Is Disney cruise best if kids don't care about characters?

[Chandra C]

So, we are back fROM our first cruise on the Disney Dream. It actually was our first cruise of any kind. We loved it! We did 3 nights and it wasn't long enough! Unfortunately, we just can't afford a longer cruise with Disney. My kids didn't care about the characters at all, only activities. Is Royal carribean good for kids? I'm hoping some veteran cruisers can recommend another line or another ship in particular that I should be looking into.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

So, we are back fROM our first cruise on the Disney Dream. It actually was our first cruise of any kind. We loved it! We did 3 nights and it wasn't long enough! Unfortunately, we just can't afford a longer cruise with Disney. My kids didn't care about the characters at all, only activities. Is Royal carribean good for kids? I'm hoping some veteran cruisers can recommend another line or another ship in particular that I should be looking into.

I've heard Princess's kid's clubs are good. Sorry, no first-hand knowledge.

 

[KashasMom]

How old are your children? Did they go to the kids' clubs? I can recommend RCI's and NCL's bigger/newer ships. The kids' clubs are good and there are ropes courses, rock-climbing walls, water slides, flowriders, etc. The pools and splash areas on Oasis and Allure are great. Oasis and Allure also have good shows - ice skating shows (and ice skating) and aqua shows. The Breakaway has Cirque Du Soleil. It all depends on what they like to do (or you want to do as a family). Some ships have movie theaters and most have family activities. I'd suggest reading some of the cruise dailies (RCI is Cruise Compass and NCL's is Freestyle Daily).

 

[Chandra C]

How old are your children? Did they go to the kids' clubs? I can recommend RCI's and NCL's bigger/newer ships. The kids' clubs are good and there are ropes courses, rock-climbing walls, water slides, flowriders, etc. The pools and splash areas on Oasis and Allure are great. Oasis and Allure also have good shows - ice skating shows (and ice skating) and aqua shows. The Breakaway has Cirque Du Soleil. It all depends on what they like to do (or you want to do as a family). Some ships have movie theaters and most have family activities. I'd suggest reading some of the cruise dailies (RCI is Cruise Compass and NCL's is Freestyle Daily).

My youngest is 2 years old, she's not into the princess thing yet. My boys are 11 and 7. They enjoyed the kids clubs, water activities, and shows. Not once did they want to stand in line to meet any of the characters​

 

[PoopDeckPappy]

I've had my kids in the kids club on NCL and they loved it. They were young (still are) so any kid activities are great to them.

As a parent, I can say hands down that DCL is the best. They can eat lunch at the club, dinner too and for the late seating the counselors come to the dining rooms to pick the kids up so parents can finish dessert etc. This pick up thing probably isn't unique but it's still great. DCL clubs/labs etc are always open (9am to 10-midnight).

We typically like to stay on the ship when in port (save CC, Port Canaveral) and some lines close the clubs during the less busy day hours when in port. On NCL they had set hours but closed for lunch. The kids could stay for a fee and they would be taken to for lunch (all of a sudden I'm taking on like $20 or so a day for this). Not sure if dinner was the same (I don't remember). Checking back in was a 20 minute process because all kids were waiting in line to get back in. I stay in the Haven on NCL and my snobby side thought we should have had a behind the scenes check in

IMO the kids won't dislike another line's clubs and the little things that you'd notice likely won't bother them. If you go on a line that limits the hours just plan other stuff. E.g., if you don't get off in a particular port plan to make it a pool afternoon in advance. The kids won't be upset and you'll have 70% less people up at the pool.

 

[deanimal]

My kids are 6 and 7 and on their fourth Disney Cruise a few months ago they suddenly decided they were done with the characters. Zero interest! I had to beg my daughter to come along to see Anna and Elsa because I wanted to go. So yes, I feel your pain.

I agree that it would be worthwhile to check out what other lines have. We sailed NCL for March break this year and my kids loved all the options like the mini golf, bungy trampoline, ropes course, climbing wall, multiple water slides, etc. There are so many things for school aged kids on other lines that if your kids don't care about characters you may find a better fit elsewhere. If characters and "Disney Magic" aren't a big draw for your kids they may even like the kids clubs more on other lines. My kids actually preferred the Norwegian ones to Disney because they were a little less crowded and chaotic.

I do have to say, though, that I haven't yet found a cruise that can hold a candle to the family friendly shows on Disney. We all love broadway type shows in our family and the shows are the one thing that we miss on other lines.

 

[Ofinn]

So, we are back fROM our first cruise on the Disney Dream. It actually was our first cruise of any kind. We loved it! We did 3 nights and it wasn't long enough! Unfortunately, we just can't afford a longer cruise with Disney. My kids didn't care about the characters at all, only activities. Is Royal carribean good for kids? I'm hoping some veteran cruisers can recommend another line or another ship in particular that I should be looking into.

My kids have never been into Disney characters. Thank God because I would never stand in line for that. They have always enjoyed the kids clubs on DCL. They enjoyed the Carnival Vista but were bummed about the limited teen club hour, but preferred the ship over the Disney ship. All ships have their good and bad points. I would do the cruise you can afford and goes where you want to go. Your kids will have a good time on any ship.

 

[bumbershoot]

My son likes royal's kid's club more than disney's.

On Disney he finds the counselors to be few and far between, and he rarely interacts with them. It's more of a free for all there. When they do have activities it's fun, but as he says, they play gaga ball wrong LOL.

On Royal the counselors are hands on and lead the activities, and he loves that. And they play gaga ball correctly, according to him.

My son likes Jack Sparrow just fine, and he'll meet the characters (so far just Stitch) when we stay concierge (twice), but on the ship they aren't important to him. Some Royal ships do have Dreamworks characters, too, like Freedom.

 

[Love2Cruz]

My DD has been at DCL, Carnival and MSC kids club, MSC wins for her hands down. I can only attest to the European cruises though....MSC counselors are VERY engaging, take the kids all through the ship(chaperoned of course) they do stage shows, have contests, face painting, and have dedicated seats in the front of the theater for the shows at night. Teens have their own club but my DD is 7 so I can only speak for that age range.
My DD is afraid of the larger than life characters, but likes the princesses. We still enjoy the Disney theme though, but don't have to cruise for that. We equally enjoy our time at the WDW resorts, and with our resident discount, we get good rates and it's a 2 hour drive for us.

Just want to add MSC is a European line, so you will have kids speaking many languages. The counselors speak English though as well as other languages. I thought it was a good cultural experience for my DD. She understands Italian but won't speak it much, yet she made great friends on board..so kids have a way of communicating, even if it's nonverbal. I loved that towards the end of the cruise my kid was calling me "Madame" lol

 

[Frozen2014]

We just went on Allure of the seas with our kids close to turning 11 and 7. They loved it! It's very family friendly with lots to do and shows. Although your kids are not into characters I would look at a ship that offers dream works since these may have more activities for kids. They also have great parades to be joined by all and younger shows with DreamWorks.
P.s. We did not try the kids club so cannot comment. Have seen the cruise compass though and looks like a lot of great (organized) activities. One thing to note though is that they split the kids club up by age...and they do close for short periods such as over lunch.
Another thing is only a couple ships have waterslides (have FlowRiders and splash areas instead).
We are Royal fans so I do recommend the line.

 

[sambycat]

Ok I can't figure out what is MSC and it's driving me crazy!!

 

[Love2Cruz]

Ok I can't figure out what is MSC and it's driving me crazy!!

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/Homepage.aspx

 

[Love2Cruz]

Ok I can't figure out what is MSC and it's driving me crazy!!

BTW, their website is a big quirky, it's an Italian/Swiss owned company. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I have only been on one MSC cruise, but have two more booked as that's how much I liked them. I have a trip report on Cruise Critic under Love2Cruz2015 (my sn on that that site) from my Eastern Med cruise. There is also a subforum on CC for MSC and they have lots of experienced MSC cruisers on that site so you can ask away, they are a friendly bunch (for the most part)
Negative reviews kept me from trying them out, but I had an amazing time. They have interesting itineraries like to Dubai, India, South Africa, South America as well as lots of European itineraries. They also sail out of Florida but haven't tried that yet...though plan to with their new ship Seaside which comes out in 2018.

 

[Love2Cruz]

Ship size is similar to Dream Class Disney....I couldn't get it all in one pic...I was on a taxi boat in Venice...lol

 

[Love2Cruz]

Our AFT balcony ....

 

[Love2Cruz]

One of the pool decks: I think we were in Greece here.

 

[deanimal]

My DD has been at DCL, Carnival and MSC kids club, MSC wins for her hands down. I can only attest to the European cruises though....MSC counselors are VERY engaging, take the kids all through the ship(chaperoned of course) they do stage shows, have contests, face painting, and have dedicated seats in the front of the theater for the shows at night. Teens have their own club but my DD is 7 so I can only speak for that age range.
My DD is afraid of the larger than life characters, but likes the princesses. We still enjoy the Disney theme though, but don't have to cruise for that. We equally enjoy our time at the WDW resorts, and with our resident discount, we get good rates and it's a 2 hour drive for us.

Just want to add MSC is a European line, so you will have kids speaking many languages. The counselors speak English though as well as other languages. I thought it was a good cultural experience for my DD. She understands Italian but won't speak it much, yet she made great friends on board..so kids have a way of communicating, even if it's nonverbal. I loved that towards the end of the cruise my kid was calling me "Madame" lol

Thanks so much for the info on MSC kids clubs! We've done one with them, out of Venice as well. My kids were 4 and 5 and didn't really like the kids clubs then. The counsellors were wonderful, but there were hardly any English speaking kids on the cruise and I think all the different languages overwhelmed them a bit, especially my four year old. We're also booked with them for two more cruises, Baltic in summer 2017 and Seaside from Miami in March 2018 and I'm really hoping that with itineraries that have a few more English speakers and a few years of school under their belts they should enjoy the clubs more. I'll make sure to look up your other thread. I agree that it is hard to beat MSC for the price and perks.

 

[Love2Cruz]

Thanks so much for the info on MSC kids clubs! We've done one with them, out of Venice also and I think all the different languages overwhelmed them a bit, especially my four year old. We're also booked with them for two more cruises, Baltic in summer 2017 and Seaside from Miami in March 2018 and I'm really hoping that with itineraries that have a few more English speakers and a few years of school under their belts they should enjoy the clubs more. I'll make sure to look up your other thread. I agree that it is hard to beat MSC for the price and perks.

Yes, I could see how it might be difficult for kids who only speak English. Luckily my DD was around her grandparents a lot as a baby and watched her when I went back to work so she was around people who ONLY spoke Italian. Although now she will respond in English, she understands Italian well and even knows some Spanish. There were a lot of italian speaking kids in the club so got along well with them, and she actually taught them a little english lol. But you will find a lot of French and German as well. I agree that there will be much more english speaking kids on the American itineraries.
I actually found the exposure to different cultures to be educational for her and she loved it. The counselors were from Italy, Morocco, UK..all over and they were all multi lingual, as are the servers and basically most of the staff. The officers and the people in charge were Italian though. I almost don't want the secret to get out about MSC as I think it will kick up their prices and lose some of it's charm..but I can't help sharing what a good deal they are with new people..

 

[bumbershoot]

MSC sounds great!

On Freedom in March my son had a conversation about American politics with a boy from Holland. Since so many people worldwide are multilingual, even kids can usually meet kids who speak English. And what a better way to start learning another language than from a peer!


Op I think one of your kids is 11? That's as old as the *kid* club goes on royal. At 12 they are off to the teen club and its freedoms.

 

[deanimal]

Yes, I could see how it might be difficult for kids who only speak English. Luckily my DD was around her grandparents a lot as a baby and watched her when I went back to work so she was around people who ONLY spoke Italian. Although now she will respond in English, she understands Italian well and even knows some Spanish. There were a lot of italian speaking kids in the club so got along well with them, and she actually taught them a little english lol. But you will find a lot of French and German as well. I agree that there will be much more english speaking kids on the American itineraries.
I actually found the exposure to different cultures to be educational for her and she loved it. The counselors were from Italy, Morocco, UK..all over and they were all multi lingual, as are the servers and basically most of the staff. The officers and the people in charge were Italian though. I almost don't want the secret to get out about MSC as I think it will kick up their prices and lose some of it's charm..but I can't help sharing what a good deal they are with new people..

I feel exactly the same! For the most part we enjoyed the more European feel of the ship. The one downside was that after two weeks in Italy before the cruise, we didn't appreciate the Italian dining on the ship as much as we would have otherwise! That won't be a problem next time though. And the crew's grasp of languages was simply astounding. When we were checking into the kids clubs another mom asked if there were counsellors who could communicate with her daughters in Portuguese. They immediately called over a Brazilian lady who assured the mom that there were several others who spoke the language as well. And while it can be a bit tiresome to hear every single announcement five times over it does help keep things brief! I always find it annoying how cruise directors go on and on as if there's nothing they like better than the sound of their own voice. The introductions and other blather at the shows didn't seem to last any longer than on all English lines and I was perfectly happy with not understanding 4/5ths of it.