Sun princess cruise

[Amy2000]

Just looking at sun princess cruise - slightly cheaper than royal Caribbean for a Mediterranean cruise.
Just slightly concerned that it will be older people and no kids. Going in August with 16 and 11 year old.

Anyone taken kids on a princess cruise before ?
Thank you

Yes I have, it was a Scandinavian route. Because it was school holidays there were a fair amount of families with school age kids. There were excellent childrens/teen club facilities too.
I must say we really liked it, the food and entertainment were excellent and the ship was beautifully maintained. However I do appreciate it is quite a "grown up" and a bit more sedate compared to a party ship like Royal Caribbean.

Thank you. We debating between beautiful ship/food sun princess - but not so keen on the ports, Genoa, la spezia, Rome and Marseille
or Explorer of the seas RC - dated ships but more for kids and more interesting ports - near Venice, kotor, kefalonia , Athens and Santorini.

RC is now slightly cheaper.

Have you been in RC before ?

Royal Caribbean will have more for kids to do. The Venice route sounds ds much better

I am considering the same thing. I’ve found Travel Blog Jamie’s channel on you tube really helpful, he’s recently been on a lot of princess cruises and shows what it’s really like on the ship - food / stuff to do etc. I think after watching them and knowing what’s important to my own dc we’re probably going to go for P and O or RC (there are tons of vlogs of these too on you tube, have a search). You tube is definitely the place to find out as much as you can re the cruises etc.

Thank you, yes it's a tricky decision especially having never cruised before. I/m drawn to the sun princess as it looks very elegant and lovely and it would be more relaxing. The novelty of cruising would probably be enough to entertain the kids. But the ports in italy require a travel by train to get to to somewhere we would like eg genoa to portofino etc.
However, the explorer looks like a slightly dated shopping mall! But would have more for the kids and the ports close by to the attractions but two are tendered so that is a bit of hassle. Struck by indecision!

I have been on both ships. Went on Explorer 6 yrs ago with my teens and it was great. It was a Scandinavia cruise. The Princess is much more glitzy and there will be things to do but the activities on Royal will probably be better such as ice rink, climbing walls etc.

Forgot to mention that the Princess plus package works out as good value - the WiFi alone will probably make it worthwhile for teens as from memory, the Royal WiFi was very pricey. May be a consideration.

Can I ask which cruise ship did you prefer? Although I know the ports are different. Was the Sun Princess the france/italy etc.
Thank you

I love princess for their all in one packages and as an adult I’d do princess every time, but there was a limited amount for kids. Mine are so young they’re happy just messing around in the basic pool so had a great time but older kids may well be bored.

With teenagers I would definitely go RC; loads for them to do.
It will turn out to be expensive though; mine wanted to go every year afterwards and still do in their 30’s!

Good review of Sun Princesses activities on this website - and about the whole ship if you click the different tabs.

There will deffo be other kids onboard in August.

www.cruisecritic.co.uk/cruise/princess/sun-princess/activities

@Amy2000
Very difficult question to answer as the trips were totally different and hard to compare.
I think I preferred the Princess ship over the Explorer but we had a fantastic cruise on her. We did the med on the Princess; went from Rome to Barcelona but didn't go to Marseille so did take in the ports you mentioned. It was a great itinerary but very port heavy with not many sea days.

Really useful review , thank you