ruby princess or serenade of the seas with teenagers?

[cas1000]

We are looking to go on an east med cruise next August with our 16 year old son ( who is very sporty) and 14 year old daughter and have been looking at a 12 night Serenade of the seas so far as it is the only RCL cruise that meets our dates. Since this is not one of RCL's biggest ships I am a bit worried that the ship does not offer so much for older teenagers and it doesn't have a teen hang out area like the larger ships. I have just found a similar Ruby Princess cruise that does seem to feature this. Do you think we would be better on the Ruby Princess or sticking with the Serenade of the Seas since the ship has good reviews overall and quality of food/ accommodation etc is also important.

[jcool]

I would say Royal Caribbean will be better for your 16year old son they have rock climbing. I have never been on Princess but I think Princess is for older people.

[Mississippian]

Just to give you a contrary opinion, we just returned from a one-week Ruby cruise and I thought the 13-17 Club Remix program was great, as did my son. He spent a tremendous amount of time there, left dinner early to be there and so forth. They provide the participants in the Remix program with a printed program at the start of the week and there is something going on all the time, literally every hour of every night.

 

Just to give an example, for the teen dance they emptied out Club Fusion and totally redecorated it. There were lots of events like this and my son just really enjoyed it.

 

I don't have as many good things to say about the 8-12 program, but once your child hits 13, he or she is home free with Princess. Club Remix is great.

[Eileen G]

I have been on both ships and they are both great. Since you will be in the Med you should really look at itinerary first. We like Princess' itineraries because they have less sea days and start and end in different cities. It's great to spend an extra day or two in Rome, Venice or Barcelona. We have never taken a Med cruise on RCCL because they usually have three sea days and we don't fly all the way to Europe to sit on a ship. If you really enjoy the days at sea then that won't matter to you. During the summer both ships should have plenty of teens and plenty of things for them to do. Even though the Serenade has a rock climbing wall it doesn't have MUTS.

In the Med it's all about the ports. Pick the one that goes to the ports you are most interested in visiting.

[deedeetoo]

We will be on the Ruby next July with our two kids ages 14 and 11. Our roll call is very small right now, but 3 of 4 people on it are traveling with teenagers. I think the demographics of a summer cruise in the Mediterranean may be quite different from other Princess cruises.

[cardbucfan]

Just to give you a contrary opinion, we just returned from a one-week Ruby cruise and I thought the 13-17 Club Remix program was great, as did my son. He spent a tremendous amount of time there, left dinner early to be there and so forth. They provide the participants in the Remix program with a printed program at the start of the week and there is something going on all the time, literally every hour of every night.

 

Just to give an example, for the teen dance they emptied out Club Fusion and totally redecorated it. There were lots of events like this and my son just really enjoyed it.

 

I don't have as many good things to say about the 8-12 program, but once your child hits 13, he or she is home free with Princess. Club Remix is great.

 

This. We just got off the Ruby and my older son (16) said it was his best cruise EVER. We've sailed RCCL, HAL and Carnival as well as this cruise. Tons of well-behaved teenagers and tons of stuff for them to do. Agree with the other poster though regarding itinerary and sea days too. One of the reasons we did this cruise was to see if we liked Princess and the Ruby because we are looking at the Grand Med itinerary. Looks really good to me now!

[katisdale]

I will bite on this one with a bit of a different opinion. I don't think the kids programs make much of a difference on a Med cruise. When you take a port intensive cruise there is much more emphasis on the where you are going and less on what happens on the ship. You will be off the ship almost every day for almost the entire day. You come back, change, eat, watch a comedian or show and go to bed to get ready for the next day. Your kids may be different but that is what we experienced.

[junglejane]

I will bite on this one with a bit of a different opinion. I don't think the kids programs make much of a difference on a Med cruise. When you take a port intensive cruise there is much more emphasis on the where you are going and less on what happens on the ship. You will be off the ship almost every day for almost the entire day. You come back, change, eat, watch a comedian or show and go to bed to get ready for the next day. Your kids may be different but that is what we experienced.

 

We took our kids to the Med this past June -- actually on the Celebrity Equinox but our teen DD was also on the Sapphire Princess in March. So she has experienced the Princess teen program in the Mexican Riviera and the Celebrity teen program on a Med cruise. I basically agree with Katisdale that it doesn't matter that much what cruise line for a Med cruise. The one caveat I would have to Katisdale's comment is that our teenager had more energy than we did and had little interest in the shows. She enjoyed hanging out with the other teens. The teen program was mostly a launching point for groups to do stuff together. I would think that the Ruby would be preferable to the Serenade OTS for a teen just by virtue of being larger and having MUTS.