Junior cruisers ages 3 to 17 can enjoy a boatload of exciting onboard activities. Our dedicated youth centers are staffed by trained counselors, who are ready to ensure our young sailors stay happy all day long.

Princess Fun Zone offers specific programs for kids ages 3 to 12. Our special Teen Center is dedicated to teen passengers.

On all Vessels except Royal, Tahitian and Pacific Princess you'll find completely equipped Youth Centers. There's everything from arts and crafts corners, games tables, movies, and splash pool area.

Princess operates youth programs on Royal, Tahitian or Pacific Princess, when 20 or more children ages 3 to 17, are traveling on a given voyage. Children under the age of 3 are allowed to visit the Youth Center, if accompanied and supervised by a parent at all times.

The Sun, Dawn, Grand, Golden, Coral, Island, Diamond and Star Princess even offer a toddlers' play area.

We recently toured the Disney Magic before a 7 day cruise she was going on sailing from Port Canaveral.  While we didn't get a chance to observe the childrens program counselors in action, we did inspect the squeaky clean facilities and were really impressed.   Divided into more age categories than any other cruise line we've seen, they really know kids.  Carnival and Princess do a decent job, don't get me wrong.  Disney does kids better than anyone else though, that was not a surprise at all.  Here's an outline of the daily activities for each age group.  I'll need to sail this ship soon to get some photos of this area too!

Give each kid a carry on bag of their own filled with new, surprise treats to occupy downtime- layovers, long flights, time in hotels, as well as a few familiar items.  A notebook is a good idea- encourage them to keep a travel journal

Carnival Cruise Lines has introduced a new children's dining program that provides kids with delicious supervised meals with their fellow young cruisers in the ships' casual poolside restaurants while parents enjoy a night to themselves.

The new children's dinners - the latest component of the line's complimentary "Camp Carnival" program - are available fleetwide and take place in the ships' Lido Deck eateries, the "Seaview Bistros."  Dinners take place from 6-7 p.m. after which children are welcome to partake in regularly scheduled "Camp Carnival" activities until 10 p.m.

The children's dinners are available nightly on three- and four-day voyages except for the first night of the cruise.  On voyages of five days or longer, the dinners are available nightly except for the first and last night of the cruise.

A different menu is featured each night and includes items such as spaghetti with meatballs, chicken quesadillas, hamburgers, hot dogs, roasted chicken drumsticks, pepperoni pizza, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, roasted turkey, and grilled salmon steak.  Popular side dishes include French fries, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese.  A 35-item salad bar is also available.  Desserts include assorted ice cream and seasonal fresh fruit.

Other popular dining options for children sailing aboard the "Fun Ships" include 24-hour pizzerias, a grille serving hot dogs and hamburgers and 24-hour ice cream/frozen yogurt stations.  Children's menus are available in all main dining rooms.  A special children's turn-down service offering freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on the first and last night of the cruise, and the "Fountain Fun Card," which, for a one-time fee, provides unlimited soft drinks throughout the cruise, are also available.

The new children's dinners complement the wide variety of fun morning-til-night activities included in the line's popular "Camp Carnival" program, featured on all 19 "Fun Ship," which are expected to host some 400,000 children this year.

"Camp Carnival" activities are geared toward children ages 2-15, who enjoy such amenities as indoor and outdoor play areas, computer labs, arts and crafts centers, video game rooms, a new EduCruise science/geography program and more.

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Your use of the word "guidelines" rather than "rules" in the title of this thread suggest that you're already half way there to having kids that will have a fun and safe cruise and be the responisble cruisers we'd all like them to be.

To have a bunch of rules would be easy. We could make a list of all the things not to do. We could start with the list found in all cabins aboard the Caribbean Princess and other ships of do's and don'ts for young people and add many more. We could even make a list or schedule of all the things TO do as well.

But then you are a cop, either spending a good portion of your vacation time following up to be sure the rules are being followed and/or doling out punishment when they're not. If you don't do that then the kids figure out pretty quick that you're not paying attention and what they can get away with.

But Guidelines are another matter altogether.

With guidelines we can allow them the freedom that stringent rules do not while keeping them safe and providing the direction they desperately need at 16 so that they can become good cruisers...and good people for that matter.

The cruise ship environment is not to be feared, just understood.

Like the school environment, after-school job environment, Friday night out in your town environment, the cruise ship environment is just that....another environment with hazzards of it's own for teens.

Understanding these hazards with the same sense of reality and providing guidance as you might for any other environment is the key. You see there are no teachers and administrators as there are at shool, managers or supervisors as there are at the after-school job, or bona fide police officers to turn to like in your town.

Without you there is nobody. Is it any wonder that we read about teens run amok down the hallway at 3am?

I think it would be much more productive for you to gain as much information as possible about the cruise ship environment as it applies to teens, discuss the areas of concern with them and together make appropriate guidelines.

Those guidelines will allow them to face the situations you talk about if they come up AND ones you won't think of or that have never happened before based on your guidelines.

Over the years we've refined our guidelines to the ones mentioned above. What I didn't mention though is that those guidelines have resulted in our kids wanting to spend a lot of time with us. That desire makes for those to be fun times, not required times that they do because we said so.

There's a big difference.

With that in mind, here's some information that may help you make up your own guidelines, appropriate for YOUR kids who I'd bet you know very well

Facts:

• Underage drinking does occur on cruise ships, this is no myth or story blown out of proportion. I've seen it on every cruise we've been on, some more than others.
• Teens of any age can and do buy drugs in any Caribbean port then sneak them back on the ship successfully.
• A lot of kids are indeed "cut loose" for the week, only seeing their parents if there is trouble or at some pre-determined time, like dinner.
• Kids do wander into crew-only areas of the ship. You'll be warned not to do this "even if a crew member invites you" but it will happen anyway and no good will
• There is a pack of "bad" kiids, trouble makers, on every sailing. The vast majority of kids are well-behaved, the idiots get the attention.

The harsh reality of this is only something to be acknowleged and discussed. I'm not saying your kids would do any of these things, just that they are done and to ignore them would be a big mistake. I'm not saying that your cruise is doomed and your kids will become drug addicts, alcohol dependent or any thing of the sort.

But they could without something between them and these things.

It can't be you. Just like on land, you can't be there all the time.

It CAN be the thoughtful guidlines you both agree on, appropriate for YOUR kids.