Common Ground Information Please!

[markey]

I have a co-worker who is going on his 1st cruise in June. His daughter is turning 13 1 week before their cruise, and from what he tells me leads a sheltered life and is not over mature for her age. Her first thought was to ask to stay with the 12 year age group, but now wants to go to CG. I have seen some comments on this board that some 13 year olds do not feel comfortable in CG and that sometimes stuff goes on that is not always suitable for the younger age. Can someone with experience give some feed back? I know every kid is different, just asking for some points of view. Thanks!

 

[FOJMO]

It depends if there are any other 13 YO's there. My DD (17) and her friend that goes along with us (also 17) love it there and usually make friends easily.

But if your friend's DD is kind of sheltered and if the kids there are older teens (16 & 17), she may have a difficult time. From my DD's viewpoint, teens kind of segregate themselves into school grade groups rather than age groups. In other words, some 13 YO's are still in 8th grade, some are HS freshmen, etc.

My DD would probably not want to hang out with an 8th grader or a HS freshman, or probably not even sophomore, for that matter. Teens like to hang around someone who is "old" for their age, rather than "young" for their age.

So, it will depend on who else is in that group and how easily she makes friends. When our DD was 13, and we were on our first cruise, we did not take a friend along and that was a BIG mistake. Our DD would NOT make friends and she hung around us all the time and was miserable. The 2nd cruise, she took along a friend, and between what they did on their own on the ship and Common Grounds, we hardly ever saw them, except for dinner! It was the best of both worlds for all of us -- vacation with the family, but each had time of their own.

If she's able to bring along a friend, it's worth it! Good luck and tell her to have a wonderful time!

 

[thedisneymom]

My daughter was very uncomfortable in Common Grounds. She registered for the lab. She did much better there. My advice is also to see how many 13 yr olds there are and if she is at their level(mine wasn't). Don't register until you are sure of your choice. You can only register at one place and it is difficult to change. There seems to be some new activities in CG for only 13-14 this may help the younger teens in CG.

 

[DVC4US]

I have to second what everyone else has posted and I have to say it just really depends on the person. My DD (who is also 13) was afraid she would not meet any friends on the cruise, even though when she was 10 yo she had a blast and met lots of people. So I found another family with a 13 yo girl on these boards and after several emails to the mom we hooked the girls up by email. So when she went on the cruise she at least had one person she sort of knew and they made plans to meet. After being together for 7 days they are like best friends now and talk on the phone and email each other all the time.

The other option, which has been posted, is to maybe register her for the lab instead of CG. What I would do in this situation is have the parents speak to the counserors during the afternoon open house at CG and tell them that their DD would like to try it out before registering. If she finds it is not for her, then she can look at the lab. Disney does not mind if a slighty older child goes to the younger groups, they just want you to make a decision and stick with it. Hope this helps.
LeiLani