girls on Symphony of the seas in Miami
When our 16-year-old granddaughter, Hannah, came to visit from Australia we booked a couple Caribbean cruises out of Florida to take her on. Symphony of the Seas is an excellent ship for cruising with teens because it has so many things for them to do. Besides the usual ship things like pools, hot tubs, and waterslides, Symphony also has a zipline, 10-deck dry slides, flowriders, rock climbing walls, ice arena, mini golf, a carousel, and arcades. It has a nice teen space where kids can go to hang out and meet other kids, and there are also organized activities just for the teens.
Violet on the flowrider
Along with us on the Symphony we had a friend with 15-year-old daughter, Violet. Hannah and Violet had not met before the cruise, but both are athletes. They had a lot in common and got along like they had been friends forever. Hannah is a competitive ninja and Violet plays basketball. They met other teens through the teen club on the ship and had a lot of fun trying out the various things the ship had to offer and going to teen activities.
the first few rows closest to the pool/stage are in the splash zone
Hannah said her favorite show ever was the Hiro water show on Symphony of the Seas. The girls watched it from the front row splash zone with other teens they had met and got soaked. The 3 adults of our group stayed dry watching the show from higher up.
swimming at Maho Beach
Teens are pretty self-reliant and both girls mostly went off and did their own thing while onboard the ship, often together. They came to meals and some of the shows with us, but did nearly everything else on their own.
airplane coming in for a landing at Maho Beach
In ports we all went out together as a group. In Saint Martin Hannah wanted to see the airplanes flying overhead at Maho Beach so that was where we all went. Most of the taxis out of Saint Martin go there so transportation is easy. There’s not a lot of beach there, but we did see a lot of planes and the girls went for a swim. That was Hanna’s favorite port of the trip so she definitely had fun.
kayaking in St Thomas
In Saint Thomas we went kayaking out of Margaritaville. This was not a ship’s excursion so we had to Uber from the port to get there, which is about half an hour away. It was in a part of Saint Thomas we hadn’t seen before. It was a bit windy that day, but Margaritaville has a beach in a fairly sheltered cove so it wasn’t too rough for launching kayaks from there. We paddled to another beach to go snorkeling and then across the bay to a dolphin rescue center where they had dolphins that had come from other facilities that either closed down or had kept them in manmade pools rather than open spaces in seawater like this facility had. The girls went in a kayak together and had no trouble maneuvering it.
ready to make chocolates
In Nassau we went to a chocolate factory and made chocolates. I think that was Violet’s favorite excursion. That one is at Greycliff Hotel which is a short walk from the ship and also booked through outside sources. We did not take any excursions through the cruise ship on this cruise.
girls in Margaritaville
When the Symphony cruise ended Violet and her mom went home so Hannah was on her own on the next cruise on the Majestic Princess. She did meet some other kids in the teen space there, but didn’t hang out with them as much as the ones on the Symphony.
scarlet macaw at the monkey and sloth rescue in Roatan
Although the Princess doesn’t have all the bells and whistles like the Symphony, Hannah still enjoyed that cruise. She found plenty to do with the gym and hot tubs, hiding ducks, and going to the teen space.
capuchin monkey
We had just two ports from the Majestic Princess. It overnighted in Roatan. The first day we had a long excursion, again booked through outside sources. This was also something Hannah had chosen. It picked people up in a van just outside the port. We went first to a sloth and monkey rescue. People went into cages with the monkeys who ran wild jumping from person to person. The sloths weren’t caged. They had an open pavilion surrounded in trees and went in and out as they pleased. They moved surprisingly fast compared to how slow their reputation is. Not nearly as fast as the monkeys, but they could cover ground when they wanted to.
riding at the water’s edge
Next we went to a beach that also had a stable. We had a short horseback ride that was mostly on a trail, but went down to a beach on a river where they walked through the edge of the water for a bit. Then we went out to the reef in a little boat to go snorkeling. The next day we went to the beach at the port and went swimming.
filming sea life through the bottom of the clear boat
In Cozumel we went out in a clear boat where you can see down to the bottom of the sea through the floor of the boat, which is a different way of viewing the sea life. The building where the clear boat tours start from is within walking distance of any of Cozumel’s three cruise ship ports.
Symphony of the Seas
Symphony was Hanna’s favorite of the two, both because of all the things the ship offered and from having another teen as part of our group. She said that was her favorite cruise ever because of all of the things available to do. She especially liked the dry slide which is a lot longer than the waterslides. The rock wall was right up her alley as a ninja so she had no trouble climbing it.
returning to the boat after snorkeling in Roatan
Cruising with teens is a lot easier than cruising with younger kids since the teens can pretty well take care of themselves and find things to do on their own. They can also navigate their own way around the ship to get to whatever activities they choose to participate in. It would not be so easy if the teens were the sort likely to cause problems, but these girls were not troublemakers. Of course that can apply to adults as well since some adults do cause trouble on cruise ships. While we have not sailed with troublemakers of any age as part of our group, the cruises we sailed on where there were other people who caused problems they all happened to be adults.
Cruise Stories 