Teenage Mixers on Summer Cruise

[ajijic4me]

My daughter has pen pals from all over the world on chat lines but none of them are children of gays as most of the youth on the cruise are, too bad she cannot connect with some of them. It would be a mutally beneficial encounter I would think. Well thanks for reading all this, if you are a parent of an only child who will be making the cruise this year drop us a line, perhaps we can get the kids together so they will give us a little quality time alone.

[ajijic4me]

Lisa,

Living in Mexico as gay parents is a lot like it must be to live in Orange County as Democrats. Funny you mention the "never see the kids" syndrome. When we took a 100% straight cruise, she was never in her room, always out with the kids and I practically never got to eat with her. That's part of what I said about the "herding" of the kids into "family" groups. We'll see this year, I am sure she will be more comfortable and hopefully the 15 year old stuff won't get in the way too much. As the kids say, she would DIE if she knew I was discussing her in an open forum. thanks so much for your input Lisa, hopefully your daughter and ours can run into each other and share their introversion. adios, Tomas

[francine]

.i took my 3 daughters on the cruise the first and second year.my middle child was having a hard time just being with me because i had just came out a year before that and she was living with her dad because she was not being very accepting.to say the least.my other 2 children met a few kids.one teen and her mom we still see through out the year.[hey lori and cheryl miss you see you soon]but just being there as a family and being able to not hide who we are is wonderful and was very comforting 4 her.teenage years are soo hard on us and the children ...my advice to you is to just make it a family cruise and take that time to be with your teen without interruptions [work cooking cleaning]for a whole week because sometimes they need that more than anything.........you might hook up with a couple who has some children for your kid .its hard believe me 3 girls all different personalities.every day theres something 4 me to worry about.this is an amazing oppty for your family to be able to relax and enjoy each other just go with that.dont stress there is plenty of time for friends with straight or gay parents.we are not going this year but if i was i would hook up with you.maybe next year. have a great cruise :)

[RainbowAngel]

I have been on the past 2 cruises with my 14 year old, and he is so looking forward to going again and meeting back up with some of the friends he made 2 years ago. He emails back and forth with them and has for 2 years.
He is an outgoing kid so maybe his experience was different, but most of the teens I have spoken to or heard about have had the same type of experience as he did.
First of all, I feel the kids crew, and teen crew, did a very good job with things for the kids to do and experiences relevant to their age. The first year he was a 12 year old and did the kids crew for 10-12 year olds. They had much less freedom and were very welll supervised at all times. He spent as much time as possible with his peers in the kids crew.
Last year he went to teen crew. As I said it is much more relaxed than kids crew. There are activities going on all the time, starting from breakfast time until about 1 am. He went to meals with me, we went to breakfast then he was off to teen crew, I had him meet me for lunch and dinner, and he went with me on excursions, other than that he spent most of the cruise with his peers. There is a teen lounge where the kids would meet up each day. They had events for them all day long. There are teen counselors in the teen lounge who supervise activities all day long. He also, as one other has said, had to be back in our room by 1 am.
I am surprised by the negative experiences some teens had. Every time I saw any of the teens on board, they were in groups and seemed to be having a very good time. Some of the kids were more outgoing, and some much quieter, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves.
My 14 year old is so looking forward to going back. Yes, some of the kids are those that have been there for both of the other two years, but I know last year he made some new friends also that were not on the first cruise. And he is looking forward to making new friends, he says he thinks there might be some new kids on board this year because the cruise is leaving from the other side of the country, and maybe some families can go that couldnt go across country. He corresponds on email and im with several kids from the cruise.
I think the thing is that there are teen get togethers that first day and night, and the kids need to go and meet up with all the others that will be there. And spend some time in teen crew, and in the teen disco with the others. The kids attended lots of the shows as a group, or stayed in the disco if they didnt want to attend. They did have freedom to go about the ship, and they did, but they did spend a lot of time in their space too. I know he was upset a few times when the teen disco had to be used for little kids cause there were too many little ones.
I have heard on the newest ncl ship that the teen area is away from the kids area, but I know on the Dawn the teen disco was across from kids crew. And I assume it will be the same on this ship too.
My teenager has had a very positive experience both years.