I find it is helpful to know a little about the reviewer so I know if I identify so I'll introduce myself first. I am a 38 year old luxury travel agent and have had the opportunity to experience many world class hotels and incredible destinations for significantly discounted rates. My expectations are higher than my budget so when traveling with the kids, I try to do things they will like. I like to drink wine in the evenings but am not a night owl or partier. Cruising isn't my first choice for a vacation b/c I like to be on the ground exploring trying new foods and experiencing the destination but in the past it worked well for my kids who are 6 years apart and if they are happy, I'm happy.

My first cruise was on Norwegian and it wasn't a good fit. They had a nice amount of kids - a lot but not too many and nightly shows were the best I've seen but the room was tiny and there was literally nothing for adults to do during the day except play bingo, drink or sit in the sun IF it was warm enough. It was also a party ship - every night there were fall down drunks in the early evening and we had to ride the tender back from cabo with a girl throwing up all over the place as her drunk friends tried to take care of her. I expected some of this on Carnival but never saw anything out of hand which is probably due to the fact that so many activities are very late at night.

Holland America was perfect for us - the kids loved it as it was easy to make friends among the 30 - 40 other children on board, the programs were flexible so kids could do more of what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it AND their times matched up perfectly with programming for adults. If you went to early dinner, there was a show at 8pm you could watch without kids and then head to get them around 10pm. During the day, you could hang out in the Crows Nest watching the world go by while playing a game of scrabble, working a puzzle or using the computers. The coffee shop was in there along with the library and at night, there was a grand piano usually with someone playing it so you could relax with wine. Throughout the days at sea there were various enrichment activities from standard trivia to scavenger hunts and cooking lessons to watching whales or hearing commentary from specialists on the ports about more than shopping. The food service in the dining room was slow but I ordered room service for breakfast every day and had dinner in the Pinnacle Grill several nights b/c the food was a lot better there. Read more