Going on a Cruise

We did a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas and there were very FEW kids. (Our 9 month old daughter was ONE of three young kids that we saw!) Totally laid back and relaxing type cruise.

Then we did Carnival. PARTY SHIP ALL THE WAY. KIDS EVERYWHERE. (We had 2 small kids with this time.) But the ship was PACKED with kids and families. And yet, somehow, it was still a total drinking party........? We HATED IT!

I do know I read about a cruise line that is ADULTS ONLY when we were searching for our trips. Google it. And we booked it ourselves to save money.......

We always cruise during the month of September, for our anniversary. While we do see some kids on the cruise, its very very few of them. We normally cruise Royal Caribbean, but decided to try Carnival last year and its just not for us. We will stick with RC. Also the larger the ship, the more things you will find to do on possible sea days. A large ship is one thats at least 100,000 tons or larger. A lot of the older ships that sail 5 days and fewer are usually about 70,0000 tons.

We did carnival cruise line and loved it. We did not have any bad experiences. I think any vacation is what you make of it. There are cruise lines that offer kid free cruises, but I am not sure which ones they are. Our cruise was geared towards the kids, ice cream shop, movie theater, bowling alley, 2 pools, daycare if needed etc... We are looking forward to going again kid free.

For your first cruise, go through a travel agent that specializes in cruises. You might need to call a few as they specialize in different cruise lines.

If you want to get away from kids, go when most children are in school. I went to the Caribbean on Royal Caribbean in early October and there were hardly any kids. There will always be some but if you go in March or April you get the crazy college kids and the school break kids.

I loved RCI but I hear that Celebrity is awesome, too. It's a lot less kid friendly so check it out.

Also, if you can, do 7 nights. You'll love it. Also, travel agents will help you find adult only cruises.

I would talk to a travel agent to get this narrowed down correctly. There aren't any kid-free cruise lines anymore unless you go with very high end, smaller ships. The mainstream Carnival, Norwegian, Princess, etc. lines will all have kids on them.

A travel agent would have the expertise to point you to just the right cruise line and destination. We have cruised Carnival and then Norwegian twice and loved them all. Norwegian is our favorite because of its casual Freestyle Cruising, which allows you to eat when and where you want. It's wonderful to have easy access to good food and entertainment, and fantastic shore excursions. We love cruising!