Have you cruised with a teenager in the last decade?

First, let me start by saying how much I love my nieces.  They are smart, beautiful, and when it comes right down to it, very caring.  They are also 18, 15, and 13 with "smart" phones.  Am I the only one who thinks that "smart" phones are making our kids "not as smart as they should be"?  anyway, that is a whole different matter.

Moving along.  My oldest niece, Bubbles graduated from high school with a GPA that I am very proud of.  I had told her and her two sisters that if they graduate with a certain GPA, then I will take them on a trip, just the one kid and myself.  They have a bit of control over where we go, but it has to be budget friendly.  A last minute decision was made that we should go before she started college, so after many hours of searching for last minute deals and trying to pin her down on where she might like to go, we ended up on the Carnival Elation headed to the Bahamas for a five night cruise. So off we go.

So we take Southwest to Orlando, then rent a car at Enterprise and head toward Cocoa Beach for two days prior to boarding our ship.  We stayed on a beach front Hampton Inn property, went to the Kenedy Space Center, held a two year old alligator, and ate fresh seafood (not my favorite), and hit Ron Jon's for a few necessary items.

During this time, Bubbles spent quite a bit of her time in the room and on the beach on her phone either facetiming with the boyfriend or watching TV, Orange is the New Black is what she said she had downloaded.  I figured that once we got out to sea, she would back off the phone use.  

On "boat" day, we dropped of the rental car right at the Port Canaveral location and they gave us a ride to the ship berth. On to the Carnival Elation we went with the smoothest boarding process ever.  Total time from drop off of luggage to ship atrium was maybe 10 minutes tops. We were told the rooms would not be ready till 1:30pm, and we were able to get into ours at 12:45pm.  Off to a wonderful start.  Swimsuits on and to the pool we go, we are rocking the cruise thing right now!

 So for the next 5 days, I saw a lot of what you see here.   These were all taken our first day on the ship.  In Bubbles defense, I did this to myself.  While in port before we left, she had Wi-Fi for the ship.  After we left port, then there was no free Wi-Fi.  I decided that for my own personal reasons to make sure that I had access to my email and could receive and send any emails I needed to.  This 5 night package was $60, not a bad deal in my mind.  Where I failed myself and Bubbles was giving her the email pass code information.   This allowed her to facetime her boyfriend any time that she wanted.  Again, this was my own fault.  Regardless, she had downloaded the TV stuff and that was there anyway.

You know how it is when you think that someone will use good judgement and then wonder why when they are 18 and hold that phone 24/7, they don't put down the phone to look around and take in the view.

I know she had a wonderful time, but it is hard for someone who was not raised attached to the cell phone to understand why they would rather look at a 3" screen instead of seeing the entire world with their own eyes.

The world has so many amazing things to see and people to meet and that entire generation is not going to be able to interact with anyone face to face some day.  I feel like such a dinosaur when my life doesn't revolve around my phone.  Don't get me wrong, I check my email, use my calendar and check Facebook too using my phone.  But I think I can say, I spend less than an hour a day doing these things.  I also don't have my phone set to ping every time I get an update or a message, nothing is that important to me.

One last time, this was my own doing and I don't blame Bubbles, it was there and she used it.  She is 18 and this is her life.  I just wish I had got to spend a bit more time with her before she moves on in life.

Coming soon, the rest of the cruise:  Princess Caye, Nassau, Freeport, yachts, catamarans, jellyfish and more!