Best cruise line for teens?

[rascalmom]

Obviously since this is a Disney cruise forum, opinions may be skewed (as is mine), but I am wondering what cruise line would be best for our family.

We are considering cruising next Spring Break (7 day, departing March 11 or 12) with our two dd's, 17 & 13. Our oldest will turn 18 during that week. I know Disney is the tops for family's with younger kids, but how are they with the teen set?

Are there any other cruise lines that are particularly good with this age set? Our priorities will be for the girls to have a good time, good food & interesting safe ports.

I'd appreciate any tips you might have - I realize I may be kind of late in the planning game with this. If we choose Disney, we may be able to use some of our (brand new) DVC points for dh & I.

Thanks!

 

[Momeska]

We cruised May 7th on the Magic with DS17 & DS13 (imagine that!). DS17 was excited as this was his high school graduation gift. DS13 was NOT excited and had a "tude". They both LOVED the cruise. They both hung out at the Stack 99% of the time, though not necessarily together. They made friends and had a ball. The only thing we insisted upon was that they join us for dinner every night. In fact, we had ressies for Palo on semi-formal night and DS17 decided to dress and go to our regular rotation. A friend he had met who was seated at another table decided to join him and they were treated like royalty by our servers. After Palo, we stopped in to check on things and DS17 was gone but our servers gave us a full report. DS13 decided to skip that and grab pizza at Pinnochio's on deck 9. They can't wait to do it again, however, DS17 starts college this year so they may have a long wait! Truly, they really loved everything...even when Donald Duck squeezed into the elevator with them. They're still kids at heart as we all are when in the presence of Disney magic.

 

[callahanjulie10]

We have cruised DCL 6 times (1 -4 night Wonder in 99, and the Magic 7 nighters for the rest), RCCL Mariner 7 night. The last time we cruised Magic was 2003 before they made the changes to the tween/teen areas. My DD was bored with DCL programming at 11. She is more active than their programming was. They did a lot of hanging in Common Grounds, playing video games and listening to music or just stormin' the Lab. She loves organized active activities, so we decided our next cruise would offer more for her since when she is happy and occupied, we are too! I researched and found Mariner to have what we needed- it was the newest of these ships and was at Port Canaveral which is much closer to us than Ft Lauderdale or Maimi.
She really loved the ice rink and putt putt, never used the rock climbing wall because it was always full, and there were only boys on the basketball court- but she would have loved to play! The planned activities on Mariner were HORRIBLE! There was no supervision and the kids just ran wild all over the arcade/kids deck areas- not the rest of the ship though! She spent more $$ in the arcade and Johnny Rockets than she did on all 6 DCL cruises combined!
I think it really is how social your child is really.. My DD is shy and doesn't really feel comfortable until she knows someone- never would approach someone she didn't know. If yours are outgoing, they won't have problems on any ship. We are planning on doing DCL again next spring so hopefully they have worked on the areas she disliked!

 

[rascalmom]

The older one is shy; we joke that the younger one can make friends with a rock. They are surprisingly pretty good together though, even with the 4 year age difference. The younger one is the adventurous one - she would love the rock wall. No way would the older one go for that, she would be more into games or dances. Good to know about the arcades - I don't want to invest the money in a cruise for them to not want to do anything beside that. I know what you mean about being kids at heart - we all definitely are too. I wish there was a good cruise out of Galveston/Houston - if I get to Port Canaveral I'm gonna want to go to WDW! We can never take enough time off to do a land/sea trip.

 

[dizneygirl]

Hello,
We just got back from the June 11th West Coast Cruise. I have a son that is 13 and he had a BLAST to say the least. He met a lot of new friends and was out late every night at the dance parties or activities they had. He had so much fun that there would be days I wouldn't see him till our dinner time; however, I would go up and spy on him once in a while to make sure he was behaving. haha!!

I think Disney has an awesome line up of activities for teens. I think your kids would love it!

Dizneygirl

 

[minniemoms]

My 13 and 15 boys liked it. 15 spent a lot of time in the STack, 13 not as much. But they loved it, and 13 year old asked if he earned the money, could he go on one by himself?? I know he was kidding, but they liked it, and they aren't the MOST social ones out there.

 

[DL_DCA_fans]

Our DS17 and DS15 loved Common Grounds last summer on the Wonder and are looking forward to spending as much time as possible on our West Coast Cruise at The Stack. They didn't always participate in the scheduled activities, but sometimes just liked to hang out with the other kids or play video games.