Teenagers on Cruise

[Roxxy]

Has anyone ever experienced problems with letting their teens have their run of the ship? What I mean to say is if they are good kids - they should be safe at all hours... right? :confused:

 

I want them to be able to enjoy theirselves without reporting to mom and dad on a continuous basis.:D

[paul929207]

We took a 16 & 14 year old with us on a cruise. They met other kids in the teen program and had a great time. We set a curfew for them (midnight??), but other than that they did pretty much what they wanted. We had no problems.

[bplazo]

I always set a curfew and my daughter always had to check back with me every two hours and I was always checking with her. Even good kids can make errors in judgement. While your kids may be good there are others on the ship who may not be.

[JTSfink]

I always bring walkie talkies with us that way our daughter can have some freedom but she can reach us or we can reach her if needed.

 

On our last cruise we brought our daughters friend with us, they were both 13 at that time. We had no problems at all as they checked in with us and had to let us know if they were leaving one area of the ship to go somewhere else. The walkie talkies came in handy.

 

JTSfink

[cb at sea]

Treat them pretty much like you would at home--would you give them the run of the neighborhood without having them "check-in"? I don't think older teens need to be in constant contact, but you should have some idea of where they are and what they're doing!

Even adults get stupid on vacation, and kids have less self-control than adults, (generally speaking!), so do keep an eye on them!

[zuscruiserz]

My 2 teens met up with 2 teens on FOS that they'd been e-mailing for over a year. I got to know their mom very well as we talked almost daily before our cruise too. As long as they were with at least one other person, they could be in the public areas of the ship until curfew, never in anyone's room. We also made them check in/leave a message from a phone (located at every elevator, and many other places on the ship) every couple of hours. They ate dinner with us every night, and we went into all of the ports as a family.

 

This seemed to work out very well as we were able to meet up with them in the different venues and see what they were doing. They have continued to text each other daily, so I think things worked out nicely :D .

[janetz]

A ship is a small city and there are all "sorts" of people onboard. Set a curfew and make them use the buddy system. I don't know about anyone else but mom does not sleep sound until the "teen" is in. :)

[kitty9]

Just remember, there are pedophiles on ships just as there are at home. And, there are quite a few stories about how younger girls have been molested on ships by crew members and passengers. Even good kids can get caught up in trouble because there are bad people everywhere, even on cruise ships. All it takes is for your child to get involved with ONE bad kid, and then there's problems. I don't think giving them run of the ship without supervision is the best idea. At the least, they need to check in with the parents every so often.

[klct39lg]

Our teens spent most of their time with us. They had no interest in the teen club. My oldest said that he has plenty of friends at home and he didn't need to make new ones for a week. He is the shy one. My youngest was kind of enjoying being his big brother's pal for a week.

 

They played ping pong, video games, and swam. On port days they were with us the whole time. They dined with us, went to shows with us, watched movies with us. We love the exclusive time with them, because at home they are always on the go with friends, school, sports, etc.. We weren't holding hands and doing sing-a-longs the whole time or anything, just hanging out. Two of us would go one way, and two the other.

 

There were times when it would have been nice to 'escape completely', but they will be grown and gone soon enough.

 

To answer your question would they be safe at all hours? Who knows?

[caribbean dreams]

My teens basically have the run of the ship, but they also have many check in times thru out the day and a midnight cerfew unless there is something special going on in the teen club.

 

My younger teen, 13, does not have the run of the ship, she does not have to stay with me but i must know where she is at all times.