SPECIAL CRUISE ISSUE : Raves for the Waves From Hard-to-Please Teens

No one complained about the “forced family time.” No one even argued.

Sixteen-year-old Laura Denlow concentrated on her tan all week, on board ship. Her 13-year-old brother reveled in spending time with his two older brothers who were on vacation from college. They played a lot of basketball. Their parents, meanwhile, were gratified that efforts to get the family together had worked so well.

“Don’t expect a lot of educational value on a family cruise with teen-agers,” said their mother, Reva, who has cruised several times with her family while the children were teen-agers. “Just fun. The kids didn’t do a lot, and they loved it.”

“It was excellent,” agreed Laura, a junior at a suburban Chicago high school. She especially liked getting her hair braided in cornrows at one of the ports of call and working out in the ship’s health club. “Nobody had to make any decisions about anything. We’d stay up late and sleep late. And we all got along.”

There were plenty of activities for teens to choose from on the Royal Caribbean ship. Like other cruise lines, Royal Caribbean is courting this difficult-to-please age group.

That’s because there are growing numbers of teen-agers on board ships these days, as the number of families cruising increase. Industry surveys suggest that nearly 30% of new cruisers will take their children along during the next two years. At the same time, the number of teens is growing quickly as the children of baby boomers begin to grow up. According to the U.S. Census, by the year 2000, teen-agers will be the largest group of children in the country: 27.7 million, ages 13 to 19.

“The (teen) market already is there, and it’s only going to get bigger,” said Gary Sain, a senior marketing executive for Premier Cruise Line, which hosts about 300,000 families a year. (Premier is now offering a Disney package: Cruise four days and stay at Disney World for three days. For a family of four, the cost ranges from $3,000 to $3,500, including air fare, depending upon the gateway city.)

“Those who capitalize on the trend of more families traveling with teens will be the ones to benefit,” Sain said.

That’s why there are teen discos, teen centers complete with big-screen TVs and video games, shore excursions, sundae parties and pool volleyball. Travel officials and parents alike recognize one indisputable fact: No matter what their ages, if the kids are happy, parents will have a good vacation and are likely to want to repeat the experience.

There’s another reason for all the action directed at teens. “We want them to stay out of the adults’ way and not get into trouble,” said Royal Caribbean spokesman Richard Steck, pointing to a tragic 1993 accident in which a group of young people were drinking and one teen died of alcohol poisoning.

Cruise officials stress that they work hard to keep teens out of bars and casinos on the ships, but ultimately, responsibility for their safety rests with their parents.

Yet safety is precisely what appeals to parents of teen-agers who opt for a cruise rather than a resort vacation.

“We didn’t have to worry about where they were at all,” said Michelle Spiegel of Northridge, who cruised to Alaska last summer with her husband, two teens and his parents and siblings. Her 14-year-old daughter, Nicole, was off so much with her new friends on the Princess cruise that she had to be reminded to spend time with the family.

“He can be out late at night, and I know he’s right there on the ship,” said Bernice Goddard, a Queens, N.Y., nurse who has cruised several times with her 18-year-old son. Goddard, a widow, added that a cruise is an ideal trip for a single parent and a teen. “We could be together at meals, and then he’d make new friends from all over,” she said.

Some teens, parents say, click with a group of new friends and are busy all day and evening. On one Celebrity cruise the teens might go to “Wake and Bake” one morning to work on their tans together. (There will be a special April 15 seven-night cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Bermuda on the ship Meridian: Children and grandchildren sail for $99 each when traveling as third or fourth passengers.)

Teens on a Royal Caribbean ship may have a midnight basketball tournament while those on a Norwegian Cruise Line ship can join an island beach together for a volleyball challenge.

But don’t assume kids will jump into the frenetic activities with both feet. Just make sure the ship has plenty of good sports facilities and an active teen program, said Elaine Knobel, a Skokie, Ill., travel agent who has cruised often through her sons’ teen-age years. Another plus Knobel notes, especially for parents of boys with voracious appetites: They can eat as much as they like whenever they like.

As for Laura Denlow, she’s ready to cruise again. “On a cruise ship, you get to do whatever you want to do,” she said.

And that, after all, is what vacations are for.