I agree with you, I'm a little confused at the "there's nothing to do, my kids are bored". Sincere question to those of you in that camp, particularly those that have sailed on the Sun Princess - what do you kids normally do on a cruise that keeps them happy & having fun? Please know, I'm not being sarcastic, I genuinely am trying to understand the reviews of how bored & unhappy kids are on the Sun Princess. We are booked this summer, I have 4 kids (16,15,7,6). We have done 8 cruises but all Disney. We have absolutely loved our Disney Cruise - bright, fun, Disney heaven, but were looking for less park like environment and mostly to cruise the Mediterranean (Disney's 10 night med cruise was significantly more than the 14 night Princess). My kids will definitely miss the AquaDuck water coaster thing but even with that, lineup could be easily 60-90 minutes on peak times so there were days we didn't do it. As anyone who's sailed Disney knows, lots of fun kids club spaces but not great for pools - one shallow kiddie pool & Nemo splash area for under 8, one family pool that is small & always wall to wall with people watching the movie on the big screen and one adult area pool. We were thinking on this cruise that there would be more pool fun and space to swim/play in the pools. We will miss the over the top kids spaces on Disney & fun themed restaurants but we're hoping the kids clubs offer a bit of activities for the kids if they want to try. Has anyone had a kid partake in the kids clubs on the Princess? The teen clubs always seem to offer the most but honestly, we don't cruise so our teens can spend the day in a windowless area on the ship playing MarioKart (which was pretty much the only activity they did on our last cruise, and just for an hour here or there to get a break from the sun). I wonder if some of you are comparing to ships like Disney or the big Royal Caribbean ones with go cart tracks & waterslide parks? I haven't been on Royal Caribbean and truthfully the mega ships with all the theme park stuff doesn't appeal to us. We wanted a quieter, more relaxing cruise this time but obviously I don't want my 4 kids bored out of their minds.
I was getting all worried with the reviews of how boring the ship is but I'm trying to remember that we really do go for the family time and for the opportunity to explore new parts of the world. Hopefully we find the ship offers us a great vacation.