which cruise lines?

[BonnieBell]

I have been checking Carnival and Royal Caribbean. Which would you choose for a first cruise with a ten year old girl?

[Gregswife]

Hello again Bonnie. You should get plently of opionions on this subject - especially with the weekend coming up and people will have more time here. As I said in the other thread, we have only sailed Carnival, but I can attest to the fact that they will keep your 10 yr. old very busy. I know that the other lines offer children's programs also but have no experience with them. There is also Disney, I saw a special on the travel channel recently about the different cruise lines and they said that Disney does not have onboard casinos though, which is a little funtime for the parents. I look forward to reading the different opinions that will more than likely be posted on your question...

[BonnieBell]

I forgot to tell you that we want to go someplace where its warm and the different places are not to much commericalized? If possible. What about the caribbean and the cost of Mexico?

[CanadianCruiser]

Hi Bonnie Bell.....

I can only comment on carnival, My daughter nearly 10 loves thier kids program...... Lots for them to do....

I personally cant comment on Royal, as I have never sailed them....I have sailed Disneyy 3 times and My DD prefers Carnival over Disney ( and we are disney freaks ...lol )

If you are looking for prts that are not that commercialized I would recommend Carnival Valor and it does the western Caribbean and has Belize and Roatan, Honduras as two of the ports of call...... Not commercialized yet......

If you ahve any more questions go ahead and ask....

[BonnieBell]

what about things to do at this places? Are there things to do that are safe to swim at? I check the Disney cruises and I found that they were a little out of our reach but are kid friendly.

[CanadianCruiser]

In Roatan there are a few beaches, we went to West End beach after doing an island tour... Great beach, fairly clean with a few restaurants and shops across the street ( dirt road )

In Belize there is Cave Tubing and Goff's Cay... Both I would recommend using Carnival excursions for....

The Valor also does Grand Cayman where I would suggest swimming with the sting rays... and Cozumel is another port that the Valor sails to.....

[CanadianCruiser]

Bonnie when are you looking to cruise ?

[sailingrose]

My kids grew up on RCI and they loved it. Given a choice (Carnival, RCI, Hollarnd, Princess) my kids always picked RCI. They have enhanced their programs in recent years to include Lowes and Crayola. I gauge the kids program by how few kids I see during club time and seems to us that RCI is doing a good job still. My kids are older now and we don't use the program anymore.

Cozumel has great beaches just a cab ride away but it is very commercial, same for Grand Cayman(also expensive).

If you want hot Belize is plenty hot! We roasted there 2 years ago but loved the beaches.

Good luck with you choices.

[nmnitamsncom]

for a 10 year old I would recommend Carnival but either line would be a good choice. Remember, if you are thinking about summer cruising, very few ships do Mexico Riv or the Caribbean in the summer. Many re-locate to Europe and Alaska. If swimming is important to you and nice beaches consintrate on the ships that sail out of Galveston and Miami to the western Caribbean. NMNita

[jacketwatch]

I think Carnival would be fine but also consider the RCI voyager class ships as well. These were designed for kids and families. I would like to ty one of those myself. As for going somewhere not too commercialized that may be difficult in the Carribean or Mexico. I would imagine port stops such as Dominica, Bonaire, Curacao Grenada would be less crowded than say St. Thomas or Aruba but most cruise ships do hit the larger ports. Bon voyage, Larry