I turn 18 the day before my princess cruise...what is there to do?

[Logan-jade]

Hi I am turning 18 the day before my magestic princess cruise and was wondering what is there to do it is an Australian/new Zealand cruise. Would I be able to go into kids club if I change my cruise card to an under 18 card? I am fine with not drinking I would much rather meet people and hang out with friends. What is everyone else’s experience with this?

[caribill]

Since you will be 18 when your cruise starts, you will not be able to be in the kids club.

 

Princess knows your birthday, so you cannot switch to an under-18 card.

[Lucky TGO]

Happy Birthday 🎁🎂🎊🎈 

from

[berlingo]

I am sure you will have a fantastic time.

My daughters have cruised since they were little and absolutely love it. Sunbathing, in the pool and jacuzzi, hanging out with new friends, watching movies, sauna, steam room, meeting up for lunch are some of the things they do in the day. They enjoy dressing for dinner and this can take a long, long time. They go to a show, do some shopping, movies under the stars, midnight swimming and probably lots of things I don’t get to hear about.

 Unfortunately it is correct that you won’t be able to go to the kids club. Believe me my eldest daughter tried by changing her birthday slightly but they have a list of all the under 18’s.

What my daughters did do once they were over kids club age was to arrange a meet up for under 25’s one evening. They did this by contacting the Cruise Director who was only too happy to help and it was advertised in the Horizon. It turns out that there are often lots of that age group who were wanting to socialise and they have a great time for the rest of the cruise.

I am sure you will find more than enough to do and have a great time.

 

Juliax

[mum and son]

I have always found that the older teens (16-17yo) don't necessarily hang out in the teen centre for the duration of the cruise. They often go the first night to connect to a few others and then hang out around the ship with that group, but don't return to the teen centre. My son is 19 and hasn't wanted to hang around in the teen centre since he was 13 or 14, but he seems to find others of a similar age to do things with. 

 

So, perhaps keep your eyes open during the first 24hrs and you'll likely find a few groups of teens wandering around who you could perhaps join up with. 

[Logan-jade]

People I know have been able to call and arrange with the cruise line beforehand to swap their card for an under 18 card they just lose the perks of being over 18. this is my 6th cruise the other ones I’ve been on are p&o and carnival. I was just wondering if this would be possible on princess this is my first princess cruise so I’m not sure 

 

thank you for your replies 

[Iamcruzin]

Search for the Facebook group for your sailing. You can set up a separate account and not give out personal information or access to your personal photos. Princess sailings tend to skew an older demographic who are afraid of Facebook so it will weed out a lot of that group and attract those closer to your age. We were traveling with multiple age generations and joined our Royal Caribbean FB group. There were a lot of young adults in that group communicating.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Iamcruzin

[snowskier]

2 hours ago, Logan-jade said:

People I know have been able to call and arrange with the cruise line beforehand to swap their card for an under 18 card they just lose the perks of being over 18. this is my 6th cruise the other ones I’ve been on are p&o and carnival. I was just wondering if this would be possible on princess this is my first princess cruise so I’m not sure 

 

thank you for your replies 

 

Being respectful of parents that may not want an 18 year old in the kids club with their younger teens is something to think about. Who cares if it is 18 and one day, bottom line OP will be 18. This is one of those situations where it isn't all about the person that wants the exception, there is a potential negative impact on others.

 

Time to put the "big boy/girl" pants on and learn how to socialize. Time to learn how to follow rules.

[WisCruiser2]

I seem to remember seeing something in the Patter about a special time in Skywalkers (or similar venue) for 18-21 year olds. Someone can let me know if I'm mistaken...

[dreaminofcruisin]

50 minutes ago, WisCruiser2 said:

I seem to remember seeing something in the Patter about a special time in Skywalkers (or similar venue) for 18-21 year olds. Someone can let me know if I'm mistaken...

 

My DD's first cruise was when she was 19. She met up with this group of people and had a great time! It was listed in the Patter and it started around 10 or 10:30 pm. This was many years ago and she is still friends on Facebook with some of the people (and the crew) who attended this group. Even though this was many years ago, I have still noticed it in recent years. It is usually listed in the Patter on the first or 2nd night. If you don't see it, talk to the Cruise Director and they could maybe arrange it. That cruise for DD was to Alaska and they were a very small (about 12 of them, I think), but close knit group.

Edited August 11, 2019 by dreaminofcruisin

[satxdiver]

I have seen it listed in the Patter a get-together for the 18-21 group.  Pax in that age group or even younger ones who want to hang out with the older group will manage to meet each other on the ship.  All the OP will have to do is be in public areas more appealing to that age group (hanging out in the IC drinking coffee with the senior group is probably not the place to be).    It is not quite the same of course but we took our 11 y/o GD on an AK cruise last year.  It was not the first time for her to go with us but in the past cruises she liked to go to the age appropriate kids club.  Not this time she turned it down after the first visit.  It certainly did not stop her from socializing with her age group.  I was not surprised to read about the 16/17 age kids that did not like the club and prefered to hang out on their own.  

 

The ship knows the age of all the pax as it is on their documents they have to submit to board the ship and satisfy international law.   One cannot simply "change their age".  

[regal2018]

Just returned from a cruise and there was a meet up for 18-20 year olds on first night.

[Shmoo here]

5 hours ago, Logan-jade said:

People I know have been able to call and arrange with the cruise line beforehand to swap their card for an under 18 card they just lose the perks of being over 18. 

I'd be surprised that a cruise line would want to accept the liability of allowing an adult in the youth program areas.

 

 

 

 

[h-sar]

OP, my kids are now 19 and 22, girl and boy. They had the same concerns as you for their next cruise after turning 18. However, by attending the first night’s 18-20 year old gathering (I believe in the Club 6 nightclub) each of them made friends. That first night, they all went off as a group and went to karaoke, the nightclub, or hung out together. After that, they kind of broke off into smaller groups during the day, based on interest levels. However, they would all still get together at 10:00 pm for the meet up, if even for a few min to see if people wanted to do a large group thing at night. My son has also never had any trouble making friends by simply hanging out playing basketball. All Princess ships have great bball courts and it’s a good place to connect if you’re sports minded. With the new Princess messenger app that allows you to message others on the ship, my kids are in constant contact with their new friends. Don’t worry, you will have a great time, and meeting up with age appropriate cruisers at the 18-20 meet up will be way better than trying to get into a club where there might be kids 4-5 yrs younger than you. Have a fantastic cruise!