Mariner of the seas:family with teens

[artizt4114]

I am a teen and i am SOOO excited about my cruise in three weeks on royal caribbean's mariner of the seas. 6/10/07! Does anyone know about any of the teen groups (my sister is in the other teen group)? Also, do we have to check ourselves in and out? Our family would really appreciate any info about this or even general tips about mariner. Oh, info for adults would be good too. It is our first cruise so we are kind of clueless, although I have been able to get some basic info online. Please help us out! :D

[reallyitsmema]

Hey Artiz, we are on that cruise too. I have a 16 yr old son who will be traveling with us. Here is a link to the rollcall for our cruise http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=482634 There are a bunch of teens going. If your family hasn't signed up for the meet and mingle, click on the link at the top of the page and get registered for that if your family is interested. We have over 40 people signed up. The meeting is on June 12th at 1pm in Ellingtons.

[cayenneblue]

We have teens on that cruise as well!! A 17 year old son, and 13 year old daughter. We're quite excited!!

[Trainman-2]

I am a teen and i am SOOO excited about my cruise in three weeks on royal caribbean's mariner of the seas. 6/10/07! Does anyone know about any of the teen groups (my sister is in the other teen group)? Also, do we have to check ourselves in and out? Our family would really appreciate any info about this or even general tips about mariner. Oh, info for adults would be good too. It is our first cruise so we are kind of clueless, although I have been able to get some basic info online. Please help us out! :D

 

You need to start negotiating with your parents right away. There are two important decisions that need to be made.

 

1. How late can you stay out at night?

 

2. How late can you sleep in the morning?

 

The "Official Curfew" for kids in 1:00am but it is not enforced. The teen activities tend to go on forever as long as their are no problems.

 

Our son Calvin, age 17, will be in with us again this year for the 4th time. He sleeps on the couch that makes up into a bed.

 

In the past, he has stayed out late and then slept until noon or later.

 

NO MORE!

 

This year I asked him how late he wanted to stay out and he said 2:30 am and I said "OK" but you now will have a morning curfew of 10:30 am. My wife and I are tired of tripping all over him and his bed all morning and the room not being made up until mid-afternoon because he is sleeping in. He has to be up, shaved, and out of the room by 10:30 am every morning on our cruise next week on the Mariner.

 

Tell your parents that the teen activities are well supervised and that we have never heard of a problem with either drinking or inappropriate behavior.

 

In the past, we only had one rule for Calvin, Be on time and dressed appropriately for dinner in the dining room. This year we have added the "Get your butt out of the room by 10:30 am" rule.

 

You and your parents will love the Mariner!

[sunlover2]

We will also be on this cruise with our 17 yr. old son and 20 year old daughter! This will be their 4th cruise and they love them!!! You will have a great time and believe me...you will meet other teens on the ship.

[mom kaplan]

We went on the Adventure last year with my then 14 and 16 year old sons. They still say it was the best vacation of their lives! They have a friend from home that told them that the best way to meet other kids was to go to the "club" the first night and just say hi to people. They did and it worked! They were never bored and never at a loss for kids to "hang out with" while they were on the ship. They came on the various excursions with us but they knew that once they got back to the ship they could be with their friends.

 

My boys are only 19mo. apart and wanted to be in the same teen group. Because my younger son was less than 6 months away from his 15th birthday and we, his parents, asked permission of the club director, they allowed the boys to be in the same group (15 - 17 yr. olds). That meant that the younger one didn't have to leave the club at 10pm as his brother got to stay there. We also knew that if he didn't behave appropriately (if he acted too young) this priviledge would be taken away and he would have to go to his age group. It was just fine. Again, that was because they wanted to be together.

 

In terms of the curfew, as others have said, 1 am is the official curfew but I know my older son was out later than that more than once and it wasn't a problem. He knew he had to behave and he was never challenged by the ship security guards. He did however know that our rule was that he had to get up and accompany us on our shore excursions early in the morning. I must say there was more than 1 beach that he slept on because he was so tired but he knew our rules and he abided by them.

 

We did have one compromise though--we eat dinner together at home as often as possible and I wanted to do the same on the cruise. The boys wanted to eat with their friends most nights (we ate breakfast and lunch together before and during the excursions). We compromised and ate dinner together 4 nights, including one formal night. I don't think it was too painful for them especially since most of their "cruise friends" had to do the same thing.

 

My advice is that you decide upon your rules with your parents BEFORE you go so it doesn't ruin anyone's vacation "fighting" over them on the cruise. Be outgoing and open to meeting lots of new people from different cultures and you'll have the time of your life! Enjoy!!:)

[4bythebeach]

We took our 14 and 16 year old sons on Mariner in Dec. and they both say it was the best vacation ever, the boat is awesome and really teen friendly. DO show up at the teen activities on the first night, there will be so many other kids your age there and you will all have a blast, as others have said the curfew is not well enforced, I think if they have problems with the kids it would be. My 16 year old hung out with a group of about 20 and they watched the sun come up on the top deck and were just goofy teenagers having a ball! The key is to respect the other passengers while you are having fun and no one will feel a need to repremand or enforce the curfew! Have fun, this will be a vacation like no other!

[helicopter]

Our grandkids will be on this cruise with us, (Mark 16, Austen 16 and Dillon 11). The boys have cruised many times and love it. Feel free to email them if you like maybe you can meet up on board. ward22@swbell.net. I'll have them read my email and they can give you their instant message addresses.

[sunlover2]

Glad to see more and more teens will be on this sailing!!!! I have got to get my teens to get on this site...between work and exams they have been soooo busy~