New to Celebrity

[4Mast]

Hello

 

I am currently trying to decide between a Celebrity Cruise or a Royal Caribbean cruise. We have two teenagers (15 yrs) and cannot find any information on what Celebrity offers to keep these teens occupied....Can someone advise please?

[cle-guy]

Celebrity Youth Programs:

 

http://www.celebritycruises.com/onboard/level3Type3.do?pagename=onboard_celebrity_celebritylife_activities_youth_programs&parentpage=onboard_celebrity_celebritylife_activities_gateway&parentpage=onboard_celebrity_celebritylife_activities_gateway

[CruisingDaddy]

Hmmm, that's a though question to answer without knowing what your teenagers like to do. I can tell you what my kids prefer and then you can decide on your own. First of all, my DW and I are huge Celebrity fans and love everything about cruising. We sailed on RCCL FOTS with my boys, aged 15 and 11 at the time and they had the best time of their lives. They especially enjoyed the flowrider, either learning to surf or watching others wipeout making a fool of themselves (like me) :) They stayed there for hours and hours. They also liked to do some rock climbing and some ice skating. My boys are sports oriented unlike their dad :D Based on what my kids like and loves doing, they prefer RCCL just because more stuff teenagers like to do.

 

Now on Celebrity, my kids love the ship, but found it a little boring. For their age group, there is only a teen club for late night. The rest of the day they just wandered around the ship and going into the pool from time to time. Don't get me wrong, they had a great time but activities were not fulfilling to them like on RCCL and giving them the choice, they would go on a cruise not matter which cruise line or ship it would be.

 

Also, it,so though to give advice when we do not know which ship you are considering, the length of the cruise, is it port intensive or lots of sea days??

 

Hope this helps!

[Gonzo70]

Hello

 

I am currently trying to decide between a Celebrity Cruise or a Royal Caribbean cruise. We have two teenagers (15 yrs) and cannot find any information on what Celebrity offers to keep these teens occupied....Can someone advise please?

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic,

 

Royal Caribbean and Celebrity are sister lines (both owned by the same corporation); I have sailed a few times on each and both are good cruise lines, but if sailing with teens in my opinion Royal Caribbean is MUCH better. Royal Caribbean is more geared towards families and has lots of activities and features geared towards teens and young adults (i.e. rock climbing, ice skating, mini golf etc.) - this is especially true of their larger ships (ships since the Radiance class). There will also be a lot more people their age on Royal Caribbean. While Celebrity does have a teen program, there will be fewer people for them to socialize with and far less venues geared towards them; Celebrity's emphasis is on providing an upscale, relaxing adult oriented type vacation than an energetic, active family vacation.

[olemissreb]

We were on Celebrity this past summer with our 2 boys, ages 17 & 13 at the time. The loved the port stops (Alaska what's not to love?), but the ship was just ok for them. They much preferred the kids club that they had on the Adventure of the Seas 4 years ago. As previous posters have said, Royal caters more toward families and there is much more for the kids to do. My kids kept busy on Celebrity, but there wasn't as much variety for them. Next time we cruise, the boys will be 17 & 21, so we might be able to get away with going on Celebrity again!

[H2OH!]

Welcome to Cruise Critic and Welcome to Celebrity Boards!

 

If we had children we would probably stick with RCCL or Disney for the variety of activities. Observationally, it appears RCCL has a more varied activity program for children, however, several cruisers on the celebrity boards have been quite complimentary of the Celebrity activities since there tends to be less kids, they get more attention. Lastly, have you considered Disney? I see your children are teen/pre-teen but have heard rave reviews about quaility of a disney cruise.

 

Happy Sailing!

[rjrpar]

RCCL is the obvious choice

[KKB]

I'd go RCCL with teens. Our teens have done Princess & RCCL--and they much preferred RCCL. Even tho Princess was over New Years with more teens, often the scheduled activities didn't happen. There was a much smaller group on our RCCL cruise, but scheduled activities always went as planned--and I think the teens liked that so always showed up.

[stratixman]

RCCL is the obvious choice

 

Concur. Celebrity is our favorite but we don't cruise with teens. Your boys would have a better time on RCCL.

[4Mast]

Thank you all for the replies.

 

Our two 15 yr olds (girls) do like a little sports activity -one is an ardent indoor rock climber and has been so since 5yrs) both love theatrical shows and music (they are both considered capable musicians) of course at the age they are they do spend a good amount of time on the internet -not so much with games machines.

 

Also us adults enjoy theatre and music.

 

The two cruises under scrutiny are both in the Mediterranean and RCCL offer Serenade of the Seas while Celebrity offer Reflection.

It does seem that RCCL offers more for them I think; trouble is the Celebrity cruise has such an appealing itinerary!

[H2OH!]

Thank you all for the replies.

 

Our two 15 yr olds (girls) do like a little sports activity -one is an ardent indoor rock climber and has been so since 5yrs) both love theatrical shows and music (they are both considered capable musicians) of course at the age they are they do spend a good amount of time on the internet -not so much with games machines.

 

Also us adults enjoy theatre and music.

 

The two cruises under scrutiny are both in the Mediterranean and RCCL offer Serenade of the Seas while Celebrity offer Reflection.

It does seem that RCCL offers more for them I think; trouble is the Celebrity cruise has such an appealing itinerary!

 

oh I see. If the cruise under consideration were the caribbean i would say RCCL but since it is the med, I vote for Reflection and the itinerary. Med cruises are more port intensive so would not worry about the extra activities for the teens. Plus relfection is a newer ship where SOS is older. I would go for the newer ship and better itin.

[suni]

Hello

 

I am currently trying to decide between a Celebrity Cruise or a Royal Caribbean cruise. We have two teenagers (15 yrs) and cannot find any information on what Celebrity offers to keep these teens occupied....Can someone advise please?

 

RCCL for sure! I have sailed MANY times with my kids as teenagers . RCCL is fantastic. I am on Celebrity right now and there are not many teens and I know my kids would not like it. We did do Princess to Europe with the kids and that was great and very port intensive . I still would vote for RCCL with teens.

[micmacmissy]

I was going to say RCCL, but given it's a Med cruise, itinerary is so much more important. Go with Celebrity.

 

In the future, if you decide to do a caribbean cruise you can try RCCL, but if you did I'd pick Oasis/Allure (for their entertainment and for kids/family activities).

 

Have a great trip!

[cibumcupio]

In terms of music and shows, I think Celebrity would do better. This is only from one experience on each, but I feel like the music on Celebrity was more musical theatre, classical, jazz, acoustic guitar, etc. And Royal was more strictly 60s, 70s, and 80s dance music. Of course Oasis and Allure would be the ultimate musical theatre ships. But I think if they are musicians, they would enjoy what Celebrity would have to offer more. The musicians on the Celebrity ship were really very talented, and though the RCI ones were also very good, it was more about getting people amped up than letting them appreciate the music.

 

In terms of stuff for teens to do, the Royal rock wall is not open that much, and so it's nice as something to try once. But it's not open on port days, and only during good weather on sea days. So I would not pick Royal for the rock wall (we kinda did... was really excited about that rock wall, but it didn't pan out). The mini-golf was fun though. But the ice skating rink was also not open much. And again, on a Mediterranean cruise the activities on the ship are not such a big deal. You just want somewhere that has a good meal and some good shows to go to after a long day in port. Celebrity provides a more seamless experience, in my opinion.

 

The Reflection is also the newest ship, so that's just NICE. It's clean, modern, will have lots of new cruisers wanting to try it for curiosity's sake. I would say if any ship would have a younger demographic, it would be the Reflection. But again, don't pick based on that. The demographics are more predicted by the itinerary and the time and length of sailing than the cruise line. A cruise during the school year on RCI will have a much older passenger base than a Celebrity cruise during the summer.

Edited January 6, 2014 by cibumcupio

[attilamom1217]

As many of hte posters stated - RCCL is better for teens' activities. And for a caribbean cruise - no brainer.

 

However, note that the Serenade of the Sea does not have either ice skating nor the flowrider. In RCCL terms - SoS is a 'small' ship with less than 3000 passengers.

 

Reflection is the newest ship in Celebrity's fleet. Since the Med. is a more port intensive itinerary than the Caribbean and OP prefers the Reflection's itinerary over the SoS, I would chose Celebrity for this one.

[potterduck]

We have done the Med with both Royal and Celebrity. On RCI my kids have been 12, 15, and 17, on Celeb 15. While there seemed more activities on RCI they were quite repetitive, I've just asked my son and he says 'Celebrity, no brainer, it's all about who you meet, not what you do'!

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk