cruise line advice traveling with teens

[Oursweetworld]

We are brand new to cruising with haven taken only one cruise on the Fantasy in March and are now planning our next family cruise to Alaska on the Wonder June 2017. For our family, I think Disney is a great cruise for our children ages 7-14. I am however also a girl scout leader of my teen's troop and would like to plan a cruise for 6 (will-be) 16 year olds--Thinking a 4 night cruise to somewhere warm. You are never too old for Disney but by 2018 I know it will be well beyond our price point. For those seasoned cruisers (especially the ones with teens) could you please recommend a cruise line I should look into? Also with Disney I know other than excursions and alcohol for the most part everything else was included. I'd like to find a line that doesn't nickel and dime you once you are on board. Thanks in advance for your advice!

 

[Oursweetworld]

^^^Also would love to said out of New York or Baltimore to avoid airfare costs. Thx

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

We are brand new to cruising with haven taken only one cruise on the Fantasy in March and are now planning our next family cruise to Alaska on the Wonder June 2017. For our family, I think Disney is a great cruise for our children ages 7-14. I am however also a girl scout leader of my teen's troop and would like to plan a cruise for 6 (will-be) 16 year olds--Thinking a 4 night cruise to somewhere warm. You are never too old for Disney but by 2018 I know it will be well beyond our price point. For those seasoned cruisers (especially the ones with teens) could you please recommend a cruise line I should look into? Also with Disney I know other than excursions and alcohol for the most part everything else was included. I'd like to find a line that doesn't nickel and dime you once you are on board. Thanks in advance for your advice!

I believe Royal, Norwegian and Carnival all sail out of the New York area. I would suggest going on cruise critic and start reading trip reports. We've only done DCL at this point but will be sailing the new Carnival Vista in 29 days, I'll be sure to give a thorough review here. Once I started reading reviews I easily saw there are a lot more similarities than differences between all the cruise lines.

 

[Ofinn]

^^^Also would love to said out of New York or Baltimore to avoid airfare costs. Thx

I would love to sail out of New York or Baltimore just to spend a few days in New York or Washington DC pre cruise. We have only sailed DCL. If you sail offseason I think DCL is great. Always lots of kids onboard, and great family atmosphere. The teen clubs are great on DCL even after the age of 14. If your sailing on a school holiday...the prices are a joke. I would look at other lines such as Carnival, Royal, and Norwegian. As far as nickel and diming...well you may get nickeled and dimed a few hundred dollars, but you'll probably save thousands on the cruise fare.

 

[Prose]

How many adults will you have with you? Different cruise lines have different requirements about whether an adult is needed in each room, so check into those.

We have a 16 year old DD - she enjoyed our 4 DCL cruises, but is super-excited about everything there is to do on our upcoming Royal cruise - ice skating, zip line, rock wall - and she can get into the Solarium (adult sun deck) at 16. If you eat in the main dining room, the only "extra" you might have to pay for would be sodas on Royal. Lemonade and water are free, there is free ice cream near the pool, and there are quick food locations like pizza and hot dogs that are also included.

 

[RedSox68]

We have sailed out of NYC on Carnival to St. John on a 4-night cruise -- loved it and the ship and thought the port was so convenient. Sailed from Quebec back into NYC on a Canada-New England Fall cruise; and we are leaving this October on NCL to Bermuda out of NYC. I hate flying, so anything out of NYC, Bayonne, NJ or Baltimore is a real plus. On Carnival we brought a couple of 6-packs of soda and put the in ice each morning for that night -- we didn't buy a drink package. On NCL we got the drink package included. These lines offer far more incentives than Disney as far as booking -- like great discounts, free upgrades and packages. Shop around and check out some reviews. There are a lot of 4 and 5-nighters to Bahamas.