LA to Hawaii in Dec with 14 ad 18 yr old

[brownsc]

We have never sailed with Princess and are planning a family Christmas vacation. We are mid forties and the kids are 18 and 14.

 

We are interested in the Ruby from LA to the Hawaiian Islands (15 days) and I am I am looking for advice/experiences for families similar to ours. Is this a suitable vessel to keep the kids active for the duration?

 

Thanks....

[caribill]

Your younger child should go to the Kid's Club the first evening to meet others in the same age group. Usually kids of this age spend very little time in the club and just do things together throughout the cruise.

 

Your 18 year old is not allowed in the kids club.

 

Do your two children get along well and like to do things together? That can make a big difference in their enjoyment.

 

Have they ever cruised before? Knowing how they liked the sea days on a previous cruise can give an indication of how they would like this cruise.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Our last three cruises were the Hawaiian ones during the holidays on Princess. There will be plenty of kids as school's out then. My daughter was 8, 13 and 15 on these cruises (she's been on five cruises previously). She usually is very happy to take part in the kid's program until she became a teen. Then she found the planned activities "lame." Some teens probably do like spending a lot of time there -- video games, etc.

 

What she did was to meet some other kids the first night and she found a few other girls her age to hang with. They spent a lot of time in the pool and watching the MUTS movies. After the cruise, many of the teens kept in touch with a Facebook page. When we booked the next cruise, she found out of her friends from two years before was repeating the same cruise too so they made plans to meet up the first night. They added another girl and three boys to their group. They seemed to come up with their own activities, such as planning a ping pong tourney, their own tour around the art gallery, etc. She also joined us to see some of the shows.

 

One aspect of the Hawaiian cruises that might interest your kids (and you) is the Hawaiian cultural program. One of the popular cruise directors joined up with a musical duo he hired (they specialize in Hawaiian music) and they came up with a slate of activities, talks, etc. There's hula classes, uke classes, lei making classes, and there's usually a wide range of ages taking part.