Cruising with Teens
 

We are planning a cruise for the first time. It is to celebrate 2 high school grads (us and another family) Both will be 18 at the time and there will also be a 15 yr old. We narrowed it down to a mediterranean cruise end of June 09, however, I am not sure whether we should go with X (Summitt or Solstice)HAL (Noordam) or Norwegian (Vogager of the Seas). Norwegian sounds great for the teens, however, we want to make sure that we get the quality, service, etc. that the other 2 seem to offer. Any thoughts?

We have done six European cruises with out two sons - 4 when they were teenagers. We found HAm has a slightly older crowd and fewer teens. The Norwegian line had more teens and therefore bigger teen programs. It is hard to judge the better ship.

The only problem, we found, was that the 18 y/o is "technically" too old for the "kids programs" onboard. When we went, he joined the groups, because he wanted to meet people around his age. The counselors allowed him because the group wasn't that large in the older teens group and a few other 18 y/os also joined. It was mostly evening activities like dancing and scavenger hunts etc.

Check your cruise line. I think 18 y/os are allowed to drink beer -- or at least there seemed to be a certain group of them who did on one of our cruises.

ttt

My first choice would be NCL. It has much younger demographic and that would appeal to your son. X and HAL are for the older crowd.

I took a HAL Canadian Cruise and we were the youngest by far. We got such dirty looks for being a little loud and fun at times. BUT, the food was amazing, the best I have had on a ship so far, the service was great too.

Kids, older kids will amuse themselves. Exploring the ship or just hanging out. Plus if you choose a cruise with as few at sea days as possible. Then you will be off the ship all day in port and the kids will be with you seeing the sights.

You just have to worry if this is one of those cruises with three or more at sea days.

I would go to a cruise review site like cruisereviews.com and read some of the reviews from families with older kids. You will get a good idea what line is best.