Royal Caribbean vs Norwegian cruise - with kids

I have never been on a cruise.
I'm pricing out a similar itinerary for the same departure date for each line. I have no idea what I should really be looking at to decide.

Is one cruise line better for children? Our kids are 6 and 2.

RC is about $4000 for an oceanview room (no balcony). The ship is Freedom of the Seas. Same # of ports (4 out of 5 are the same as on NCL). a room with a balcony was about $5200.

NCL is about $5000 for a room with a balcony, midship (i think with an oceanview but not sure). They have what seem like more room categories so it was harder to choose. The ship is Norwegian Getaway.


I have no idea which to choose or what to consider. Any help is appreciated!!!

ETA: We live in Florida so we are currently only looking to leave from FL ports since we can drive to all of them. However, I'm noticing that the cruise lines pull their best ships from the Florida ports during the summer so now I'm not sure what to do. The ships that sail are those that call Orlando, ft Lauderdale, etc their home port and sail from their year round.

Message edited 6/13/2016 10:46:03 AM.

Re: Royal Caribbean vs Norwegian cruise - with kids

If you are dead set on the itineraries and can afford the Getaway (or the up charge on the RCCL) - I would go with that because in my personal opinion one of the best part of cruising is hanging out on my balcony watching the ocean waves and sunsets.

If you are considering the Getaway on Norwegian, assuming you are from the NY area, why don't you consider her sister ship, the Breakaway & save yourself a ton of cash on airfare? The Breakaway leaves from NY and sails to Bermuda. For kids - Bermuda is incredible. (And so is the Breakaway)...

Both lines are very comparable in terms of being family friendly.

On both cruise lines the kids clubs start at age 3. There are programs for kids under 3Y, but parents must be present. There are tons of family activities on both

Very comparable lines.

Message edited 6/13/2016 9:38:56 AM.

Royal Caribbean vs Norwegian cruise - with kids

I have to agree that both lines are very comparable. Like the other poster mentioned the Breakaway from NY would save on airfare and now Royal has the Anthem that also goes to Bermuda. We decided on the Anthem for our upcoming cruise and I think it sooo much better to be in one place for a little longer than the different ports over the week. It gets exhausting and I think its nice to just enjoy the ship - you are paying so much money for the ship and then add on top of it the cost of excursions - no way.

Re: Royal Caribbean vs Norwegian cruise - with kids

Idk for me the balcony wouldn't matter because when I was cruising we weren't in our room very much. But everyone is different. I don't think you can go wrong with either cruise line.

Re: Royal Caribbean vs Norwegian cruise - with kids

Re: Royal Caribbean vs Norwegian cruise - with kids