Cruise Talk Central

I am what I would describe as a busy Mom. My kids are involved in many after school activities including Dance, Cheer leading, Football, Baseball, and Basketball. We live many miles from these activities so we spend over an hour a day just commuting to these activities. In addition to my job as a chauffeur, I also help coach cheerleading and take a few dance classes my self. I also volunteer at my church and a local Veterans hospital. Some times I feel that I am like the Energizer Bunny, in that I just keep “going and going and going.” A cruise is for me, the ultimate get-a-way from this crazy schedule.

I have done many other vacation styles in the past 5 years or so, but I have to say that the cruise has so many advantages over other vacation options. First, we took a week long trip to Disney World with the extended family. For fun and excitement, this trip was great, but the down side of that trip was long lines, structured days, large crowds and mostly fast food. I’ve also taken a couple of trips to the beach with family. On these trips we have rented a large beach front house that accommodated our extended families. The nice part of these vacations was not just the location, but lack of crowds, time to visit with family, and lots of really good home cooked food. However, the down side of these vacations were that there was no housekeeping service, no entertainment, and house guests had to help in the after dinner clean-up and dish washing.

On a cruise, your room steward keeps your room very clean - no bed making or toilet cleaning required. All of your meals are also prepared for you, and with a greater variety than what is available at an amusement park. There are also plenty of activities for fun, and plenty of opportunities to just relaxing and do nothing. Perhaps dinner is the best part of a cruise. Moms can relax and enjoy the meal in the dining room with their families without the stress of preparing it or the unpleasant task of cleaning the kitchen or doing dishes. A sit down meal in the dining room, enjoying conversation with the kids and my husband, is so much more relaxing than grabbing a burger and fries before we have to run to use our fast pass to take a ride on Disney’s Haunted House. As a busy mom who always seems to be on the go, the slower pace of a cruise is a welcome relief from my busy schedule. I think that most Moms really like a chance to be pampered with great service and to take a break from the daily routine.

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I love cruising Celebrity with my kids.  While we waited till our kids were a bit older, 7 & 9 for their first cruise, we found that most passengers were very welcoming to the kids.   Most of  the passengers are Grand Parents, Great Grand Parents or even Great Great Grand Parents that absolutely adore kids.

We have been on several Celebrity cruises where there were quite a few younger kids… well maybe 10 preschoolers total, but still some.   The minimum age for the kids program is 3 and fully potty trained.   So you will be with your 2 year old all the time unless you do in room baby sitting. For most  of our Celebrity cruises there have been between  50-150 total kids.

We found the staff to be especially acommodating to kids.  The childrens program doesn't have as many kids in it, but the staff will make sure that your kids are having fun. There were a couple of times on our Alaska cruise where my kids were the only two in the kids club and they had a lot of fun.  

I personally thing that Celebrity is wonderful for kids, and that the smaller number of  kids is an advantage for them.  As far as the formal atmosphere, my kids love it.   They love the main dining room and the doting service.   However, there are some alternatives if you wish to avoide the formalities every night.  They have a sit down casual dining area that is in the buffet, but full service.   For a $2 per person service charge you can dine in this more casual area with your kids.   Of course room service is always an option.

I just put up some new video from our Hawaii Cruise.  I added about 6 more video clips, so you might want to check them out to get a little idea of the atmospher onboard.