Teenagers all at sea – that awkward age.

After talking to one of my customers yesterday whose cruise holiday was, quite frankly, ruined by what she described as ‘packs’ of teenagers roaming round the ship, taking over certain public areas, it made me start to wonder why, with so much dedicated space, staff & activities available from morning ’til night, this should happen.

Now its’ fair to say that for me to remember my teens I have to stretch the memory a little too far, however I am currently the proud owner of a truly wonderful (if at times cocky, hormonal & mouthy) bona fide teenager of my very own. It’s a male one called Jack.

Jack has cruised  on numerous occasions, the first time at the ripe old age of 3 & a half on the old Suncruises ship, Sunbird, until our last cruise together at the age of 15 on Independence of the Seas. It’s fair to say that he has loved all his sailings, no more so than the latter ones in his teens.

On the cruise that my customer recently returned from, on Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas, the main issue seemed to be that the groups of youths didn’t seem to spend any time in their dedicated areas or with their families. The cruise departed in August, so she was expecting plenty of children on board, but not groups of older teenagers that seemed to be round every corner she turned. They took over the library, being noisy & making other people leave to get some peace & quiet elsewhere. They would sit on the top of the jacuzzis in a circle for some time, not letting any other guests in. They wandered round the ship with plates of food, just discarding them wherever they were passing (in bars, the theatre, on the deck floor & even ON the ice skating rink). They were described as being very loud, rude & generally quite intimidating for some guests.

I have to say that of all the holidays I have been on, cruises are the ones where I have seen less evidence of children running riot due to the facilities & clubs available to them. From my own experience, yes it is an awkward time being a teenager, too old for kids clubs, but not yet an adult. Their active minds get bored very quickly &  everything is ‘boring’. I think one of the things they practise to perfection is that look that can only be described as a mixture of sulky & bored,which seems to be on show 95% of the time – ‘Can you tidy your bedroom’? – sulky look. ‘I’ve booked us a cruise’ – big sigh & sulky look. ‘Here’s a tenner’ – sulky look & mumbled thanks.

Here’s a real life example:

(I am really going to get some grief for this)

 I can only talk from my personal experiences, but Jack thought the teen facilities on the Independence were amazing. He loved the fact that nobody over the age of 18 (apart from the teen staff) was allowed in to their dedicated zone. There was the ‘couldn’t possibly live life without’ games console area. There were sporting activities at least twice a day. There were film screenings every other evening. There were DJ workshops, ice skating sessions, flowrider sessions, open mic nights, discos, climbing competitions & even their own Gala evening on the last night. And those are just the things I remember.

Teen only night club:

Yes, the teenagers  do want their independence & to be just like grown ups, sometimes dining in the buffet restaurant without us parents, sometimes just sitting around (with sulky faces) to discuss all their huge problems like how unfair life was, how awful their parents treated them & how ‘boring’ this cruise was (before returning home to sulky-facetime their friends about how rubbish life is now they’re home from the best holiday they ever had)!

Despite giving Jack some space, I spend a fair amount of time at the beginning of a cruise on covert spying missions. I have no concerns about his welfare & I know that he’s generally a sensible well behaved young man, however kids can sometimes get giddy on holiday & do daft things whilst showing off to their new friends, so I feel it only right to check that his new found friends aren’t the type to lead him in to trouble & that they aren’t causing issues for others. Clearly the parents of the kids on my customers cruise didn’t have the same concerns.

In summary, It upsets me to think that thoughtless kids spoiled a holiday that my customers spent their hard-earned money on. The real responsibility for this has to lie with the parents. We all want a nice, relaxing time on our holidays, but that shouldn’t be to the detriment of our unsuspecting fellow holidaymakers. As a parent you have to face up to your responsibilities & don’t let the kids run riot.

What do you think?