`A GOOD SURPRISE'

Also know that if you're cruising with teens, you won't see them much on board. ''I didn't have to see my parents at all, except when we got off the ship,'' boasted 14-year-old Chelsea Hybeck, a first-time cruiser from Montreal. She was enjoying an afternoon snack with a gaggle of her new friends aboard the Gem. The teens even ate dinner together.

Hybeck and other young cruisers said they would encourage first-time young cruisers to head to the kids' club the first day. ''My biggest surprise was that there were so many kids ... that was a good surprise,'' said Melora Cook, a 9-year-old first-time cruiser from New Brunswick, Canada.

''The teen club is what made the trip so fun,'' added 15-year-old Jeremy Carrier of Montreal.

FAMILY ACTIVITIES

Cruise lines, for their part, are ramping up family activities and amenities. Disney Cruise Line, which is one of the few to offer infant daycare at sea, now is reducing the heavy lifting for young families by enabling them to order baby supplies ahead of time so that they're waiting for them in their staterooms when they arrive.

Kids shouldn't be whining that they are bored, either. They can create LEGO murals aboard NCL ships, for example, or Celebrate SpongeBob SquarePants' 10th birthday with a week's worth of special activities, along with special Nickelodeon Family Cruises on Royal Caribbean (www.nickfamilycruise.com), complete with interactive Slime Time. Favorite Nick characters like SpongeBob, Dora and Diego will be on board. (Kids sail free this summer on the Nickelodeon Family Cruise with Royal Caribbean International, July 26 through Aug. 9 on RCI's Mariner of the Seas, and Aug. 9 through 16, on Freedom of the Seas.) Princess Cruises (www.princess.com) has teamed with Klutz to offer arts-and-crafts projects for junior cruisers and yoga for kids, while Holland America has launched its own kids and teen culinary program.

`IT GOES BY TOO FAST'

And that's not counting the scavenger hunts, talent shows, pool parties, kids game shows and movies that are de rigueur on ships these days. There's just one downside, however.

''It goes by too fast,'' said 15-year-old Philippe Blanchet.

He and his other new friends were already planning their next cruise. They just have to tell their parents.

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