20 year old daughter wants to cruise

[cruisin'cats]

my 20 y/o and her girlfriend want to go on a cruise early next jan '05. since they can't get a cabin w/o adults going, my husband and i (who are experienced cruisers and like a better cruise line over a low cost-ha!-one) agreed to join them in a separate cabin. what i want to know is which cruise line would be best for them to go on so that they'd meet more people their own ages--while we in our late 40's can still enjoy the experience? our last carnival cruise adventure in feb.04 was awful, and there were lots of LITTLE kids, few teens or early 20 y/o's on board so i'm not inclined to believe that ccl is the best option for them. they want to cruise the caribbean just after new years before college starts again. thanks.

[CaptData]

Princess or RCCL. Voyager Class has the ice rink ect which attracts a lot of the Collage age kids. Princess has better staff and food IMO.

 

Hopfully a Hawiian Cruise

 

 Until we sail away on the ocean blue

 

 

 

Navigator of the Seas Western Crib 08/03

Dawn Princess - Eastern Carb 01/03

Dawn Princess Panamal Canal 11/02

 

[BurBunny]

By the way, they could cruise by themselves on Princess. Princess' minimum age is 18, rather than 21

 

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[cruisin'cats]

thanks for that advice because if it's 18 or even 21 (we thought it was something like 23 unless they were a married couple, which they aren't) that could be a wonderful thing for us. we're going on an adult cruise in October (10 days on Summit) and as much as I love cruising, serving as a chaperone to a 20 and a 21 year old isn't my idea of a vacation! I just put a call into my cruise agent and told her to check out this fact for all the major lines so that we could have OPTIONS in this discussion. Thank you Amber!!! (BTW-thanks to CaptData too--I agree that Princess is better and that RCCL has more fun things for college kids to do--my daughter's been on RCCL, Princess, and Carnival--ah! to be going on 20 and be a repeat cruiser on at least two cruiselines!) your input was much appreciated.

[CaptData]

Your welcome! Tell us what you do please. Thank You.

 

Hopfully a Hawiian Cruise

 

 Until we sail away on the ocean blue

 

 

 

Navigator of the Seas Western Crib 08/03

Dawn Princess - Eastern Carb 01/03

Dawn Princess Panamal Canal 11/02

 

[jean-lynd]

My daughter who was 20 at the time was able to go on Norwegian with her college friends. This was a few years ago but I don't think their rules have changed. The girls had a great time. I hope this helps!

 

Century 11/1997

Explorer of the Seas 8/24/02

Majesty of the Seas 2/17/03

Voyager of the Seas 2/22/04

<IMG

 

 

[cruisin'cats]

thanks for the input. my cruise agent just told me that the top 4 major lines all say that 21 is the min. age but now she's checking out whether it would work out OK if one of the girls, my daughter's friend, is 21 and my daughter being 20 would be OK. Of course, now the daughter says she WANTS us to go with them even if they ignore us all day and only see us at dinner. if that's the way it's going to work, her parents, the cruisin'cats, are going to have a good cruise on a decent ship. but all this remains to be seen...thanks again everybody.

[O.G.]

Are daughter unexpectedly elected to go with us on vacation when she was 21. We were going to Alaska and I knew that wouldn't satisfy all of us so I switched to RCL Explorer (rock climbing wall etc.)to the Carribean. We all were very satisfied. She thought she would be reading and hanging out with us but found many college age kids cruising with their families. We barely saw her and she still talks about what a fab time she had. Hubby and I loved the ship too.

[serene56]

cruisin cat... Princess and Norweign will allow your daughter to sail with her 20 year old friend. Carnival and Royal will not. With a person under 21 one person needs to be 25 years old.

 

Going NOWHERE

 

 

Miracle, February 13, 2005

Legend, October 22,2004

Voyager August 31,2003

Victory September 22,2002

Regal Empress,June 2001

Sensation,August 2000

 

 

[cruisin'cats]

thanks. we'd taken the kids with us before, which is why the 20 yr. old wants to go on a cruise with her 21 yr. old college friend. our eldest daughter was in her late teens on her last cruise with us but tended to be a loner so she read and hung out around the cabin a lot. this younger daughter is more social--she's met plenty of kids of her own age when she was with us as a family but, this time she's looking for more of her own 'crowd' kind of group. her latest wrinkle in the plan is that she's looking to transfer to another university and one of her choices will be starting earlier than the others (she's X-fering in January) so we're going to have hold off on these plans until she's sure when she'd even be available. boy am I glad I don't have to live my life according to these terms! But, i was wondering about this whole age thing and the cruise lines--what do they do for newly-weds or independent but young people? i realize that they can discriminate in whatever way is to their advantage but it surely seems that there's this college age market out there... and as a parent, i'd think that they'd be somewhat safer on a cruise ship than taking vacations in mexico or even FL.

[serene56]

If you are married and under 25 all they need to do is produce a marriage license.

 

Going NOWHERE

 

 

Miracle, February 13, 2005

Legend, October 22,2004

Voyager August 31,2003

Victory September 22,2002

Regal Empress,June 2001

Sensation,August 2000

 

 

[cruisin'cats]

like that guarantees that they'll be better behaved than any other young twenty-something? well, at least it's something.

[serene56]

Point well made cruisin cat. a marriage license dont mean anything at all at that age.

But its also the same with military. I have two sons who can not cruise on Carnival because they are not 25 but they can defend their country. Also on one of our cruise my middle son was not able to drink as he wasnt 21 yet. (go figure) they cant even rent cars yet until they are 25.

 

Going NOWHERE

 

 

Miracle, February 13, 2005

Legend, October 22,2004

Voyager August 31,2003

Victory September 22,2002

Regal Empress,June 2001

Sensation,August 2000

 

 

[cruisin'cats]

my son is in the air force and is just 21. he's been in the AF for almost 3 years, right out of high school. but we would have loved to see him use his leave for travel, like taking a cruise, but he was facing the same problems as the daughter's dilemma--and you're right--here's this age restriction: can serve in the military and fight but can't drink or gamble legally (like using an M16 isn't taking a gamble when facing someone else with the same weaponry?) or go on a cruise to relax or rent a car--there's a big DUH here. after all the events of late, you'd think that the cruise industry would be bending over backwards to welcome the military on cruises, age 18 and older, but we had to buy travel insurance for the son when we treated him to a cruise after completing his tech training just in case his orders got changed. fortunately, he had no interuptions and had a good time with the family.

If your kids are as old as mine then you remember when the youth of yesteryear argued against being allowed to be drafted but not allowed to vote for the ones who were drafting them--and it changed the voting age. Now if only our kids would vote, right? Ha! (I realize that this was a NON-cruise related comment, sorry.)

[serene56]

When we booked our Voyager cruise-Brian, the middle Marine wasnt sure if he was gonna be able to go. The TA said jsut book him and if there are changes there wont be a problem. We booked him-even paid but of course he wasnt able to go. THey canceled him with no penalty. No, we did not have to get insurance for him either. I thought that nice. He only has a few more months left. Gets done in August. (my kids too went in outta high school)

I can not wait til August.

 

Going NOWHERE

 

 

Miracle, February 13, 2005

Legend, October 22,2004

Voyager August 31,2003

Victory September 22,2002

Regal Empress,June 2001

Sensation,August 2000

 

 

[cruisin'cats]

i can understand your point--my Brad has three more years left to his first enlistment--he'd signed on for 4 yrs originally but when he was in basic training they offered an extra two grand + a grade/promotion increase to any of them that took an extra two years. when you're 18 you think that two grand is like a million bucks so he grabbed the chance before knowing if he'd even like being in the a.f. right now he's at eglin AFB in FL working on F-15's so i feel kind of calm but every day's a new day with a new chance to be moved anywhere so it's not SO calm that i don't worry. best wishes for your kids--and thank them for the rest of us. PS your travel agent was more helpful than most in your case. we've even had to pay for changed air fares for his or for his sister when she was going to visit him but got her plans changed when he had a TDY (temp. duty assignment). like I said before--you'd think that these industries would appreciate what these kids are doing.

 

14 cruises and the next one is on the calendar!

[BurBunny]

Some of the cruise lines are quite accommodating to military (though not on the age issue). For example, Holland America frequently offers what are called "community appreciation" fares for active duty military, police, firefighters and teachers. Carnival has military rates on many cruises and goes a step farther to be VERY generous on rescheduling without penalty should a deployment change after booking. Bravo to the cruise lines who pay attention to those who give so much to make our lives better and safer.

 

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