5 Tips for Cruising with Teens During the School Year

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I always knew I wanted to take my kids on a cruise once they were teens. That’s the age I was when I started cruising, and it was incredible. The freedom to roam the ship, the chance to meet new teens (who didn’t know about my nerdy reputation back home), and the FOOOOOOOD. Oh, the food. Being able to eat at a restaurant without having to ask for anyone’s permission. That was the real gold star for me.

But, of course, taking teens on vacation means making a decision between traveling during the busiest times of the year (i.e., summer, spring break, or winter break) or taking them out of school during the school year. We did a spring break trip a few years ago when our kids were in the tween/teen stage, and it was awesome. And now, I’m planning another adventure with my oldest son this January before he hits 18 and leaves me forever.

Here are a few things I’m doing to make the most of it that I hope can help other parents as well.

1. Know What They’ll Miss

The main reason I can take my oldest son on a cruise this January is that he is doing an early college program, where he’s enrolled with the community college for the bulk of his courses. That means he starts a week later than everyone else, which equals massive cruise savings. Seriously, check prices for the first week of January versus the second and you’ll see what I mean.

Unfortunately, he has one high school class that he will be missing for the week. He has already talked to that teacher, and while they can’t excuse the absence, they are going to give him stuff to work on while we’re gone so he won’t be too far behind when we get back. He’s also being hyper vigilant about not missing that class this semester to make sure he doesn’t rack up too many absences overall. It’s not perfect, but it’s a balance I can live with, especially because it’s an elective and not a core class.

2. Set Expectations for When and How You’ll See Them

There’s SO MUCH for teens to do on a cruise. As an experienced cruiser, I knew going in that there was a very good chance we’d see very little of our kids once they got on board and made friends. My husband was not expecting this, but fortunately, I had already laid some ground rules.

1. We always meet for dinner. They might rush through it and barely talk to us because they were so focused on eating and then venturing off to play basketball, soccer, or whatever else with their new friends, but at least we checked in with them and got a little bit of face time.
2. We do excursions together. This was where our family quality time came in. We chose excursions as a family and had a blast on them together. This is also just a practical rule, since we didn’t want our teens wandering around a different country on their own.
3. They have to stick to curfew. They pushed it to the limits, but they were always back in our cabin by 1:05 AM (official curfew on Royal Caribbean is 1:00).

I am hoping that going solo with one teen in January will give me a little more quality time with him, but we’ll have the same ground rules regardless.

3. Keep Them from Falling Behind with the Right Tools

The older your teen gets, the more responsibilities they have. This year, my oldest son is preparing for the SAT and ACT exams. His school has identified him as a National Merit Scholar prospect, so he’s been participating in camps and doing other things to prepare. But he’s also a super busy teen, between school, work, and basketball. We tried an in-person tutor, but it was just more stress than it was worth.

And that’s when I found an online course prep option through Athlon Learning. This online test prep lets him practice the subject areas where he needs the most help (especially math, like his mom). It’s way more convenient than going to a tutor with the same sort of support, plus it’s just $50/month! That’s insane pricing compared with a tutor in our area. He was able to keep up with his test prep this summer when we went on vacation (which included a 12-hour road trip), and he’s going to spend some time with it again this winter on our cruise.

I recommend talking with your teen about the area where they need the most support academically and seeing what tools are out there that they can use online if you are concerned about them falling behind. I believe it is worth the price of the ship’s Wi-Fi to allow them to keep up with their academics.

4. Get Them A Lanyard

True story – my younger son lost his key card within exactly 45 minutes of getting it. After we waited in the longest line ever at guest services to get him a new one, we headed straight to the gift shop on board to buy him (and the rest of us) a lanyard.

Learn from my mistake and order lanyards online before you board, like these from Amazon. Online, they’re about $5 a piece, and on board, they’re somewhere between $10 and $15 each. We set up magnetic hooks right next to the door where we all placed our lanyards every time we came into the cabin to avoid losing them. And it worked!

5. Get Home on A Saturday

Set your teen up for a successful transition back to school by getting home on a Saturday instead of Sunday. We didn’t get home until Sunday evening after our Spring Break cruise, and let’s just say Monday was ROUGH for all of us. Lesson learned — do your best with the itinerary to give your teen at least one buffer day in between disembarking and going back to school. Unless you live near a port, in which case, 1. Congratulations, you have officially made me super jealous and 2. You can probably safely disembark Sunday morning and still give your teen the whole day to recover.

In our case, the closest port is an 8-hour drive away. Otherwise, we’re flying, most likely not direct, so disembarkation day is also a major travel day. That’s why in January, we will be getting home on Saturday night instead of Sunday.

What other tips do you have for cruising with teens, especially during the school year? Let me know in the comments, or find me on Instagram @the.seasuite and let me know!