Cruising with teens

We are planning to do a cruise in 2024 but can’t decide between DCL and RCL. We have two boys that will be 13 and 16 at the time of the cruise. DH and I have only cruised once and that was for our honeymoon on Carnival so we don’t have experience with cruising. Which cruise line and ship (sailing out of Florida to Bahamas or Caribbean) would you recommend with teens?

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Do you know what ship? The bigger RCL ships usually have go karts, ice or roller skating, sometime zip lines- lots of activities.

They both have kids clubs but you should look at both private islands.

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I have six kids ages 9 through 22.
We’ve cruised as a family three times since 2014.
My kids are very good at making a fun time out of everything we do, but there is no where near as much to do on a DCL ship as a newer RCCL, NCL or Carnival ships.
With nothing to compare it to, my kids had zero complaints on our first trip in 2014 - a 4-n on Magic. (My boys were almost 12 & 14). But when we did a 7-n on NCL Getaway in 2016, they were blown away by the activities. (They were almost 14 & 16.)

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I don’t know what ship yet. I have been researching them all and am overwhelmed. I know they have said they want a ship with a good water slide. They love pools, sports and one boy is more adventurous than the other.

Look up Voyager, Mariner, Independence, Freedom, Oasis and Navigator. They have all been “amped.”

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This is great information. I admit that I am starting to think we need to do a cruise on each one :roll_eyes::grin:. I’ve always wanted to do a Disney cruise. I think they will have fun on DCL but when looking at some of the RCL ships they are just WOW!

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If you are doing a 4-n DCL they will probably find enough to do. Especially if it their first cruise. The movies alone are fun. And food!
But if you want to knock their socks off go for RCCL or another.

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Our first cruise was 4-nights on the Disney Magic, with DS18 and DS14. It was early January, and didn’t seem like very many kids their age (maybe because most were back to school). DCL let my older son hang out with his brother in the teen area, but they maybe don’t do that now. The boys loved cruising, but DCL didn’t have that much to interest them - of course that was long before Disney added Star Wars and Marvel.

We’ve done several RCL cruises with and without them. RCL definitely has plenty of active things on board. As others have said, the bigger ships (Voyager class and up) have rock climbing, ice skating, artificial surfing, mini golf, BB hoops, and some even have ziplines, bumper cars, and indoor skydiving. RCL has good programs for the various age groups.

The nice thing about cruising was I didn’t have to drive the kids anywhere, and I didn’t have to worry about where they were since they were always within walking distance. It was easy to let them roam about the ship.

Most DCL cabins sleep 4 or 5. Most RCL cabins sleep only 2, so you will need two cabins - unless you get a bigger “family stateroom.” The cabins don’t need to be the same category. When the boys were college age, we got one balcony and one inside cabin, with one adult and one son listed for each. Then we worked with guest services to get key cards swapped for which cabin they opened. The boys had the inside cabin (great for them to sleep late) while we had the balcony as the main cabin to gather in. The cabins were near each other, and we adults had privacy.

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I didn’t know that about the RCL cabins. I appreciate everyone’s responses and will look more into the RCL ships that have been mentioned.

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Many of the older (and amped) RCCL ships do have decent 4 person options. And connecting rooms.

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A RCL stateroom that sleeps more than two will be significantly cheaper than any DCL cabin?

I am booked for a RCL suite that sleeps 6 next summer. It is 5 nights and although it costs on the higher end for RCL it is about what I paid for a 4 night Dream cruise room that slept 4.

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I just looked at deck plans for the Freedom, and (to my surprise) there were quite a few standard rooms that DO have occupancy for up to 4. They have Pullman beds or a sleeper sofa. I just didn’t remember being in that kind of a room - or didn’t notice!

You can do two connecting rooms, which gives everyone a real bed and you get two bathrooms. But the cost could be higher than all of you in one room, but maybe not double? You’d have to price it out.

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The Disney State rooms are maybe a few square feet bigger than the similar state rooms and pretty much any other line.
Norwegian state rooms were almost exactly the same size.
The thing was royal, they have so many different classes of ships that it’s hard to give any one description of what you can find.
And older ship doesn’t actually mean less modern and a lot of the fleets as they have done lots of retrofitting

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