Unsupervised Teens

[jennyc]

First cruise w/ our 13 yr. old son (baby of the family). I've noticed several times on this site that parents frequently mention their teen didn't come back to the room until 2 a.m. from the teen club. Are they escorted back to their room or is it safe for a 13 yr. old to just walk around the boat at 2 a.m. alone? I admit being overprotective, so any advise would be appreciated. We're on the 4 day Wonder - what should a 13 yr. old boy wear for dinner? Adults? Best excursions for 13 yr. old....ok I'll stop with the ???? Thanks

 

[marv]

I have a 14 yr dd and ime certain i wont be allowing her to wonder aroundthe boat at 2.00am. This will be our first cruise so it will be all new to me but i will be spending as much time as i can with kids. teenager will be having meal with us and watching shows any thing after that is upto them but they wont be upto 2 on their own.

 

[Donalds_best_pal]

They will walk back alone. Its pretty safe onboard. Its very hard to get lost also. At least on a ship you are in a enviroment were you cant be kidnapped and taken of the ship. Anyways the whole ship is monitored by camera 24 hours a day. I dont see anything wrong with a 13 year old going alone. I was 12 and walked around alone. I enjoy walking around and exploring the ship. Favorite this to do was go to deck 10 all the way forward. Very very windy usually!

Matt

 

[Twinklee]

I have a 14 yr dd and ime certain i wont be allowing her to wonder aroundthe boat at 2.00am. This will be our first cruise so it will be all new to me but i will be spending as much time as i can with kids. teenager will be having meal with us and watching shows any thing after that is upto them but they wont be upto 2 on their own.

How late are you planning to let your 14 year old stay out? I have a 14 year old dd and my dh and I were discussing that subject just the other day. He thought she shouldn't be out past 10pm, which I thought was a little early considering that we have late seating that would cause her to miss out on any of the evening teen activities if she had to be in that early. So we're considering letting her stay out til midnight, but I'm still not too sure about that either. But she's definately not staying out til 2:00am.

Toni

 

[ivanova]

"411" for the teen club on the first night isn't until 10:30pm

the teen club tends to close around 12:30am

our rule with our teen is that she's to be back in the room within half an hour of when the teen counselors leave ... if they relocate from the teen club to studio sea or elsewhere, that's fine with me if the counselors are there, but when they leave = she heads back to the room.

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Our DD is 10, so we haven't parented through any teen years yet. I'm interested, though, how any of you parents are able to stay up so late? I know it's a parent thing, (I know I won't be able to sleep until our DD is back in our/her room.) I don't remember enough about the teen years (they were soooooooooo long ago for me). Do your teens stay out till 2am most every night on the cruise? Are you exhausted the next day? DH and I can barely make it to midnight, and that's on weekends! LOL!

 

[zacsmom]

Mickeyhugger, if our 12DS wants to stay till the club closes, we go to bed and set the alarm clock to 15 mintes before closing. My husband then gets up and walks to the club to pick him up. I just snore away. Not as tired this way.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Mickeyhugger, I'm a mom of 2 teens, one preteen and a 5yo and Ive also wondered how parents can stay awake so late. If I were able to sleep in the next morning I might be ok, but my youngest wakes up before I want to wake up. At home that's not a problem because he can go watch tv, etc, for a little while, but on the ship it would be a different matter. Hmmm, I could go let him run the halls.

My kids will be 19, 16, 13, and 7yo when we plan to cruise, but I will still have to have a curfew. If we have connecting rooms it will be easy to make sure they are all safe and sound by a certain time, but if my older kids are across the hall it will be a bit harder.

At home one of us stays awake until our DD is home, even if we're in bed half asleep. I just can't sleep until I know she's home, even though my DH probably could without a problem.

T&B

 

[Dancind]

We allowed our DD 13 to stay out until the Stack closed most nights on our last cruise. Her favorite Stack activity was the dances, and they didn't start until after midnight. Most nights, the Stack closed at 1 or 2 am. When she had to get up early for an excursion the next day, her curfew was 12. We were usually asleep, but I would set the alarm for 15 minutes after she was due, so I would wake up if she wasn't in the cabin to turn off the alarm. In addition, my DH would take a stroll before turning in, to see just where she was. She did really well with this, since she saw other teens in our group get earlier and earlier curfews for busting theirs early in the cruise. She only had to go down the elevator alone, since our cabin was very close to the elevators, and I think she usually had a friend along for that even.

 

[geffric]

we were on the Magic spring break 2004 and the Stack was open until 2 am. We felt that our kids were safe walking back to the room then. We may have a different view than many, as my children had been on the Magic 3 times before and knew their way around. We had an agreement with them that they had to be back at closing or before but no later. We had late dinning so we were up late to. Most evenings we got back to the room and the kids were already there.


To answer your question about what a 13 year old can wear to dinner. My 13 year old wore polo shirts and dockers or zip off pants. For formal night he had a jacket.

 

[ann-e-mator]

On our last cruise I was 16. My mom let me stay out as late as I wanted, needless to say with excursions that required me to get up at 6am, that wasn't very late. Even if the counselors aren't with them after the Stack closes, there's not really any place on the ship where there isn't a crew member. They do all their vaccuming and mopping, dusting, etc etc. when everyone's asleep! You shouldn't be worried about your teen walking around at night on the ship. As for us, the worst thing we did at night was ordered room service at 3am in the laundry just because we found out we could do that!!! It's not a ship where you can really get into any trouble. Maybe, if i could suggest, let the first night there be a "test night" and see what happens, then after the first night maybe you could set some type of curfew if you don't like what time they got back. It's just my opinion, but I know I had a lot of friends on the cruise who had to be back by 11 - 12am and they missed out on a lot of fun activities

 

[tvguy]

Remember, Disney is different from other cruises in that it's programs, and the passengers it attracts tend to be early to bed early to rise folks. We had a great time, but noticed a profound difference from our cruises on other lines. Most ships just start hopping about 11 pm, Disney starts winding up about 10pm, and except for a few nightowls, it's pretty quiet from 11 pm on.
We have always had late seating, and having late seating shows BEFORE dinner really threw us for a loop. Again, the early to rise , early to bed theme, most cruises don't have the late show until 10:30pm, and often that is the most packed show because many Early Seating folks come to see the show a second time, or opted to do something else at 8:30, and wait for the late show.
My kids were 12 and 16 on Disney, and 11 and 15 on our cruise to Alaska on HAL's Amsterdam. We never felt uncomfortable letting them wander around alone at night, but I admit it was rare because we did just about everything together. The cruises for us are FAMILY vacations, a rare time when we can eat all our meals together, and let my wife and I be our kids friends for a week, not mom and dad.

 

[musicgirl]

DS-13, was one to stay out as late as possible.

Parents need to be prepared for the late programming even in the younger club/lab. Looking back at the 10-12 navigator from the Wonder, they are open until 1 am. Even the little kids have late nights (usually movies late in the evening) so that parents can go to shows, etc.

It may be a tough issue to settle. I look at it as a way to let them spread their wings a bit in a safe environment. Maybe build up a little trust in them to be back by a certain time even if it is later than usual. For many, this makes them feel a little more grown up.

 

[BelleNBama]

We just got home from a 4 day Wonder cruise (Feb. 6-10). I'm so over protective that my 14 year old ds calls me Marlin from Finding Nemo!! I was in panic mode about him being out at the teen club. I bought 2 way radios and we each carried one with us. He spent most of his time at Aloft (teen club) and I barely saw him; however, I could page him on the radio at any time. He had to check in with me (on the radio) at certain times so that I knew he was fine. He stayed in the club and was not allowed to wonder the ship unless it was a group outing. Most organized activities ended around midnight and the rest of the time was spent just hanging out (the counselors were still there until 2am but the kids just watched movies, played games, and talked until 2am). My ds had to be in the room shortly after the organized activities ended which was somewhere between midnight and 12:30am. When he left the Aloft, he had to call me on the radio and talk to me the rest of the way back to the room. I know that some may feel this is way too over protective, but it's what worked for us. Btw, he absolutely loved the cruise and said that it was the best vacation he has ever had! We're booked for the 7 night Magic next February (during Mardi Gras break)!

 

[westjones]

We just got home from a 4 day Wonder cruise (Feb. 6-10). I'm so over protective that my 14 year old ds calls me Marlin from Finding Nemo!! I was in panic mode about him being out at the teen club. I bought 2 way radios and we each carried one with us. He spent most of his time at Aloft (teen club) and I barely saw him; however, I could page him on the radio at any time. He had to check in with me (on the radio) at certain times so that I knew he was fine. He stayed in the club and was not allowed to wonder the ship unless it was a group outing. Most organized activities ended around midnight and the rest of the time was spent just hanging out (the counselors were still there until 2am but the kids just watched movies, played games, and talked until 2am). My ds had to be in the room shortly after the organized activities ended which was somewhere between midnight and 12:30am. When he left the Aloft, he had to call me on the radio and talk to me the rest of the way back to the room. I know that some may feel this is way too over protective, but it's what worked for us. Btw, he absolutely loved the cruise and said that it was the best vacation he has ever had! We're booked for the 7 night Magic next February (during Mardi Gras break)!

Actually, I loved your ideas! I have 11 year old twins, our next cruise they are 12, and after that we face the teen thing and we have been very concerned about what to do when they are 13.

If we decide to try the cruise with them when they are teens I will be taking our 2 way radios and doing exactly what you did. In a way, I am lucky because my DDs are twins and will have each other (so there is always a buddy system). But I am still worried (already, 2 years away).
DJ

 

[kcashner]

OK, in fairness, my DD (now 14) feels like she grew up on the Magic. We were on the infamous inaugural sailing, and have done a total of 12 cruises. Yes, I feel totally safe letting her come back to the cabin alone at night. There are late night activities in The Stack (most end about 1 am.) In addition, there is a security officer assigned just to the teens--seems DCL knows that they are the age group most likely to cause trouble.

I'm very over protective normally, and maybe I'm just being a little silly in trusting both DD and the Magic. That said, she's cruised twice as a 13 year old and we've never had a problem with safety.

 

[MassDisLovers]

We have taken 2 Disney cruises, one Western and one Eastern and, I have to say, that my teens WERE out until the "wee hours" of the morning, much to my surprise. We keep a pretty tight ship at home and I would have said that anyone was crazy to suggest that MY chidlren would be out that late...but I learned! The teen groups have all kinds of activities planned that go until really, really late (pizza parties, hot tub parties etc.) They are all supervised and very appropriate. The activities are "developmenally appropriate" ie: teens like to stay up much later than their parents and then sleep until noon. It was funny to see the teens "emerging" all over the ship when everyone else was getting ready for lunch! I'd suggest you talk to the counselors in the Stack and keep a copy of the Teen Navigator in your stateroom to refer to so you know what they're up to. And then... let them enjoy! After all, it's only a week and it's their vacation too!