Best cruise line for 18-20 year olds?

[cruisingguy007]

30 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

Gladly. If nothing else, it gets the thread back on topic from the usual hijacker. 🙄

 

Royal Caribbean’s newer ships are full of physical activities that can be very attractive to a 18 year old. Things like Flowrider, zip line, water slides, ice skating, sky diving, etc.  Carnival and NCL also have many similar amenities but to me, Royal Caribbean has been a better overall experience. 
 

 

We have Carnival Panorama on hold for an 8 day that adds La Paz. I looked into Royal and they have mostly the same itinerary, unless we all fly to down to TX, and it still includes two Mexican ports so I'm less inclined towards that route. I will take a look again and check the ships out and see if there is a newer one during that time to compare. Thanks for the info!   

[dkjretired]

NCL is not the only line that allows the parents to sign a waiver which if you think about it is actually ludicrous because at 18 they are adults.   Parents can't even sign for medical treatment for someone 18 but they have control of whether they can drink.  Just silly.  

 

Should point out also that on some cruise lines they can't drink at 18 but are very welcome to play in the casino.  

[wowzz]

This thread has been very useful in helping me identify which cruise lines I need to avoid at all costs! 

[ldubs]

On 5/4/2021 at 4:59 PM, cruisingguy007 said:

 

We have Carnival Panorama on hold for an 8 day that adds La Paz. I looked into Royal and they have mostly the same itinerary, unless we all fly to down to TX, and it still includes two Mexican ports so I'm less inclined towards that route. I will take a look again and check the ships out and see if there is a newer one during that time to compare. Thanks for the info!   

 

Sounds like you have a good itinerary too.  We were fortunate to take some Mexican Riviera family group cruises when the kids were in their teens.   I would describe them as vibrant and enjoyable for the whole family.   

[DirtyDawg]

On 5/3/2021 at 11:51 PM, clo said:

Shame on them. Great reason to boycott them. IMneverHO. In case you don't know, the legal drinking age in the US is TWENTY-ONE. Get that? 21.

 

When my boys were 19 and 20, we asked them to choose a cruise line to go on and they chose NCL.  We found out why when we got the waiver to sign. In Ontario the drinking age is 19 so it was no big deal.

 

The drinking age when I was their age was 18 and we had one extra year of high school so most of the grade 13's were 18. We used to go to the local pub for lunch on Friday's. Brown bag lunch and a couple of pints, the best high school lunches ever! 🍻

[navybankerteacher]

4 hours ago, DirtyDawg said:

 

When my boys were 19 and 20, we asked them to choose a cruise line to go on and they chose NCL.  We found out why when we got the waiver to sign. In Ontario the drinking age is 19 so it was no big deal.

 

The drinking age when I was their age was 18 and we had one extra year of high school so most of the grade 13's were 18. We used to go to the local pub for lunch on Friday's. Brown bag lunch and a couple of pints, the best high school lunches ever! 🍻

I (lived and) went to college in New York State at the time the drinking age was 18 - unlike most of the rest of the country.  It was assumed that all freshman were legal, so beer was sold with all meals in the cafeteria.

[DirtyDawg]

1 minute ago, navybankerteacher said:

I (lived and) went to college in New York State at the time the drinking age was 18 - unlike most of the rest of the country.  It was assumed that all freshman were legal, so beer was sold with all meals in the cafeteria.

 

The same in Ontario. Our frosh week beer was all free, donated by the local brewery. We didn't feel sorry for the Brewery's profits, the ROI on that deal was huge for them over the school year! 

[cruisingguy007]

On 5/5/2021 at 10:34 PM, ldubs said:

 

Sounds like you have a good itinerary too.  We were fortunate to take some Mexican Riviera family group cruises when the kids were in their teens.   I would describe them as vibrant and enjoyable for the whole family.   

 

Yeah, we decided to stick with it because it will be spring break, be a large ship, and he was reading about something called ice breakers or something like that for the young adults. Seems feedback with these conditions is universally recommended.  I was thinking that we can do some extra excursions to keep it interesting in ports. La Paz will be a new port for us also so that's exciting. I appreciate all the feed back and feel good with my decision. Hope everyone has a great weekend and all the mothers out there have a great mothers day!   

[Cruzaholic41]

I think your Choice is good for that age group. However, Carnival is the last line I’d recommend during Spring Break. 

[cruisingguy007]

On 5/8/2021 at 12:20 PM, Cruzaholic41 said:

I think your Choice is good for that age group. However, Carnival is the last line I’d recommend during Spring Break. 

 

It's an 8 day cruise and the price is much higher than normal. I don't think it will be a problem like the weekend 3 day partyfests.