Sailing on Celebrity with a teen

[ckfred]

We're looking at sailing on the Reflection out of Dublin this June.  Back in 2015, we sailed on RCL's Brilliance of the Seas out of Hawich, England with our son who was 12.  He really enjoyed the teen club.  He ran around with 8 British kids, and his soccer game improved a lot.  When we sailed the next spring on the Majesty out of Miami, every teen activity was cancelled, due to low numbers.  We theorize that there were a lot of large family groups traveling at spring break.  If a family had several teens (siblings and/or cousins), they could occupy themselves without the teen club.

 

Needless to say, our son had a miserable time and now has no interest in cruising.  On a Celebrity cruise, are we more likely to find teens participating in activities, or will they be wanting to avoid the club like the plague?  The last thing we want is our son simply sitting in the cabin, playing video games on his laptop.   

[LeonbergerYES]

We sailed on the Solstice to Alaska in July 2017 with 2 teens (15 and 17).  They felt that the teen program was weak and would not go.  The last day, however, the 15 year old girl saw a good-looking teen boy on the ship and discovered that he and several other teen boys had spent a lot of time in the teen program, and she then regretted her decision (we did not regret it).

[chemmo]

Secondary schools in much of the U.K. (where I would imagine many passengers come from) have a one week holiday, usually the first week of June. After that it is exam season and few parents would take their teenage kids out of school then. Hopefully someone from Ireland will comment on holidays there and the likelihood of number of teens on board...No idea on other nationalities likely to be on board and their school vacation times. In our experience more children are on board in Europe from the end of July and all of August.

 

We cruised mainly RC when our son was young then tried Celebrity for the first time when our son was 14. It was a cruise just after Easter in the Caribbean. There were a few teens on board but not many and most seemed to be part of an extended family. Despite the lack of same age companions he loved the general ambience of the ship, enjoyed some of the general activities like staff vs guests pool volleyball, we joined in the trivia and he surprisingly enjoyed a few activities I fancied like ‘how to cook a perfect steak’. Most importantly he loved the very busy port days. We booked interesting and active excursions (all chosen together) and then on sea days he was happy to enjoy lazing poolside, use his electronic gadgets and chill out. His favourite parts of the cruise were learning to use his Dad’s camera with different lenses etc and sitting out late at night on the balcony with us watching the stars....We really spent very enjoyable family time together, more than we would have done if there had been loads more teens on board.

 

If your cruise is more Northern Europe or Iceland then obviously there is a greater likelihood of some sea days with bad weather (less chance of just making friends poolside). It would be useful for him to join the activities club for his age group. On Celebrity if there are only a few in a certain age group I think they  join groups together and modify but not cancel activities. Sometimes less children in a group can be more enjoyable than a room full. Hopefully someone who has cruised recently with children can clarify.... It may be useful as well to join your roll call and see if anyone else is traveling with teens, your son could then board knowing that he already had a ‘friend’. 

 

When we were considered Celebrity the first time we were very honest and open that it would not be as lively as RC and that there would be far fewer guests his age. I think this was important as he knew what to expect. We also took a pack of cards with us and a couple of ‘travel’ board games incase afternoons became long...They were never used. 

 

Reflection is a wonderful ship, we cruised on her last year. Lots of opportunities for family fun even if not many teens are on board. Hope you have a fantastic cruise.