A sixteen year old on a 10 day cruise

We have the Serenade 10 day booked for next April. Originally it was just my wife and I but now our 16 year daughter maybe joining us.

I expect and older demographic to be on this cruise so we are a bit worried that there may not be a lot of kids her age and she may be bored out of her mind having to hang with us:cool:.

Can anyone who has done any of these longer cruises or this particular cruise tell me what the demographic is like.

Thanks in advance.

Hello there! We've talked about the Serenade before. Cruised the 10-day Caribbean in April this year. I don't remember seeing many kids/young teens on board. You might enjoy the trivia as a family, and of course the pools, but not like the bigger ships and shorter cruises.

Without knowing your daughter I can't say.

We have the Serenade 10 day booked for next April. Originally it was just my wife and I but now our 16 year daughter maybe joining us.

 

I expect and older demographic to be on this cruise so we are a bit worried that there may not be a lot of kids her age and she may be bored out of her mind having to hang with us:cool:.

 

Can anyone who has done any of these longer cruises or this particular cruise tell me what the demographic is like.

 

Thanks in advance.

IMO, your suspicion is correct. In April, the vast majority of 16 year olds are in school. Even parents who would take their kids out of school are unlucky to take them on a 10 night cruise.

I have to agree with the other posts. Is she wanting to go with you? Is this spring break?

Depends on your kid. Mine is 14 and she still loves to hang out with me, so she wouldn't get bored. But if yours likes her space, she may have less fun on this ship for that long. Never been on it, but it's smaller than the "family ships" (voyager class and above). Mine actually prefers cruises with less kids/teens and likes doing the grown up stuff.

If she's smart and mature, no problem! If not, you may have problems!

Shoot if I was your daughter, I'd just take the pool/tan time for 10 days.

She can treat it like her very own solo cruise if she's mature enough/ has the personality to appreciate that. Definitely can be across the board with 16 YOs.

I'd personally love to take a solo cruise. Since I am an early riser and my Fiance is not, I tend to have early mornings AND late nights. If I went solo I'd get up, watch the sunrise from dark every AM, watch sunset every PM and immediately go to bed.

IMO, your suspicion is correct. In April, the vast majority of 16 year olds are in school. Even parents who would take their kids out of school are unlucky to take them on a 10 night cruise.

Freudian slip or typo...............

That's "UNLIKELY" to take them on a 10 night cruise. ;) :D

We take a lot of shoulder season and/or longer cruises which tilt more towards retirees and have minimal teens on board. My own two teens (currently 19 and 17) have always enjoyed them (including the times when only one of the two is bale to join us so they do not have one another to hang out with).

Sometimes they make friends with the handful of other teens on board. Sometimes they hang a lot with us. Often they make friends with various people of all sorts of ages---it's not uncommon for me to walk into trivia and see three teams who all know my son by name and are asking him to join them that time or pass by my daughter playing scrabble with a senior in the centrum.

So, as others have said, I guess a lot depends on your teen. Is she only able to be happy and communicate with other teens? That might be hard. But if she is happy to meet lots of people and just socialize and general I think she#d be fine.

Yes, I think there will be a minimal number of teens onboard.

Also, Serenade is not a good ship for teens. While it is a glamorous ship with lots of glass, it was the most boring ship we'd ever been on. There was a lack of activities and we missed things like the Ice Rink and Royal Promenade.

Would she have a friend who could afford 4th person rate and go with. My kids have done a longer cruise doing school year but had each other to hang with. One of their favorite cruises. On a bad note 2/3 did not keep up with school work, it took a month for them to catch up. Some kids are good about getting work done, mine not so much.:rolleyes: Also since we had to fly to Florida I copied the pages from their school books they would need so we could leave those heavy weights at home.

Easter is in April in 2017 are the dates over spring break? Traditionally the longer cruises will have less teens due to not being able to miss much school. As others have mentioned it depends on your child. My daughter would be perfectly fine hanging out with us, meeting new people of all ages, etc. My son would be bored out of his mind if there wasn't much to do as he likes to keep busy

We did a similar cruise with a 16 year old niece. Our situation may be a little different as we are from upstate NY and cruised in March avoiding the usual tail end of what is normally very cold weather.

We did a Celebrity cruise and stayed in a Royal Suite so there was no lack of space or privacy (other than her having to pass through the bedroom to the bath--very poor design).

Not as many activities on board such as rock wall, skating and such as there is on the RCCL ships.

#1. If we wanted to stay out late in a bar or the Casino (as we usually do) leaving her in the suite alone till 1 or >2 was avoided.

#2. There were really no other kids in her age bracket so this had its off points during the 4 sea days but having just left what was wintery weather those 4 days were spent poolside or on the veranda preparing to bring home a Caribbean tan.

#3. She enjoyed some of the daytime activities (live music etc. by the pool) and mealtimes were always looked forward to especially on the 2 formal evenings where she got a chance to dress for the occasion.

#4. The four port days were fine and she enjoyed hanging out with us and doing a lot of plain old sightseeing (Mayan ruins, pirate stuff>>>) and of course shopping.

We all had a great time and did another with her a year later. But that is just our experience and is sure to be different than other's.

bosco

We did the Serenade 10 night cruise earlier this year. As you suspected, yes....the demographics of that type of ship/itinerary is of the much older crowd. We rarely saw any children at all, and of those, most were babies or toddlers (too young for school). I don't remember seeing even one teenager.

Lots of B2B cruisers and many staying on for multiple trips. While we are in our 60's, we actually were one of the younger couples. It's a very quiet, relaxing cruise, which we very much enjoyed, but not something I would recommend for an active teenager.

We are booked again next year for the 11 night.

It depends on the teenager. Stating that teens will be bored or that the ship is not good for teens is a big over generalization. Does she mind hanging with her parents? Does she understand that there won't be many kids her age? Would she simply be very appreciative because you're taking her on a 10 day cruise? As a teen not too too long ago, I would've loved to do this cruise with my parents.

Thanks for all the input guys. It has been really helpful.

Our daughter is not really very extroverted and is kind of shy around other adults so lack of kids her age maybe a bit of a problem:(.

We had originally just planned this cruise as an anniversary getaway and she would have spent the time with her grandparents. However my in-laws MAY have to travel during this period so hence we are now looking at bringing her with us just in case.

The cruise is a Friday and school is out here the following Thursday so she will not be missing much time away from school.

Hopefully things will work out as I also believe this cruise is not a good fit for her but we will try to make the best of it if we have to.

Hello there! We've talked about the Serenade before. Cruised the 10-day Caribbean in April this year. I don't remember seeing many kids/young teens on board. You might enjoy the trivia as a family, and of course the pools, but not like the bigger ships and shorter cruises.

Yes...I remember our conversations quite well:).

I also asked this question on the other thread as I figured the folks there would have more specific info for the identical previous cruise.

I'd try posting this on the roll call for your cruise - if it's a school vacation time, there may be other teens also going.

We have the Serenade 10 day booked for next April. Originally it was just my wife and I but now our 16 year daughter maybe joining us.

 

I expect and older demographic to be on this cruise so we are a bit worried that there may not be a lot of kids her age and she may be bored out of her mind having to hang with us:cool:.

 

Can anyone who has done any of these longer cruises or this particular cruise tell me what the demographic is like.

 

Thanks in advance.

There may not be a lot of kids on a 10 day, but she really only needs 1 to connect with.

Sign her up for the teen clubs/groups. I'm sure she'll make a connection and be fine.

Enjoy!

If possible, get a great ship internet data plan for her. My guess is that may help.

If possible, get a great ship internet data plan for her. My guess is that may help.

Of that I am quite sure:D

I'd try posting this on the roll call for your cruise - if it's a school vacation time, there may be other teens also going.

I was just about to suggest this. Of course, not everyone posts on Cruise Critic roll calls, but you just might find a teen or two that she could connect with before the cruise (if she wants to). Have a wonderful time! :D

Yes, I think there will be a minimal number of teens onboard.

Also, Serenade is not a good ship for teens. While it is a glamorous ship with lots of glass, it was the most boring ship we'd ever been on. There was a lack of activities and we missed things like the Ice Rink and Royal Promenade.

Funny how everyone is different. Myvteens love Serenade and find the billiard and chess tables to be a great spot to meet others

I think itcis my daughter's favourite royal ship

Freudian slip or typo...............

 

 

 

That's "UNLIKELY" to take them on a 10 night cruise. ;) :D

This is totally of topic.

Were you part of our CC group that "built" our own ship "Mustard of the Seas"? It was back around 2002/03.

We had assigned jobs on the ship and got really silly. Every time I see your name I think I remember it from back then.

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