Disney cruise and college aged

[kcashner]

DCL considers an "adult" to be anyone 18 or older. However, the drinking age is 21 on the ships. A CM can (and has) been fired for serving drinks to guests under 21. The KTTW card for 18-20s are labeled "B" rather than A to indicate that they are permitted in adult areas, but not able to be served alcohol.

There are always ways to get around the drinking age. However, CMs are required to SEE the KTTW for each person for whom a drink is being ordered, regardless of who is paying. They can't stop one person from ordering a drink and then handing it to someone else.

DD was "carded" several times when she was in adult areas not ordering anything; in many of those cases the CM just politely asked her how old she was and didn't even look at the KTTW when she offered it.

The "bars" on the ship are primarily entertainment venues. While alcohol is served, MANY people are there for the activities and are not drinking at all. It's a very different atmosphere than my limited "bar" experience on land.

 

[iwrbnd]

Thanks so much for all the insight. I'm learning a lot. I see all sides of this situation. I can understand people not wanting a college aged kid around early teens. Usually those in college wouldn't want to be there anyway but my son has always been young for his age and would fit right in. He has struggled with some delays and although doing very well now he would fit right in with the teens. He went last year for our first cruise and just loved the teen area! He has a spring birthday and if I had held him in Kindergarten like I almost did he would still be in high school at the time of our cruise.

I like how DCL handles the younger classes. They go by development now and not age. They let the child decide where they feel most comfortable. All my children seem developmentally young for their age and it was interesting on our last cruise because they all chose the room that was younger than them. They were a perfect match for those rooms but if they had been made to go to their age class it wouldn't have worked so well. Too bad they can't do that for the teen club but I realize it would get difficult when a way too mature adult might want to hang with younger kids...you definately would want to weed that out.

I'm not complaining and know we will still have fun. I'm just getting opinions and experiences from those who have been in this situation before.

 

[drparoo]

My son was 18....summer before college.....when we cruised the Baltic. He didn't even try to get into the teen club. Didn't want to feel like the oldest kid hanging on. It was a bit lonely for him, but the ports were so busy and interesting, he didn't mind the occasionally lonely sea day. This winter we're cruising the MR, and he'll be 19 1/2. I agree, it's a strange, "lost" age to be cruising Disney. But he's an introvert like me and kind of likes the "forced" solitude.

There's a part of me that thinks it's good for a person that age to learn to find their own entertainment.....

 

[auntie]

Those 18 and older can go into any of the adult areas and do not need to be with parents or siblings. The drinking age is still 21 though, but I have also heard off hand that it is not "strictly" enforced-especially if someone else is ordering (again that's what friends of ours said was their daughter's experience.

Trying to decide between this summer and next. Might be better to just wait until he is 21. I don't know that I want the hassle of having to worry whether he can be served a beer or not when he's with us or his older siblings. Is this also the case while in Castaway Cay?..as isn't the drinking age in the Bahamas 18?...

 

[cmwade77]

Hi,

I am also in this situation. My DS has been cruising Disney since he was 10 years old and last year was probably his last time to be able to participate in the teen club.

He will be 18 on 9/22 and we sail on 11/12 of this year. He will not be in college, though, as he will be finishing up a 2 year vocational program.

When I realized that he wouldn't be in the teen club, I really felt bad. He has had such great times in the club and has met lots of new friends.
I think we will speak to the cm's once on board and see what they say. I told him that if all else fails, he needs to have his guitar with him and once he starts playing he will definately meet up with new friends!!

I do agree, this is a very difficult age group. Maybe they should increase the age for the teen club to include all teenagers and then separate them into 13-15, 16-17, 18-19. Just a thought. Good luck to all those in the same spot. I hope your teens have a great time wherever they fit!

I know you probably meant the Guitar part in jest, but just a heads up, on Disney's site it says you are not allowed to bring Musical Instruments on board. I would hate for someone to get denied boarding or have to part with their musical instrument if they showed up with it. I thought it was an odd requirement, but makes sense to some degree I suppose they wouldn't want people to think you are part of the entertainment or have you trying to charge them for you performing or something.

 

[disneyholic family]

My son was 18....summer before college.....when we cruised the Baltic. He didn't even try to get into the teen club. Didn't want to feel like the oldest kid hanging on. It was a bit lonely for him, but the ports were so busy and interesting, he didn't mind the occasionally lonely sea day. This winter we're cruising the MR, and he'll be 19 1/2. I agree, it's a strange, "lost" age to be cruising Disney. But he's an introvert like me and kind of likes the "forced" solitude.

There's a part of me that thinks it's good for a person that age to learn to find their own entertainment.....

i'm 55 and i enjoy silly organized activities when i'm on vacation....sort of an adult version of summer camp...
that's what i shell out all that money for...
sort of like a floating catskills....
which is why, if i ever do a TA, it will be on a ship with lots of adult activities (like the QM2)...

anyway, i digress.....disney ignores this age group....why? i don't know...
ice breaker meets are not activities...
organized activities are organizied activities...
if they had something fun for that age group to do, at least some of them would participate..

if you build it, they will come...

but apparently this segment of the market is not of any interest to disney....

which is fine....lots of other ships in the sea....

 

[kcashner]

Trying to decide between this summer and next. Might be better to just wait until he is 21. I don't know that I want the hassle of having to worry whether he can be served a beer or not when he's with us or his older siblings. Is this also the case while in Castaway Cay?..as isn't the drinking age in the Bahamas 18?...

While the drinking age in the Bahamas is 18, DCL enforces Disney policies on its property. Thus, the drinking age on Castaway Cay is 21. If you go to Nassau, you can drink at 18 off the ship.

 

[sorul82?]

As to expanding the programming for teens to include older teens--I think most parents of young teens wouldn't like that. The new age groups are basically middle school/junior high and a separate group for high school. (rather than the old groupings that had 13s and occasional 12s with the 17s. To include young adults with the "high school" crowd is probably not the optimal answer!

Not to mention that some 14 year olds are still in middle school.

 

[iwrbnd]

I think they should have two groups. One for younger teens and one for older teens and the "child" should be able to choose what group he feels he fits in the most. Some 14 yr olds are very young acting while others seem much older. It's such a huge age span of emotional development.

 

[cyberdeb]

My daughter will be turning 19 in May, graduating from high school in June and beginning college the week after we return from our cruise in early september. Not sure whether she wants to do the teen thing or not. Will they still allow her to particpate in the teen program.

 

[erbie]

There are always ways to get around the drinking age. However, CMs are required to SEE the KTTW for each person for whom a drink is being ordered, regardless of who is paying. They can't stop one person from ordering a drink and then handing it to someone else. .

Well that's certainly not well-enforced. I was on Wonder in January, and ordered drinks for myself and my husband several times when he was not in sight of the CM. I was never asked for more than my KTTW.

 

[disneyholic family]

regarding DCL and college age cruisers - i think it can be split into 4 groups:

1. those who are traveling with others the same age and will hang out with each other, so they don't need anything organized by disney - so it really doesn't matter that DCL doesn't have anything organized for them

2. those who have recently turned 18 and choose to participate in the teen club

3. those who are traveling alone with their parents, but enjoy hanging out with their parents or just chilling on their own and aren't interested in socializing with others their age - and so the lack of organized DCL activities doesn't matter to them

4. those traveling alone with their parents (or with younger siblings who are in the kid clubs most of the time), who would really like to have some organized activities with other cruisers their own age.


College age cruisers in the first three groups will have no issues on DCL and will probably enjoy themselves immensely.
Group 4 will probably not have as good a time as the other 3 groups.

DD was in group 4. While she enjoyed hanging out with us, the cruise was not at all what she expected. She's a very social person and the lack of organized activities for her own age group was a disappointment. And to make matters worse, there were very few organized activities for adults (which i would have enjoyed too- but there barely were any).
So while she enjoyed the cruise, her experience was nowhere near that of DS - who pretty much had non-stop fun in the teen club. (by the way, the CMs in the teen club on both of our cruises were outstanding and DS still talks about them).

 

[iwrbnd]

Sounds like I'm not the only one who has a late teen/early college aged "child" that would like to join the organized fun that Disney offers.

Maybe the teen group could be just that...a group for all teenagers regardless of year in school. EighTEEN and nineTEEN are still teenagers, right?

 

[hopelea]

While we are onboard we are going to re-book for Summer 2012 on the Fantasy...my oldest dd will be 18, just finished high school.

Are you telling me that she has to chose which activities she does, teen or adult? What exactly do you mean by that? If she choses teen than she can't enter the spa with me? That is silly!

 

[edk35]

While we are onboard we are going to re-book for Summer 2012 on the Fantasy...my oldest dd will be 18, just finished high school.

Are you telling me that she has to chose which activities she does, teen or adult? What exactly do you mean by that? If she choses teen than she can't enter the spa with me? That is silly!

Hey there...we will be in the same situation as you. (btw, I am from Dothan AL but live in MD) We are planning a cruise for summer 2012. Our dd will be 21, ds 18 (will have just graduated hs) and ds 13. So that concerns me too. They have to CHOOSE????? Can they not do both if they are 18? I mean I am sure he will want to see what the teen club is when his brother goes but yet, he will want to hang out with older teens too.

 

[cats mom]

While we are onboard we are going to re-book for Summer 2012 on the Fantasy...my oldest dd will be 18, just finished high school.

Are you telling me that she has to chose which activities she does, teen or adult? What exactly do you mean by that? If she choses teen than she can't enter the spa with me? That is silly!

I'm thinking the choose one and no moving back and forth comment is a canned response they give whenever someone asks for a change of age group and probably has more to do with how they're coded in the computer than anything.

I agree that it doesn't make sense in the case of a teen who has officially aged out of the clubs, but still wants to participate. It's not like they're going to scan her KTTW card at the spa entrance and say oh, I see you've chosen to participate in teen activities, therefore you can't enter an adult area even though you're 18. I just don't see that happening.

I'm with disneyholic family, I think DCL could do more for the college age group, although maybe that does vary from cruise to cruise? I know there's one gal who falls in this age group who posts here and she says she has been involved in lots of college age activities. Like I said, when my DD went to the first college age social on our cruise, it didn't happen. She also popped in to the assigned restaurant at the assigned time for a lunch for that age group, and again, no one there.

We've had the same thing happen with scheduled adult activites though. We were in a club at the assigned time, a CM wandered in and half heartedly asked if anyone wanted to play, there wasn't much of a response, so he walked away. No real attempt to involve anyone. DH and I were there to play, so we went around and recruited a few other couples to join us, then we had to hunt down the CM to run the game. Everyone ended up having a great time, and it was fun having that connection with our fellow contestants when we saw them around the ship. But if we hadn't taken the initiative, the game wouldn't have happened.

From my experience the CM's definitely could put more effort into getting folks involved, especially the college age group.

 

[gotomu212]

Are you telling me that she has to chose which activities she does, teen or adult? What exactly do you mean by that? If she choses teen than she can't enter the spa with me? That is silly!

Just reporting what our friends' daughter told all of us. She was told at the teen club that she was welcome to participate there but if she chose to do that she could not participate in the adult activities (adult shows, spa, cove cafe, etc). If she started doing both and other kids saw/heard about it and told the CMs, they wouldn't let her participate in the Teen Club anymore since "no adults allowed in the Stack".

I think they viewed the Teen Club as a perk for those that can't quite do all the adult things and when they start letting 18 year olds do both the other kids get jealous and it leads to issues of being left out.

 

[jerry112]

I know you probably meant the Guitar part in jest, but just a heads up, on Disney's site it says you are not allowed to bring Musical Instruments on board. I would hate for someone to get denied boarding or have to part with their musical instrument if they showed up with it. I thought it was an odd requirement, but makes sense to some degree I suppose they wouldn't want people to think you are part of the entertainment or have you trying to charge them for you performing or something.

Wow, thanks for the heads up. I really had no idea he couldn't bring his acoustic guitar on board. He has played in the talent show several times and had to use whatever guitar they found for him. We really were considering bringing it for him and I don't know what I would have done if we had to leave it somewhere.

Even knowing all this, he still wants to go so I think I'll stop worrying about it and leave it to the fates. He is not an introvert at all so will probably find his way no problem. And of course, he always has us to hang with. lol

 

[cmwade77]

No problem, just a heads up for everyone, the prohibited list can be found at:
http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/faqs/prohibited-items/

Most items are common sense, but just so that you are aware.

 

[dylan'smom]

When my DS was 18 (& in college), he went to several organized activities for the college group & there were quite a few young adults there.

They had a couple mixers, lunches, and other meets -- some where they danced in the clubs till closing. It was relaxed & not constant but we had a port intensive itinerary in the Baltics & it was just a perfect amount of time, as it turned out.

But I guess he falls into the category of a very social guy & didn't care that much about some of the organized activities in the teen club - cared more about the friends he made. I mean, while he's a bit disappointed that the area set up for teens on the Dream is sooooo much more impressive than the Stack was, and he can't go there on our upcoming Dream cruise, he & his new friends OFTEN skipped those organized activities in the past to just maybe sit around & visit, go to a movie or show, etc.

The clubs were a good perk for him, as his parents are early risers & it gave him something to do...along with the other college agers that were together here & there. Oh and using the quieter adult pool & a trip to Palo was a perk he seemed to love!