teen club on Celebrity

[ourfamilylovescruising]

We are thinking about going on the equinox next march for spring break we have not done a celebrity in over 10 years because of the kids.

how is the teen's club?  our kids make friends fast and they really don't care about water slides and stuff like that they really just like playing games with their friends that they meet.

 

but before we booked I was hoping to hear how other kids liked the club.

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

[Pushkin]

Our kids (twins) love cruising on Celebrity.  Their first cruise was when they were 8, then 14, 16 and 18.  They had a blast each time, especially when they were 14 and 16.  The advice I was given was to have them go to the kids/teens club the first night of the cruise.  That is when everyone is new and the crew does such a great job at "ice-breakers' and such.  After that we couldn't keep them away!  The would go to the teens club to see what was going on but, for the most part, the kids would just hang out together in various areas of the ship.  

 

Its a shame really, but as the kids get older (too old for teen club), there are not many opportunities to meet other older teens.  I think this is an area that Celebrity should work on.

 

Hope you and your family have a great cruise!

[MaggieAtSea]

Even as a 15 year old our son (now 16) had a great time...the late teens kind of peel off, hang in the Oceanview and other spots off hours, and had a great time.  Very healthy number of 14-16 year olds last year.

our Equinox sailing this summer, judging by the roll call, once again has a healthy number of 14-16 year olds.  I’m thinking as a 16 year old, he’s reaching the upper limit, but they are pretty good with the light hand with programming for this age and stage (nothing too corny), so I anticipate another successful sailing for my teen.

[villauk]

Yes, our kids have always founds friends to hang out with - many they still keep in contact with years later (apparently, we are meeting up with one in NY this summer 🤷‍♀️ 😎). If there are only a few, which shouldn’t be an issue during Spring Break, then X do group the ages together.

[jbethel11]

Hi, I am an older teen myself. Back in 2012, on the Celebrity Summit, although it wasn't the Teens Club, I found that the Kids Club I was in was a bit lacking, and have read reviews that the Teens Club is similar to that. However, remember, since Celebrity is a premium cruise line they don't put as much thought into the activities as say Carnival does. Hope that was of assistance. 

[gi_pam]

We haven’t cruises Celebrity with teens yet (this summer!) but we’ve done 5 cruises with our teens, on Royal Caribbean, Cunard and MSC. The quality of the teen club per se was never really a factor, it was the number of teens and where they were from. More a factor of date, itinerary and home port. They found friends and went from there. They did  few of the activities but it was always with kids they already knew. After the first night they didn’t just drop in to do an activity, they’d show up to find their friends and if the activity was good, they’d join in.  

 

Examples:

 

Mariner of the Seas, a Singapore-Shanghai repositioning cruise. Very few teens on board. Under a dozen I think. They went a couple of times to the teen club and it was them and one other boy (who we had met through our CC roll call). The club had some good activities arranged but there were never enough kids there to run them. 

 

Harmony of the Seas Christmas cruise - about 1000 teens on board, they had a blast but didn’t do much in the centre itself. Mostly met kids there, then went to hang out somewhere. 

 

Our MSC cruises, there were a lot of Italians, so the language barrier was a bit of a challenge but they still found a good group to hang out with. 

 

Cunard transatlantic, summer. Grey haired older crowd, but still enough teens that they had lots of fun. Cunard isn’t known for their kids programming but my kids would probably rank it as their second favourite cruise (Harmony being their top one). 

 

If the itinerary is Caribbean and it’s spring break, there will be lots of kids, they will find friends to hang out with and will likely have a blast, regardless of the specifics of the teen club itself. 

[jbethel11]

Does Celebrity divide the younger (12-14 year olds) with the older (15-17 year olds)? I wouldn't want to hang with the younger teens (I am an older teen). 

[GastroGnome]

DD was in the teens club.  1st cruise at 15 I think (might have been 14?) and still cruising (now 20).  Where there are enough teens X does  separate the under 16's and over 16's.  But the separation isn't hard and fast.  At 15 DD fit better with the older ones  so never did the younger group really.  And because we home educated we were also often not in school holidays which limited the numbers a bit!  

 

I would echo the advice to go on the first night meet up and then really the teens themselves decide what to do.  Some cruises there was organized activities (mostly around the video games, scavenger hunts and late night access to the usually adults only pool) because they were wanted.  Others she simply found a bunch of friends and hung out with them.  The only year she struggled a bit was the first year she was over 18 and there simply were no 18 - 25's on board.  (Probably the fault of the itinerary but when your parents are paying they get to choose!)