Mariner of Seas with Pre-Teen

[disneymomtwo]

I'm traveling on Mariner of the Seas for Thanksgiving with DH, DS 8 and DS 11. It's our first cruise. The 11 year old will be 1 month shy of turning 12. He's excited about the cruise. But, he's leary about Adventure Ocean. Does anyone have a son that age who has attended and how did they like it? I'm looking to get a sense of how Adventure Ocean will be for him - will he be bored since he's so close to turning 12? Thanks!

[lfgaynor]

Mariner has great teen and pre-teen facilities. RCI is good in that 12 year olds are with the 12 to 14 year olds in teen like facilities while 15 to 17 year olds are separate. Other lines put the 12 year olds with 9 or 10 year olds to 12 year olds and the 12 year olds feel too old for the kiddie group.

Should be fun.

Smooth sailing,
Luisa Frey Gaynor
Family Cruise Editor

[disneymomtwo]

My son's 12th birthday is one month after we sail. I've heard that even though he'll be so close to 12, that the cruise lines stick to the age categories which means he'll be with the 9-11 year olds. Is that true?

If so, how will he fare with the 9-11 year olds?

[jamandamn14@yahoo.co.uk]

I believe they will make your son participate in 1 or 2 9 to 11 year old activities to asses weather they will let him into the older age group if you and him wish

[wiehlm]

heyy
im kayla and im 12. im not going to be on your cruise but i went on it when i iwas 10 and i loved it. its not too "kiddish" at all. its verry fun:]

[wiehlm]

Hi,
My daughter wrote the previous entry. I thought she would wite a little more than that, but since she didn't I'll tell you that not only did she have a great time, she cried the day we left and was miserable for days afterwards. She actually told me that she would rather go on another cruise again than go to Disney World.

We allowed our daughter a little bit of extra freedom by allowing her to (with our knowledge) check herself out of the program and hang out with her new-found friends in an unsupervised environment. She was pretty much restricted to a handful of areas that we told her she was allowed to go (the Arcade, Johnny Rockets, etc) and she had a two-way radion on her at all times so she could check in with us and we could keep tabs on her. It was a huge leap of faith and as a parent, I can assure you I was nervous because you never know what kind of people she might run into, but I trusted her to remain in the areas that I told her to and to always stay with a group of friends and not roam the ship alone.

We're sailing on the Mariner again in December and now that she is 12, she is in the 12-14 year old group and I am just as nervous as I was before...maybe more so. But she is very excited about being back.