Best Cruising Tips From Teenagers For Teenagers

My kids are not just ‘kids’ anymore they are teens, small humans about to take on the world. Each teenager has created a list of where they want to return to, where they don’t care if we ever return to and what travel was ‘lit’ as they call it.

Today I am turning my site over to the kids, as we are actively debating where we are heading for that 2017 Winter Vacation. When we talk about vacations, my teens have some rather interesting insight as to what makes a vacation good, great, and grand. The kids see things from a different perspective and family vacations are family planned, family discussed and family fun!

Remember part of our planning is always around my one son with life-threatening food and environmental allergies as well as medical conditions that must be actively advocated to guarantee his safety.

Our conversation seemed to stop when the topic of cruising came up and I have learned the best cruising tips from teenagers, beyond anything I might provide you. Lavishly live cruising out loud and see what the best cruising tips from teenagers for teenagers as my teens dish it up!

♥ This Is Us ♥

We call ourselves the three musketeers, ready to take on any adventure mom and dad throw at us. We are all teens and no we don’t get along all the time, just some of the time (like you did not know that already). Our bags our always ready to go, our passports love getting stamped so where are we off to next? That’s kind of not up to us, but we can tell you about Cruising as we are Teenage Experts.

We love adventures, and we also love good food and meeting new people in different places. For us, the best of the best is cruising, hands down.

The Clothing

Mom and Dad were like ” make sure you have dress clothes, nothing that shows this or that, and you gotta look right for dinner” I say, “Relax” – Flip flops with sparkles work day or night. Bring along your dress from homecoming, or prom if you want, but a simple sundress goes far (girls). Niko and Mj Here: Boat shoes work for the night, and so do khakis. We wore ties one night, but dress pants work fine. Like, it’s not about stressing over clothing, it is a fun time. We did not mind getting dressed up for the dining room because every night there is a show and our server was awesome. Ask us more, leave comments below, we can totally answer your questions!

Really We Gotta Get Going

So, first up for us, we hate having to get dressed, get into the car and then figure out where Niko can go and eat. We love our brother but his allergies just make it impossible to eat many places. We know that Mom is gonna drive us nuts with trying to find the right place for him to eat and then she has to interview the Food Manager to make sure Niko can eat there.

We love cruising because once Mom sets up the cruise, she submits a sheet about his allergies and she talks to the head chef when we get there. Then it’s all taken care of, no worries about food, until we get off the ship!

Food Allergies

Niko here: you all have probably come to know me as the poster boy for food allergies because my Mom is constantly writing about it. It is a tough obstacle to have food allergies and environmental allergies and travel. Mom makes it easy, but I still have to think about every forkful of stuff that goes into my mouth.

Food allergies suck the life out of eating. I worry about everything I put in my mouth because I don’t want to swell up like a Pufferfish. I am only 13 and already have had a few incidents of anaphylactic shock due to the negligence of restaurant and food managers.

It’s tough to always explain to people all my allergies, but… things really changed for me when we took our first cruise. Our head Snacks took care of all my food. He made it so easy, all I had to do was order the day before or alert the food manager on the Snacks and I had a meal. I never worried about what I put into my mouth! In fact, it was such a big deal, that my mom tweeted that article out about dining with food allergies on cruise ships and the Disney Chefs on a totally different brand than we were cruising on, retweeted it.

Best Cruising Tips From Teenagers For Teenagers

Snacks During The Day

I am MJ, and I am kind of tall (6’2″ to be exact), and just in high-school. Mom calls me a tall weed that constantly needs to be fed. Food is on my mind from the time I eat until the next time I eat and between every activity, at least that is what Mom says. Honestly, ice cream is great, Snacks are better and cruises give us food all day long. When we are on the ship we love the restaurants and room service. It’s perfect while we are all getting cleaned up and ready to move on to the next activity.

The Ten O’Clock Hour

No disrespect to Mom and Dad, but they are old, like by 10 O’Clock the party pair like to call it a night. We don’t. We love cruising because even when they are done, we don’t have to be. We had clubs and friends and midnight snacks, clubbing and more.

When we go on Cruise Ships where we stay at hotels it is boring (sorry all but it’s true most hotels unless they are resorts lack teen fundamentals) because we all have to pile in and there is nothing to do, it’s a night at 10 O’clock and yeah the TV is just great (eye roll).

Cruise Ships Are For Kids

Cruise ships are made for kids, at least some of the cruise ships. There are lots to explore, fun camps, and music to make you remember how great every day is! Even the older people on the ships were nice to us, we know they wish we were probably not there, but they had their own side and we had ours.

If you have been on a cruise you know what we have found is true-to-life fun. When we walked onto our cruise ship, there was music, and beverages and people smiling at everyone. We think the whole world needs a cruise because it is the one place where EVERYONE was nice to each other every day. Cruises make us smile.

The Food

When we cruise, Mom and Dad don’t have to worry because we are all together and we are with friends. We have our suite on the ship and we all have our space, and we can either hang in the room or hang at the clubs.

We loved wondering what themed towel creature was going to greet us and even more what we would learn about our cabin steward (they are always nice and we love talking to them!)

MJ here again, with a warning *** you can hear everything through the walls, or so our parents told us, so careful with all of the laughing and carrying on. Watch the pillow fights.

Kallie Here: “So having 2 brothers you really need to get in control of everything from the minute you get into the room. Take over the closet space, all the drawers, and unload your stuff in the bathroom. Really, guys don’t need the bathroom anyway!”

Excursion Fun

While getting up in the early morning to disembark was totally not cool (think teenager here), we would have been totally not cool if we had not seen the places we sailed to. If you don’t already know our Mom is kind of like a Drill Sargent on trips.

We thought this was abnormal until we talked to Scott (a server) on one of our trips and he told us, ” my parents don’t believe that vacations are meant for sleeping in, they are for getting up and seeing the place you are at, grabbing in all you can each and every day until your head hits the pillow!” We wonder if moms are clones because this is our mom and we mean this in the nicest way.

Excursions got us out there doing totally crazy stuff like hiking to the top of ruins, touring a jungle, swimming in crystal clear water, and swimming out to a restaurant/beverage place. We hung out with monkeys on our shoulders, parrots on our heads, and went to chocolate factories. It was all about the experience and the new parts of the world that we saw.

Kallie: “would I have gone to a chocolate factory? No, but being in a country that had one and being on a cruise that left us with the port of call that offered made it awesome!” Life is about getting to see our world, not just the space we live in.

Mom said: No sleep for those looking for opportunity, sleep on the plane ride home. Shhhh, we think Mom slept on the way home the most!

Call Us Mr. Worldwide

It’s about being able to come together with a bunch of kids, who we did not know before, but feel like we are besties with now. We would ‘party’ together, hang out together and we were all without our phones. None of us had WiFi (all of our parents felt it was not needed and I guess they were right). We spent a ton of time talking, getting to know each other, and in fact, it was sad leaving.

What we loved too was the scavenger hunt throughout the ship, which let us explore in groups so we were always with someone (trust me you will want to know this, our parents always worry. ) At the end of the hunt, we all got bags of loot, which consisted of candy and ship trinkets so that was cool too, kind of our own personal souvenirs.

Being Docked

Being docked was no excuse to not be busy. Even when we got back on the ship after a full day of activities, we loved being busy at the sky courses and golfing, playing basketball. When we got back on the ship, it was the start of a new adventure, we took stairwells and elevators and walked from one side to another and it was constant fun. It was also fun to see the ship push off each time it was like the first!

FAMILY

We never forget that while we travel we bond. There’s a lot less On The Grid time and a lot more time talking. We keep the texts and social stuff tampered down so Mom does not threaten to take the phones (you know how they say they will and then forget, lol!) and we also want to spend time together. With each of us in different grades, different schools we need this time together. Cruising is an experience that keeps you together but provides tons of options to also have your own time and that is why we rate it with big props!

Take A Subtle Hint Mom & Dad

We hope Mom and Dad read this and that they get the vacation planning just right. We hope to see waves and water in our future and we don’t mean hands waving and shower stalls. The Vento kids are hoping to set sail on another fun adventure. We just wonder what Mom and Dad will do? What ship will they pick, or what part of the world will we see? It’s all about teen fun, and being a family and we love when Team Vento travels on our winter adventures. The best time is family time and we love our winter trips we just love cruises the best.

Really text your parents, tell your parents, leave notes, Snapchat photos of maps, and Pin cruises to your mom’s Pinterest board, use cruise ship emoji’s, whatever you have to do to get your parents to consider a cruise. .. We do! Lavishly live life out loud with our best tips for cruising from teenagers to teenagers! Hope we see you on our next cruise!

Learn more about cruising in some of my other articles as I am a cruise addict!

3 Tips To Effectively Pack For A Cruise

Well Packed Shore Excursion Bag For Cruisers

Why Families Take Cruises

Best Reasons To Cruise

3 Tips To Find Entertainment On Cruise Ships

What Happens In A Cruise Ship Dining Room?

Best Cruising Tips From Teenagers For Teenagers

Best Of Cruising

Cruising Carnival Safety, Security, Luggage & Check-In

Family Cruising Basics

Ultimate Vacation Experiences For Every Trip