Best Family Cruises: Lines, Ships and Costs Compared

The right line depends on your children's ages

Children under three are the hardest group to serve. Only Disney and Royal Caribbean run proper drop-off nurseries, at $9 and $8 per hour respectively, and both book out weeks before sailing. Carnival, Celebrity and Princess have nothing for under-threes, meaning one parent is always on duty.

Ages three to eleven is where every line competes and where Disney's advantage is largest. The Oceaneer Club is free, open long hours, and staffed at ratios nobody else matches. Royal Caribbean's Adventure Ocean is close behind and comes with water parks that Disney does not match at the same scale.

Teenagers change the calculation entirely. Disney's teen clubs are good but the ship offers less for a fifteen-year-old than Royal Caribbean's flowrider, ice rink, sports courts and go-kart-equivalent attractions. For teens only, Royal Caribbean offers materially more at roughly half the fare.

• Under three: Disney or Royal Caribbean, the only lines with proper nurseries.
• Three to eleven: Disney for execution, Royal Caribbean for facilities and value.
• Twelve to seventeen: Royal Caribbean, comfortably, for activity range.
• Mixed ages: Royal Caribbean or MSC, which serve every band adequately.

What a family of four actually pays

The table below is the comparison that matters: two adults and two children aged six and nine sharing one cabin on a seven-night Caribbean sailing, with everything a family realistically spends.

Note how much of the gap is structural rather than fare-driven. Disney includes soft drinks and free youth clubs, which claws back about $250. MSC's child fare policy removes two fares entirely on many sailings.

The cabin decision matters more than the ship

A family of four in one standard balcony cabin is tight. The bathroom is the pinch point, and it is why Disney's split bathroom, with the toilet in one compartment and the shower in another, is worth more on a family holiday than any water slide.

Connecting cabins are the alternative and the better one if the budget allows. Two interiors that connect frequently cost less than one balcony and give you two bathrooms, two televisions and a door you can close. Royal Caribbean and MSC have the most connecting inventory; it sells out first, often twelve months ahead.

Avoid cabins directly beneath the pool deck. Deck chairs get dragged from 6am and children who woke at 6am are the fastest route to a bad holiday.

• Two connecting interiors often cost less than one balcony and give you two bathrooms.
• Disney's split bathroom is the single most useful family cabin feature at sea.
• Carnival Family Harbour cabins include a lounge with free breakfast and snacks.
• Book connecting cabins twelve months out; they sell out before anything else.
• Never book directly beneath the pool deck.

When to sail changes the ship as much as the ship does

The same Royal Caribbean ship in late January and in mid-July is two different holidays. In July it carries 1,200 children; in late January it might carry 200. If your children are not yet school age, sailing outside school holidays saves 30 to 50 percent and gives you a materially calmer ship.

Once your children are in school, the choice narrows to the expensive weeks. Within them, the first week of the summer holidays and the last week of August are usually cheaper than the middle, and early December before the holiday spike is the best value family window of the year.

• Pre-school-age children: sail outside school holidays and save 30 to 50 percent.
• Early December, before the holiday spike, is the best family value window.
• The first and last weeks of the summer holidays undercut the middle weeks.
• Spring break in mid-March is the most crowded family sailing period of the year.