College-age Cruisers

[DDD]

Hi!
My cruise to Alaska is planned for early this summer, and I am taking my two college-age grandsons. I see pictures and posts about various ages cruising, but I noticed very little about
"kids" their age. I'm wondering if they'll have the opportunity to make new friends their own age.
Thanks!

[Matt]

Royal Caribbean has a good mix of ages on its sailings. It rarely skews heavily. Since it's summer, I'm sure there will be college aged children, but it wont be anything resembling spring break either.

[CFL]

We're also sailing this May with my 18 year old son so I hope we see some others around his age as well.

[Jill]

We’re sailing on Radiance in May with our soon to be graduated 22 year old daughter. 

[AhmedTingen]

I don't think there will be a problem making friends. Many students go on cruises with their parents and friends. A cruise trip is a dream of mine. When I was a student, I didn't have time to travel. I devoted all my time to my studies. You can probably guess where I studied. My dream was to get a diagnostic medical sonography degree. It came true after several years of hard work and a lot of effort. My grandmother was a doctor, and I wanted to continue her professional path. I will always remember my student years and am grateful to everyone who believed in my success.

[Sweety]

My nephew age 20 at the time made friends on an Alaskan cruise. They are still friends and he had visited them in Florida. We have booked many cruises since and they have joined us many times over. We are planning my retirement cruise in a few years in Alaska. These young people with their family are joining us. 

[Traveling Mike]

I hate to be the 1/2 empty person, but we just got done with our Alaska cruise.  I had my 25-year-old with me.  There were not kids in their 20's wondering around the ship.  They were already in groups or families.  There is plenty of things to keep them busy but do not plan on them making friends like they do in teenage groups.

[Pattycruise]

Best is to try to get social media exchange going precruise. check out the roll call page here or see if FB has a sailing group for your cruise (search using ship name and date)  if there isn’t a group on either site consider creating one.  
If the ship happens to run a meet for 18-21 have him go. You can check the cruise compass page on this site to see if anyone posted compasses from your ship and see if they run a meeting for that age group.  First time they run it go…,if they connect they might never go back, so people who show up day 2 meet no one if that happens. 

[totalmorganmove]

I didn't start cruising until my early 20s and have always cruised with my mum, rather than a group of friends. I always made friends on the ship - no matter the itinerary or time of year. It is a great chance to practice making friends, which gets so much harder after they finish college.

Go to the nightclub on board. Whether or not they can drink, they can talk to people. Especially if you go the night before a sea day. I'd often meet people and then we'd plan to meet up at the hot tubs to catch up the next day - low pressure hangout.

If you are a small group traveling, ask about getting a larger dinner table with others. A very easy way to make friends.

Go to trivia and ask to join up with another team - everyone likes the idea of getting more people with more knowledge on their team!

If you can, book shore excursions with third party operators. These tend to be smaller so you meet a few people and have shared experiences.

That being said, it's honestly up to each individual. Just like on land, if you don't put in the leg work, you won't meet anyone.