Cruise recommendation for family with teens

[Tygertiger]

We have never cruised before and are totally overwhelmed with the options! We are looking at next summer. Budget max £8k for two adults and two DCs who will be 14 and 12.

We want:
lots of activities for the DCs - water-based, not too bothered about other sports but they love things like laser tag, climbing etc

Nice food, preferably not all buffet based

As a side issue, I drink, DH doesn’t, so my understanding is there’s no point buying a drinks package as you have to buy it for all the adults in the party? So we’d be better off taking whatever allowance we get of carry-on booze and I can do PAYG?

DH is a bit anti-social and doesn’t like people so needs the option to sit on a balcony if possible and have alone time. He would also prefer a ship which is not absolutely mega massive but appreciates he might have to go for one in order to supply DCs with enough activity options

We’d like the vibe to be less Butlins and more high-end. Sorry if that is terribly snobby, but there it is. I’m scarred by an experience in an all-inclusive hotel in the past with rowdy drunken Brits and keen to avoid that!

Any recommendations warmly welcomed!

Heh, he’s quite up for it - I was being a bit facetious. He knows there will be lots of people, and as long as we pay for a balcony he’ll be fine. He really wants to do it for the DCs as they would love it and we’ve never done a holiday like this.

Royal Caribbean has the best activities for teens. Rock climbing walls, flowriders, roller or ice skating, dodgems, waterslides... the works! With hot dog stands and chill zones set up for teens to hang out and feel at home.

And it's a good quality line as far as food, service and amenities go, for the adults.

You don't have to be a raging extrovert to enjoy cruising, there's always quiet little places to relax and unwind.

How about a cruise out of Barcelona next August - NCL Breakaway has a cruise on 1st August for about £5k if you share a balcony cabin. This includes drinks packages for you and DH (it doesn't cost that much more with the drinks packages, and DH can get sodas etc with his, so it's probably worth having if you drink), and also includes a couple of visits to speciality restaurants and some limited wi-fi. You can add soda packages for your kids, but we did this in the past and found it wasn't worth it, as the bartenders would wave away their cards, and just put the sodas on ours. You can get two drinks at a time with your card.

We haven't been on Breakaway, but have taken our teens on NCL Getaway (sister ship) three times, and they loved it - plenty to do, water slides, ropes course, table tennis, arcades (although this costs extra), hot tubs, pool, trivia quizzes, sports court, movies, they even loved shuffle board! They were never bored and they didn't even make it to the teen club!

Apart from embarking and disembarking, we found it fairly easy to avoid too much queuing and there are quiet spots around the ship - even some bars can be quite quiet if you seek them out. There's a lovely promenade around deck 8 with sofas, tables, and bars that tends to be quiet, and is a great place to spend a while if you've had enough of your balcony.

Food is good to excellent - a choice of several included restaurants, smaller main dining rooms so doesn't feel too crowded, eat when you want (no set dining times), and the speciality restaurants are fantastic. Dining rooms and the Irish Pub are open for breakfast, and often lunch, and you never have to visit the buffet if you don't want to.

The only things that cost extra is some taxes on drinks (local Spanish VAT) which is usually only a dollar or so per drink, and your gratuities. These can be quite hefty on US cruise lines, around $20 per person per day. But you can remove these at guest services and tip your room attendant, waiting staff etc in cash as you go instead if you choose to. Plus any excursions/shopping/games shows on the ship/extra speciality restaurants etc. But you can avoid these easily enough if you want.

Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas or Norwegian Bliss both have laser tag and some good waterslides. I think Norwegian would suit your better than RC. We never encountered a bad meal. Dining in the main dining rooms was just as good as in the specialty restaurants -- and, in fact, a few our favourite meals were in the MDRs (only one of these is a buffet). Bliss also has a go kart track.
It sounds counter-intuitive, but I find the bigger the ship, the easier it is to find pockets of quietness where you can escape the crowds. On Bliss, the sun decks at the back tended to be less populated and quiet. I also relaxed in the atrium - it wasn’t the quietest but if there was a big break between events I could find a little corner by myself. I also very regularly found quiet seating in The Observation Deck and the Waterfront.

My biggest tip with teenagers on a cruise is let them have free run of the ship. We had a post it note system in the cabin where we left notes for each other updated each other about where we were and we made a note of the time on the notes too. It worked brilliantly with our thirteen year old. He’s in his twenties now and he still talks about how much he loved that holiday. It was his first big taste of extensive freedom. He loved the kids clubs too and made loads of friends.

We loved the Bliss as well, but I think in the summer it mostly does Alaska cruises - which might stop the use of the water slides etc? Not sure, I guess it depends how hardy the kids are! Probably would also push the budget a bit by the time flights/hotels etc are added. But I agree that the larger Norwegian ships would be a good fit.

We just did a cruise of the Eastern Med with two teens with MSC, was our first time cruising too. It was a success, the ship was packed as it was hols in most of Europe, which was great for the teens meeting loads of people. There may well be areas (main pool for example) that have a Butlins feel, but on mid sized or larger ships there will always be areas and decks that are not full, and have no music or activities.

I would think that all ships have a mix of sit down and buffet based dining, and you should not have a problem at all there. The main dining room was open for all meals on our ship and the buffets were open nearly all the time.

Definitely get a balcony, I was surprised at how much we enjoyed sitting there and watching the various towns come into view. Was always really quiet.

As for drinks packages, you will need to check this and compare prices. On MSC for example, only water and coffee and tea was included without a package, the basic package though included some alcohol but perhaps more importantly for you, included all soft drinks and coffees etc. If your teens want a coke for example, it is a lot easier for them to have this covered by a package rather than you having to sign all the time.

Not when at sea - maritime mobile phone coverage costs a fortune, as does wi-fi. But some cruise lines will let you have free access to basic wi-fi so you can use their app, but not stream or go on the internet. In this case, you can sometimes message each other, but best to check with the cruise line first, or you could rack up some eye-watering phone bills ! It's alway best to keep your phone in airplane mode on a ship, just in case.

Thanks everyone. These are so helpful and you’ve given us loads of ideas to research!

Royal Caribbean 100000%

I am pretty sure the drinks package thing is not quite correct. If you call them and discuss it you might find it’s not the case that you’d have to buy two.

I'm almost sure that all adults in the same cabin have to have the drinks package if one wants to purchase it - I guess it stops people sharing the package.

It's always worth working out how much you are likely to drink and then see if it's worth buying, or PAYG. Drinks are quite expensive on RCL and can add up quite quickly, and you need to include everything, such as cokes etc as well as alcohol. If the cruise you choose has a lot of long days in ports, and you are only likely to have a couple of drinks, then it might be worth PAYG (remember to add gratuities when working out the cost), but if there are a few sea days when you might drink a fair bit more then the package might be better.

The advantage of a package is that you can try things you might not normally have, or have an extra cocktail here or there and not worry about the price. But only the OP can work out what would be best for her.

To be fair, the drinks package is one of the reasons we like Norwegian - it doesn't cost much to add a 'Free at Sea' package (I think about £150 pp for a week) and this includes most alcoholic and soft drinks (not coffee except the free buffet coffee), plus some wi-fi and speciality meals. Some days we don't drink that much, but some days we probably have a fair bit, so it works well for us. But we'd probably think twice about adding it on a cruise line that doesn't include it, the packages can be very expensive if added on, and can really bump up the cost over the base price.

You don’t always get a reliable signal hence us using the post it notes.

I wonder what other guests feel about 13 year olds having free run of the ship?

What's your point Feeling battered? At 13 they will not literally be "running" around the ship and shouting, they are 13 not 3, or do you think they should be supervised at all times?

It surely depends on your 13 year old? We let ours go off on their own on a ship if they wanted, but they are fairly sensible kids, and we gave them strict instructions to be well behaved, to be considerate of others, and to only run in appropriate areas (sports court etc). We occasionally would check up on them without them seeing us, and they seemed to be behaving. If we'd have had any indication of messing about, they would have been sat back with us for the rest of the day, and they knew this.

However, there were some teens running riot - taking over the adult only hot tubs, running up and down the corridors etc, which can get frustrating, and security seemed a bit slow to intervene, although they did in the end. But I don't think that the majority of teens need to be stapled to their parents side for the whole of a holiday

Another recommendation for Royal Caribbean. My teens had the best time recently on Voyager of the Seas meeting people their age and enjoying the activities. You could get an interior room opposite a balcony room to bring the price down a bit. Officially you put one adult in each room but then sleep where you want and get extra room keys from guest services. You can all use the balcony then. There are also connecting rooms (of the same category) and bigger rooms you can share (labelled ultra spacious) but then you only get one bathroom which may not he enough with teenagers and these sometimes come up more expensive. It would be uncomfortable to fit the four of you into a standard room now they are teenagers.

For Europe next summer the Mega ship is Allure of the Seas sailing from Barcelona or Rome. Independence (from Southampton), Voyager and Explorer are all very similar to each other - big enough with lots of activities but not crazy big. Brilliance is smaller with less to do but beautiful views and Odyssey is bigger than Independence and smaller than Allure including lots of glass for views.

It can be cheaper to sail from the med including the flights. Southampton sailings come at a premium and if you are trying to get somewhere warm you have a few days of cooler weather in the way there and possibly a bumpy ride over the Bay of Biscay.

I think the calculation for the drinks package is 6 expensive drinks every day. The drinks are expensive if you pay as you go but so is the package. I believe if you phone them you might be able to get one package. In fact if you book like I said it will be fine anyway as the other person in your room is not of drinking age. Just have to decide how much you are likely to drink.

Another vote for Royal Caribbean - my teen loved it!

Your husband will be fine, there is always a quiet bar or two and library to read etc it doesn't always have to be loud and busy, and using your balcony to have a drink and watch the world go past is so peaceful

Payg drinks for you is probably the best option.

I would use a cruise specific travel agent and call them - give them a budget and rough idea of what you are looking for and they will find you options - it really helps when they know what they are talking about.

Communication on the ship - we paid for internet which was expensive but good (one person, 4 devices is the cheapest way). But even if you don’t do that there is a messaging system on the App and the app works on the ship even if you haven’t paid for WiFi.

The Cruise Critic forums are very useful for research.

NCL is great as it has free at sea so
For a fixed fee (iirc£99 pwpp) you get drinks, WiFi, dining, shore excursion credit and something else

Don't have to worry about the cost of kids drinks and so on.

Yes, if you book through the website you both have to have it but you can call them and explain that only one drinks and they will sort it for you.

But they are strict on one drink at a time on each card to stop people buying one package and trying to get the odd drink for their partner on it. So if you go to the bar and order two drinks you need to take both cards.

It's fine and they are strict on behaviour.

We bought the wifi package last time too, it makes life a lot easier but is expensive. When the DCs were younger and it was prohibitive we worked on the basis of at least one parent would stay put in a fixed place (eg on deck or in a bar) and the DCs had to either go in a club, stay with us or come back and touch base once an hour or so.

Also looking at RCL west or east med cruise next summer. Children age 11 and 16.
Trying to decide between allure of the seas ( west med large cities rome, Barcelona etc) or explorer of the seas or odyssey - all the destinations look good. Any suggestions about the ships? Never cruised before. Thank you