princess v rccl

[woonkies]

My husband and I have cruised alone before on Celebrity and are planning on taking our children (9/6) on their first cruise. We think we've narrowed it down to Princess or RCCL and are wondering the opinions of those eho have done both. We loved Celebrity and don't want to be dissappointed ourselves, but want a ship that caters to the kids as well.

[bethcollins]

We've done 4 RCI and 2 Princess cruises and RCI by far has the better kid's programs for that age group. That being said, since my youngest doesn't care much for any of the kid programs, we prefer Princess as we feel they are a "better fit" for our family--fresh water pools, anytime dining, fabulous service and a great mix of people. If you think your kids will be using the kids' center a lot, go with RCI.

 

Beth

[whale-watcher]

We had wonderful experiences with the kids programs on both the Coral and Dawn Princess. We do cruise at off-peak times, when there are fairly few other children on board, and this really seems to help as the counselers have much more time to devote to each individual child, and the kids on board tend to bond and don't get lost in the crowd or separate into cliques. Our children were 14, 11, and 6 when we cruised last, and again the programs were great for all 3 age groups. I think this may also depend on the ship, so you may want to post again, perhaps on the Princess and RCCL boards, once you narrow things down to just a few different ships...we are thinking of trying RCCL this fall, mainly for the climbing wall, bungee trampoline, and Royal Family Suites.

[synewton]

We've sailed the Grand Princess and the Mariner of the Seas with our now 5 year old son and we (the adults and our son) prefer Princess. The adults prefer Princess because we feel the quality of the food and service were better. Also, we adore the flexibility of anytime dining. My son preferred Princess because it had a nice mix of scheduled activities and free play. RCI's program has a daily schedule of activities and the games/crafts change about every 20 minutes.If you are enjoying a certain game or craft - you cannot continue, you must change to the next activity. If you met a nice friend and want to just sit and play with them.... you can't. Perhaps they are not as strick with the older children and allow them some flexibility. Or perhaps our experience was perculiar to that sailing. My son's experience with RCI seem to be very different from what I've read on these boards. Having said that, the nice thing about RCI was that they had scheduled activities every day. On Princess there is a full schedule on sea days but on port days you must sign up the day before and the activities are build around the children that sign up.