Teens on DCL

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My question would be if he knew they weren't Disney girls, why did he even opt to sail on Disney in the first place?

I'm not sure if you've seen the comments but I certainly have...it can very much be that the parents are the ones who want to go on the Disney cruise (or the cruise itself) and the kids don't want to. You can also have the situation that one or more of the kids do want to go but not all. The former is something easily remedied by not taking DCL or not going on the cruise but it takes the parent to understand that, the latter is harder to balance out.

The OP themselves on this very thread is asking what is there to do for their kids on DCL beyond waterslides but admits they have always wanted to take a Disney cruise.

And I'd be taking the internet costs out of their allowance - at least part of the cost.

Interesting you even assume there is an allowance and that the teens should be automatically punished by the extremely brief comment the PP made.

 

[eticketplease]

Teens are the only demographic on which the majority do not enjoy cursing.

I'm sure this was a typo but I couldn't stop laughing when I read this

 

[Dug720]

I'm not sure if you've seen the comments but I certainly have...it can very much be that the parents are the ones who want to go on the Disney cruise (or the cruise itself) and the kids don't want to. You can also have the situation that one or more of the kids do want to go but not all. The former is something easily remedied by not taking DCL or not going on the cruise but it takes the parent to understand that, the latter is harder to balance out.

I was referencing the post about the brother whose girls wanted to be on their phones the whole time and not on a Disney Cruise. Not the OP. In terms of parents deciding, yes - obviously when I was a kid my parents made the decisions, but they would talk with my sister and me about it and get our input on things we'd like to do. We weren't always thrilled with where we went, but we never went anywhere that was a hard no.

Interesting you even assume there is an allowance and that the teens should be automatically punished by the extremely brief comment the PP made.

If a family can afford to cruise Disney, I'd guess the kids have an allowance. But IMHO at the very least if the kids are going to demand constant internet access which had not been planned for, they should help pay for it.0.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

This just seems more of a family dynamic issue than a cruise or Disney issue.

It can be both or it can be just the cruise or the particular cruise line or just the family dynamic. Not every vacation place will work even if you have the best dynamics out there because every vacation place has things to it, some places can present more issues than others.

Being on a ship in a confined area for days can be drastically different than a resort on land with more breathing room, bedroom situations can often be more cramped in a cruise most especially when talking about room size and sharing of beds much less walking room and bathroom situations, etc. So sometimes issues are there that other places may not have.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

If a family can afford to cruise Disney, I'd guess the kids have an allowance. But IMHO at the very least if the kids are going to demand constant internet access which had not been planned for, they should help pay for it.0.

oh my gosh this has got to be one of the er um interesting points of view. Goodness me giving your kids an allowance is not related to taking a cruise or having the means to take a cruise. That's a parental decision same as paying kids for chores or paying for good grades. Having money doesn't mean you give an allowance or do the other things.

My basic basic point is totally leaping to automatic "they should then have to pay out of their allowance" without having any details on it, I mean you're even using the word demand to have constant internet access but the PP never said that all they said is that they were facetiming their friends on the ipad during the cruise.

I was referencing the post about the brother whose girls wanted to be on their phones the whole time and not on a Disney Cruise. Not the OP. In terms of parents deciding, yes - obviously when I was a kid my parents made the decisions, but they would talk with my sister and me about it and get our input on things we'd like to do. We weren't always thrilled with where we went, but we never went anywhere that was a hard no.

I know what you were referring to. My point is sometimes it is the parent who is wanting the destination (in this case a DCL cruise or more broadly a cruise) and drags the others along sometimes it's just one parent and not both that wants to go. I agree with you on why did the parent take the kids on the Disney cruise when he knew they weren't that into it and I was offering a handful of reasons possible. But for the sake of it even if it was the parent dragged the kids there and set expectations it's also not a reason to go at the kids, it lacks total accountability on the parents behalf (and in your comment you said "even so"). Parents can be at fault sometimes or they can make errors in assuming their kids would understand (even though they are kids) the expense related to the vacation (as the PP said it was a sore point with the costs). For the OP of the thread it's something they will want to actually have conversations about, with 5 kids that is probably not going to be the easiest to get everyone all on the same page.

 

[lanejudy]

I grew up in a family of 6. I don't think there was ever 100% enthusiastic response to any destination. That said, our parents had expectations that we participate without complaining and not ruin the trip for everyone else. Someone would never have been allowed to say "no" to dinner with the family. It seems in many families today the kids are given a lot more leeway on such things.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I grew up in a family of 6. I don't think there was ever 100% enthusiastic response to any destination. That said, our parents had expectations that we participate without complaining and not ruin the trip for everyone else. Someone would never have been allowed to say "no" to dinner with the family. It seems in many families today the kids are given a lot more leeway on such things.

And my counterpoint is is that a bad thing? That's getting way too far off the topic here but we're so many decades into understanding a lot of things regarding things and sometimes what we grew up with wasn't actually the good or best environment. You personally may not feel that way but we, as a society, are trying to do better than our past, I don't find that to be wrong such that your comment alludes to.

 

[lanejudy]

And my counterpoint is is that a bad thing? That's getting way too far off the topic here but we're so many decades into understanding a lot of things regarding things and sometimes what we grew up with wasn't actually the good or best environment. You personally may not feel that way but we, as a society, are trying to do better than our past, I don't find that to be wrong such that your comment alludes to.

I'm not sure the point of your post...? The alternative for my family would been no family vacations, and I think that's true for many families today. Compromise is the key with everyone on their best behavior even if it's not your turn to choose. My point is that you can't always cater to the kids' preferences and it's not wrong for parents to have expectations of kids' behavior on a family vacation. Refusing to attend dinner just smacks of tween/teen attitude to me.

 

[msmama]

My now 17 year old loved the kids club and the tween club, but hasn't had much luck with the teen club. He'll go and play video or board games, but seems to spend more time with the counselors than other kids. He's not much of a joiner, though.

BUT... he loves trivia (particularly music trivia), is obsessed with silent discos and, even though he rolls his eyes at me, secretly loves meeting the characters. He's up planning out our days first thing, going from one thing to another.

I think in our 10 cruises he's maybe done the water slide once. Pool rarely, occasionally will sit in the hot tub to watch a movie on funnel vision. That said, we're not pool/beach people so that's our choice.

We're actually doing our first cruise on another cruise line in the fall (we had specific date and location in mind and Disney doesn't cruise there) and while we're excited about the destination, we're both just kind of meh about the cruise part.

 

[Flcruising]

As others said it depends on 2 things
1. Are they Disney people
2. Are they outgoing
If the answer to either is no, then I'd look into another cruise line like RCCL utopia type ship.
Those ships have more to offer kids who aren't outgoing and do the solo things. While they also provide the kids club stuff. As a general statement, Disney hasn't captured the teen market as other lines have.
It also depends on your family dynamics and interactions on vacations

 

[dreamer17555]

My son actually was super excited about Royal and did not love the teen experience there compared to DCL. The Living Room teen space had really odd hours (closed from like 5-8 pm daily) and did not have as many group activities as DCL. He did rock climbing and flow rider and the zipline (Allure of the Seas) but it was a line up, wait, activity over in 5 minutes, now what. He was also not a fan of the strict Royal curfew. DCL often has activities starting for the teens at midnight (like taking over Oceaneers) not a rule that he needed to be back in the room by then.

 

[mjkacmom]

My son actually was super excited about Royal and did not love the teen experience there compared to DCL. The Living Room teen space had really odd hours (closed from like 5-8 pm daily) and did not have as many group activities as DCL. He did rock climbing and flow rider and the zipline (Allure of the Seas) but it was a line up, wait, activity over in 5 minutes, now what. He was also not a fan of the strict Royal curfew. DCL often has activities starting for the teens at midnight (like taking over Oceaneers) not a rule that he needed to be back in the room by then.

I think the curfew on RCL is 1 am. The reason why my kids loved teen clubs was dud yo not having to participate in group activities, but to meet others to hang out with on the ship. I think the reason why my kids didn’t like tween clubs was because of the group actives (and they could sign out, which they did).