Older Children Questions~RCCL

[emtb12]

A little background, my DH & I have only been on one cruise. We did not take the children with us:eek:. We however had such a great time that we booked a family vacation. I am sorry if these questions have been asked, I read the first 5 pages of Family Cruising and could not find the information I was looking for.

Our children are DD(20), DS's (16&12).

1) Is our DD old enough to be in the adult pool area, or does she need to be 21?

2) DS (12) has an anxiety disorder and I have already contacted RCCL for a pager request for when his is in the childrens area. Do the children receive a schedule of events, do we need to preregistar for events, do we need to make a reservation for the childrens area(because what sounds good tomorrow, may not be good when tomorrow arrives)?

3)DS(16) is a sports freak. Does the teen area schedule court time or is it a free for all? How late do the teen activites go?

4)DD &DS(16) sharing a room(parents and other DS next door), am I able to get a key to their room?

Any other information or tips that would be helpful in cruising with this age group would be very helpful. We are sailing the Navigator of the Seas during February break, so I am sure there will be lots of other children. We have 3 sea days, 2 at start and 1 at end.

Thank you in advance for any information you have.

[Cuizer2]

1) I forget if the adult pool is 18 or older or 16 or older. 20 is an adult.

 

2) There is a schedule for the children's activities. I forget if it is a weekly schedule or a daily schedule.

 

3) The sports deck is separate from the teen center. The sports deck is open to all. That said, sometimes the sports deck is reserved for the teens for a specific purpose.

 

4) Yes, ask for a second key from guest relations.

[akcruz]

Have a wonderful trip, we have found that cruising and especially royal is very good for older teens, but one warning, the 18 - 20 age is a very tough one.

 

As for some of your questions, the adult solarium and gym are open to those 16 and older.

 

Your 20 year old will be able to go everywhere on the ship and be treated just as an adult with the exception of being allowed to drink alcoholic beverages. They will NOT be allowed into the teen rooms.

 

Here is a link to an album created by a wonderful poster here on the family boards. It shows the kids compass for many different sailings. Look more at the age group and RCI than a particular ship to ge an idea of what is offered.

 

http://s204.photobucket.com/albums/bb196/cruisinmama06/

 

You do not need to sign up each day for the kids programs. They do ask that you go the first night and sign up providing emergency info etc. After that it is come and go as you like. For under a specific age (don't remember what it is though) you have to sign them in and out. From that age up to 11 you can decide if you want them to have the privledge or not. From 12 and up they are on their own.

 

As for sports for the 16 year old, they do have some sports tournaments, but they only hold them if there are enough kids there to make it worthwhile. On the other hand there is always something going on on the sports court. My DS is now 16 and always has found someone to play games with on the court. Again, just make sure you have them go to the first night meet and greet. Often this is where the teens meet up and arrange meeting times/places later on. Sometime they never go back to the teen area, sometimes they do. It all depends on the other kids at the program that week and how active it is.

 

and yes, you can get a key to your kids room. We have put our kids in their own cabin the last few cruises (starting at 12 & 16). We get a key to their cabin and they get a key to ours in case. The spare keys stay in the respective cabin so they are there when we need them. Just go to guest services and they will provide them for you.

 

The best advice I can give you is set some rules for your kids before sailing and set consequences for if they are not followed. Check up on them every so often to make sure they are doing what they said they would be and you will be fine. My DS never knew we were checking up on him until after we got home from our last cruise and he noticed pictures I had taken of him with his new friends. While the ships are very large you will find that you and the kids tend to gravitate to the same areas making it easy to find them.

 

oops, forgot, the kids and teens compass will be left in your cabin each night for the next day, just like the regular one. Just make sure your cabin steward knows the right ages, usually they do but doesn't hurt to check.

[emtb12]

Thank you so much for all this information.