kids on Princess Easter/Passover?

[Boatingmom]

Hey all! I have a Regal cruise booked for Easter Break. I'm trying to convince my sister in law and her family to join us. She is concerned Princess will not offer enough for her 13 year old son. Can anybody who has cruised during vacation time tell me what Princess offered to make teens welcome?? I want to stay away from Royal due to the concentration of children. Info on activities, areas, etc would be welcome. Thanks in advance:)

[SOLIVITA LADY]

Hey all! I have a Regal cruise booked for Easter Break. I'm trying to convince my sister in law and her family to join us. She is concerned Princess will not offer enough for her 13 year old son. Can anybody who has cruised during vacation time tell me what Princess offered to make teens welcome?? I want to stay away from Royal due to the concentration of children. Info on activities, areas, etc would be welcome. Thanks in advance:)

 

We are taking my two grandsons on this cruise (9 & 14). There is the kids club for the 9year old and the teen club for the 14 year old. The younger grandson loves the Princess clubs and has a great time there. The teen will probably go the first night to the teen club and then decide if he wants to go to some of the activities or rather hang out with us. Either way there are things to do on the ship to keep them entertained even when they chose to be with us.

 

Check the Princess website to see what the clubs are like.

 

Jackie

 

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[JimmyVWine]

There is a kid's club and many kids will sign up and attend. How much a kid gets out of it is largely dependent on how much they put into it. Shy, reserved kids don't do as well as extroverts. Can't help you there because I don't know the personality of the child in question. All I can tell you is that I have an "only" and her first experience with the Princess kids club was when she was 13. She enjoyed it and on her next cruise at age 15, she insisted that I pre - register her for Remix. I did and she loved that too.

[Boatingmom]

thanks for the quick response. I wonder however, does Princess have enough activities scheduled for the 12-17 year olds? I personally love Princess but want to know if there is enough to keep the kiddos entertained. The 13 year old is an extrovert. Are there things like ice-cream parties and scavenger hunts? Education at ea etc.?

[JimmyVWine]

thanks for the quick response. I wonder however, does Princess have enough activities scheduled for the 12-17 year olds? I personally love Princess but want to know if there is enough to keep the kiddos entertained. The 13 year old is an extrovert. Are there things like ice-cream parties and scavenger hunts? Education at ea etc.?

To be honest, kids in that age group make their own fun. The important thing is that there will be sufficient kids on board so that opportunities arise. The 12-17 year old group isn't all that interested in pre-packaged activities. The kids club is more of a place for kids to meet up, get safe, supervision and allow them to be themselves. On several days, (nights, actually) my daughter and her new-found friends hung out in the hot tub or played on the ball court. Nothing "organized". Just kids having fun together. Yes, there absolutely are organized events throughout the day and many look appealing. But sometimes they look more appealing to the adults than to the kids who just want to stretch the autonomy and freedom that a cruise ship offers more so than almost any other environment for kids that age.

[Noelle2375]

We are looking at booking this cruise as well and have 3 and 5 year old. We have only been on RCL so we are new to cruising. Is Princess as kid friendly as other cruiselines?

Thanks in advance.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Frankly, there isn't a whole lot for teens to do. That's right about when our sons started getting a little bored with cruising.

 

Our sporty son spent most of his time playing basketball and ping pong and kept very busy on his own. The teen program didn't have these activities going on most of the days. He had to rely on the Patter's list of activities but was chased out of a lot of the tournaments that he really wanted to participate in because he wasn't 18 yet.

 

Our other son spent most of his time working out in the gym, laying out in the sun and cruising the internet. He was bored a lot of the time.

 

Once both boys were in their teens, they spent almost all their time with us at night going to dinner, shows, shopping, playing board games, etc. Sigh...now that they're in their 20's, I really miss those times! :( If you enjoy your teens' company, then choose Princess. If you don't want to see your kids during vacation, go with the Allure or Oasis OTS.

[Hoosier-Cruiser]

We were recently on the Caribbean Princess in June. It was the first cruise for my kids (9 and 13). Both had a great time with the kids groups and made friends to do things with when the pre-planned activities didn't interest them (which wasn't often).

[Cruisin' Chick]

thanks for the quick response. I wonder however, does Princess have enough activities scheduled for the 12-17 year olds? I personally love Princess but want to know if there is enough to keep the kiddos entertained. The 13 year old is an extrovert. Are there things like ice-cream parties and scavenger hunts? Education at ea etc.?

 

Just to make a correction here: Princess starts the Remix (teen) group at age 13, not 12.

 

On our last two cruises, our daughter was 13 and 15, and these were two-week cruises over the holidays. When she was 13, she went to the Remix room the first night of the cruise, and she met some kids her age there. After that, they might meet up there but she said they were barely ever there. It was our first time on a ship with MUTS so she and her friends would hang out in the pool and watch movies. The teens would often go to the sun deck at night and hang out there. She kept in touch with a couple of the girls on Facebook after the cruise. When we had booked the same ship and itinerary for exactly two years later, she found out that one of those girls was going, too. So they made plans to meet up and found some other kids their age (it was three boys and three girls...and we kept running into them from time to time and they seemed happy, and staying out of trouble). But she claimed the actual planned teen activities were "lame," but I think it's because of that age. They want to make their own fun (for example, they put together a ping pong tourney).

 

The biggest tip is to take them to the teen room the first night because that's when they form friendships for the cruise.

[cjnix29]

We are looking to book this same cruise too. We will be traveling with 11 year olds in our group. Hoping there will be enough fun for them! Our sons only cruise experiences were on the Disney fantasy and the carnival breeze, so lots of things to keep busy. We will see how this goes!!

 

 

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[notentirelynormal]

Frankly, there isn't a whole lot for teens to do. That's right about when our sons started getting a little bored with cruising.

 

Our sporty son spent most of his time playing basketball and ping pong and kept very busy on his own. The teen program didn't have these activities going on most of the days. He had to rely on the Patter's list of activities but was chased out of a lot of the tournaments that he really wanted to participate in because he wasn't 18 yet.

 

Our other son spent most of his time working out in the gym, laying out in the sun and cruising the internet. He was bored a lot of the time.

 

Once both boys were in their teens, they spent almost all their time with us at night going to dinner, shows, shopping, playing board games, etc. Sigh...now that they're in their 20's, I really miss those times! :( If you enjoy your teens' company, then choose Princess. If you don't want to see your kids during vacation, go with the Allure or Oasis OTS.

 

Sigh - I've known you for so long (well on line)!

[DrivesLikeMario]

Sigh - I've known you for so long (well on line)!

 

LOL Yes! Was just thinking about the OP in 2010 in the Med. this morning! Hope you're doing well, NEN! :)

[shepp]

We are looking at booking this cruise as well and have 3 and 5 year old. We have only been on RCL so we are new to cruising. Is Princess as kid friendly as other cruiselines?

 

I haven't been on the "kid-friendly" lines, but Princess doesn't have RCCL's amusement-park-style attractions, NCL's Nickelodeon character parades, or Disney's everything. So while Princess is "friendly," it really doesn't cater to kids the way some other lines do. I think that for a number of us, that's actually a plus; I don't particularly want to cruise with Dora the Explorer or Donald Duck.

 

Holiday cruises should have a lot of children onboard, but on many of the Princess cruises I've taken, children number in the dozens, not the hundreds.

[Noelle2375]

I haven't been on the "kid-friendly" lines, but Princess doesn't have RCCL's amusement-park-style attractions, NCL's Nickelodeon character parades, or Disney's everything. So while Princess is "friendly," it really doesn't cater to kids the way some other lines do. I think that for a number of us, that's actually a plus; I don't particularly want to cruise with Dora the Explorer or Donald Duck.

 

Holiday cruises should have a lot of children onboard, but on many of the Princess cruises I've taken, children number in the dozens, not the hundreds.

 

That is not necessarily a bad thing. Our kids are too young to really remember this cruise later on so this is more for us than them! haha. I have read great things about the kids club so hopefully, they will be content hanging out in there while we get some relaxation. :)

[DrivesLikeMario]

Noelle, that's true - Disney is astronomically expensive. You can cruise twice for the same price with Princess.

 

Our kids loved the kids' program when they were 7-12 yrs. old and cruising 2-3 times per year. RCI was their fav but Princess was a close second.

 

And, we had between 28 and 790 (on a smaller ship even!) kids onboard on their cruises, so yes, Princess DOES get hundreds and hundreds of kids onboard depending on when you cruise.

[Boatingmom]

Thanks for all the feedback. My children have no problem returning to princess.it is my sister in law who is concerned after after she did some comparing of princess to other lines catering to children. I think it is a plus that we may not have millions of children onboard during a school break. I understand there will be some steel drum lessons, tea time, karaoke, and movies. They can also go to remix. Unlimited Ice cream will help too:-)

[Cruisin' Chick]

I haven't been on the "kid-friendly" lines, but Princess doesn't have RCCL's amusement-park-style attractions, NCL's Nickelodeon character parades, or Disney's everything. So while Princess is "friendly," it really doesn't cater to kids the way some other lines do. I think that for a number of us, that's actually a plus; I don't particularly want to cruise with Dora the Explorer or Donald Duck.

 

Holiday cruises should have a lot of children onboard, but on many of the Princess cruises I've taken, children number in the dozens, not the hundreds.

 

And some teens aren't into Dora or Donald. My girl stopped liking Disney Channel (Hannah Montana, High School Musical, etc.) by the time she was 10 or 11.