Your best cruise with a teen please!

[QueenOfIce]

We're looking at

August this year..

P&O Azura - Fjords
RCI Rhapsody of the seas -Greece
Norwegian - Norwegian Star - Greece

Has anyone been on any of these?

Plenty to do for teen is a must, she will be sharing with us so need a decent size cabin looking at outside cabins.

If you have another idea please share, we looked at the Med but the ports are pap!

We’ve been on two cruises with my three teens, we went on Norwegian Getaway , which has absolutely tons for the kids to do.

What you need from a ship depends on what your DD likes to do. For instance, mine are fairly anti-social on holiday - they’d never go to the kids club . But they were happy to chat to any other kids they met at the activities. But mostly they spent time with us, or each other.

They spent a lot of time playing mini golf, and playing football/basketball on the sports court, so that’s what I would look for on a cruise in future. They were less bothered by the slides, rope course and climbing wall, although they still did these once or twice. They also enjoyed doing quizzes with us, and watching movies on the deck in the evening.

For me, I think that the ships you have chosen would be a bit limited for activities if travelling with teens. I’d probably choose a larger ship. But if your DD is happy to go to the kids club, you may find that will be enough to keep her occupied.

I’d recommend at least on ocean view cabin. Inside cabins can be very small. We had all 5 of us in an ocean view cabin, and it was fine (a bit cramped but we coped). You’re not often in the cabin anyhow.

HI, I've cruised on the Azura, it was lovely. (No children though). We had an aft cabin (off the back of the ship) quite large with a balcony, which was lovely. ... as we left the ports on an evening we could sit on the balcony and watch the land slip away. The ship was really nice, restaurants were good. Can't comment on the activities for teens, but there were a few pools.
Med ports; bear in mind that the 'place' the ships visit is not always close by so check your map carefully first - Rome is well over an hour away on a train from the port, Venice a water taxi ride away etc.

I would never take a teenager on a cruise again, or at least not without free/low-cost wifi.

We did a Baltic cruise a few years ago, when DS was about 16, and he hated it. The places we stopped off at were interesting, but we were always in port too short a time to really explore and there was much more time on board. By 16 DS was used to being able to take himself off and wander round cities by himself on holiday, and didn't like being stuck on the ship. There were a handful of other teenagers on board but the average age was definitely 65+, and DS is not a 'joiner in' so didn't do the few activities aimed at teenagers (mostly gaming or pool related, so not his thing anyway). The onboard films were about the only entertainment he appreciated, and possibly the unlimited food. A bigger ship might possibly have had more stuff to appeal to him. He also didn't like having to share a suite (basically large room with partitioned off part for him) with me and DD for nearly two weeks.

DD was nearly 12 at the time and had much more fun - she liked the tacky evening shows (songs from musicals etc), and is a big reader, so was happy to sit around reading for a lot of the time.

I'd like to try the bigger ships but they don't have the itinerary and I don't want to trek all the way over to Florida so the choices we have are as above.

Azura looks lovely, but then there are lots of moany reviews about it, I think best bet is to ignore reviews and go for it!

Have you considered the Norwegian Breakaway, doing a Northern Europe from Warnemunde? It’s a large ship, and has masses to do for teens. It’s a bit more casual than P&O, although you can still dress up for dinner if you want.

You may need to book Azura quite quickly as kid's spaces in the school holidays fill up very quickly and they are only allowed a certain number of under 18s on board, regardless of whether or not they intend to go to the teenage kid's club. I'm taking my 15 year old to the Fjords in July & can't wait. with another trip in April 19 on Ventura.

We really liked the Azura. DS was only 11 but likes doing his own stuff. The kids club was great and targeted for age groups. Even the 13+ group was full.

We enjoyed Norwegian Epic last summer. Our quite shy ds 16 who said he deffo didn't want to go to the teen club, went to the teen club and absolutely loved it and was then there every night.

It has the pool/slides in the day. We didn't go ashore everyday as it was just too hot - knocking on 40 degrees. But when we docked actually in a port with a town, just caught the local bus in for a wander round.

Norwegian are good as it's casual dining meaning no formal dressing up and also no set dining times. My advice would be avoid the buffet, it gets really crowded. You can go to the dining room and be waited on and makes it feel more of pampered holiday.

We have done 11.
Firstly our teens have good Data packages from Vodaphone so they don't manage to get wifi at every port its not the end of the world as they can use the allowance in most countries.
Ships WIFI is extortionate and very poor so don't bother.
Kids clubs are usually good
We look on Cruise critic etc and plan what we will be doing in every port
Not done the Fjords, but done most of Greece all over the med and Russia etc always had a good time but we do plan each day, some times just me and the kids get off and go for a wander each port is different.
Any questions just ask

Another vote for Norwegian Epic lot's of entertainment options plus its a huge ship so lots of sports etc things to do for all ages.