My teen was bored!?!?

[sillecruisers]

So we cruised in Sept, and everyone had a blast (or so I thought). It just came out yesterday that my 15yo son was bored on the ship. He told me he watched 7 movies- some in room, some in theater. He went to the shows with us, we swam, rode the aquaduck, etc. There were times he was on his own- like during our remy dinner, and our sea day mixology. He did go to Vibe, but said there was rarely ever anyone there. He said he wandered the entire ship. He didn't want to tell me he was bored during the cruise because he didn't want to disappoint me. I am just shocked. But on the other hand, I'm also wondering what he could have done to avoid boredom. It was just a 4 day cruise and we did the dolphin swim at Blue Lagoon, and he did the teen excursion at CC. So he had full days off the ship. There was only one sea day, so not a lot of time to be bored. He does tend to do stuff with friends, and I guess is not that great at entertaining himself without his friends. But, but... still. Even if I was alone, I would never be bored on a disney ship.

This all came up when he told me he wanted to go to London for our next vacation, and I told him we were thinking of doing the EBTA in May 2018 for his graduation. Then he told me he was bored on a 4 day cruise, and I thought, dang it, how are we going to do a 14 day cruise with all those sea days?

I guess I'm wondering if anyone else can chime in on how their teenager kept themselves occupied, busy and entertained. If I were a teen, I would have been riding the aquaduck all day, in fact, I wish I had done it more. We shopped, wandered the ship, ate, swam, etc. I don't know. I wonder now if considering another cruise at all, let alone a 14 day cruise, would be a bad idea for my spoiled brat, er, I mean, son. lol

 

[plutolovr]

Maybe it's the cruise line. He's at an age where he may be more interested in the kinds of activities that are offered on Royal Caribbean, especially the larger ships...Flow Rider, Rock climbing walls, etc.

 

[lanejudy]

Did he attend the Vibe event on the first evening where they plan their cruise? It's pretty late, maybe like 10pm or so to make sure both dinner seatings are done. My understanding is that single event is really key to making connections with the other teens onboard -- that's where friendships form and plans are made. Teens who miss that event don't seem to enjoy Vibe as much and have trouble making friends with others during the rest of the cruise.

I'd also suggest finding the cruise meet thread and making some connections there. You can find out who else has teens and exchange emails, the kids kind of already "know" each other before setting foot on the ship.

It is possible there simply weren't many teens on your particular cruise, which may also be the case on an EBTA.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[cgolf]

Not sure what to tell you, my daughter is an introvert and absolutely loved being on the ships. But then again maybe her personality helps her through the times when only a few kids are in the clubs, which I believe is how she likes it.

I think each kid is different, but depending on the ship you could do some family stuff like foosball, ping pong, shuffleboard, mini golf, etc. They also have board games in the pubs, I believe the classics have them too that you could do as a family.

Also ask him what he thinks could be done to make it more fun? He might surprise you with some ideas.

 

[mevelandry]

Ok... I don't "speak teenager" but I've been one. *Wink*

I think your son is really trying to tell you that he doesn't want to go on a Disney cruise... but he's scared to disappoint you.

I don't think he's a spoiled brat ... but it might be possible that you and him don't share the same taste (anymore)?

What does he wants? (It could be way cheaper than a 14 days Disney Cruise)

 

[jdb in AZ]

Just out of curiosity, what does your son want to do in London? Just trying to get an idea of the type of activities he enjoys. On your cruise he swam with the dolphins and rode the Aqua Duck and filled his spare time with movies, but was still bored. Is he the type who would enjoy the museums and historical sites in London?

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I have 2 sons who sailed all 4 Disney ships during their Vibe years. It's mostly hit or miss. Sometimes you get a solid group, sometimes you don't. Sometimes the counsellors are really active with the kids then sometimes they're more disinterested and spend more time chatting with each other more than the kids. Once my youngest son made really solid friends (Jan 2013) that he still talks to almost daily. The EBPC this past May same son, the more social of the 2, made a good friend that he pal'd around with a lot of the time. The kid even attended our homeschool graduation for our older son. Sweet kid. The 14-night was the cruise that my usually uninterested son really found his group with the 18-21 crowd. They *partied* every night. Met up in Diversions for cards during the days some. On this sailing my youngest (17 at the time) was for the first time disinterested in Vibe and hung with his 19 yro brother's group more. 17 yro said the Vibe group was a lot of silly drama antics and the counsellors weren't very engaging. He found a couple friends and they hung out away from the club most of their time together.

It's so hard to say. It's impossible to predict. My son who always got the most out of hanging in Vibe told us for his graduation trip this spring he didn't want to do anything Disney. Took me a bit to get over that shock. I've talked so much with him about his trip. It's only been in the last week he finally admitted he was pretty burned out on Disney but he was very afraid to tell me that because he didn't want to upset me. I'm not upset. I understand. And I assured him that's completely legit and totally okay. It took a while to get him to give us realistic direction for his trip. First he wanted to go to Tibet. Eek! He did chose to sail on the new NCL Escape b2b for his trip. I understand. There really is a lot more to offer him there now that he's aged-out of the youth programs. Ya know?

 

[ldo]

DS (14) says his favorite vacation is a cruise, then when we are on the ships, he is also bored. DS also watched a lot of TV in the room, which is why DCL with a moive theater actually works best for us. Kids are just different now--spoiled, yes. But parents travel much more than when I was a kid, and they get to go along as well. We aer still learning what works (not). We took our teens to Bermuda and they were bored. They were very polite, never complained, but afater 2 days of beaches, they stayed in the room while DH and I snorkeled and then preferred to just go to the pool. We had a great time in the pool, playing bocce ball, etc., but we could have been in Orlando or anywhere doing the same thing.
We are going on RCCL for 8 days and I know I have to schedule a lot of family stuff. I am taking board games, we will play shuffle board and putt-putt. Ships with movies and esp. movie theaters work better. We even axed a fabulous 10 day to S. Carib. b/c it had 4 seas days and was a smaller ship in favor of one with less sea days. I also have to vary beach days with city touring/active stuff.
So, I would not do the TA with your son.

 

[mom4fun]

My DS age 14 loved our wbpc cruise, 14 nights. Never bored and he doesn't like the kids clubs. The only thing he did with other kids was play sports. It was on the Wonder so no fancy slides or anything else. Most of the time we did things together. We enjoy the family activities and so does he. I think the bottom line is some people don't like Disney cruises whether you are an adult or a child.

 

[bethy]

My thought also is that there were probably very few teens on board in September. That's a petty tough time for an American teen to miss school.

We just got off a four night and my DD14 had a great time but she is a reader and an introvert and loves hanging out with us (a little too much sometimes). She had a blast. She did go to the teen meet and greet but ended up hanging with us the whole time (as is typical).

 

[disboo]

Does he get to pick his graduation trip? London is a cool place to go. He can do some research to see what he (and you) would like to do there. He did "your" vacation, maybe you could do "his."

Also, he might have enjoyed but not been THRILLED with the cruise. I have three grown kids with spouses. Some like to cruise, but not Disney. Some like DCL, but like to try new things, and one doesn't like to cruise. Despite this, they would all go on a Disney cruise to get the family time (we live all over) and enjoy it.

 

[waltdisneymom]

Our 16 year old (DS) loves it. Does not go to teen clubs at all.

 

[dclpluto]

Next time leave him at home

 

[Ofinn]

I find the older kids get the harder it is to keep them entertained. I dont know if a TA would be the best choice for a teen that age. Mine are 13 and 11. Were doing the WBTA next year and hopefully the PC in 2017. Im trying to do a couple of longer cruises before they age out of the Edge.Theres not a lot of Vibe age kids on the longer cruises. On our Hawaii cruise my son said a couple of the fourteen year olds went to to vibe they said it was boring and came back to the Edge. Dcl seems to do a good job with the tweeners because every cruise weve been on the kids seem to having a blast in there. Another cruise line may be a better fit for your son they seem to offer more for older teens.

 

[DVC-Don]

The last cruise our kids went on back in 2008 they each took along a friend and they still said they were bored. They said most of the time they were they only ones in the teen club. They have not been along since.

 

[Pens Fan]

All kids are different - even more so the older they get. Our 17 year old loved our 4 Disney cruises, though he only became interested in the youth clubs once he was old enough for Vibe. On our last cruise (this past summer) while he did spend time in Vibe, I noticed he also spent a lot more time in the cabin watching movies than on previous cruises. He loves movies and is a pretty laid back, go with the flow kid, so he never complained or appeared bored, but it was plain to see he was much more engaged when we were on land. He will graduate from high school in the spring and we allowed him to pick the vacation next summer for his graduation trip. The first thing he told us - no cruise! He wanted a land based vacation. We finally settled on 2 weeks jeeping / hiking / fishing in Colorado. I have to admit, I'm pretty excited about a land based vacation myself. We were on the Norway / Iceland cruise and at almost every stop we were one of the first off the ship and spent as much time ashore as we reasonably could. Even then, as we sailed away we were lamenting not having more time to explore. DH and I booked the Oct 2016 Canadian Coastline cruise for just us as our son will be in college (gulp!). I was worried he would be envious, but when we told him he just said, "sounds great - have fun!" He honestly had no regrets at all about not being able to tag along.

We have loved each and every cruise we have taken, but for us it's a really cool way to travel to a lot of different places. It's about the ports, not the ship. We would never even consider a TA, though I know there are tons of people that absolutely love them. All three of us would be bored. The occasional sea day is great, but I can't imagine having as many as you would on a TA. Everyone is different. Some folks as as happy as can be spending days a sea while others, such as us, need more time ashore to have fun. I don't know your son, so I can't say if he is spoiled or not, but I don't think being bored on a cruise means that he is. We have always tried to pick a vacation that would appeal to ALL of us. The older DS gets, the faster the clock ticks. We only have a few more years to even travel with him on a regular basis. We want them to be as enjoyable as possible for all three of us. Of course, that's easy for me to say only having one child who has very similar tastes and interests as we do! YMMV

 

[aggiedog]

I have 3 teens. Some kids really don't know what to do with themselves if they are not either plugged in or with the friends they feel comfortable with, doing activities they are used to. So they can be "doing things" but it's not the activities they enjoy. Sometimes its just the phase the kid is in. Sometimes, I'm sure, it's hit or miss with the kids clubs. And yes, there probably weren't a lot of teens on a september cruise.

I'd say let him pick his trip for graduation. Then you can do a cruise w/o him later and not feel bad or worried that he's bored. If planning a trip seems overwhelming, check out Adventures by Disney or Tauck. They have great family trips where everything is planned for you. Or hit Tripadvisor and plan something just for y'all. London is an easy city to do on your own.

 

[hardis5]

Our DD (last two cruises) was 14/16 and she had a blast each time. She can entertain herself and make friends easily. There was a group that gelled each time (5 two cruises ago, double digit the last) that would get together for activity both within/with Vibe and outside of do their own things - sometimes a large group/sometimes just a few. Two cruise forward (given we make it that far) we are tentatively planning a WBTA (a special one for ourselves) and mentioning to the DD has her already priming her best friends to come along (on their own as a group) as a last hurrah before they get deep into their school year.

Our oldest DS 20/23 we thought his first time out enjoyed doing his own thing (did multiple activities with the 18*21 group when there were enough for an activity) but is not as sociable as DD and when booking our latest for this past summer, we thought at 23 he would not enjoy another at his age - we were wrong and when telling him we were booking, he said he wanted to come along for sure. He ended up enjoying the last even more doing virtually every adult or all age activity he could plan for with a "friend".

The moral, never assume ones knows whether their teenage (and beyond) kids will enjoy a future cruise without first mentioning.

 

[KristiMc]

This summer was my 14 year olds 5th cruise. He had loved all of the previous cruises when he was in the Lab and Edge. This year he had just turned 14 and went to the Vibe and didn't enjoy it as much. He loved our days in port (Alaskan cruise) but he didn't love the Vibe. I think it mainly was because he had just turned 14 and the kids on this particular cruise were a little older and he is a quiet kid to begin with. Hopefully when we sail in 2017,when he is 16, he will love it like he used to.

 

[Minniesgal]

We have a 17 year old and I don't think he would enjoy a cruise either. We are cruising without him next year and he is going to Japan (from Oz) for his graduation.

Teen boys 15-17 can be touch to entertain and are easily bored.