Best ship for families

[GypsyJedi]

I’m investigating cruises to the Caribbean for next summer. For several days now. Our group will be 6 married couples and 4 cousins aged 13-18. I want to find a ship that has water slides and other activities.  But I really don’t want to be on a mega ship with 4-5k people. Anyone have some guidance me

thk

[Host Kat]

21 minutes ago, GypsyJedi said:

I’m investigating cruises to the Caribbean for next summer. For several days now. Our group will be 6 married couples and 4 cousins aged 13-18. I want to find a ship that has water slides and other activities.  But I really don’t want to be on a mega ship with 4-5k people. Anyone have some guidance me

thk

 

Hello @GypsyJedi and welcome back to the Cruise Critic website and our message board! I see it has been a while since you have posted on the boards. 

 

Thank you for your new thread on the Ask s Cruise Question forum! However, it is the forum for general questions regarding cruising. Your inquiry was off topic there since it concerns a specific type of cruise. Your new thread has been moved to the Family Cruises message board forum where it will be on topic. When cruising with children, that is our forum for good family advice from your fellow Cruise Critic members. Browse through the thread titles in this forum looking for threads of interest. You may find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that may be of interest to you.

 

Also, perhaps information in the Family Cruises section of the Cruise Critic website will be helpful.

 

I sincerely hope this will be helpful and glad to have you back aboard Cruise Critic! 

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

 

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, GypsyJedi said:

I’m investigating cruises to the Caribbean for next summer. For several days now. Our group will be 6 married couples and 4 cousins aged 13-18. I want to find a ship that has water slides and other activities.  But I really don’t want to be on a mega ship with 4-5k people. Anyone have some guidance me

thk

I think you need to accept that it is the huge megaships that have many of the activities (i.e. water parks, bumper cars, climbing walls, etc) that you seek for the teens.  As you downsize, you are going to sacrifice many of the amenities desired by the teens.  In fact, you could even bring them on some of the small ship luxury lines, such as Seabourn, where they have absolutely nothing special for the teens.  

 

So, your dilemma is whether you want to get the most amenities for the teens, or choose a somewhat smaller vessel, which may or may not be of higher overall quality but lack some of those amenities prized by kids.  When I think of ships with all the amenities for kids/teens the two lines that quickly come to mind are RCI and Disney.  

 

Hank

[kitkat343]

Have the teens sailed before?  If they haven't and don't know about waterslides, bumper cars or anything else you might be fine.  They'll find a larger group of kids to roam the ship with and will have a wonderful time together.  My oldest is 13 and we are currently sailing on Princes ( a line with very little for kids).  He's wandering the ship with his friends.  We took him on Cunard on the last trip and his friends took him to trivia, and his new girlfriend dragged him to a ballroom dancing class. He was happy because he was doing stuff with teens.  

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Some Carnival, newer NCL ships (Getaway, Breakaway and newer) and slightly older AMPed RCI ships (Independence, etc.) will have what you desire.

 

My teen doesn't want any of it anymore (he was into it when he was younger), so his favorite lines are Princess and X.

Edited August 15 by Itchy&Scratchy