Curfew for teenagers

[cupidgurl]

I will be sailing April 2 for a 4 day on SOS with my teenagers....

How good is the security? Is there a curfew for the teenagers and is it enforced? I worry about the kids drinking....I know kids 18 can drink with parent consent....has anyone experienced older kids buying drinks for the younger kids?

I think my kids are good...but these days you never know!

 

 

A concerned mom.....

[Annefran]

I believe the curfew for kids under 18 is 1am. I think they usually enforce it. I have a 14 yr old daughter and I give her a midnight curfew but she has to call our room every hour to let me know where she is in case of an emergency. We took those walkie/talkies one cruise and there were too many people on them to talk. As far as the drinking issue, 18 yr olds can no longer drink with their parents consent on cruises. So it shouldn't be an issue. Hope this helps.

[It'sRC4ME]

18 year olds can only drink with parental consent on sailings from Europe and South America, so unless you are on those types of sailings you don't need to worry about that.

 

However, there may be kids drinking anyway, and the ship may not enforce a curfew. But since your kids are good, if they know that drinking and staying out too late will not fly with you, and will have immediate and undesirable consequences, you won't have to worry so much about whether the ship will police them for you.

 

Respect the fact that it's their vacation too, but make the line between what is and is not acceptable very clear by setting down your expectations NOW and you shouldn't have problems once on board.

 

Good luck!

[cruiseguy1016]

There is no curfew for teens. How old are yours? We just got back from the Explorer. We have a 13yo DD and 16yo DS. The couple we traveled with have two boys, 15 & 17. All 4 kids stayed in the same room. On nights that we had a shore excursion the following morning we told to the kids to be in by 11:00. On nights when we had nothing planned the next day, we gave them no curfew. They are good kids and we trust them to make the right decisions. Remember, this is their vacation also. Our kids met another group and they spent a lot of time together just hanging out and talking. Your kids will probably do the same. Get them involved with Adventure Ocean where they will meet lots of kids their age. I didn't worry about my kids drinking, they found enough fun things to do without it. I guess it all boils down to how your kids were raised and how much you trust them.

[RoofingPrincess]

There is no curfew for teens.

I respectfully disagree. There was a 1 am curfew published in our cruise compass. There were no teens travelling with our group, so I don't know how well it was enforced.

[Sally Forth]

We just got back from Vision with our nieces, aged 16-18. The curfew was strictly enforced. They made it to the room by 1 on all but two nights. They were in the teen disco with one of the youth leaders on one night and that was fine. On the other night, they were playing cards and at first the security patrol went by and told them they were okay as long as they were quiet. At 2 a.m. they were told to go to their rooms and their cabin numbers were taken.

 

The people at our table had 2 teens and one college aged son and found the same. The college aged son handed his sister a beer one night and it was quickly taken away and he was given a talking to by bar staff.

 

Viv

[cruiseguy1016]

I respectfully disagree. There was a 1 am curfew published in our cruise compass. There were no teens travelling with our group, so I don't know how well it was enforced.

 

My mistake. Most nights the kids were in by midnight. The last night they were out until 1:30 so I guess the curfew was not enforced, maybe because it was the last night or maybe because the kids were not causing any trouble.

[sandrapisc]

Last year when my son was 16 he went to teen disco on the Freedom - it was open until 2 am, which I thought was crazy.

 

My boss went on a cruise with a bunch of families and their teens found people willing to buy them alcohol and got drunk vomiting all over the place. Everyone, including the parents were in trouble. Not a good situation and I share your concern as this year I will be going with my own kids plus some teen cousins and maybe a teen friend. I am dreading some of the thoughts I am thinking :(

[jules815]

There was definitely a 1am curfew posted for teens on Mariner last summer. Our youngest daughter (12) never made it until then; she was so tired every night. Our older daughter (16) was back by curfew (usually earlier). We also had them check in all the time with us, and they had to be with us in all ports.

[cupidgurl]

Thanks for all the responses. My alarm will go off at 1AM to make sure the kids are back or else I guess I will roaming the ship in my PJ's

[nursecruiser]

I will be sailing April 2 for a 4 day on SOS with my teenagers....

How good is the security? Is there a curfew for the teenagers and is it enforced? I worry about the kids drinking....I know kids 18 can drink with parent consent....has anyone experienced older kids buying drinks for the younger kids?

I think my kids are good...but these days you never know!

 

 

A concerned mom.....

I just got off Rhapsody of the Seas 3-25-07. I traveled with a 13 yo. RC does have a curfew of 1 am for all teens through 17. Alcohol consumption is limited to 21 and over. Rules were enforced on my sailing for these issues. Have a great time-I did!!

[cruzer52]

hello everyone. i would quickly like to offer the view of a teenager on this one. while i am now 19 and consider myself a mature young adult, my first cruise was as a 17 year old on the mariner of the seas. here are my thoughts on this:

-i believe i was raised right, and at 17 was able to understand wat was acceptable on board

-i was often out till past 3 or 4 am everynight, but i did this with a couple of also well behaved friends i met on board.

-never did i over consume alcohol, break/trash anything, or cause any sort of mischief

 

if you believe your son/daughter is mature enough then you need not worry, and i dont believe the cruise line will be either. The staff knew myself and my group were well behaved and they never worrued about us at all

im not making any accusations to anyone specific on this board, but i have seen many people bash teens on board these ships. As a teen who has never caused any problmes i simply urge people not to place all teens in an unfair stereotype

there will always be teens who ruin the names of teens on these ships. but for every youngster i saw makin trouble on board, i saw adults over consuming, being loud etc aswell....this never made me think that all adults are a nuisance haha

hope you take my thoughts into consideration, happy cruising

[MAHA]

On our Grandeur cruise last summer out of Baltimore, there was a 1 a.m. curfew. My husband and I went on this cruise without our 3 sons to celebrae our 30th anniversary. We are late night people so we did happen to observe the teens on the ship somewhat late at night. We weren't up on deck past 1 a.m., so I can't comment on whether the curfew was enforced or not. There were some teens from New Jersey (approximateliy 13-15 years in age) that got into one of the hot tubs with us around 10:30 or so one evening. They were complaining that there was a curfew and that other lines (they mentioned Carnival and Celebrity) didn't have curfews. The reason they mentioned this was they complained they didn't like RCCL as much as Celebrity. Our 3 sons who sailed on Celebrity in 2003 and RCCL in 2004 much prefered RCCL to Celebrity. When I asked them why they prefered Celebrity, they said because there was no curfew. Then they proceeded to go get their cigarettes and light up while in the hot tub (very disturbing). Since we don't like the smell of smoke, we got out of the hot tub and left. Frankly I find it very upsetting that anyone should be allowed to smoke in the hot tub and disturb their fellow soakers, but that's another problem. Later in the week, these same kids happened to be behind us on the last day of Bingo. Their families were across the room. They were talking loudly about getting drunk, etc. on that cruise. Whether or not these were the same kids who were smoking marijuana on the top deck one night around midnight as we were walking, that also occured. These kids appeared to be lacking parental control all week. It is up to parent's to make sure where their teens are and whom they have met just to be sure they are safe. Almost all of the many teens on board were very well behaved. It was just these few that we remembered because of their poor choices in behavior. Just pay attnetion to your children, give them times they need to check in with you and when you expect them in their cabins and you should be fine. There will always be some teens who will behave poorly, unfortunately.

Mary Anne

[bankonus]

Cruzer52...Great response! There are plenty of adults out there making fools of themselves too. We can't just put that out onto the kids. It's about teaching your kids self-control, self discipline when your NOT around to watch. It's called INTEGRITY. Most kids want to do the right thing, we just need to give them the tools to make the right decisions.:o

[SharkCruiser24]

When I was on Sovereign in 2005 the curfew was not really enforced. At the time I was 17, I don't know if I looked older or something... I was at the library every night around 2am-3am doing homework, and no one said anything.

[SharkCruiser24]

I forgot to agree with some previous posters. There was indeed a posted curfew time on the back of every compass at 1:00am

[cupidgurl]

Cruzer52

I believe that you were/are a responsibile teenager. My question to you is, you state you never OVER CONSUMED alcohol....may i ask where you got the alcohol. If you were 17 at the time, my understanding is that you are not allowed to drink. Did the bartenders give it to you without asking for ID? Did someone else get it for you? Maybe you only had a drink or two, but my concern are the teenagers who over do it....and may encourage teenagers to drink, who have never traveled or who are not use to the freedom that they have on the ship. The freedom one has on the ship can be easily taken advantage of.

Well, while I am on the subject......what about drugs? How much of that did you see on board?

[barbaragrace]

Try and set the curfew early on the first night and then IF it is obeyed make the next night alittle later. I allowed my (now 18) daughter to stay out until 10 PM for the first few nights and by the end of the 9 day cruise her curfew was 1.

[sisocialworker]

There is no curfew for teens. How old are yours? We just got back from the Explorer. We have a 13yo DD and 16yo DS. The couple we traveled with have two boys, 15 & 17. All 4 kids stayed in the same room. On nights that we had a shore excursion the following morning we told to the kids to be in by 11:00. On nights when we had nothing planned the next day, we gave them no curfew. They are good kids and we trust them to make the right decisions. Remember, this is their vacation also. Our kids met another group and they spent a lot of time together just hanging out and talking. Your kids will probably do the same. Get them involved with Adventure Ocean where they will meet lots of kids their age. I didn't worry about my kids drinking, they found enough fun things to do without it. I guess it all boils down to how your kids were raised and how much you trust them.

 

a 13 year old with NO CURFEW????????? Out all night is not setting limits

[HunnyBunnyTink]

I am 17 and on my Mariner cruise the curfew was NOT enforced. I was a part of a very large group (about 20 teens 14-18) and we were not loud and would often just sit and talk somewhere after the disco closed. One night a few of us stayed up on deck all night and no one came by or said anything. I dont know if its because we werent harming anything or not but security often just walked by us with no contact.

[cruiseguy1016]

a 13 year old with NO CURFEW????????? Out all night is not setting limits

 

As I said, we trust them to make the right decisions and she did. She was in before midnight (and we knew she would be) every night. We are proud of our kids for the way they act. We had met several people at the Meet & Mingle and spent a lot of time with them on this cruise. A few of them complimented my wife and I on how well behaved and responsible our children are. Again, I guess it boils down to how they are raised.

[vator90]

So the curfew is 1a.m. but not enforced. Thats just wonderful isnt it? Maybe you could pay one of those late night teens a couple of bucks to hog some chairs for you so you wont have to get up to the pool deck so early.:D My 2 may hate me, but their curfew on a cruise is the same as it is at home, 11 p.m. Kids must have limits even while on vacation.

[crusinmama06]

As I said, we trust them to make the right decisions and she did. She was in before midnight (and we knew she would be) every night. We are proud of our kids for the way they act. We had met several people at the Meet & Mingle and spent a lot of time with them on this cruise. A few of them complimented my wife and I on how well behaved and responsible our children are. Again, I guess it boils down to how they are raised.

 

Honestly and respectfully I have to disagree. I am sure your 13 year old is a wonderful child but to be out on a ship with 2,000+ other strangers is just frightening. :eek: I know I could never go to sleep if my child was out on the ship somewhere.

 

I don't know if you mentioned that you were out as well that late. If you were, then that's a different story. But I could never sleep if my child, yes at 13 that's what she still is, is still out somewhere on the ship.

 

And I have to implore the other posters who rely on RCCL to police your child and to set a curfew. These are YOUR children, NOT RCCL's. If you can't set a curfew then why should they?

 

Now in the case of the 17/18 year olds...THAT is a different story. They are heading off to college (probably) and don't need a mom setting a 10pm curfew.

[MAHA]

When we sailed with our 3 sons on Voyager in 2004 (they were 13, 19 and 23 at the time), we did set a curfew for our 13 y.o for 11 p.m. every evening unless he was out with us past that time. We made sure that he was in the cabin at that time and would check on him if we decided to go for a walk or to the casino afterwards. He was in a cabin with his 2 older brothers next to ours. We did not go to bed until we checked with him again after we came back to our cabin. The older ones were already college and grad students and knew that we had to be up early some days for shore excursions. They set their own time to be back, but were together all evening. They knew what we expected of them. Our 13 y.o. was allowed to go to the teen area during the day as well as the arcade (knowing that he would have to reimburse us for the arcade costs he put on his seapass), but would have to check in throughout the day. It gave him some freedom, but we still had control. He will be 16 this summer and will probably be allowed out until midnight. HE will still have to check in with us at times throughout the day and evening. We do usually end up going to some of the shows, etc. as a family after dinner as well as do shore excursions together. It is a family vacation!

Mary Anne

[babyher]

When I was just a lad and I had curfews, all that meant was that I had to get in my crazy ,wacky, freaky stuff before 11 or 12 or 1 ( depending on what age I was and what my curfew was at the time.

 

And ya know what? If a kid is hell bent on doing something, they can just as easily do it at 8pm (a decent hour) as they can at midnight ( a horrible hour to be out).

 

Now I am 43 years old and granted when I was a teen there wasn't nearly as much of the crap out there that there is now, but there was enough out there. And even though times were different, parents still worried and still set boundries. Just not as vigilent as they are today.

 

As far as my parents were concerned I was good boy, I was never late for a curfew, always called if I was gonna be late or going someplace other then where I said I was going , never came home totally wrecked (well until I was legal :). But that certainly didn't mean I was a good little boy.

 

Now having said that *LOL*

 

Granted you can't keep an eye on them 24/7 , but you do need to set boundaries. If there is some type of ship sponcered dance or party and it runs later. I don't see any harm letting them stay out a little later, but they should call every hour or so and check in.

and then immediately be in their cabin after the event is over.

 

If they are just hanging out with a bunch of kids they meet then 11 or midnight is more than late enough for the 13, 14 yr olds.

 

For 17 and 18, well like Michelle said , they are either in or soon going into college and in most cases living away from home.