Experiences Moving a teen up to ClubO2?

[Nevada Jen]

We are cruising on Panorama this Christmas.  From the roll call and other groups it is clear the ship will be FULL of teens.  My son will be 14.5 and wants to be in Club 02.  He is in his second year of high school.  We actually used Circle C a couple of years ago and he was too old for that group of kids even then.  I know he won't even go to the clubs at all if he has to be in Circle C. I agree with him the Circle C is not appropriate for him. What have people's experiences been with moving up to Club O2 on a full ship?  I hear people talk about moving up in the younger groups but rarely about this group and never on super full ships.  Thanks in advance!

[Domergirl]

On a ship full of teens, I’d say it will be pretty unlikely.  Ultimately it is up to the head of the youth programs...and there is no way for you to find out in advance.  

 

From what I’ve seen, this is among the hardest “upgrades” to convince them to make - there is simply a huge difference between a 14.5 yr old and a 17.5 yr old. 

 

If I were you, I’d go into it expecting that he won’t be doing camp...but give it a shot, just in case, once you’re on board. 

[NebraskaSatellite]

On our cruise this summer, my 16yo daughter would have been in Club O2 and my 14yo son in Circle C.  We wanted to keep them together and asked the Club O2 director if we could.  She put him in O2 on a "trial" basis and he stayed - we didn't have to do any haggling about it.  It helped that (a) he had a sibling in the older club, and (b) he looks older than his age and is taller than her, so he looked like he belonged there.

[kctwinmommy]

There always seem to be a lot of factors with this. Having a sibling in the older group seems to help influence their decision. And definitely the number of kids will impact things. When we were in Alaska, they moved just one kid up to O2, and mostly because he was the only one in his large HS group that wasn't 15. And the cruise was packed with kids. But nobody else moved up. However, on our Caribbean cruises, which we do in early November and are way less crowded, they tend to move several kids. I do notice that a lot of the O2 kids will also co-mingle with the Circle C kids as they get to know each other. Since they use the same facilities, there is a lot of overlap. 

[Nevada Jen]

Ugh.  I really hope they will move him up.  I would REALLY like to have some time away from him!  So what do I do once on board to get him moved up and what time do I do that?

[kctwinmommy]

9 hours ago, Nevada Jen said:

Ugh.  I really hope they will move him up.  I would REALLY like to have some time away from him!  So what do I do once on board to get him moved up and what time do I do that?

 

Even if he's in Circle C, he'll be gone all day too. When we were in port, we did family things. But on sea days, we'd grab some breakfast together (sometimes), and then he'd be gone until dinner. The clubs actually close for a few hours during the dinner time anyway. We always required that we do dinner as a family (and we often cruised with a larger group too). And then he'd go back to the club and hang with his friends. Depending on what the activities were planned, and what we had going the next morning, that would determine when he needed to be back in the room.