CARNIVAL HAS NO ACTIVITES FOR OLDER TEENS
 

We travelled last weekend on the Carnival fascination,it was my daughters 16 birthday and we brought three of her friends to celebrate,I believed I had reserched which cruise lines had activities and I double checked by phoning the Carnival rep who assured me that there was a club called O2 who organised activities especially for this age group. On our first night on board we found the club and Olga gave the girls a brochure outlining the activities and it looked promising,she said there was 40 teens on board in the 15 -17 age group.
The girls arrived for the first activity but no Olga we never saw her again the entire weekend,we watched as other teens arrived and drifted off when they saw no one was running anything. I spoke to the director of childrens clubs who said he look into it but matters never improved. This is an age where you cant send them to bed at 10 but you may like me prefer not to have them wander the boat among drinking adults.
My girls resorted to endlessly having their picture taken as there was nothing else for them to do.My son was in the 12-14 yr group and they had a great time ,I found out on the last night that Carnival does not run the O2 club but subcontracts it.
We came home feeling cheated and depressed,I wish I had taken them to club Med or Disney cruise.I feel Carnival misrepresented their suitability for older teens ,I wonder would they have no one show up in the bars or Casinos as quickly.The teens were full fare paying passangers but were certainly treated like second class citizens .

I have commented on this quite a few times on this board - this is not just Carnival. Cruising with an older teen can leave them without anything to do unless they are very outgoing and likely to meet people on their own.

There is enough for this age group to do on many ships, but organized activities may not be available. While I have not heard about 16 year olds being left out, 17 and 18 year olds are often aged-out of teen activites and too young for adult activites - and obviously not allowed in casinos and to drink in bars.

In defense of cruiselines, my 16 and 20 year olds and their friends are not interested in adult-planned activities for the most part. It is a difficult age for this - they get bored, but don't want anything that feels like adults are supervising or planning.

When you say no one was "running anything" - I am not sure what older teens would want someone to run for them other than perhaps a designated room with music, video games, food.

Picking the right ship also has a lot to do with satisfying your kids. We once cruised on the sister ship, the Sensation, and my girls hated it. However when we took them on a Royal Caribbean Voyager class ship, it was entirely different. More shows, parades, ice skating, rock climbing, basketball, putt-putt, movie theatre, etc. etc. Just an entirely different experience.

I am sorry that you didnt enjoy your cruise. However I was on a cruise with my siblings and cousins at that age on Carnival and never was bored. I believe its all about what you make of it. I would have hated organized activities at that age. We hung at the pool, the beach etc. Never had a boring moment.

There is a group just for teens 15-17. Our 5 teens had a great time with the group. It wasn't just the organize group activities, but the times they were in the disco for their age teens only.

Sorry to hear the problem you had. We have traveled extensively with our teen daughter including several cruises to Alaska, Mexico and the Mediterranean. I wonder if part of the problem may have been the time of year you traveled. Most teens are in school in October so there will not be that many on board. 40 isn't a large number knowing how teens interact. If a teen isn't necessarily outgoing, it could be tough to meet others. However, if it is possible, you may want to try taking your teen on a summer cruise. We have been on several and the number of teens on board number in the hundreds. Unfortunately for you, the cruise line should have staffed the teen center regardless if it was 40 teens on board or 400.