Teens on Cunard?

[Master0396]

I am considering taking teens on a transatlantic cruise during January and I feel as if it will be a very long and boring journey for them? Please give me your thoughts? They are 18.

[capnpugwash]

I am considering taking teens on a transatlantic cruise during January and I feel as if it will be a very long and boring journey for them? Please give me your thoughts? They are 18.

 

I think that without exception all families that I've met with children/teens on board say that they all had a wonderful time. I see no reason why yours would be any different. There is plenty going on to engage them and perhaps not what they might anticipate.

[Bell Boy]

Teens ! my goodness I thought you were referring to 13 year olds ;) At 18 they are not far off from being young adults. This is a splendid time to introduce them to the finer things in life and perhaps something to aspire to.

 

I had to wait until I was 40 before I had the opportunity to cruise on an ocean liner ;)

 

There will be no time for them to be bored as long as they get involved with all the activities found in the daily program . There will of course be lots of other families onboard and I'm sure they'll team up with them.

 

There is a sort of kids/youth club onboard but I certainly wouldn't bother looking into that. Enjoy your time altogether as a family , Trivia's, enrichment lectures, nice meals together and theatre shows in the evenings . :)

[Scrapnana]

I did my first two transatlantics at 12 and loved every minute of the crossings. Unless they are going to go through withdrawal from constant electronic communication, they should be fine.

[Artemis]

IMO the answer depends on the personalities, interests and experiences of your 18-year-olds. Have they traveled with you on the past cruises in your sig line? If "yes," I'd start there and try to identify what it is they liked/disliked about those cruises so you can figure out if Cunard, first, and a TA, second, will be a good fit.

 

If peer socialization is very important, for example, it might not be as appealing to them as other options. For starters, 18-21 can be an awkward age on any cruise line because they are too old for the children's program yet too young to fully engage with most of the others in the young adult set. Additionally, depending on what part of January you are looking at, peer numbers may be fairly low as many schools will be back in session. So all in all, they'd need to go with the expectation of relying on each other for peer socialization and then counting themselves lucky if there are others of similar ages/life experiences.

 

Apart from peer socialization, I'd consider activities and entertainment. A recent QM2 crosser posted all the dailies in a forum thread (in Sept, I believe), and I posted a few from our July/Aug crossing here: https://sites.google.com/site/qm2transatlantic28july2014/

 

Our 18yo son did a QM2 summer crossing with us a couple of years ago. He had a perfectly fine time, and was never bored, but it was a rather sedate and relaxing stretch of days for him. He is outgoing, well-read, well-traveled (including many cruises, fav lines being X and RCI) and a lifelong learner type, so he liked the lectures, played trivia nearly every time it was offered and relished meeting and conversing with the mostly 50+ adult demographic. (He comes away from every cruise with friends he stays in touch with--in this case, it's a couple in their early 80s). He loves dressing up, so he took a lot of pleasure in the formality, and he appreciates fine dining. He likes classical music, which comprises a lot of the musical entertainment. He liked finally being old enough to go to the casino nightly! He liked being able to drink alcohol (we did a westbound, so he was "legal" from the start--I believe if you embark in NYC, they have to wait the fairly short time until the ship is outside US territorial waters). He read a lot. He slept in every morning. He used the gym. He liked the historical aspect of a Cunard crossing. We had great family time. In the negative column, he didn't like the nightclub (he thought the DJ's choices were very stale, and it was smoke-filled to an unpleasant degree), he didn't like the production shows or featured entertainers as compared to other lines (nor did we, for that matter--talented singers, dancers and musicians performing very dated material, most featured entertainers and comedians also delivering outdated material) and he did miss the peer socialization.

 

HTH! Happy travels with your young adults!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

[Austcruiser84]

I am considering taking teens on a transatlantic cruise during January and I feel as if it will be a very long and boring journey for them? Please give me your thoughts? They are 18.

 

On my Jan TA a few years back the teens on board were bored out of their minds. There was next to nothing for them to do and Cunard failed to organise any semblance of teen appropriate activities for them.

 

Consequently, the small group of teens on board spent their time getting drunk, attempting to enter crew areas, and loitered in corridors at night with the intent of manipulating passengers' breakfast room service cards.

 

How do I know? I had two teens (16 and 17) at my dinner table. Their mother was unhappy with the lack of teen activities and the two teens were unhappy about being on board.

 

Cunard isn't a line for teenagers. I say leave the kids at home and you take the TA. If they're 18 theyre okay to leave at home now - well, in theory. Regardless, you will have a lot more fun without them!

[Austcruiser84]

I should add that it depends on what interests your 18 year olds. Are they into culture, fine dining, lectures, etc?

 

If not, leave them at home.