[Mary Anne]

The food is fantastic.

As far as the kids program, you may have a problem with 16 month old. Unless you pay for private sitting and I don't think they have much of it you will have to keep the baby with you all the time. If you've got the baby, I can almost bet the 3 1/3 year old is not going to want to stay in the kids program.

I had this problem when we sailed with them. My boys were about 4 and 2 3/4. We had to pay kids price for my youngest and he was not permitted in any of the kids clubs. At that time 2 and younger were free, over 2 you paid $400 or something like that but they couldn't use the club till he was 3 and toilet trained. Well he was well toilet trained but they still wouldn't let him in. Since he wasn't in there my 4 year old wouldn't go either We still had a nice time but it was very upsettaing to us. We were sold the cruise with the thought that we'd be able to use the kids clubs for some of the time and they we found out later that the youngest wasn't permitted at all, ever. Very frustrating for us.

Now they are 14 and 16 and I've already told them they WILL go to the clubs on the Magic so I can have an hour of quiet MOM time LOL

 

[Magpie137]

we also cruise the galaxcy out of baltimore. my girls were 7 and 11. we booked last minute and could only get late seating. the kids club closed during main; therefor we always choose the alternate dining with victor. that way my yougest would not miss her club nor fall aseep during dinner. you will need to call each morning for a ressie with the alternate dinning. of course if you have main dinning it will not be a problem at all! other than that my girls enjoyed this trip. my ds who was 17 was disapointed with his group and would choose not to return. for a family of 5, one cabin, 11 nights, easter vacation under $5000!

our dcl cruise is much more $$$ we wll be leaving for our 3rd dcl cruise in aug.

 

[mom2grace]

Originally posted by Mary Anne
The food is fantastic.

As far as the kids program, you may have a problem with 16 month old. Unless you pay for private sitting and I don't think they have much of it you will have to keep the baby with you all the time. If you've got the baby, I can almost bet the 3 1/3 year old is not going to want to stay in the kids program.

I had this problem when we sailed with them. My boys were about 4 and 2 3/4. We had to pay kids price for my youngest and he was not permitted in any of the kids clubs. At that time 2 and younger were free, over 2 you paid $400 or something like that but they couldn't use the club till he was 3 and toilet trained. Well he was well toilet trained but they still wouldn't let him in. Since he wasn't in there my 4 year old wouldn't go either We still had a nice time but it was very upsettaing to us. We were sold the cruise with the thought that we'd be able to use the kids clubs for some of the time and they we found out later that the youngest wasn't permitted at all, ever. Very frustrating for us.

Now they are 14 and 16 and I've already told them they WILL go to the clubs on the Magic so I can have an hour of quiet MOM time LOL

We know that the baby won't be able to be in the club, DD is so social she may like it. We will have my parents and my sister and her husband with us, so hopefully we will get some down time. Actually, it started with my parents wanting to take the 3 year old by themsleves, we managed to invite ourselves too!

Now you pay full 3rd person rate of $700 for the baby, but you only are supposed to tip half for kids??!!! We will probably tip double to adult rate, they make the messes and are the work IMO!! Love DCL on that point, we sailed with DD was 8 months on the Magic.

Thanks!

 

[Mary Anne]

Wow I can't believe that they make you pay that much for a child.

I'm sure you'll have a great time.

My first cruise - granted 30 years ago, we paid $295 per person. 7 day's.

 

[chasbos]

For being a family cruise they sure charge you extra to have kids! We are travelling with 6 (me, DH, and DD's 13, 11, 9, 6) therefore we have to book 2 staterooms and pay for 4 adults and only 2 kids! The first 2 people in the room are considered adults no matter what age they are. We are looking very forward to our Jan 05 cruise (already paid YEAH!) But these boards that have RCCL offering suites for 6 people is something I am going to look into for our next cruise.

 

[Dancind]

I hope you have a nice cabin, because there won't be much for you to do on sea days. With two small children, there isn't anywhere to go. The pools are salt water and not meant for children, and on our cruise (Horizon) it was always windy on the upper decks. Hopefully, they have fixed this problem on your ship, it's newer.

The activities were not geared to families, in fact, you couldn't have kids in the areas where the activities were. My daughter was bored silly with their kids program. Facilities for kids on the Horizon were the size of two cabins, they just moved the kids around the ship. I tried to take her to a couple of things (she was 12 at the time), one was an art project. She's very good at art. They asked us to leave. She spent a lot of time in the cabin watching cartoons when we weren't in a port.

The hours for the kids program are intermittent. A couple of hours in the morning, a couple in the afternoon, then during dinner. It's over at 10 pm. You can take your children to a smoky bar until 11 pm if you like. As another poster said, the entertainment was painfully bad. But the food was good, and always available. Really, Celebrity is not geared to families, it's geared entirely to older couples. It was cheap but sorry, we just didn't enjoy it.

 

[mom2grace]

Thanks Dancind.

We have the 2nd largest cabin, probably similar to a 2 or 3 on DCL, it has separate bedrooms and living room, verandah.

I expect that this vacation will just be time away from home to spend with my family. But, it's nice to know not to have high hopes for the kids clubs.

I won't put the 16 month old in the pool even if they let me, the e. coli issue really bothers me.

DD who will be 3 1/2 probably won't mind the salt water, but I'll bring goggles.

It's a 12 night cruise, with only 4 sea days and they are spaced out, it's a pretty port-intensive route.

I would appreciate any other advice and tips!