We want to take a cruise in 08, 1st time cruisers any suggestions?

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Southern Apostolic

We use Carnival all of the time. Our 12 and 14 year old love it. We stay very casual for the whole time. We only dress for one formal night, and we do not go all out for it. But I have seen people in the dining room in jeans on the same night. Formal dress is not required.

As far as the kids go, we barely see them all week. We ask them to show up with us at the dining room. We eat all of our meals there when they are open, but other than that, we let them have their way with the Camp Carnival activities. The other thing they did was go to the shows with us.

Overall, we have only had great experiences with them. And the value can't be beat. We have never spent more than about $2400 for the four of us. And that was for a seven day cruise in the off season.

Julie T

Our family loves Carnival. We have been sailing with our daughters since they were 5 and 7.

Now at ages 10 and 13, Carnival is the preferred line.

The 24x7 pizzeria is a huge hit with my teenager.

You will see everything from a suit and tie to a tux and a little black dress to a formal gown on the formal night. My Dad wore his jeans, cowboy boots, sports jacket and his hat on formal night and no one made any issues with his dress. In fact, the staff began calling him "John Wayne". He had a blast with it.

Formal night is fun to have your picture taken as a family all dolled up. Plus that is the night they usually serve lobster in the dining room. But the formal dinner is optional.

For all of the other nights, the rule for the dining room is no shorts, tank tops, flip flops. My husband usually wears his jeans or Dockers. I wear sun dresses or capris.

You can always eat in the casual buffet eatery. The only requirement is no swimsuits in the buffet room w/o a cover up.

Suggestion for cruising with this age group...get a set of the 2-way radios to keep in touch while on-board. This avoids missed check-ins and forcing the group into one specific activity. We use the Cobra brand. You can pick the up at Wal-Mart, Target or Radio Shack.

Take along a power strip. There is only 1 power outlet in the room.

Also, stay up to date on the changing passport requirements for cruise travel in 08.

One last recommendation...make sure your travel agent includes port fees, taxes and the new fuel surcharge upfront in any quote she gives you. These fees can add up and some agents don't give you the heads up until they have hooked you.

TINKERTOY ..... the 1 & only

I suggest Carnival or Royal Caribbean. Both have great programs for kids. My personal preference is Royal Caribbean and the cruise ship that I recommend is either the Freedom of the Seas or the Liberty of the Seas. Both are very large ships that have great features for families such as yours. Both depart from Miami and do both Eastern and Western Caribbean itineraries and you can (booking very early for later this year) get a balcony cabin for a very good price. Both ships offer some special pricing deals. And remember that the price shown on the web site is per person double occupancy, but the rate for the 3rd and 4th persons (your kids) are really much much lower. We cruised on the Freedom last year and loved it. Don't be frightened by the size of the ship and the number of passengers because they manage the crowd very well and it does not seem crowded.

Here's the Freedom's web site:
http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/class/ship/home.do;jsessionid=0000Z0RK7oFFAdDu09cTpQ8pAmr:12hbiocus?br=R&shipClassCode=FR&shipCode=FR

If you look at this web site you will see that there are some dates when the fares are significantly lower than other dates.
The ship has great features for kids including a mini water park called the H2o Zone with a small pool, a mini-lazy river, water cannons, and other water related activities. Then there is the Flow Rider (unique to the Freedom and Liberty ships) and it also has an ice skating rink and a video arcade. There's an ice capades type show that is fantastic. There's also one area of the ship that's just for kids called Adventure Ocean and another called Fuel which are just for kids. Then while your kids are with the Adventure Ocean staff you can go to the adults only area in the Solarium and enjoy the pool and huge hot tubs.

So that's my recommendation based on my experience cruising.

As for the dress on ship, the formal nights are REQUESTED attire and not REQUIRED attire. So you do not have to dress up for formal nights unless you want. You will not be denied access to the main dining room or the show or anything else as long as you follow the requested attire for every evening which is sports /business casual. All that means is no shorts and swim wear except in the pools and gym. That's simple long pants/slacks, shirt with a collar, skirt/blouse, and for the kids most anything other than swim suits and tee shirts. On formal night most people do dress up, for dinner and a photo. But you will see many people walking around casual all evening on formal night; and that applies to most cruise lines and ships. We usually change to something comfortable after dinner and a photo and go to the show in casual clothes.

Zef H

There are four good cruise lines for families with children. Disney (expensive), Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian.

The one with the most relaxed dress code is Norwegian. I am not familiar with Disney's dress code. Carnival and Royal Caribbean do not have strict dress codes, but both do have "formal" nights. To be honest, as long as you are wearing nice looking clothing, you can get in the dining room on Carnival or Royal Caribbean even on formal night without being "dressed to the nines".

Even if you don't feel comfortable wearing nice clothing in the dining room on formal night, you can always eat at the buffet, which is always casual.

Norwegian has optional formal nights. When I am on Norwegian on the optional formal nights I wear my Hawaiian shirt.

If your kids like Disney, and you can put up with Disney 24/3, 24/4 or 24/7, and if you can afford it, Disney offers a very nice cruise experience.

To a large extent you will find Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian very similar. All three are family friendly and all three have very good children's programs.

Norwegian has Freestyle Dining, which means you don't have a preset time and table to eat. Some people like this flexibility. Others feel you get better service when you have the same wait staff every night.

Carnival has preset dinner times and tables, though you can always go to the buffet if you want. Carnival also has very nice water slides on all of its ships.

Royal Caribbean has some very big and huge ships. Bigger than anyone else except for the Queen Mary 2 (which is not real family friendly). None of the Royal Caribbean ships have a water slide that even your youngest would be interested in. However, all the Royal Caribbean ships have rock climbing walls (some Norwegian ships do - none of the Carnival ships do).

The biggest of Royal Caribbean's ships, the five Voyager and three Freedom class ships (the third Freedom class ship, the Independence of the Seas will is still being built, and will be done later this year) have additional features beyond rock climbing and the pools (all cruise ships have pools). These eight ships all have ice skating and miniature golf (some of the Carnival ships have miniature golf also). The five Voyage class ships (Voyager, Explorer, Adventurer, Navigator & Mariner) also have inline skating. The three Freedom class ships (Freedom, Liberty and Independence) have the Flowrider (a surfing simulator) instead of inline skating and also have a miniature water park known as the H2O Zone.

I think your family would enjoy a cruise on any of the four cruise lines mentioned above (Carnival, Disney, Norwegian or Royal Caribbean).

Curious

I have been on both Carnival and Royal Carribean. They are both very nice and clean. If you are not very formal, then I would definetly recommend Carnival, as this cruise line is a little less formal. For your dinner formal nights on the ship, for women, a nice skirt or dressy casual is fine, for men, a nice pair of slacks and shirt is fine. Nothing too much. Now, sometime people go all out and get really dressed up. Like tuxedos and formal dresses, but it really is not necessary. I would suggest to take th late dinner instead of the early dinner. That way you don't have to rush to get ready especially since you have 2 children. The ship I sailed on was the imagination. It's a little bigger than some of their other ships. It's nice not to feel to congested with everyone else. Other than that, pack light, turn the cell phone off and ENJOY!

Charmo

We will be going on our 3rd Carnival Cruise in February. We don't do much of the dress up thing either. Just bring casual, comfortable clothes, unless you like the fancy dining. They have plenty to do for the kids. You might even be able to slip away for something you like to do, because they have monitored children's activities.

MomSezNo

You might want to get a book on cruising from your library. Also, check out CruiseCritic.com, click "Boards" and "Reviews" for all the info you could possibly want.

Carnival is a good line for a first cruise, especially if you have kids. Though they've gone downhill some in terms of food, you won't notice because it's your first cruise! You'll enjoy it - especially the pizza [really good!]. Carnival doesn't really enforce the "formal dress" in the dining room, unfortunately for those who do like to dress up. You won't be turned away as long as you don't wear shorts and ratty tees.

Have a great time!

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