Teenagers and bed times

[LeoEdre]

Everybody knows that teenagers love to stay up late, but on a cruise they may also have to get up early for shore excursions.

Do your teens always stay up as late as they can or they go to bed when a long excursion is planned for the next day? Do they take naps sometime to recharge between a long day and a long night? Do they ever get clearly overtired?

 

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[mjkacmom]

Mine stayed out until 1 am until they turned 18 and then a lot later. They were fine for excursions, maybe a power nap later. My kids can power through.

[mom says]

Teenagers are teenagers whether they're on a cruise or not. And they can't all be painted with the same brush. Some are night owls and you have to pry them out of bed in the morning with a crowbar. Others can easily go to bed and rise early. And, of course both can become overtired. But they also have to learn personal responsibility. When our kids were teens they had a curfew until they were 18. And they knew when they had to be up in the morning. The amount of sleep they got was up to them. They learned pretty quickly that they couldn't burn the candle at both ends for long.

[You Me & the Sea]

My middle daughter was 17 when she first went with us. She had a midnight curfew. Our youngest was 14 on our last cruise, she had a 10 pm curfew, but she's very responsible. She's 16 now and on our upcoming will have a midnight curfew on days we don't have to be off the ship early. She does NOT like waking early. None of my kids ever seemed to get worn out but they knew when to call it a night...sometimes even hours before they had to. I found them in their cabin getting ready for bed one night around 9:30.

[taglovestocruise]

Everybody knows that teenagers love to stay up late, but on a cruise they may also have to get up early for shore excursions.

Do your teens always stay up as late as they can or they go to bed when a long excursion is planned for the next day? Do they take naps sometime to recharge between a long day and a long night? Do they ever get clearly overtired?

 

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Stay up late, YES. Go to bed early, NEVER. Take a nap, NEVER. Recharge,THEY GO GET A PIZZA. Overtired, ABSOLUTLY. Our 12 year old granddaughter was in the kids club until it closed, spent all day on the flow rider and rock climbing wall, and mini golf, took a slow down break and went ice skating. Made a lot of friends and spent the day from one end of the ship to the other. Her biggest disappointment on the Oasis cruise was that we made her go on a shore excursion in Cozumel. The one time I asked her if she was tired she said she would sleep on the plane on the way home. She and her dad ended most nights in the overhanging Jacuzzi at 2am, him with his bucket of beer and her with her coke tumbler.

[teknoge3k]

Teenagers are teenagers. My kids have never had a "bedtime" on the cruise. My oldest usually comes in around midnight, he's now 14. They don't have bedtimes at home except on school nights.

[Nizzie]

I cruised with a teenager in 2004 when friends brought their 17yo daughter and when she was excited about an early tour the next day either she put herself to bed at a reasonable hour or she was perky in the a.m. despite her late hours the night before with her newfound friends. If she was “forced” along because her parents thought it would be a good experience for her or because her parents wanted a particular tour and were not willing to compromise for her benefit, she turned into an obstinate, sullen grumpster. It was interesting as an outside mostly-uninvolved observer.

[cb at sea]

You need to teach your kids proper behavior, including sleeping, prior to a vacation! My teens preferred to stay up late, and sleep in....but if they really wanted to do something early, they would hit the hay early.....just like I would do!

 

If they want to go on an excursion, it's up to them to get up and moving. I would leave them behind if they couldn't get up on time!

[mom says]

You need to teach your kids proper behavior, including sleeping, prior to a vacation! My teens preferred to stay up late, and sleep in....but if they really wanted to do something early, they would hit the hay early.....just like I would do!

 

If they want to go on an excursion, it's up to them to get up and moving. I would leave them behind if they couldn't get up on time!

 

You need to .... oh, forget it.

[SbbquilterUT]

Our requirement was when they had to meet up with us the next day, they were older teens and we set times to meet up.

[Z'Loth]

I'm no parent, so see 10 Tips for Cruising With Teens.

[SRQbeachgirl]

Our teenager (now 19) goes to bed whenever we do on a cruise, which is usually around midnight if we have an early excursion the next morning. If we don't have to get up early, we'll stay up until 1am or later. We can sleep when we get home!

[kctwinmommy]

When we had early excursions on our Alaska cruise, then he had to be back a little earlier (like 10-11, I can't remember). But that's because we wanted him to be well rested for the things we were doing. It was often hiking, walking, going around a lot, so we all needed to be rested, IMO. But on a Caribbean cruise, when an excursion is sitting on the beach, then who cares. He could stay out until midnight, or 1 a.m. if the club had something going that late. Now, at home, on a regular night, he's often up until after 11 p.m. anyway. He doesn't get up until about 8-8:10 for school, so he's still getting 8.5 hours of sleep in a night and he's fine.

 

It just all really depended on the type of excursion more than anything. I should add he was almost 13 when we did Alaska.

[LeoEdre]

I'm no parent' date=' so see 10 Tips for Cruising With Teens.

Just to be clear, I'm not looking for tips, I was just wondering what most of teens do.

 

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[LrgPizza]

Mine usually goes to bed at 1:00AM, which is when the teen club closes on our cruises. If he needs to get up early, he gets up early. We have the motto "you can sleep when you're dead", so he makes sure he's up around 7 or 8am so that he doesn't miss a moment of vacation.

[iancal]

Ours were the same. And when they were in the lower grades we took them out of school a few times for vacations.

 

Like others, we did not need, nor did we ask, for any parenting advice. Though some seem so anxious to give it.

 

As teenagers, they could quickly recover from late nights and early mornings. After all, it is a vacation not a work camp.