It's ALL ABOUT the 12 year old girls.... which ship / which cruise line?

[papa deuce]

For a Caribbean cruise? ( As long as it leaves from the East Coast )

 

Any ship, any itinerary.... I don't care....

 

If you were wanting to maximize the fun for your 12 year old girls, which ship would you be looking to book?

 

This will be a reward for my kids if they get something done that I want them to accomplish. So it isn't about my wife and I. It will be 100% about my twin daughters who will be 12 in the summer of 2013... when we plan to go.

[crusinmama06]

So I asked my cruised obsessed 12 year old and she says....

 

"I am stuck between Allure/Oasis and Epic, Allure/Oasis has the zipline, the Flow rider/H20 zone. But the Epic has the giant water park with the toilet bowl slide."

 

Mom agrees ;) I would say you can't go wrong with either of those.

[cb at sea]

There really is no wrong answer...ANy ship will do the trick! I'd have been ecstatic to go on ANY cruise as a young teen!

 

Really...pick where you want to go, and when...then find a ship that goes there! You will be a "hero" no matter what you pick!

[papa deuce]

Well we have a trip on Carnival Valor coming up.... I must say, the kids program for 11 year old kids doesn't look too impressive....

[Nebr.cruiser]

As a grandmother I'd be picking a cruise line that breaks the clubs down into 12-14, not one that goes 12-17. Even better would be 8-12.

 

Some 12 year old girls look very mature and sometimes want to act like they are 16; but, they are not. For our family, we prefer not to push the teen stuff too early.

 

That said, I agree that the Royal Caribbean ships are great for kids, and I've heard great things about the Epic too.

 

Really, if 12 year olds can't have fun on a ship, I'd be worried. We took 7 grandkids on the Navigator of the Seas last year (oldest were 11, and yes, that was on purpose!) and they loved it.

[crusinmama06]

Papa deuce - on Carnival, I can tell you what my (now 12) year old liked the most on her CCL cruises that she doesn't have on her other cruises - "swimming under the stars"

 

So tell your 11 year olds that starting with the 9-11 year old group on CCL, they will be able to go swimming with the kids club on Valor. That was the ONE big thing that my oldest loved. That and the UNASSISTED scavenger hunts. That's where me and my darling child had some issues. She knows (after many many cruises) never to go into anyone's stateroom - well you can imagine how shocked I was when she came running into ours and she had 4 children waiting for her in the hallway during one of the CCL scavenger hunts. They needed to find "towel animals, long pants, sun glasses" so it was easier to head to a cabin. Yikes!

 

So, for the teen cruise, if budget is an issue, as the previous poster said, there is always the RCI Freedom or Voyager class. The Freedom class would keep any teen entertained and there is enough of them that the age breakdown should stay at 12 -14.

[lrn2cruise]

We went on Freedom of the Seas last summer. My DS loved Adventure Ocean. The problem is that once they are 12, the group changes. 12 yr olds are bumped up with older kids.

 

My DS is an only child but he did meet kids at the club. We did not allow him to leave AO on his own and some parents didnt mind. DS would see the boys running around The Promanade when we took him down for pizza at Serrentos. I think DS felt a little odd seeing them without parents. We were just not ready for that with him.

 

There are plenty of things to do on FOS for 12 yr olds.

[youngestof9]

We sailed Norwegian Epic when my daughter was 12. She turned 12 only a month before we left. I liked that the kids club was 10-12 so although she was older, she wasn't yet with the teens and still had to be signed in and out. She enjoyed it.

 

The ship has a lot to offer - she absolutely loved it. There's an arcade, rock wall, water slides, spider climb, bungee bounce. If you want to see the kids club info with the things they offered for the 10-12 group, the link is in my signature.

 

We loved it so much, we're doing it again.

 

edited to add: SCRATCH EPIC - if you're going in the summer, it sails in the Mediterranean then. Only in the Caribbean October - April.