Princess vs Royal Caribbean for young teen

[Haven]

A little help please. I promised my daughter that next year, for her 13th birthday, I would take her on a mother/daughter cruise. We're including my mother, mother-in-law and her mother. That said, I love Princess cruises. It is my cruise line of choice, but have only cruised with adults. My daughter is interested in Royal Caribbean because of the rock wall, skating rink etc.

 

Can anyone who has sailed both, preferrably with a young teen give me some insight into which cruise line will be most fun for her? Also, is there a particular time of year that there might be more kids her age on board? Thanks so much.

[dig21]

We sailed on RCCL Navigator of the Seas in April with our 12 year old son & his 13 year old friend. We have sailed on Princess & enjoyed it but we picked RCCL on our most recent cruise because of the ice skating rink, rock climbing, roller blading, etc... & I have to tell you that while they had a great time, it had nothing to do with any of those things. The ice skating rink is very small so after 20 minutes, they was done for the rest of the cruise, same with the roller blading. We did the rock climbing once & it was fun but very difficult & once was enough. It was really cool to have all those things onboard a ship but in reality they were not what made the cruise memorable for them. They did spend time in the Teen Club and he enjoyed it, liked the counselor & made some friends but in my opinion they spent a lot of time just hanging out & watching movies rather then playing games, etc... The Arcade Games on RCCL are really expensive so we did not allow them to play (We told them that there were enough other things to do onboard).

My son sailed with us on Princess but he was 11 so I don't have any info on the Teen Program but the the he did enjoy the kids program on Princess & we are probably going to sail on the Caribbean Princess next year.

[yancycruiser]

RCCL, in my view, definitely has more fun things for teenagers. Especially on the grand class ships with ice skating, rock climbing, etc.

[dig21]

I think either would be great for a 13 year old. After sailing on both Princess & Royal Caribbean, We decided that they were so similar we would do either again & will book our future cruises based on price & itinerary & ship. I do think that the prices seem to be higher on RCCL.

[edYYZ]

RCCL does seem to offer more, but the real question is how much you'd really use it. You can't really spend all week climbing the same wall or skating the little rink. I'd like to give RCCL a try, but more for the scheduled entertainment (ie the events run by the cruise staff).