"Family Friendly" Cruise Line Recomendations please?

[blackisler]

Hi all

I've cruised twice before but both times pre children. Once for a week with Celebrity (on our honeymoon!) in the Carribean and then with Airtours/Sunbird in the Med for a fortnight.

We are considering doing a Med cruise next year with our two children a boy of 6 and a girl of 4. My initial though was Ocean Village as I see them heavily advertised as family friendly and I liked their Gateways & Gondolas itinnerary on Ocean Village 2. However I am way out of touch with who any other players are in the field of family friendly cruising that could also be a possibility.

So any recomendations of "family friendly" cruise lines or opinions on Ocean Village?

[HW tenpin]

Hi Blackisler,

Welcome to HW.

Off the cuff I would say try Independance of the Sea (RC) from Southampton and back going to Spain and the Med, 1st class Kids club on board. ice skating rink and plenty for everyone to keep busy.

Ocean Village is Ok to but bit short on kids programs, as is Thomsons.

Call back in from time to time, quite a few new cruisers going very soon with kids so hopefully we will get some feedback from them on there return.

Try this link to brouse the posts in the cruise forum.



http://forum.holidaywatchdog.com/Cruise-Forum.html

[blackisler]

Thanks HW tenpin - I should have said that I am in the far north of Scotland so Sounthampton isn't really a good option. Would prefer to fly from any Scottish Airport. It would be early July 09 we are looking at - schools break up on the 3rd so shortly after that. Have already had a browse of the forum and will keep doing so.

[rosebaskrts]

Hi we were on OV2 in April, we have 2 kids 6yo boy and 5yo girl. We have cruised 15 times in 5 years and this was by far the best kids club.

I'll give you a breakdown of my opinions on the kids clubs i've encountered with different companies.

Royal Caribbean - the best and biggest facilities, attracts the most kids. You can leave your kids onboard while you go ashore.The reps are mainly North American and advertised as graduates, they have no childcare expertise and they have little idea on how british kids play.

They expect kids to participate in their organised activities and stand in line and play games in large groups. We watched our kids line up for 1/2 hour to do an obsticle course for 30 seconds

My sons allergic to tomatoes, which we repeatedly told them. When he was taken for dinner he was given pizza, the rep didn't know that tomatoes were used in pizza (a graduate!)

Thomson - Great reps who have childcare qualifications are good with kids they have a good programme of activities. Kids can have free play if they choose to, but times are limited and only open for a couple of hours at a time and you have to stay onboard and tell the reps where you will be. No arcade games.

Island - Poor opening times, participation style activities. Most of the time was practicing for talent night with no free play. Most activities my kids hated a they were mainly aimed at the 8 -12 year old groups. The only company that my kids have refused to go to kids club on.

Ocean Village - The staff were fantastic, well trained, they had a manager who was approachable, knew all the kids names and bent over backwards to acommodate every child. Opened at 10am each day, closed between 5pm and 6pm for kids tea. Open again from 6 to 11pm and had a night nursery while 2am. Facilities were good with 4 ps2's for all the kids to share. Activities were planned throughout the day and the kids could drop in and out as the parents chose. Between 8.30pm and 11pm they had loads of beanbags spread out accross the floor, turned out the lights and put a dvd on the large screen tv, so the kids were settled and ready for bed when they were collected. If you book during school holidays they have even more staff on board and parents can go ashore. This is the only kids club where my kids have constantly nagged to go back to after the holiday has finished.

Hope it helps sorry it's a bit long winded