Question about programs for "tweens"

[ckfred]

Our son, who turns 12 next month, loves the Adventure Ocean programs on RC.

 

How does AO work for kids in their tweens, ages 12-14? The RC web site lists a few of the activities, but it doesn't explain how AO works for tweens versus programs for younger kids, like Voyagers and Explorers.

 

Are there programs during the dinner hour on formal nights? Our son gets bored in the MDR, listening to adult conversations. So, having to dress in a coat and tie three time on a 12-night cruise just adds insult to injury.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Our son, who turns 12 next month, loves the Adventure Ocean programs on RC.

 

How does AO work for kids in their tweens, ages 12-14? The RC web site lists a few of the activities, but it doesn't explain how AO works for tweens versus programs for younger kids, like Voyagers and Explorers.

 

Are there programs during the dinner hour on formal nights? Our son gets bored in the MDR, listening to adult conversations. So, having to dress in a coat and tie three time on a 12-night cruise just adds insult to injury.

IIRC, there's not set "program" times for the teen club (which the 12-14s are a part of). There are set times for events (basketball, rock climbing, etc), but the kids can come and go as they please.

 

My memory might be bad, so I could be totally wrong.

[HiCSailor]

^^^ That's correct. A twelve year old goes to the teen club and can come and go at will. There aren't specific dinner activities, but I remember a lot of the kids getting together for WJ.

 

For us, dinner in the MDR was the family time for the day, but my son was always anxious to get out and back to his pals.

[OCruisers]

The problem my granddaughter as a "tween" found was .... if there were not enough others who showed up for an activity, it was cancelled so she quit going after a couple of times just to be

disappointed. :(

LuLu

Edited April 10, 2015 by OCruisers

[jticarruthers]

My son just turned 12 but due to (skip over long complicated explanation here) he was allowed to bump up to the 12-14 year old group on a cruise late last year.

Did not care for the experience at all.

1. There really weren't any "activities" everything was a "come hang out at this location and maybe we will do an activity maybe we wont", most of them were then cancelled anyway due to non-participation.

2. They merged the 12-14 group into the 15-17 group so the "activities" all became teen hangout sessions that bored the heck out of him.

 

It seems they go directly from AO with lots of supervision, activities and involvement to Teen club which is unsupervised, do as you want, where you want with nothing in between.

[HiCSailor]

Yes, I've had that same feeling/frustration, as my kids would sometimes come back saying that the activity they had been looking forward to was cancelled.

 

My gut feeling at the time was that the staff was quick to cancel, making the teen center a pretty cool place to work, once you kicked out your reason for working. It never bugged me enough to complain, but looking back I wish I had mentioned it to someone.

 

While the AO programs for younger kids are very structured, the teen program is essentially a room where kids can go to meet other kids and find things to do with them on their own. My kids have enjoyed meeting new friends at the teen center and hanging out with them, but the "program" doesn't have the luster of the rest of the AO offerings and I would like to see the scheduled activities adhered to whether or not the teens arrive at 12:05 instead of noon.

 

The problem my granddaughter as a "tween" found was .... if there were not enough others who showed up for an activity, it was cancelled so she quit going after a couple of times just to be

disappointed. :(

LuLu

 

My son just turned 12 but due to (skip over long complicated explanation here) he was allowed to bump up to the 12-14 year old group on a cruise late last year.

Did not care for the experience at all.

1. There really weren't any "activities" everything was a "come hang out at this location and maybe we will do an activity maybe we wont", most of them were then cancelled anyway due to non-participation.

2. They merged the 12-14 group into the 15-17 group so the "activities" all became teen hangout sessions that bored the heck out of him.

 

It seems they go directly from AO with lots of supervision, activities and involvement to Teen club which is unsupervised, do as you want, where you want with nothing in between.

[ckfred]

This is all a bit disappointing. Our son has really enjoyed the AO program between ages 6 and 11. Frankly, he likes getting away from us.

[Kryssa]

Any chance you could go with another family and the tweens could hang out together without the parents? Or just allow him to bring a friend along?

[cdscooby1]

The teen program is horrible on Royal. The only one that I have found that was good was on the Brilliance. The ship is smaller so they were able to do things with a small group of teens. Once the ship gets bigger it seems they do not want to be bothered with them. My kids also loved Adventure Ocean. My teens were so disappointed when they were able to do the teen club. This year rather than the Oasis we took the Independence for a spring break trip. Teen club was a joke. They were very disappointed. People have been complaining about this for years yet Royal ignores it. I don't understand why. I will say that next year spring break I don't think we will be cruising since I don't really want to listen to 2 15 year olds complaining that they are bored after all the money I would spend to take them on a cruise.

[Havingfun2010]

My kids went to the club, hung out, met people, than went and did things together. I would hear him shuffling about before sunrise, and hear a knock on the door, and he would leave for breakfast and a morning of "surfing". Apparently, the kids had the flow riders to themselves at 7:00. They spent the rest of the day, at the pool, playing basketball, rock climbing etc. Many of the events were planned and supervised. Most days, we would see the group, hanging out in a section of the pool deck.

 

They also went to ice skating free skates also.

 

He joined us for dinner every night. Did not want to go to the shows, but ironically, we would see "them" in a show.

 

There are plenty of activities on the ship for 12-14 year olds. They are past the age of being baby sat but still need to be monitored.

[ckfred]

Any chance you could go with another family and the tweens could hang out together without the parents? Or just allow him to bring a friend along?

 

We had talked about going on a cruise with friends, but their child would be in Adventure Ocean. The cost of taking a friend to Europe is really pricey. I like my son's friends, but not that much.