Which Caribbean Cruise?
 

My spouse and I, along with another active childless professional couple in mid-30's, are deciding which Caribbean Cruise to chose for New Year's. Our budget is within the RCCL and Princess Range. We would like to know if the Grand Princess Western Caribbean would be for us? We want a ship that limits the number of children (we are not anti-child, just don't want to feel like the ship is completely given over to children), offers lots of great snorkeling and quality cultural sightseeing and fun onboard activities, and made up of passengers who are not solely interested in drinking a lot.

Thanks for your help. My spouse's company shuts down at Christmas/New Year's so we have to take time off around then.

You may have trouble with the limited kids part of your request since your vacation time is fixed to a time when families are traveling with their kids. Also, the lower-priced lines (like RCCL) tend to attract more families, kids and young drinkers.

Christmas New Years is the WORST time to cruise if you want to avoid children at all- of any ages-including teenagers....

We did an RCL cruise over New Years and vowed NEVER AGAIN...the teens were walking around with their own bottles of CHAMPAGNE on the pool deck--along with countless other blasted adults (as in drunk)...Ok, it was New Year's Eve-but I hate to WALK in 2 inches of CHAMPAGNE and water on the pool deck at midnite in a formal dress and shoes!

I would seriously suggest the WINDSURF (part of Windstar cruise lines) as the better alternative as it is upscale casual with NO kids- only 330 passengers and NO kids program with an intensive active water sports program -all free on the ship! This seems to be tailor-made for your specs....

Other Alternative may be to do one of the newer HOLLAND AMERICA cruises,like the Prisendam =if you want a larger ship.....


Hope this helps.

You get a certain amount of "children control" on Princess because they limit the number of children on all of their cruises. They control the number by age group as well. Whenever we cruise Princess, they ask if our 3rd and 4th are children and what their ages are.

Peter

We have cruised Princess over Christmas and they do indeed not only limit the total number of children but also the number per age group. We felt that they did a good job and the ship did not feel like it was totally overrun with kids.

We are a bit older than you are but have found Celebrity to be the best for food and activities. Never many kids (last two times I only saw 4). Prices are better than Princess (Check out December 26, 2003 sailing on Galaxy, I believe). Holland is more for the "over the hill gang". Celebrity ships are beautiful, even the older ones like Horizon and Zenith. Check it out, you may be pleasantly surprised. Good luck. We are off to 10 night ultimate on Summit in December.

Two quick comments:

1. Last year we cruised the week after New Years. Staff told us that while there were about 150 kids on board on our trip, there had been over 800 the previous week.

2. You're probably aware that holidays are more expensive, but make sure you know just how much more expensive. For example, we're booked on the Dawn Princess for 12/14. Balcony cabin for 2 is under $1,400. The same cabin, exact same itinerary, 2 weeks later is over $5,000.

If you can only get away over New Year's, but all means go then--but if you have a little flexibility the difference in price is significant.

Cheers!

Since you are limited to Christmas/New Years you are going to have lots of kiddies on most all cruise lines. There is an exception.

Celebrity has an Adult Only cruise this New Years. I am not sure about the number of days or which ship but it is worth checking out.

Princess vs RCI at New Years, go with Princess since they at least limit the number.