[katiesue]

Maddie was talking about it last night and one of her thoughts was the counselors were "cool". They didn't say stuff like "come along boys and girls" or whatnot. Per her they knew how to treat teenagers like teenagers and not little kids. The other thing they do is the first night they have a meet and greet. At that time they get a list of all the possible activities they can do, I think she said there were like 50-60. Everyone votes then they actually schedule in the winners. So every cruise is different based on the wishes of the current group of kids.

And yes as a parent I didn't worry about her getting into much trouble. To be on the cruise at all every kid had to have an adult somewhere on the ship. There aren't really any "private" places they can go, no one has their own room. They just hung out a lot of the time in public places as well as in Vibe.

Maddie would usually show up for dinner since that was an almost universal requirement of all the other kids. They could do whatever but they had to meet the family for dinner. I didn't require it for a few reasons but she came most of the time anyway. The night we went to Palo she took one of her friends to our table and had a wonderful time.

I do think Disney does a great job with all ages as far as activities for everyone to do. There are things all day long for different age groups and for families to do together. And there are adult only areas and activities too.

I know a friend who did an Alaska cruise on a different line a couple of years ago with 3 kids and she said there really wasn't much at all for them to do. And since it's not really warm, although the pools are kept at 88, just sitting by the pool or on deck isn't much of an option as it would be in warmer areas.