Lynne, you bring up a point that I have been wondering about, and maybe some of the past PC cruisers can answer...When we were on the Mexican Riviera cruise in '05 there seemed to be a lot of miss behaved kids (and parents who allowed it) on the ship. There was this sense of entitlement that I had never seen before (or since). When I asked a cast member about it, she said that there was a higher level of poor behavior since coming to CA and she attributed it to CA (we do, as a state, have entitlement issues). My question is, have you noticed that with so many Californians on the PC cruise, a difference in behavior?
BTW: Please don't fillet me because of these comments, I was born and raised in California, still live here and have a VERY well behaved child. But, I do admit, parents here seem to allow their children far more leeway and excuses than I have seen in other states--maybe that is true everywhere, in which case I apologize.
Here are some thoughts on East coast vs. West coast kids.
I don't know to what degree this story is typical, but it might offer some insight. I brought a group of Northern California teens to a leadership program in Washington D.C. To my astonishment, our group immediately began to get into "trouble" and accumulate a large number of complaints from the local staff. What's more, their behavior was indeed out of character. Now these were great kids - our top leaders. And it took a day or so for me to figure out what was happening.
Our teens were accustomed to being treated with a great deal of respect by the adult staff - and were used to speaking their mind. As staff, we expected our teens to disagree and debate with us, but we also expected them to act as responsible leaders.
When they arrived in D.C. the local staff had certain expectations of teens in terms of their behavior. They didn't expect teens to disagree with them or to debate their point of view. They acted in a way that, from my perspective, was extremely condescending. Our teens, being unaccustomed to being treated in that way, reacted poorly - becoming obstinate and at times rude.
So, did our California teens have a "sense of entitlement"? Or were they "strong an independent leaders"? It would depend on who you asked.
Ultimately, I explained to our group that yes - they were being treated poorly, but they were guests and had an obligation to put up with what really was quite rude behavior on the part of their hosts. Once they understood what was going on, they did politely put up with it, keeping the gripes to themselves.
In later years I was able to better prepare the group for what we had come to see as a real culture clash between the east and west coast. Our teens, who were taught to stand up for what they believed in and speak up to power, had to put up and shut up in order to avoid being seen as obnoxious and rude.
Is there a real east/west culture clash, or did we just hit the jackpot? I don't know. But I'll bet that different adults would interpret identical behavior on the part of teens on a
DCL cruise differently. What some would see as obnoxious or rude, other adults might see as perfectly reasonable.
Personally, I've never had any problems with maurauding teens on a DCL cruise, and on those few occasions where I had a minor issue (such as blocking an elevator), I found that a polite and respectful request made with a smile was always effective.
That's not to say that there have not been obnoxious misbahaved teens on cruises (I've read some real horror stories). I've just been lucky enoough not to experience them.
If not, I will have to use my "teacher eyes"...they often work without saying a word
gonna have to chase her up today!!!
It really put mum of getting another dog, 
cause we all love her too much and she would miss Orly too much.
