HOTHS with a Teen?

[dreamer17555]

So wondering if anyone has taken their teens on a HOTHS cruise? My DS is 15, loves DCL, loves Hocus Pocus, but I have been warned that the Halloween cruises are heavy on very small kids and that there might be very few teens. Does anyone have any experience on taking teens on a Halloween cruise?

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

I'm guessing a reason that Halloween cruises might have more preschool and toddler children and fewer teens is due to school schedules. It's easier for parents of littles to take a vacation any time, while teens have school concerns as well as more sports and activities that they cannot miss, especially in the fall when HOTHS cruises occur.

FWIW, we took our 9-year-old on DCL the last week of September last year (she has a funny school schedule and was off that week) and she made a nice friend, but the sailing definitely wasn't crawling with school-age kids or teenagers. (That said, this was less than 2 months after the restart, and I think there were fewer than 1,000 passengers on board.)

 

[dreamer17555]

I'm guessing a reason that Halloween cruises might have more preschool and toddler children and fewer teens is due to school schedules. It's easier for parents of littles to take a vacation any time, while teens have school concerns as well as more sports and activities that they cannot miss, especially in the fall when HOTHS cruises occur.

FWIW, we took our 9-year-old on DCL the last week of September last year (she has a funny school schedule and was off that week) and she made a nice friend, but the sailing definitely wasn't crawling with school-age kids or teenagers. (That said, this was less than 2 months after the restart, and I think there were fewer than 1,000 passengers on board.)

I totally understand about the school schedules and why it might not be a popular sailing for teens- we are looking at the October 24 29th cruise out of Miami.

My son is homeschooled so we don’t have the same constraints others do. I just wanna make sure he’s not going to be one of the only teens on board because that would make him miserable. I might see about trying to join the Facebook group and see if anybody else has teens on the are sailing.

Right now it’s currently a tossup between Mickey’s not so scary Halloween party and this so I’m trying to make sure to pick the one he’s going to like the most. Unfortunately it’s not in the budget to do both.

 

[Scooterboot]

We took a 7 night Fantasy cruise in 2019 pre-covid and there were lots of teens during our fall break, the last week of October. We took a cruise during the same week in 2021and there were only 10-15 teens onboard which was a little bit sad for our teenagers, but we were also sailing at only 25% capacity and still had a great time.

It hasn't kept us from booking a HOTHS for this fall. We're excited for our 7 night Fantasy cruise with our 16 year old in October!

 

[anjuan]

I took my teen on a short 3 day one over Columbus day weekend last year after visiting colleges in FL since she has two days off before and after the weekend. Although there weren't many Halloween activities onboard she had a great time. She did meet other teens on the boat. We actually just decided to do a 4 night on the Dream out of Miami this year.

 

[shananigans]

So wondering if anyone has taken their teens on a HOTHS cruise? My DS is 15, loves DCL, loves Hocus Pocus, but I have been warned that the Halloween cruises are heavy on very small kids and that there might be very few teens. Does anyone have any experience on taking teens on a Halloween cruise?

We did a HOTHS cruise last October and the kids were 13 and 10. Both had an amazing time! We sailed in March and again in May on non-themed cruises and they absolutely loved the Halloween cruise, so we are booked for another Oct 20. So excited to see the girls dresses as the Sanderson sisters!! Our son met two friends he still chats with on that cruise, so I’d say your son should be just fine!