Westerdam Teen club ? from a new cruiser...

[Warmbluewater]

HI, this is a first cuise for my family. We are going to the Caribbean the week before Christmas. I have a 14 year old son who went on a one week alaska cruise with his grandparents, and loved it! He especially enjoyed the teens getting together for dinner rather than doing dress up in the main dining room.

 

Because it is a holiday week, I'm assuming that there will be lots of kids and teens onboard. Can anyone tell me if they do similar dining groups on H.A?. Also, what are the teen activities like, and do they run on in-port days? My husband and I were thinking of trying to squeeze in a dive if my son has something fun to do.

 

Even if you dont have answers to my specific questions, any info on the teen club would be appriciated.

 

Many thanks from a cruise newbie!

 

Coreen

[Warmbluewater]

Well, the cruise is over. We were on the westerdam on the Dec 16th sailing. We enjoyed the cruise, but for my family, the teen club was a dissapointment.

 

My son had done a cruise to Alaska on Norwegian with his grandparents, and enjoyed the teen club and activites. From his report, they had counselors available in the teen facility when ever it was open. He participated in seveal activites, met some kids and generally had a good time.

 

Since he was the only kid in the group, we were hoping he would meet some kids his age and enjoy some of the activities on the Westerdam.

 

On the Westerdam, the teen space is called "the Loft" , and is an unsupervised place for kids to hang out. My son is a young 14, and he did not feel comfortable due to alot of cussing and what he described as "inappropriate" dancing. So, we crossed off the Loft as somewhere to hang out, but looked forward to the organized activites.

 

The first activity my son tried to go to was an open hour in the arcade, where the games would be free for teens. Basically, they just turned on a few of the games and left. Most of the machines were monopolized by small kids or adults since no one was monitoring, and he waited for 40 min to play one game.

 

Next was the casino night. He went to the Loft at the time indicated on the daily schedule, and nothing was happening, so he came back to the cabin. We called the front desk, and they said it was running a bit late. He went back, and the activity started about a half hour late, at 10:30 PM. They young lady in charge had forgotten most of the equipment and the prizes, and didn't know the rules to any of the cardgames.

 

After that, he gave up on the program. My husband spoke to the cuise director. He let us know that they generally have about 12 teens on any cruise, and they had 70 on this one. Well, it was a holiday season cruise, and I would think that knowing the numbers, they should have been more organized and prepared, not less.

 

ALso, I spoke to some folks that used the club for younger kids, and they seemed to enjoy it. They got a schedule for the entire week on the first day, had an open house and all kinds of stuff. THose programs seemed to be well organized. We (sometimes) got teen club schedules the night before, but were missed with at least one. When we got on the ship, there was no information on the Loft or teen activities available, and no staff that seemed to know anything about it. We saw lots of teens roaming the halls, sitting on stairs and riding up and down the elevators. It seemed that more activities would have been a good thing!

 

So, if a well managed and well staffed teen club is important, the Westerdam may not be a good choice for your family, particularly if you have younger teens.