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Best Cruises For Families With Teens: 8 Reasons To Sail On Utopia Of The Seas

Featuring thrilling water slides, outdoor movie nights, and endless pizza options, Utopia of the Seas is the ultimate cruise destination for families with teenagers.

By Sherri Eisenberg | Published on April 16, 2025

Some of the best cruises for families with teens happen on Utopia of the Seas. It's as teenager-friendly as a cruise ship gets, decked out with everything a tween or teen could want (water slides, movies on deck, all-you-can-eat pizza — the list goes on). Beyond that, the long-weekend sailings are very family-friendly. After all, whether you're trying to fit in a vacation around swim meets, baseball practices or school play performances, a shorter sailing makes scheduling so much easier.

Read on for the top eight reasons why Utopia of the Seas offers the best cruises for families with teens.

1. Social100 May Just Be Their Favorite Spot

The Utopia of the Seas teen club, Social100, features so much comfy seating, you may find yourself wishing adults were allowed in. Fortunately for teens, this area is for 13- to 17-year-old cruisers only. Its cozy window seats and giant pillows create perfect reading nooks — as well as, of course, spots for watching their favorite YouTube channels. Here, teens will also find foosball, video games and books to enjoy. There's even a hot tub on the teen club's private deck for your adolescents to enjoy.

2. Most Of The Teen-Friendly Foods Are Complimentary

For teens, the ability to feast on complimentary treats all day long may just be the biggest highlight onboard. Indeed, Utopia of the Seas offers one of the best cruises for teens because of the wide range of teen-approved fare served up all over the ship. Picture all-you-can-eat pizza at Sorrento's, which is open late and offers a meat lover's pie, a BBQ chicken pizza and the Caribbean Dream, which comes topped with bacon, pineapple and barbecue sauce.

Sorrento's is just one of many complimentary dining venues where your teen can tuck into all-you-can-eat treats. They can also head to the buffet, Windjammer Café, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as all-day snacks. The poolside Spare Tire food truck specializes in handheld snacks, including pulled pork and fried chicken sandwiches and cheeseburgers — and Dog House on the Boardwalk is your go-to venue for artisanal hot dogs, including the all-beef Coney Island and a delicious smoked brat.

Not to be outdone, El Loco Fresh doles out quesadillas, burritos and tacos for breakfast, lunch or an early dinner. What teen wouldn't like to take a break at an outdoor table with a giant plate of nachos in front of them? When they're done, they can head to Sprinkles for ice cream, where soft serve comes in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. If your teens are like mine, they'll be saying, "Don't mind if I do!" every day of your sailing.

3. The Ultimate Abyss Offer Serious Bragging Rights

If your kids are ready for a thrilling adventure, they can plummet 10 stories into the mysterious deep on the Ultimate Abyss, the largest dry slide at sea. Onboard Utopia of the Seas, it boasts some cool new features, including transparent tubing so you can see the world go by as you shoot down from Deck 16. And that's not all — there's also FlowRider^® (a surfing simulator), an arcade, miniature golf, a sports court with basketball setups and The Perfect Storm, a trio of waterslides full of heart-pounding twists and turns. All of this is complimentary, so your teens can ride and play again and again without asking you to charge anything to the room. It's a win-win!

4. Did We Mention The Pools?

There are five pools onboard Utopia of the Seas, and three of them are perfect for teens. The two main aft pools and the beach pool offer splashy fun for tweens and teens. If your kids want to mingle with other vacationers their own age, these family-friendly pools are a great place to start.

5. The Evening Shows Really Rock

Between the ice-skating shows, the aerial skydiving performances in the AquaTheater and the two new stage shows in the Royal Theater, rest assured there's plenty of teen-friendly nightlife onboard Utopia of the Seas for a short sailing. Plus, at night you'll find movies shown under the stars on the pool deck and all kinds of fun activities in the teen lounge for your kids to enjoy once the sun goes down.

6. All Sailings Are Short (But Sweet)

Utopia of the Seas offers three- and four-night sailings from Port Canaveral (near Orlando) to The Bahamas year-round, and sailings include stops at Nassau and Royal Caribbean private destination Perfect Day at CocoCay.

Perfect Day at CocoCay is part amusement park, part beach resort and all perfection when it comes to blowing a teen's mind. In addition to beaches, there's a 1,600-foot zip line, a helium-filled balloon ride, the largest wave pool in the Caribbean and a waterpark filled with shriek-inducing slides.

7. Royal Railway – Utopia Station Will Transport Your Family

This Old West-themed restaurant may sound like it would be a better fit for little kids, but the five-course menu of American favorites onboard Royal Railway - Utopia Station is great for the whole family — and this immersive dining experiences packs adventure into your evening from the time they yell "All aboard!" until the very end of the meal. The menu includes crowd-pleasers like braised short ribs and a themed dessert (think "gold bars" made of chocolate), and the drink list spotlights treats for grown-ups (old-fashioned made with sarsaparilla, anyone?) and nonalcoholic beverages for teens, including a delicious and refreshing strawberry lemonade.

When it's time to gather everyone together for dinner, spend one night settling in to enjoy a meal at this popular spot, where you'll dine on delicious food while being immersed in a captivating story.

8. Specialty Suites Make Cruising As A Family Easy

Maybe you've heard of the Ultimate Family Suite — but you really have to see it to believe it. The Utopia of the Seas Ultimate Family Suite features a two-story layout, space for 10 guests and a slide that makes it easy to travel from the top floor of your suite to the first floor. This ship also offers the new, four-person Solarium Suite with a wraparound terrace so large it boasts a 280-degree panoramic view — plus designated both dining and living room spaces where the whole family can kick back in between adventures.

If you're looking for simpler accommodations, there are plenty of staterooms with or without balconies where your can stay for a family cruise a trip to remember.

Ready to set sail on one of the best cruises for families with teens? Check out these awesome three- and four-night itineraries on Utopia of the Seas.