X With Teens Versus RCCL?

[SelectSys]

Our kids are very comfortable with RCCL having been going on their ships for many years. We are thinking about X next summer for a cruise to Istanbul from Rome on Equinox. They will be 18 (DD) and 16 (DS) for the trip. I am thinking that the lure of the climbing wall and skating rink won't be as strong as in previous years. My gut tells me there should be plenty of kids on board. Also, this trip really doesn't have many sea days (3) so hanging out by the pool with cruise ship friends should be enough entertainment.

 

If anyone has older kids and has been on Solstice class ships after RCCL, what did you and your kids think of the trip? Thanks in advance.

[Onessa]

Med does tend to be very port intensive. We've done a variety of Med cruises the past few years with our DD (now 14YO) on RCCI and X. For DD the cruise is the itinerary and the kids she meets on board the ship. She was a bit disappointed in our last cruise (X out of Rome) because the teen club had gotten hijacked by a couple of tweens and the teen club counselors were cool with it. This meant she and her friends did not have that as a place to "hang out", but they still found plenty to do without the rock climbing walls, ice skating rinks, etc.

 

Fortunately she found some friends on her own -- the teen counselor on our cruise had pretty much checked out and made no attempt to get the kids in or to mix the first night or so. Generally the teen club is primarly the place to meet - but in our experience, X did not take that part of the teen club's purpose very seriously.

 

It was a great cruise for her though. The pool area was great, they had a good selection of free on-demand movies, and the age appropriate public areas were cool with letting some teen girls sit and giggle there.

[SelectSys]

Med does tend to be very port intensive. We've done a variety of Med cruises the past few years with our DD (now 14YO) on RCCI and X.

 

The X cruise has 3 sea days and the RCCL cruise has 4. Our family likes sea days. In addition, both cruise go to several of the Greek Islands which are pretty low key as well.

 

...She was a bit disappointed in our last cruise (X out of Rome) because the teen club had gotten hijacked by a couple of tweens and the teen club counselors were cool with it. This meant she and her friends did not have that as a place to "hang out", but they still found plenty to do without the rock climbing walls, ice skating rinks, etc.

 

The cruises we are considering departs from Civitavecchia as well. I would assume this doesn't happen on every X cruise.

 

Fortunately she found some friends on her own -- the teen counselor on our cruise had pretty much checked out and made no attempt to get the kids in or to mix the first night or so. Generally the teen club is primarly the place to meet - but in our experience, X did not take that part of the teen club's purpose very seriously.

 

That is our kids experience - meet friends at the beginning of the cruise and then they hang out together all over the ship.

 

Thanks for the input. It looks like the family is leaning toward a different cruise on RCCL leaving the following day to Egypt. Now I just need to see how much each one will cost...