Best cruise SHIP and DESTINATION for a TEEN??

We are thinking about doing a cruise this summer....with a TEEN!

I'm trying to research which cruise ship has a lot for a teen to do AND which destinations/itineraries seem to have more for teens.

We have planned nothing... lol... so I'm open to any ideas/recommendations!

We have done Disney in the past so looking for something different.

Thanks so much!

Get a guidebook on your potential ports....tell your teen to read it! Then, they can tell you what they'd like to do! A bit of reading never hurt anyone!

As an aside...unless THEY are paying for the vacation....their "say" shouldn't carry much weight!

The Caribbean.

Have you decided yet whether your TEEN is going to be a boy or a girl, and what age it's going to be? It might make a difference.

Have you decided yet whether your TEEN is going to be a boy or a girl, and what age it's going to be? It might make a difference.

Good one!

There are many cruise lines and ships that would be a lot of fun.

I would begin by figuring out which itinerary your teen would enjoy.

Some that come to mind are the Caribbean although less ships sail it in the summer, Hawaii and even the Mediterranean.

Keith

Well it is apparent I came to the wrong place to ask for advice.

I asked for information about cruise ships and itineraries for teens. What I got was snarky people saying my teen should not have any input into our trip, that they need to read, and I should 'decide' what gender they are. REALLY??! And to top it off people said "good one" to these snarky remarks.

I can tell when I'm unwelcome and I will take the hint and go elsewhere to do research.

Sorry for causing offence, but I was just making a gentle (or maybe not so gentle?) hint that being a bit more specific about the age or sex of the teenager might be helpful. You aren't alone, there are quitre a lot of threads started on generalities like "I'm going on a cruise, what should I wear?".

If your teenager is a 19 year old boy, I suspect his interests may be different from those of a 13 year old girl.

He will be allowed to drink alcohol if you're sailing on a British line out of Europe, if that's any help. Unless he isn't old enough.

I just went on a cruise with 4 teens (3 boys my nephews and my daughter). This was on RCL and in Asia. But RCL's Teen's club was great! My daughter was still 1 year short of the minimum age, but I signed a waiver as she will be with her cousins anyway.

They had a great time, we almost never saw them, except at the staterooms when they sometimes come in later than us, and during breakfast. Most of the time they are always in the teens lounge.

I understand almost all lines have great Teens clubs, so I think what the others are saying is that you might want to focus on the destination and the route.

Teens being teens, they might not also easily "click" with each other in the club, my daughter was safe as she was with her cousins and they got along with each other and other teens. But I was told that there were two brothers who came in on the second day, and were just rude and eventually were "kicked out" by the teen's club coordinator.

On the other hand, my second daughter who didn't make the age cut for teens, never wanted to be in the kid's club, choosing instead in accompanying us to wherever we went. She too had a great time watching all the shows and other activities that we did.

So it really boils down to your teen's preference.

He/she might want to be in a teen's group, or want to stay with you!

Or heck let them decide and schedule if they were going to join you or the club, discussing with them your planned activities for the day during breakfast or before going to bed.

What is your teen interested in? Hanging out on a beach? Touring museums and ancient ruins? Spotting wildlife? Do they want to spend a lot of time with you or their peers? Do they need a ship with lots of "bells and whistles", or is just a teen club and a pool enough?

How far are you willing to travel, and what do you want to spend? How old are they?

The more specific information you provide, the better answers you will receive.

Well it is apparent I came to the wrong place to ask for advice.

 

I asked for information about cruise ships and itineraries for teens. What I got was snarky people saying my teen should not have any input into our trip, that they need to read, and I should 'decide' what gender they are. REALLY??! And to top it off people said "good one" to these snarky remarks.

 

I can tell when I'm unwelcome and I will take the hint and go elsewhere to do research.

Not sure if you will be back to this thread or not but putting it here just in case. You will find a lot of really great information on this site, however you do need to wade through the sarcasm and keyboard cowboys that exist. You learn pretty quickly to have a thick skin and ignore the comments that rub you the wrong way. On the internet it is too easy to read between the lines and misunderstand what a poster is saying. Often things are said with sarcasm, or just plain ignorance or not in a way that truly gets the point across. Take for example the comments on gender and age, it really does make a difference in the responses you will get if we all know a little more about the teen you are taking. My two kids are very very different, what one would say is cool and great the other not so much.

If you have the heart to please come back and tell us some more information and there will be people willing to help in a nice way. Does your teen like to be active, do water sports, or are they more chill where they want to lay around on a beach all day, or are they more cultural where a hike through some ruins would be interesting? Would they be up for a swim with the dolphins, stingrays, or turtles, or does something like that freak them out? Is it an older teen who might enjoy driving ATVs around or again, would they prefer to be driven around and see the sites? Each one of these answers will give you a difference response on what is best for the teen.

As for the ship, again do they want a pool to laze around, or water slides, flowriders, ziplines, etc. Do they like trivia, do they like to hang with you or do they want to meet up with other teens? If this is a 13 year old the answers we give may be different that if it is a 19 year old, both are teens.

Hopefully you will be back, but if not hopefully some of these questions will help someone else looking for answers.

Resurrecting this old thread, since it seems on point; hope that's okay. I have two boys 14 and 18. They love history and culture, swimming and animals. They are well behaved but I'd rather not have them on a ship where they are the only teens. My older son can do fine without peers; the younger one would prefer to meet other kids, but not essential. Some flexibility in dining would be preferable. We've been to Alaska and Caribbean before on Holland America; they'd prefer not to go back to Alaska. HA-type price point is probably what we would do again, or at least not much more expensive. I'm likely the only adult along but we often travel that way, so I don't anticipate problems. I'm thinking Europe or maybe Asia, but would be open to Caribbean. We are looking to travel this summer between June 15 and end of August.

As in the past, I find the initial research of options completely overwhelming so would love some general advice. Once we have decided what to do, I remember these forums are a wealth of specific information.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

We are traveling this summer with our teens, Boy 17, Girl 15...and this is my thought on it...if you have a solo teen child...take a friend. Fortunately my "bigs"(we have a little too...) are good friends so it works...if they find friends, great...if not, they have each other...this has saved us on other cruises with them. We had friends who cruised with their solo daughter (14) and she was miserable...but had she had a friend with, it would have been so much more fun.

Each line is a little different...we have done RCI with teens, and this summer are sailing Carnival with them(we wanted more water slides, not surfing machines!). Teens found RCI teen group fun, but spent a lot of time with the family. We all had a great time, though...

Shore excursions we loved...cabana's...everyone loves cabana days...we also did a speed boat ride to a private island(boat did 360's and such..) was a blast! We did dolphin swim, liked it...but not the favorite. My daughter loved zip lining, her brother, doesn't like heights, so he did the video game tourney on the ship and won 1st place...

We had a great time cruising with teens....I would say best vacation ever...and they agree! :)

History and culture might be a nice combination with a Baltic cruise. My signature line has some animal experiences there, plus I think we missed feeding reindeer in Helsinki. Kids usually like running through the fountains at Peterhof, visiting the vasa ship and tivoli gardens (don't know if that's for younger kids though). My signature line describes this trip with a child, but he was younger 3.5. My son really loved this whole cruise. You might want to ask your teens to do some research and think about what they'd like to do.

Older teen boys might like a Royal Caribbean ship best. They have a good video game room, climbing walls, Flowriders etc and are generally a very active ship. However, their port selection is pretty tame and they tend to have short cruises.

Our family also likes HAL. They have the best itineraries, imo, and they give the best bang for the buck. We took a 24 day Med cruise on them in July a few years ago. There were about 300 kids on board the Nieuw Amsterdam. If you go in July, and take a newer ship, you should find plenty of other families on board. I've found the service on HAL to be better than RCCL too. The Koningsdam has interesting Northern Europe itineraries.

I've got 4 children (3 are teens of varying ages - 2 girls and a boy). We've done two cruises and have a third scheduled. They loved Mexico. The snorkeling, ruins and weather were just the right combo for them.

All the teens in our family will always pick RCL because of their teens club. Thing is I think 17 is maximum for teen's club in RCL, please confirm. There were 4 teens in our family's last cruise (Dec. 2016) We almost do not see them, and they are not inclined to join us in meals, unless we specifically ask them to join.

For Culture, Europe and Asia would be great choices. In Asia, cruises to Japan and Korea are nice, as well as in Malaysia and Thailand.

I'll just put this out there though, if your teens get along well together in a group, then you are all set. If they don't, well there is just 1 teens club, so they will have to try to "team up" with other teens, which is also quite nice.

Our teens still stay in touch with their RCL teens club friends on FB even if they are half the world away. They'd post messages like, Windjammers for dinner tonight? months after the cruise ended!

All the teens in our family will always pick RCL because of their teens club. Thing is I think 17 is maximum for teen's club in RCL, please confirm. There were 4 teens in our family's last cruise (Dec. 2016) We almost do not see them, and they are not inclined to join us in meals, unless we specifically ask them to join.

 

For Culture, Europe and Asia would be great choices. In Asia, cruises to Japan and Korea are nice, as well as in Malaysia and Thailand.

 

I'll just put this out there though, if your teens get along well together in a group, then you are all set. If they don't, well there is just 1 teens club, so they will have to try to "team up" with other teens, which is also quite nice.

 

Our teens still stay in touch with their RCL teens club friends on FB even if they are half the world away. They'd post messages like, Windjammers for dinner tonight? months after the cruise ended!

We've had the same experience with NCL, the last time my teens were 15 and 17, they hung out in two different groups that merged occasionally. They had several meet ups after the cruise. They will be 19 and 20 this cruise, hopefully they'll find friends now that they have aged out. My other 3 are now teens and are looking forward to the club.

Factor in what your teens like to do, and if it's an older teen be sure to check into the drinking age on the ship and in port. Our 17 YO daughter had a so-so cruise socially because she was too old for the teen club and not comfortable with the

18 yo + drinking crowd.

Thanks. This has all been really helpful. With some input from them we are going on an NCL trip to the Med and they are super excited. They are close friends but I'm glad to see other teens on the roll call.

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I found this thread while researching the similar question.

We are looking for our first cruise options (travel in May). My teen boy will be almost 15 by the time of travel.

However I also have 8 yr old boy and 11 year old girl at the time of travel also.

We are currently based in SE Asia and we are thinking maybe Europe or Australia cruise.

The older boy likes video games, snorkel, swim, reading, board games...

8 year old boy loves anything active - swimming, slides, climbing, games...

11 year old girl - anything artistic and crafty, making stuff, girly stuff...

Can anyone recommend which cruise liner suit best for my kids age group?

Thank you for advice.