Freedom of the Seas or Carnival Sunshine?

Trying to figure out what would be a better fit for our family. We have 2 kids who will be 12 & 9 at time of travel. They typically enjoy waterslides and the pools a great deal on our trips (they do not care for the kids clubs on any line).

FOS has the h20 zone (which i am worried might be too young for the 12 year old), flow rider, mini golf, ice skating (which they enjoy but we live on a lake and they do it all winter at home) & a few other things

Sunshine has the waterworks, pools (but I have read they can be more crowded), ropes course, mini golf & several family comedy shows (which we are a huge fan of) a few other things too.

Both are very similar in cost with both being a western route.

FOS goes to Labedee, Falmouth, Grand Cayman & Cozumel

Sunshine goes to Cozumel, Roatan, Belize & Costa Maya.

We like the ports on both routes.

Trying to figure out what would be the best fit for our famiy. help!!!!

I've only done RCCL so it's hard for me to say, however we just got off FoS with our 9 and almost 4 year old. The h20 zone might be boring to a 12 year old. Hard to say. They have things that spray water and a wave pool and hot tubs for the kids. There is also the main pool area with additional hot tubs. FoS has the kids clubs (which I know you said they weren't really into), arcade, ice skating, rock wall, flowrider. My 9 year old loved all of these and didn't really miss water slides.

I'm probably no help..haha! I guess you'd have to narrow it down to ports of call plus dates/cost. We love Labadee. Lots of things there for the kids to do. We were fortunate to have a cabana this time which was heaven and my daughter loved just playing in the ocean, but Labadee has the Arawak Water park, a water slide, zip line, rollercoaster plus many excursions they'd probably enjoy.

Just saw you'd be doing western on FoS - that's what we just did. Grand Cayman is AMAZING! It was my favorite port. Falmouth we didn't even get off, but Dunn River falls is the well known excursion here. I've heard it's great, but with a 4 year old we didn't want to bother. Cozumel we went to Chankanaab and had a Dolphin excursion, but the beaches are great too.

Carnival is the only one with BIG slides....RCI''s are "baby slides" only. But, Freedom has so much more to do than watersides.....your child won't be bored at all!

Trying to figure out what would be a better fit for our family. We have 2 kids who will be 12 & 9 at time of travel. They typically enjoy waterslides and the pools a great deal on our trips (they do not care for the kids clubs on any line).

 

FOS has the h20 zone (which i am worried might be too young for the 12 year old), flow rider, mini golf, ice skating (which they enjoy but we live on a lake and they do it all winter at home) & a few other things

 

Sunshine has the waterworks, pools (but I have read they can be more crowded), ropes course, mini golf & several family comedy shows (which we are a huge fan of) a few other things too.

 

Both are very similar in cost with both being a western route.

 

FOS goes to Labedee, Falmouth, Grand Cayman & Cozumel

 

Sunshine goes to Cozumel, Roatan, Belize & Costa Maya.

 

We like the ports on both routes.

 

Trying to figure out what would be the best fit for our family. help!!!!

I too am not going to be the "best" help since I have not sailed either of these ships, but I still would like to offer an opinion. I think that you likely will enjoy both of these ships. We have sailed on the Carnival Valor before and my kids found it "ok", but likely it was their least favourite cruise thus far (they have done 6 so far). The Valor did not offer much beyond the waterslides that all other cruise ships have for kids.

We did the Liberty and the Independence of the Seas (very similar to the Freedom - same class of ship). Our kids LOVED these two ships. We have daughters who are 12, 10, 6, and 6 now. So much to do in terms of rock climbing, ice skating, flow riding, mini golf. They also have a 3D movie theatre and the Dreamworks characters if that is of interest to you. My 12 year old loved the splash area up until last year, but now prefers hanging our around the other pools with friends she makes on the cruise.

I believe your children would love the Freedom. I see you have cruised twice with Carnival before, so you know their product and what they offer. I would try Carnival again, but personally would choose RCCL over Carnival any time when traveling with my children if prices and itinerary did not dictate a clear winner.

The H2O zone might be a little slow for your 12 yr old but I saw tons of kids that age riding the Flowrider over and over. Plus, there's the climbing wall and my younger kids love Adventure Ocean. Hope that helps.

We have been on both ships and have a DD -almost 11 years old. We all prefer the Sunshine. There is so much for the kids to do. We also prefer the Central America itinerary.

The waterworks on RCCL is too "babyish" for our DD and the flowrider is above her age. We also live in a cold climate, so iceskating is not exciting. The rockwall is more of a one-time thing. On the Sunshine - she played in the waterpark area for hours. They also had family activies. We were the scavenger hunt champions - much more fun than we thought it would be. DD thought it would be "lame" - but it was really fun!

As for ports, they are a good age for ruins if you haven't done any. There are only a few in the world that you can still climb to the top - totally incredible experience. Lamanai in Belize and Coba in Cozumel. Both are a long day and lots of travel - but amazing!!! How many kids can say they've climbed to the top of a Myan temple overlooking the jungle canopy?