HAL for Spring Break with teen/pre-teens?

Hoping not to offend anyone by this but I guess our thoughts of HAL is that its generally an "older" crowd.

We are throwing around some ideas for cruising in the next month and one of the itineraries that looks good is with HAL.

I'd be curious to hear from families with similar aged kids what they thought of HAL. Most of the time, our boys are happy with a basketball court, slides, the buffet and maybe the teen area for the 14 year old. I don't believe the ship we are looking at (Nieuw Amsterdam) has slides, but should have everything else so that's good.

thanks in advance.

Another thought is to read the Roll Call threads of some of the cruises you are considering. It may give you an indication of other teens on board or not.

Around here a few of the collages have already had spring break.

Our high schools -- well many of them will only get Good Friday off because they have to make up days due to snow.

If water slides are important ship features, best to choose the ships that offer them. Not part of the HAL pool scene. It is also not an insult to claim HAL is known for an older passenger base; that in fact is one of HAL's strong points. Mainly because so many other choices are out there for more family oriented or younger demographic cruising.

Nice to know there is at least one mainstream cruise line that is still has more low-key appeal for older adults. However, the HAL dedicated youth programs and facilities continue to get pretty high marks, so they don't discourage families at all, and as you found out offer some pretty enticing travel itineraries.

We're on Zuiderdam departing Fort Lauderdale on 1st April with our 14year old son - that cruise covers when most of the UK have their Easter holidays this year. I found it hard to work out when the US holidays were, seems to vary a lot so am not sure if it is a holiday cruise or not.

We haven't cruised HAL for a few years, we've been enjoying Celebrity lately but our last HAL cruise was a success for our family. A smaller group of teens works well for him, where everyone gets to know each other, they hang out in the teen club, eat pizza and have lots of banter, he's not that keen on slides and the wilder activities or huge groups so the smaller, more sedate ships suit us all better.

Our spring break starts next Friday the 23, we are going over Easter out of Fort Lauderdale on the 28th with a 13 and 16 year old.

This will be a first for us, we normally have done Disney but this was to good of a deal to pass up, an outside room with drink and the quench package for less then 1/3 of what we could get an inside room on Disney.

My children (now 16 and 14) had done 2 HAL Caribbean cruises (Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam) both time over Christmas a few years back. They have also done Disney, Anthem (last spring break) and Liberty of the Seas Caribbean itinerary and we will be going to Oasis of the Seas this summer. As much as they enjoyed HAL, they do admit that if they had a choice, they would much prefer a ship that have more activities. There is just not that many things 'to do" onboard a HAL ship, period. However, we did enjoy our time at the Exploration Café, at the pool and the basketball court, in addition to the beautiful ports we visited.

Meanwhile, I am still anxiously waiting for my cabin assignment for my cruise next month on the Veendam. Lovely! :cool:

HAL is great for families, we sail every spring break usually mid March and kids(18,13&4) have fun with the activities..until last week's cruise..we did 10 day on the veendam and there were only 4 teenagers 13-17 and 6 kids 3-12.. club HAL was empty most of the time and when my kids were there it was like having a private sitter ...the rest of the time my kids enjoyed the pool and the sports deck

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Next month you will see fewer children then in March but still some and remember that with each passing year there are more children being home schooled.

Keith

If water slides are important ship features, best to choose the ships that offer them. Not part of the HAL pool scene. It is also not an insult to claim HAL is known for an older passenger base; that in fact is one of HAL's strong points. Mainly because so many other choices are out there for more family oriented or younger demographic cruising.

 

Nice to know there is at least one mainstream cruise line that is still has more low-key appeal for older adults. However, the HAL dedicated youth programs and facilities continue to get pretty high marks, so they don't discourage families at all, and as you found out offer some pretty enticing travel itineraries.

I agree with you.