Are you allowed to place a 12 year old with teen friends in Entourage on the Getaway?

[vinotinto]

Traveling with another family. Our daughters are really good friends and are looking forward to hanging out together. My DD is 12 (not turning 13 until 3 months after the cruise is completed), the other girl is 13. Are we able to request the 12-year old to join her friend at Entourage?

[1025cruise]

You can ask, but it will be up to the youth director.

[ColeThornton]

Most likely not.   NCL is very strict on the age limits.

[mjkacmom]

I doubt it, they are strict, especially with the teen club, which is more like a meet up spot without a ton of supervision.

[vinotinto]

Thanks, good thing we haven't booked this yet. Meet up spot would have been perfect.

 

Anyone aware of cruise lines that would allow the 12-year old to be placed in the teen group? 

 

Also, does anyone have any actual experience trying to do this (and being accepted or being told no).

Edited January 4, 2020 by vinotinto

[mjkacmom]

1 hour ago, vinotinto said:

Thanks, good thing we haven't booked this yet. Meet up spot would have been perfect.

 

Anyone aware of cruise lines that would allow the 12-year old to be placed in the teen group? 

 

Also, does anyone have any actual experience trying to do this (and being accepted or being told no).

I’ve never heard of anyone being allowed, I know at least once the counselors told the kids not to try and sneak in and embarrass themselves, ages are on the cards. RCL is 12+.

[FLAHAM]

I asked to "bend" the age rules by a year and was told it was strictly prohibited by the insurance carrier. 

[dexddd]

DCL might with the age groups.  They definitely allow cross over for the younger age groups.

 

Post on DCL forum.

[mjkacmom]

4 minutes ago, dexddd said:

DCL might with the age groups.  They definitely allow cross over for the younger age groups.

 

Post on DCL forum.

 

4 minutes ago, dexddd said:

DCL might with the age groups.  They definitely allow cross over for the younger age groups.

 

Post on DCL forum.

At twice the cost.

[dexddd]

2 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

 

At twice the cost.

They didn't put any restrictions so error on side of providing help.

[mjkacmom]

They’d be together on Carnival but not Princess.

[smplybcause]

1 hour ago, mjkacmom said:

I’ve never heard of anyone being allowed, I know at least once the counselors told the kids not to try and sneak in and embarrass themselves, ages are on the cards. RCL is 12+.

 

Fyi I saw on the boards the other day that royal is revamping their kids program on some ships. The teen program is 13+ and the younger kids aren't being split into as many groups. Last I saw on the thread there wasn't a consensus as whether it was amped ships only, just some amped ships, or rolling out fleetwide. So if you have a 12yo and are going on royal make sure to ask about the specific ship. 

[Vyhanek]

NCL is very inflexible with this.

 

Carnival and Royal are much more flexible in my experience in asking to move a child to a different age group to be with cousins, etc..   Not NCL.  

 

In all fairness to NCL though, the 13 year old will be in with the older kids, 13-15 I think and they will be allowed to wander all over the ship during kids club.   Its more of a free for all with very little supervision in the teen club.    Most parents of 12 year olds won't want that in a "kids club".   

Edited January 5, 2020 by Vyhanek

[Sauer-kraut]

They don't have to go to the Kid's Club they can hang out together, just make sure YOU set the rules as to what is acceptable for your daughter.  Kid's club isn't mandatory, they can go swimming, eat at the buffet etc (or any restaurant for that matter) on their own.  If they have the soda package they can go and get their drinks at any bar.  

[complawyer]

there is virtually little to no chance they will allow your 12 year old to join the teen club. ncl gets very strict with its childrens programs

[Nola26]

Here's the reality your 12yo would be hanging out with 17yos. That's why you don't mix them in that environment. 

[megansdad1]

I asked about this on my last Dawn cruise and was told no.  

[shanefm3]

I found if you change the DOB to make him/her a year Older, then NCL doesn’t catch it as they don’t see passport Id, but purely go by your booking DOB  . I did it when one son was 12 and the other 14. They wanted to stay together and the “advice” actually came from an NCL employee friend . They had a blast together 

[BirdTravels]

16 minutes ago, shanefm3 said:

I found if you change the DOB to make him/her a year Older, then NCL doesn’t catch it as they don’t see passport Id, but purely go by your booking DOB  . I did it when one son was 12 and the other 14. They wanted to stay together and the “advice” actually came from an NCL employee friend . They had a blast together 

There is a small potential that the discrepancy will be picked up by Customs and Border Patrol now or on a future foreign travel by the kid casing them to be detained or denied boarding. There was a big issue at the end of the year where NCL asked that middle names match exactly because of CBP pre-/post- cruise checks. 

[shanefm3]

3 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

There is a small potential that the discrepancy will be picked up by Customs and Border Patrol now or on a future foreign travel by the kid casing them to be detained or denied boarding. There was a big issue at the end of the year where NCL asked that middle names match exactly because of CBP pre-/post- cruise checks. 

Fortunately that was a good few years back , we’ve traveled extensively since then without issue 

[cruisinmeme]

While i do not have first hand knowledge to your answer i do know something. We took a graduation cruise for granddaughter and her bestie came along. Granddaughter has one of those late birthdays and wasn’t turning 18 until September (cruise was June) while her friend had already turned 18 just 6 weeks before cruise. Friend was NOT ALLOWED in teen club.

i guess that is why they have rules.  If you allow a 12 year old (at what point would it be allowed) or allow an 18 year old (at what point would be cut off)they make the rule 13-17 year old and it is plain as day. Pretty well sums it up. I wouldn’t be a fan of my 12 year old meeting up with an 18 year old. Just saying

[bethann2103]

Just to piggy back on this topic, we are cruising with 4 kids under twelve and 2 thirteen year olds.  I don't love the idea of the age range of 13-17... a 13 year old is lightyears away from even a 15 year old let alone 17.  I wish they had a middle age group that would encompass 12-14 year olds.  Those middle school years can be tricky.  I doubt our girls will spend much time at the club but I am hopeful they will meet some kids their age and they can have age appropriate fun together!  

[mjkacmom]

19 minutes ago, bethann2103 said:

Just to piggy back on this topic, we are cruising with 4 kids under twelve and 2 thirteen year olds.  I don't love the idea of the age range of 13-17... a 13 year old is lightyears away from even a 15 year old let alone 17.  I wish they had a middle age group that would encompass 12-14 year olds.  Those middle school years can be tricky.  I doubt our girls will spend much time at the club but I am hopeful they will meet some kids their age and they can have age appropriate fun together!  

I’ve had teens of many ages on 4 different NCL ships in Entourage, the teens form groups with kids the same age. There is a 2 year age gap between most of my kids, they never hung out with each other until the oldest were 18 and 20 (and aged out of the club).

[bethann2103]

16 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

I’ve had teens of many ages on 4 different NCL ships in Entourage, the teens form groups with kids the same age. There is a 2 year age gap between most of my kids, they never hung out with each other until the oldest were 18 and 20 (and aged out of the club).

thank you for this info!   Our carnival ship last year did not do a great job of dividing ages and my daughter then 12 had some very weird interactions with a boy much older than her that made her very uncomfortable.   Needless to say she did not go to the teen club after these incidents...  Hoping this experience is better!

[Travelling2Some]

Our kids were all very close in age and wanted to be together so this was an issue in our family back when they were teenagers.  In our experience there is never any leeway at all and no exceptions no matter what.  This was the case with both NCL and Royal.