Cruising with teenagers

[crazycrandi]

My daughter is 16, too young in her mind for kid clubs and her brother is 18 too old to hang with his little sister!  So while my son will be out and about making friends my daughter will be stuck to my hip leaving no guilt free alone time for me and my husband (not that we need a lot). Any ideas!  We will be on enchantment RYC next month!!!

[Wordell1]

24 minutes ago, Heymarco said:

Encourage her to go to Teen Club meet and mingle the first night. With a bit of luck, she’ll make a friend.

 

This, they can join in any organized teen activities or just hang out on their own.  We barely saw my teenager on our last cruise.  I would also consider the internet package as it will allow you to "text" on the ship using WhatsApp.  Its a good way to keep in touch with your teenager and they can keep in touch with any friends they make onboard.

[Cruisinmomma13]

We have to drag our teens to dinner with us! There are so many activities for them on-board. From climbing walls, teen discos, movies, skating, teen club, ping pong, all designed for only teens. 

[mjkacmom]

The 16 year old will have a much better chance of making new friends and never seeing you again than the 18 year old. She is the perfect age for the teen club, go the first night and meet a bunch of like minded teens to hang out with for the week. On our last cruise, we had 3 kids in the teen club. Fortunately our 18 and 20 year olds had cruised before, and took it upon themselves to find other young adults to spend time with.

[ZiggaZagga17]

1 hour ago, crazycrandi said:

My daughter is 16, too young in her mind for kid clubs and her brother is 18 too old to hang with his little sister!  So while my son will be out and about making friends my daughter will be stuck to my hip leaving no guilt free alone time for me and my husband (not that we need a lot). Any ideas!  We will be on enchantment RYC next month!!!

Have a look on your roll call to see if there's families cruising with you with a similarly aged teen?

[gerif]

I’ll just reiterate how important it is to go the first night as that’s when friendships form. Important for any age group but especially for teens. 

[Homosassa]

If your teenage daughter  wants to spend the time with her parents that may not be available in her daily life ashore, don't discourage her.

 

It is precious time for both the child and adults.

 

It is the time when you may find out things about your daughter that may not have been discussed before.

[crazycrandi]

Yes I definitely look forward to time with her we will have spa time and be together a lot I am excited but me and my husband may want to play at casino or maybe have a date night is all and don’t want her to feel alone ya know

[LuCruise]

Embrace it. Spend time together. Relax by the pool together, find activities going on. Before you know it, she'll be grown up and on her own. 

 

[bobmacliberty]

I will re-re-reiterate the first night in the teen club.  They do a lot to get the kids to meet each other, since some are more naturally shy than others.  When our daughters were that age, they did several ship organized events, but equally (or more?) did informal stuff what the "pack" of teens that they met on the first night.  They are (social media) friends with many still today.

 

One of the reasons that we love cruising is that it works well for everyone in our family.  We do port days together as a family but the parents and kids do their own thing on sea days.  We usually had dinner together but there was typically a night (or 2?) where our daughters wanted to eat with their new friends.  Made for a nice date night for us.

[mjkacmom]

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

I will re-re-reiterate the first night in the teen club.  They do a lot to get the kids to meet each other, since some are more naturally shy than others.  When our daughters were that age, they did several ship organized events, but equally (or more?) did informal stuff what the "pack" of teens that they met on the first night.  They are (social media) friends with many still today.

 

One of the reasons that we love cruising is that it works well for everyone in our family.  We do port days together as a family but the parents and kids do their own thing on sea days.  We usually had dinner together but there was typically a night (or 2?) where our daughters wanted to eat with their new friends.  Made for a nice date night for us.

This is exactly why we like cruising. We tend to have breakfast together in the buffet, around the same time, and then see each other in passing. We tend to get together late afternoon, taking turns going back to the cabins to get ready for dinner. After dinner and maybe a show, we all split up again. All 5 of my kids loved the teen club, and keeping in touch with kids they met there for years. On our last cruise, my older kids ended up meeting up with a girl the met on a cruise 3 years before.

[katiel53]

My granddaughter is on the shy side.  She has gone to the teen club for the last couple of cruises.  She has met some friends that she enjoyed doing things with, but, at times, those kids did things with their families in the evening.

 

She is perfectly fine hanging out with her new friends or even with us when we go to a show etc.  She does go the first night because that's really when the kids get to meet each other.

[bigrednole]

We are taking our first cruise. Our daughter is 14, single child, and difficult to go on vacations because she misses out on being with other kids. The teen club I am hoping will give her an escape to have fun on her own for maybe half the time. The other half with us exploring as a family. I am just running things in my head. I only have her for 4 more years through high school, off and on through college, and then she will be on her own. If she wants to spend time with us, I will spend every bit of time I can with her.