Other cruise lines for Mediterranean recommendations?

[KashasMom]

Choosing the ship is so important and it also depends on what things are important to your family. We're not fans of NCL (terrible pool situation, like DCL) and no family friendly entertainment, among other things. I've wanted to try MSC but the reviews are so inconsistent. We love RC Oasis class ships (Harmony is in Europe). I wouldn't compare your RC experience to their new ships - very different experience. So much to do onboard - plenty of pools, active activities great for a 17/19 yr old, lots of food/dining options, and family friendly entertainment every night. RC also has the new Odyssey cruising Europe. I'd research those all the ships to see what works best for your family.

 

[StarSeven7]

Yes we did, last summer on a Baltic cruise. Our son was not interested at all in their version of the kids club, but it wasn’t a problem for us. All European cruises are very port intensive, so the time onboard is used to relax and be together. He watched movies, read books, played with his Switch and we played table games. He’s a 9yo mini-foodie, so the buffet and dining room were right up his alley. The tours were not thought out for kids, but he enjoyed them none the less. We have a tendency to involve him in our visits instead of just dragging him along, which helps a lot.

If you need ‘kids food’, kids clubs and tours made for small children, Celebrity might not work out, but it’s perfect for us.

Thanks for the response! We would probably need "kid food" because my kids are pretty picky. My kids absolutely loved the club on DCL but every other vacation we've taken has been without a kids club and they've survived! Lol! We camp a lot and they do totally fine coming up with their own entertainment. We probably wouldn't take any ship tours and do most things independently so that's not an issue either. I've traveled a lot in Europe on my own so I'm very comfortable doing things independently there. We're taking a 2 week trip to the UK (traveling on our own) this fall with our kids and that will be their first time in Europe so we'll see how they do - my biggest concern is food, not the actual travel. They like history and culture and being active so they should have no trouble keeping up! They complained on our cruise when we went to a beach for an hour instead of exploring! Hahaha!

ETA: I think my biggest concern with taking kids on Celebrity is the culture of the ship. My kids are mostly well behaved but my son is really high energy and he can be a little rambunctious at times. This didn't stand out at all on DCL because there were lots of other kids. But if we went on Celebrity and there were very few kids and everything else was quiet and refined and people were glaring at us if my son was loud, that would probably stress me out.