Teens

I am going on a cruise in March and have a question about my teen. He will be turning 18 in January and I am wondering if he will still be able to participate in the "teen" activities that they say are for ages 15-17. Are the staff very strict in enforcing that no 18 year olds can be in the teen section??? He is still in high school, and will only be 18 years and 3 months.........Do you think they'll give him a problem hanging out in the teen section???

I don't know if they check the ages of the kids or not. If you don't get any replies from someone else, let me know and I will ask my l6 year old.

Since your son is considered an adult at 18, he will not be able to participate in the teen activities, and yes, they monitor the age of the participants very closely. To be honest, I don't see many kids who are in their late teens participating in the ship activities. They see them as not cool and feel that some of the stuff is lame. The teens generally hang around with each other on the ship and do things in groups.

We went on a cruise last year when our daughters were 13 and 15. They didn't participate in the teens program. My 15 year old especially thought it was pretty lame. They just found a group of kids their age and hung out with them during the cruise. We're going again in March. They're now 15 and 17 and don't expect them to even consider the teen program.

On the first night of your cruise there will be a teen meeting. Have your son go to this meeting as this is where all the kids meet. I agree with the above posters that the kids at that age do not particiapate in grop supervised activities. They hang out amongs themselves. Have your son meet a few of those kids.

teen here! thought you might want some first-hand input. on both of my previous two cruises, all of the teens formed little cliques and just kind of hung out the whole cruise. no one really participated in the teen activities...although most of the teens meet on the first nite in the disco so if he wants to meet other teens, make sure not to miss that! that might be a problem if you have the late seating for dinner because that is when the teen discos are usually at their highest and fullest time. *hint* - if you're cruising with a teen, go for the early seating (if you want your teen to eat with you)...last two cruises we were on my parents picked the late seating and i ate with them a total of two times in two cruises (once on each cruise)...mostly all the teen things are happening during the late seating, so even on formal nites i didn't want to be bothered with having to go to the dining room while all my friends hung out and had a great time. all carnival ships except the spirit class now have four (5:45, 6:15, 8:00, 8:30) dinner seatings. this time around, on the valor, we are trying the later of the early seatings, 6:15. (my parents like late seatings so they don't have to rush back from ports)...hope that helped.

Just as a warning to you of something you may not be aware of but on some cruise lines if your teen is 18 he/she can drink on the ship and gamble in the casino. Depends on which line you are on.

Don

I am thinking the only cruiselines that allow 18 year old to drink beer and wine only is Royal Caribbean. Carnival you have to be 21. and yes you are carded. I wonder what the drinking age is on Princess and Norweign.

We were on the Conquest this past year and my twenty year old could not get a drink on her own.

What ship are you going on in march and when??

I'm sailing on the Navigator of the Seas March 5th 2005 and My twin sister and I are 18 this will be our first cruise being 18 and we're wondering what there will be for us to do. Our parents won't let us drink but they will let us gamble so ... saving those quarters haha! :D

We are going on Radiance of the Seas........March 20-27 in the Western Caribbean