Question for Royal Caribbean customers

[RedSox1It]

Not that I have problems with kids but .... did you find it overwhelming with kids on the Royal Caribbean ships?
We have only been on Princess and Celebrity and find it less than overwhelming.
From everything I have read about Royal Caribbean, it sounds like they pride themselves on large kid populations.

Just wondering because we want to book a cruise on Freedom of the seas with RC but do not want to be inundated with kids.

Please advise.

Thank you

[MAJ. Woody]

Just came off of Legend yesterday.
The kids had enough activities to keep them out of the way. It was pretty pleasant.

[Sonny V]

My wife and I have been on 29 RCCL cruise and never found kids to a problem. I wonder how they do it.

[Geoff & Janine]

We were on Mariner last week, and rumour was that there were 900 kids on board (spring break and all). I barely noticed the children or teens. Not once did I hear kids running up and down the hall.

We didn't sit by the regular pool, we sat in the Solarium where under 16's aren't allowed. We ate at Johnny Rockets on days when we were docked, so almost everyone else was on-shore. Also, we had late dinner and there weren't nearly as many kids in the dining room.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we did see about 100 small ones at dinner one night when they marched through singing a song about being Pirates. It was really cute.

So I would say that either the children and teens were really well behaved, or their areas are sequestered enough that we didn't notice them.

[DSR]

We have found that there's about the same amount of kids on all of them.

[Cruise Fanatic]

You will find the most amount of kids on Disney, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean. Princess does limit the number of kids that sail. Depending on what time of year you sail, will determine if there is more or not. Holidays, school breaks, and summer you will see more kids. The Freedom of The Seas, will have all the Voyager class amenities, plus the new wave pool, boxing ring, and the interactive fountain. RCI is definetly going after the family market. So depending on what your definition of "inundated with kids" is, you might try going right after they start school in the fall. or in January right after they go back from Christmas holidays.

[mooneydiva]

We have cruised both Carnival and Royal Caribbean, in that order. We made the mistake of going on Carnival in June, 1995. . .right after high school and college graduations and the end of the school year. We were overrun by kids of all ages. Not that I dislike kids (I have my own.), but I want to relax on vacaton!

We cruised RCCI last August 28, and there were very few kids on board. I think the time of year had a lot to do with it (School was starting that week most places.) as did the itinerary (southern Caribbean). I was never more relaxed on any vacaton.

We are doing Carnival again this year, but in September figuring most kids will be in school.

Hope you have fun!!

Chris

[Dave]

The Carnival of today bears little resemblence to the Carnival of 1995 - regardless of month. I think you will be surprised at their change from college student party boats to being family oriented.

[ezemoney]

sailed on majesty of the seas 3/20/06 and had no promblem with kids or teenagers at all. even the college age adults where well behaved. rccl has a great kids program from what i have heard.
i'am sure the time of year will effect this a little also. as far as rccl it was a great time and planning on cruising with them on yearly basis

[not_lost_just_exploring]

I don't think it matters so much which ship/line as it does WHEN.

You can pretty much guarantee the ship will be "innundated with kids" if you go during spring break for the shools located closest to the point of departure for the ship. Or shortly after local schools let out for summer. Finding out local school schedules can ususally be done online.

We did a 10 day from Galveston during Texas spring break and I think there were something like 400 kids on board. The kids were kept busy and well behaved, but there were tons of them. In contrast, the staff told me there were only 8 kids booked on the next week's cruise.