We are having a family reunion with children aged 2-6.....I know everyone believes Disney is the only way to go if you have children. But frankly, we cannot afford Disney. Surely there must be other lines with good childrens programs, activities and babysitting..arent there? We would love some input from those of you that have had great crusing expereinces on ships other than Disney..Thanks! We are doing a 4-5 day cruise we think..

Close family friends just cruised in the spring with 2 grandparents, 4 parents and 7 grandchildren, ages 4-17. They were on Royal Caribbean and haven't stopped raving about activities and fun they all had together. It's not as inexpensive as Carnival, but they do run deals that are comparable if you time it right. We cruised with RC last March and had a great time (2 x 50+ with 2 x 25+ children). Observed some of the young kids w/ parent contests open to all-- everyone having fun (build & float your boat). Did NCL when ours were teens, and it was OK, but not great for their ages. Younger kids programs looked more appealing with NCL. Good Luck!

Check miniimum age for kids activites or child care - some lines will not take kids as young as 2. we have cruised on NCL and Celebrity during school vacation times - when they announced high number of rugrats on board. We never saw a lot of free-range kids (our kids are almost-adults) so they must have decent kid programs.

Don't forget Carnival! They have an excellent program for kids but check age limit.
As far as Disney, they were across the pier from us in Nassau and their big outside movie screen played all day, cartoon movie, then ship's officer talking and music going. We could hear every word and it was so annoying! It just blared and heard from someone who had been on a Disney ship that this annoyed them too! Yes, we saw Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, etc. but there weren't any kids around them a we were in port and we weren't even on Disney's ship!.

We had a similar experience as gail did with kids on a Carnival cruise in February. At the end of the cruise, the cruise director mentioned how many hundred of kids had been on board the cruise and asked everyone if they recall seeing many kids around the ship. When the crowd responded "No", he said, "Well, that just shows what a great kids program we have"! He definitely had a point there.