Are my kids the "wrong" age?

[Mom of 4 Princesses]

I agree with the poster who said alot depends on the personality of the teen. My 13 year old did not participate a whole lot in the teen programming. She had just turned 13 on 11/1 and we sailed 11/29. She is not the outgoing type to make friends easily. So during the unstructured time (which is alot), she was hanging out by herself--not very fun. She still had a great time hanging out with us.

My 11 year old really did not care much for the club either. The activities were OK (pajama party, etc) but there was alot of unstructured time that they just hang out and use the computers, etc. She had two cousins with her, so it wasn't that she didn't have a "friend" like my 13 year old. They just really wanted to be swimming.

Last comment is that you really cannot force your kids to stay in the club. My two younger girls are 4 and 6. After one hour, the pager went off. "Sarah would like to be picked up from the club." She would cry every time I mentioned it again. It was not worth the stress for me or for her. I booked this vacation primarily for them, so she hung out with us.

My six year old is the one who enjoyed the clubs the most.