Older Teens first cruise

Mudshack

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 16, 2019
We booked the 5 night Marvel Day cruise leaving out of Miami the end of Feb. My kids are 16-18. Will they find the Disney Cruise to "childish?" They are excited, but would hate for them to be disapointed if everything is geared towards 7-9 year olds.
 
I will soon be booking our first cruise and my children will be 18. It makes me a little nervous because they won't be able to do the clubs (and if their friends come they will be able to) but I have also heard good things about the 1820 group. I am going to absolutely make sure that my duo go to the meet up the first night because from what I have read they plan activities for the 1820 group based on what the group would like....if no one shows up to plan then nothing gets planned. I have read and watched soo many things about the cruises and a common theme really is there is more to do than can possibly be done so I am just going to go with that and let the children decide how things go (again, except Mom is going to make them go to the 1820 meet up the first time they have one).

I will be looking forward to more replies that hopefully will continue to put minds at ease.
 
Last time we went, my son was 13. He is 15 now and very much wants to go again. There are age appropriate activities for teens and I’m sure they’ll have a great time!
 


Not to mention 18 year old are considered adults onboard and can go to all the adult activities, clubs, adult pool and Palo...they just can't consume alcohol.

MJ
 
My twin girls were 13 on our first, 15 on our second and are now 17 when we go this spring break. They love it. And they are already given us the dirty look when we start talking about going on our first DCL trip without them while they're in college.
 
My twin girls were 13 on our first, 15 on our second and are now 17 when we go this spring break. They love it. And they are already given us the dirty look when we start talking about going on our first DCL trip without them while they're in college.
Lol. We booked our first child-free cruise for Nov 2019 — the stink eye was real.
 


We are taking my oldest son on his first cruise this summer. He just turned 19. He plans on attending the 1820 meetup and getting involved there. On our cruise page there are quite a few kids in that age group. He loves Disney and this cruise is a dream come true for him. I wish we could have taken him earlier, but better late than never!
 
My 14 year old LOVED the Vibe. They have great activities for the 14-17 year-olds. Each day he basically said, I’ll see you at dinner.
 
We booked the 5 night Marvel Day cruise leaving out of Miami the end of Feb. My kids are 16-18. Will they find the Disney Cruise to "childish?" They are excited, but would hate for them to be disapointed if everything is geared towards 7-9 year olds.
My kids just completed their 6th Disney Cruise at 16 and 18, my 18 yo DS picked it as his graduation present. We gave him the option of 2 inside staterooms on the Wonder to Alaska or 2 mini suites in the new Norwegian Bliss and he chose Disney. They had a great time. We also did the Marvel Cruise the year before and they both agreed it was their favorite cruise ever. I wouldn’t worry about a thing.
 
Our DS was 18 on our last cruise. The 1820 group met the first night. He said there were about 12 people there and they planned a few things but nothing ever actually was done, very little on the Navigator and nothing he said they even discussed doing as a group. Fortunately, he met a few guys who he hung out with most of the cruise and had a good time.
 
The teens usually love the teen club, but your 18 year old will not be allowed to partake. The adult only areas will be open, but those might be a bit boring. It really depends on what they like to do.

My daughter did the 1820 group on a 7 night cruise. It is extremely important to go to the first meeting that first night. That is when decisions are made for the rest of the cruise. I think they met for something every day (usually at 10pm), but there were a couple times that only my daughter showed up. It was fine because then she got to have one on one time with the CM. Those were usually things that she could have done without the group, though, such as watching one of the after hours adults only shows.
 
First time poster here. My experience summer of 2018 on a Disney Dream Cruise with my two teens (15 and 16) who had already recently sailed on Royal Carribean’s Harmony of the Seas was that the Disney Cruise did not have the activities (flow rider, zip line, ice skating, slide, escape room, game room, bigger pools, and more food options) and just ended up not measuring up for my teens. They tried Vibe, but they said that the activities never seemed to happen. Just our experience anyway, but since it’s your first cruise maybe it will be perfect. Unfortunately, we tried something else first, then tried Disney.
 
My girls have grown up on the cruise. They are 18 and 14. It’s still their favorite vacation.

We are going in March and our 18 year old is so excited for Palo.

The 14 year old will be 15 and can’t wait to get back to the vibe.

Teens are fickle creatures, your experience can and will vary, usually by the minute....
 
We booked the 5 night Marvel Day cruise leaving out of Miami the end of Feb. My kids are 16-18. Will they find the Disney Cruise to "childish?" They are excited, but would hate for them to be disapointed if everything is geared towards 7-9 year olds.

I have 2 teens (15 year old girls) and we just went on an Alaskan cruise in July. I can only speak for my own kids, but they did not feel the cruise was geared towards younger kids at all. Some things they did on their own: swimming cause they wanted to try the slide a few times, sun bathing (YES it was sunny and warm on our Alaskan cruise!), they did their daily jog on their own and then would stop and pick up some drinks/snacks, they watched a movie twice cause the 2nd time was in 3D.... But mostly we hung as a family and played Bingo a couple times, shuffleboard on deck, ordered room service and enjoyed our veranda together....plus, we had excursions planned at all of the ports, so we really didn't have a ton of "free" time to fill in.
 

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