One of our most important Disney Cruise tips for teens begins before you even board the ship. When you are able to do your online check-in for your cruise, you can register your kids for Edge or Vibe. These clubs are built with teens and tweens in mind, it’s more than a structured playtime setting, the teens are involved in planning the activities they do on board and so much more.

Edge is specifically for your pre-teen and tweens ages 11-14 and Vibe is the vibe for all teens ages 14-17. Keep in mind your kids should for sure attend the first day of the club. This initial day sets the tone for the sailing, allowing them to meet people when everyone is new and more.

By registering ahead of time, your vacation begins as soon as you walk on the ship. If you have teens on the age cusp, there are small areas of overlap. Sometimes Cast Members allow 10 year olds or 13 year olds to age up. You can always ask on the day you arrive on the ship, but many factors go into getting this approval like staffing and capacity. While it doesn’t hurt to ask, it’s not something that can be arranged before your sailing.

Disney Cruise Line offers some of the best entertainment and the most unique dining experiences at sea. Their rotational dining allows you to dine at a different themed restaurant each night and your servers follow you throughout your cruise.

But with teens, you’ll want to consider—and discuss as a family—what is most important to do together. Are family dinners mandatory? Do you want to schedule specific shows to watch together? Or are you okay with them creating their own schedule entirely?

There are two different dining times that coincide with a show time each night. There is typically a 6:00 pm dinner, which would put you at the 8:00 pm show. On the flip side, there is a 6:30 pm show time followed by an 8:15 pm dinner. There are advantages to both. Understanding what those are is at the top of our list of Disney Cruise Line tips for teens.

If you have teens, they may be used to eating dinner later and staying up for the later shows. However, some teen families prefer the earlier dining with family so they can head out afterwards and have the night on their own.

Speaking of heading out after dinner, it’s smart to put rules into place before your trip. Will the same at-home curfew apply on the ship? Communicating these things clearly is key to a successful trip for everyone.

Another smart thing to discuss is where they are allowed and not allowed on the ship. Can new friends join them in their stateroom or vice versa? It’s much easier to have these conversations before your departure.

Budgets are another key item to discuss. When your teens use their DisneyBand+ or Key to the World card, you have the ability to control their spending options for extras on board. Set up your budget during your online check-in and let them know about speciality dining or treats that might not be included in the full pre-booked cruise package.

As you can see, communication before your trip is important, but keeping in touch with your family on the ship is also important. The Navigator App is synced to free WifI and enables you to communicate with family and friends with the chat feature on your cruise.

When it comes to a Disney Cruise, the more the merrier. This isn't just one of our Disney Cruise Line tips for teens. It's for EVERYONE. Consider inviting grandparents, an aunt, uncle, teen cousins and family friends.

If you have a more introverted teen, having cousins or friends in the same club area will make going easier and much more fun. And if they decide Vibe or Edge isn’t their thing, they still have someone their age to hang out with.

There are often cruiser-created private Facebook Groups set up for each sailing. Though not monitored or regulated by Disney Cruise Lines, you can find them by going online and searching for your ship and sailing dates.

Once you find a group to join, you might connect with other teen parents before your cruise. Let your teens join the groups as well if that’s consistent with your social media family arrangements.

Beyond having so many food options included in your Disney Cruise, room service food is also included (see a full list of Disney Cruise inclusions here). We love this aspect especially for teens! If your teens like to stay up and snack late—room service. If your teen likes to lounge after a morning of sleeping in—room service.

Consider enjoying breakfast as a couple wherever you desire on the ship while letting the teens sleep in and order room service for breakfast. It’s a great compromise while making sure they still get enough sleep after a late night out.

Disney Cruise Line has an official app that is one of the easiest ways to make your day-to-day plans onboard. Download the app before you get on the ship. Then, once you're onboard, you simply set your phone to airplane mode and use the ship's Wi-Fi. It's free to use as long as you are using the app.

You can use the app in a number of ways, but there are a few things you can do specifically with teens. Some of our favorites include:

• View Teen Time activities on the app
• Favorite your top picks to enable alerts before the event happens
• See hours for the Vibe and Edge clubs

Although seemingly simple, this is one of the most important Disney Cruise Line tips for teens. If your teens are out on their own, they will need either a Key to the World card or DisneyBand+ to access the clubs and other on board activities.