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We recently got back from a 7 day cruise on Princess Cruise Lines with our family of six. Having only previously sailed on Royal Caribbean, we were very anxious to see how the two cruise lines compared. I know each cruise line has their reputation, and generally speaking I think Royal Caribbean is known for being one of the best family cruise lines, while Princess is geared a little bit more towards an older crowd. After spending 7 days aboard the Princess Discovery I can now tell you- it’s true! However- there are some really interesting things I learned about sailing on Princess that are actually pretty awesome for families. So here’s my breakdown of both cruise lines and the pros and cons of each. Spoiler alert- I would sail with either cruise line with my kids again, they are both great options. But here are some important things to keep in mind before booking that cruise.
So which cruise line is better for families? I’m going to give you that really annoying answer of, it depends. It depends on your personal preferences, on your budget, your desired itinerary and dates, your kids preferences, and what you value the most on your cruise. But here are some important categories to me as a mom of 4 boys (ages 7-15) when booking my cruise, and how I would rate each cruise line in that category.
Cruise Ship Entertainment
Royal Caribbean
When it comes to onboard entertainment, specifically the nightly shows in the theater, Royal Caribbean blew Princess out of the water (pun intended). The Royal Caribbean shows were mostly very family friendly and extremely entertaining. I will say the shows that the ships cast put on a couple times were the least favorite among my kids. They much preferred the comedian and magician type shows (anything nonmusical). And with an onboard skating rink we even got to see a pretty amazing ice skating show one night. Overall, the shows on Royal Caribbean were pretty impressive- with the juggler being everyone’s favorite.
Final Rating: 8/10 for family friendliness
Princess
The shows on Princess were very unimpressive, in my opinion. Much of it was geared towards an older audience with shows like ABBA and Elton John. I did suffer through 2 of the cast productions which I thought were pretty off-key and a little miserable to sit through. My kids hated them and after the second night I didn’t try to bring them along anymore. There was a mediocre magician/comedian one night, and that was the best night by far. My kids very much enjoyed it. So out of 7 nights of entertainment, only one was enjoyable for my kids.
Final Rating: 3/10 for family friendliness
Dining Options
I’ll start by saying that we thought the food on both cruise lines was great. Of course there were some things that were below average, but there were many other things that I was very impressed with. Both cruise lines have plenty of food options to accommodate kids and I found the service for dinner to be 10/10 for both cruise lines as well. And never fear- both cruise lines have limitless soft serve ice cream, clearly the most important quality in a cruise line. So where do they differ?
Royal Caribbean
Since Royal Caribbean is geared more towards kids than Princess, I thought it showed in their food to some degree. I just felt like things were a bit more bland and “watered down” per se in general. The buffet is vast with almost endless choices, and there are some great things to be found. But not all of it is impressive in presentation or taste. The dinner in the formal dining room was usually very delicious and the service was amazing. Our head server even stopped to cut up one of my kiddo’s chicken breast one night when he caught him trying to eat the whole thing like a corn on the cob. We enjoyed “El Loco Fresh” for tacos pool side on Navigator of the Seas.
Final Rating: 7/10
Princess
In general the food on princess just felt like one notch up over Royal Caribbean. A bit more elevated and sophisticated. But not to worry, your kiddo can still order mac and cheese every night for 7 nights straight if that what their heart desires. I mean that’s what you paid for right? Who needs lobster and filet mignon (yes they did serve that one night!) when you can get mac and cheese *face palm*. We were on Discovery Princess and I thought the chicken tenders were 10/10 at the Salty Dog Grille. The buffet also felt less bland and generic to me- including a custom omelet station (probably our favorite feature!). I will say I was unimpressed with their cookies. Another perk is that the buffet had longer operating hours than on Royal Caribbean- closing around 11 or 12 every night whereas the buffet on Royal Caribbean closed at 9pm. My teens loved being about to hit up the buffet late at night for a sweet treat.
Final Rating: 8/10
Kids Clubs
Royal Caribbean
I have heard people say good things about the kid clubs on Royal Caribbean, so I can only give you our experience. Our experience is that we tried to take our kids a few times and it was kind of a disaster every time. My 8 year old was actually crying when I picked him up the second time and I promised I would never take him back! In general I observed that they made it very structured and school-like. I had envisioned just a fun place for kids to play with some adult supervision. I didn’t realize it was structured games and crafts where participation was mandatory. I’m sure there must me some free time- but we seemed to always time it wrong and my boys were not fans. I should mention that they don’t have trouble leaving me or anxiety about separation or anything like that. I was very surprised they were upset when I went to pick them up. I would give it a lower rating but I feel like that would be unfair given we only went a couple of times and I don’t have a lot of data.
Final Rating 6/10
Princess
Based on their experience on Royal Caribbean, both me and my kids were hesitant to try the kids club again. They don’t let the parents stay so that makes it hard to know when your kids are ready to leave. You can give them permission to sign themselves in and out once they reach a certain age, so that helps. We decided to give it a try. It was a little rocky at first, they did have a lot of structured activities as well. But it seemed more of a lax environment where kids could participate or do their own thing. It took a few days, but by the end of the cruise my kids were rushing up to kids club after dinner and knew the schedule by heart of when it was open.
Final Rating 8/10
Miscellaneous Mentionables
Here are some random other thoughts I have comparing these two cruise lines:
Cruise Apps
Both apps have the ability to text within the app, which is nice if you have a teen that also has the app on their phone. But the princess medallions are a game changer. I actually am shocked that Royal Caribbean has not followed suit with the same concept given that they cater to families. As long is your kiddo has their medallion on them (I highly recommend getting bracelets like these they can put them in- this way they can wear them all the time even when swimming etc) you can track them anywhere on the ship. I can’t tell you how much I used that on the Princess cruise, and its going to be hard to go back to not having that if we sail with a different line. I just really wish I had brought those wrist straps with us to make it even easier for the kids to wear them all the time.
Towels
This might sound small, but it actually was not a small thing to me. On Royal Caribbean you have to check your towels out. It doesn’t sound like a huge deal, but it’s kind of annoying. And then you have to return the same number of towels, or they charge your room. Now with 4 kids running around and a bunch of nieces and nephews that we were sharing towels with, I was constantly trying to keep track of all the towels the whole cruise. I even had to track them down in peoples rooms so that I could return the correct number. I hated it. On princess there are towel stations every where and you just grab what you want whenever you want. Take them off the ship, take them to your room- whatever! It was a load off this mamas shoulders not to stress about towels the whole time.
Oversight/Lifeguards
Now this will really depend on your preference. I found there to be much less oversight and there are no lifeguards on Princess. In general there are just a lot less kids on Princess and the pool area is less crowded. I appreciated the lack of oversight. I like the privacy and I prefer to be the one to keep track of my kids rather than have employees telling my son he cant get in the water without a life jacket (he’s on swim team and I’m watching him, thank you very much). One night I came out and my teens were sitting in the hot tub, watching Mission Impossible on the big screen and eating hamburgers. I was pretty surprised someone hadn’t kicked them out. That would have never flown on Royal Caribbean (for good reason I suppose, who wants a bunch of food floating in the hot tubs). But if you like your freedom and independence, Princess has a leg up on that one.
Entertainment
I want to make one last comment about the entertainment on Princess- I was not happy with their movie choices for the “movies under the stars”. I thought they were inappropriate on many different levels. They showed movies with heavy themes (like abuse, drugs, suicide, sex) and showed them in the middle of the day. I actually had to get my kids out of the pool one afternoon during a sex scene in “it ends with us”. I went and complained after that incident. First of all, kids or no kids, those didn’t seem like good pool side movies anyway. And why show them in the middle of the day? I don’t know if it was because of my complaint, but there were suddenly some kid friendly movies being shown in the day time towards the end of the cruise. Which I very much appreciated.
And when it comes to extracurricular activities on the ship, Princess can’t come close to competing with the water slides, rock walls, surf simulator, mini golf, ice rinks etc of the Royal ships. And I don’t think they try.
BONUS FAMILY CRUISE TIP: Family policy is to take the stairs. Skip the germs of the elevators and get some exercise.
So there you have it. Hopefully that helps you make up your mind which cruise line is right for your family. If your kids are on the younger end of things I think Royal Caribbean is still the way to go. If you have teens and pre teens- maybe princess is a better fit. All in all- they’re both great cruise lines. Happy cruising! If you’re looking for a fun way to break the news to your kids about the cruise, check out this post here. And if you’re looking for ideas on how to celebrate a birthday on board, check out this post.