young 12 yr old in AO teen club-freedom class

[jaycor99]

Hi

our 12 yr old daughter loved the kids program when she was in the younger groups-loved the planned activities

I notice that she will be with teen groups 12-14 and 15-17 years old and she is a young 12-think both ages are grouped together?

there does not seem to be as much planned activities for her and I worry that the age differance is too much

anyone have a teen that age in the program and did they like it?

thanks alot

[sailinglisa]

If it were me, and my child was a "young 12", once I got on board, I would check out the activities for both the 12 - 14 group and the 8 - 12 group. If she would feel better with the younger group, ask the AO counselors if she could be put in the younger group.

[Onessa]

Our DD was only 4weeks past her 12 birthday at the time of our last cruise. I had the same concerns.

 

The Teen program is much less structured and some of the activities are combined. We let DD try the Teen program the first night and she was fortunate enough to link up with two other 12YO girls and they found two more the next morning -- they were inseperable all cruise! I know that there were other 12YO girls (12YO going on 20YO types) on board but my DD and her friends were all on the same wavelength (somewhere between 11 and 12YO!)

 

We set down some very specific rules for her and the other girls, which they were good about following. They did a lot on their own and did avoid a few of the Teen Club activities because there were older kids there.

 

Give it a try before asking if she can "move down" to the 11YO group. By late 10YO to somewhere in 11YO-dom, many of the activities that were WAY COOL, lose their luster.

[Plibster]

This is a concern for my 12 year old son. He needs more structure. I don't see him "just hanging out" with other boys. My 10 year old daughter on the other hand would have no problem meeting new friends and hanging out. I am thinking of moving him "down", but he is so big for his age.

[VikkiGarcia]

My teens are not the "hang out" type. On RC the teen program usually has 2 staff members. One seems to sit back and watch the "hang out" group. Not being intrusive but keeping an eye on things. The other staff member seems to rally the rest into doing an activity, fooseball tournement, board game, ect. This is the group my kids always fall into. We have met some great teen staff that really want to get your kids having a good time. We have only been on one cruise where the staff "assumed" everyone just wanted to "hang out". The second night I said something about organizing a board game. The staff quickly asked the group and an activity was started and continued the rest of the cruise. It just takes them realizing that they have kids who want a bit more structure and are willing to participate.

[Disneygirl4ever]

This is a concern for my 12 year old son. He needs more structure. I don't see him "just hanging out" with other boys. My 10 year old daughter on the other hand would have no problem meeting new friends and hanging out. I am thinking of moving him "down", but he is so big for his age.

 

I have the same concerns with my DS12. He'll just have turned 13 when we sail. On NCL, the age group is 13-17. I don't at all feel comfortable with him hanging out with 15, 16, and 17 year olds. He's a "young" 12, and I doubt that turning 13 will automatically make him more mature:rolleyes:. I've been trying to find out if NCL will allow him to move down into the 10-12 age group. From what I've read, they are pretty strict about the age groups and don't tend to bend on that.