Teens on POA

[shadowmadre]

We wil be going on the Aug.12 cruise with our 17-year old son. Is there currently a teen program or activities going on and have you seen a lot of teens on this ship. Don't want him to be bored when we are on ship. Mom and Dad can be boring sometimes I guess to hang out with all the time.

[dwhist]

We will be on the Aug 18 cruise with our 16 year old, so we are interested in the above question too.

 

I did go on line and buy my son the Teen Passport which gives him the 20 frozen drinks and it says a pizza party on the last evening.

 

From what I have heard, this is a preety port intensive cruise, so not alot of time on ship. But I am sure my son will be looking for something to do.

[MargaritaMom]

I hesitate to reply since I haven't been on POA but we were on POH 7/9/07 with a 17 year old girl and a 14 year old girl. The POH had what they called The Wipe Out club and published a list of activities which were mostly in the evenings. The POA probably has something very similar.

 

We have traveled with our girls on two previous cruises one on RCCL and one on Disney. Both of these ships had inviting teen clubs and plenty of activities which teens liked to do. Both girls made tons of friends and stayed out with the other teens late into the night.

 

On POH the Wipeout Club is a bare, sterile tile floor room at the end of an unmarked hallway. The sign for the Wipeout Club is actually over the arcade which was confusing a lot of people when we tried to find it the first night. There was one long bench along a wall for the kids to sit on. If they sat down, they couldn't talk to each other because they would all be in one long row. There didn't appear to be anything for them to really do except I did see some computer terminals which I understand carry a hefty fee.

 

Anyway, the girls went the first night expecting experiences like their previous cruises. They were disappointed. However, they exchanged cell phone numbers with the other teens and from that point on they had their own informal communication network. Every evening they would call each other and arrange to meet in a certain place on the ship. From then on they either roamed the ship or sat around and "hung out". Along the way they picked up other teens who also had nothing to do.

 

To make a long story short, NCL definitely does not cater to teens as compared to RCCL or Disney. Be sure to have your son go to the Wipeout Club on the first night so he can get plugged in!

[dreaming girl]

I had been lurking these boards for months gathering information for our Pride of Aloha 7/08/2007 cruise. Now that we have returned :( I would like to share whatever I can to help others have an enjoyable experience too :) . I did note they had some sort of teen program as the stardust theatre had a roped off area on the balcony stating reserved for "teen ... club". At the 2 shows we attended, I noticed 10 or so teens in this group. They also had a video arcade with about 10 older machines, one was pac man :eek: .