First time cruise for kids...anything beyond Disney comparable?
 

My husband and I like cruises but haven't been in years... we'd like to do a cruise vacation and need to bring our 8, 6, and 4 year old children along. I know Disney Line is obvious choice, but I wondered if anyone could recommend any other good options as far as cruise line or specific destinations for that age group? Thanks.

I know Carnival has a kid's camp. Check out http://boards.cruisecritic.com/ for tons of info.

Hi,

We took our daughter to many cruises from the time she was 7 (she's now 20) and I would never even consider Disney, way too expensive.

You can find some details of cruise lines I recommend on my website at http://www.carib-cruises.com/best-family-cruise.html and also some photos of ships and ports, all from our cruises.

We love cruising :)

Lise
http://carib-cruises.com

We just got off the Mariner of the Seas (RCI) this past Sunday. It was our 6-yo DS' first cruise and he absolutely loved it. RCI has the Adventure Ocean kids program, and the kids are broken up into age groups (e.g., my son was w/ all 6 to 8-yo's). They played sports, did craft projects, played games (both computer and non-computer). I'd love to take a Disney cruise but it would have cost us easily a couple thousand more than the junior suite we had on RCI. Here are a few things our son enjoyed on board outside of the kids' program: ice show (ice skating rink on board), miniature golf (mini golf course on top deck aft), bingo (they provide a kids' pack of cards for all games except the final jackpot games), parade, and esp. the towel animals left by our cabin steward each night. Now that we have experienced a cruise w/ our son that is NOT Disney and saw how much he enjoyed it (so much so that we booked our next cruise while still on board), I see no point in spending the extra $$ to book w/ Disney. Just my $.02 of course :)

Most of the mass market ships has kids' club and there are plenty to do for kids and they should not be bore. For 8,6 and 4, hate to say it, no one can do it like Disney.

Thanks for the input... I'm sure no one can do it like Disney, but it seems that no one charges quite as much either ;)
Thanks for the RCI lead... and the rest of your helpful responses!