Adventure Ocean

[Jo and Rob]

I would like to know your thoughts positive and negative about the Adventure Ocean. The children will be 8 and 6 and we are going on Indy in June. I want to them to experience as much as possible over the three night cruise, but at the same time wonder what I will do with myself while they are at club! Which sessions did your children enjoy best? Did they go all day or half days, did they go to the evening session and how does that work with 1st sitting? Should we head straight there on boarding the ship? Is there a short meet and greet? I want to be able to explore the ship with Oliver and Emily but don't want them to miss out either!

[momva]

We haven't experienced Adventure Ocean - yet. But we have experienced kids programs on other lines (Carnival, Celebrity, and Holland America). There are enough similarities that I can answer some of your questions.

 

You don't have to go to AO immediately but you should make it there to sign up the kids at some point during the first day. Sometimes they'll have a family event the first evening where all can have fun and get the kids signed up.

 

You will get a daily calendar from AO in your room each night. We always go over it with our son and let him decide what events he wants to participate in. At the same time, we check the daily for other events that we would enjoy - either because they are events we want to experience as a family or because DH and I want to go as adults and he will have no choice to go to the kids club at that time. He rarely wants to be in the kids club all day but it does happen.

[olemissreb]

My 10yo was in AO on our AOS cruise. Upon boarding, there was an AO representative who explained some of the fun stuff that the kids would be doing and told us when the open house and registration would be. She also gave us the compasses for my 10yo's group and my 14yo's group. This was also when my 10yo got his wristband that indicated where our muster station was in case of emergency. He had to wear it the entire cruise. My 14you chose not to wear the band and it wasn't a requirement for him.

 

After that, we explored the Promenade a little bit and then made our way to the Windjammer for lunch. DH and the boys went swimming after lunch. Once our cabins were ready, the boys changed clothes and we explored AO and Optix (the teen area) and more of the ship. DS10 had decided that he didn't really want to sign up for AO, but we told him he should sign up just in case he finds something he really wants to do he'll be ready to go. We also gave him sign in/out privileges so he could sign himself in/out. I'm not sure what the age limit is on this so you will want to check on that. Our stipulation was that when he signed himself out, that he had to text us on our walkie talkies to let us know where he was going.

 

DS10 spent way more time up there than I think even he expected. He made tons of friends and loved playing all the games. They played gaga ball, dodge ball, crazy tag and others. He went to lunch at Johnny Rockets with the AO crew and one night stayed for the Late Night Party Zone (it was "Trash the Room" night). The kids also went on Scavenger Hunts - they were in teams of 3 or 4 and got to go all over the ship finding out things like the Captain's name and what was the original burger on the Johnny Rocket's menu. The Late Night Party Zone runs from 10pm - 2am and will cost you $6/hour - well worth it if you want to stay out and party a little.

 

If your kids are outgoing and love to meet new people and make new friends, then by all means sign them up for AO. DS10 thought it was going to be all educational stuff and while they did have a couple of things like that, he found that there was more fun to be had than anything else.

[sunnymay]

Can anyone tell me what type of activites they have for 12-17 year old in the AO on the Serenade?

[newbiecruiser09]

See my thoughts below in red.

 

 

I would like to know your thoughts positive and negative about the Adventure Ocean. The children will be 8 and 6 and we are going on Indy in June. I want to them to experience as much as possible over the three night cruise, but at the same time wonder what I will do with myself while they are at club! While the kids were in the AO we went to the casino, to shows, to the bars, and just relaxed and hung out. They only went in the evening as we were in port each day. Which sessions did your children enjoy best? My DD (age 6) really loved all the evening activitites. One night was pirate night, one was a pajama party and the other one was a carnival night. She also had a great time while we were on Coco Cay with the activities they had Did they go all day or half days, did they go to the evening session and how does that work with 1st sitting? She only went at night since we were in a port each day. We did MTD (and ate about 6:30) and she went right to the club afterwards. We went to pick her up each night right before 10 (which was way past her bedtime and they start to charge after 10) Should we head straight there on boarding the ship? Is there a short meet and greet? There was a time on the first afternoon to explore the club. We went the first night to sign her up. Beware-the line at 8pm was LONNNNNG I want to be able to explore the ship with Oliver and Emily but don't want them to miss out either!

[olemissreb]

Can anyone tell me what type of activites they have for 12-17 year old in the AO on the Serenade?

 

Not sure about the Serenade, but on AOS they had things like Wii tournaments, Human Bingo, Crazy Tag, Capture the Flag, Dodgeball, Free Arcade, Extreme Rock band Challenge, time on the waterslide, Guitar Hero tournaments, inline skating, Foosball tournament, ice skating, dance parties, ping pong tournament, golf simulator, Teen Quest, giant board games (twister, chess, snakes and ladders). This was just some of the stuff that the 12-14 age group did. Not sure about the 15-17yo's.

[sunnymay]

Good! I now both my boys will enjoy those activities! Oldest will probably spend most of his time on the basketball court too! Sounds like they will be fun for the older two too.

Thanks

[olemissreb]

Good! I now both my boys will enjoy those activities! Oldest will probably spend most of his time on the basketball court too! Sounds like they will be fun for the older two too.

Thanks

 

You're welcome. I so wish I was back on board a ship - almost any ship! We had so much fun and my boys really loved their first cruise. The youngest one wanted to go on another one this summer!:)

[VillaHappy]

The only negative with AO is that my kids (ds10 and dd6) love to go there so much, I feel like we are begging them to go into port with us! They would be perfectly happy to spend all day every day in AO.

 

We worked it out so that we'd go into port in the am, and then grab lunch back on the ship, and get them into AO by 2pm.

 

They want to stay every night for the late night party zone. That can really run up the Seapass quick, so we pick 2 or 3 days of the 7 days that they can stay. If we have to get up early the next am, the night before they must come back to the cabin by 10pm.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions...my kids have been to AO on the Explorer, the Mariner, the Grandeur and the Freedom. :D

[olemissreb]

The only negative with AO is that my kids (ds10 and dd6) love to go there so much, I feel like we are begging them to go into port with us! They would be perfectly happy to spend all day every day in AO.

 

We worked it out so that we'd go into port in the am, and then grab lunch back on the ship, and get them into AO by 2pm.

 

They want to stay every night for the late night party zone. That can really run up the Seapass quick, so we pick 2 or 3 days of the 7 days that they can stay. If we have to get up early the next am, the night before they must come back to the cabin by 10pm.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions...my kids have been to AO on the Explorer, the Mariner, the Grandeur and the Freedom. :D

 

This sounds like what we did too. I never saw a 10yo so happy that it was raining outside and we decided to skip our excursion in Curacao (it ended up being canceled anyway) - he spent all day up in AO!

[Jo and Rob]

Are the times flexi?

Can you drop off and pick up mid-session.

[morgan1312]

Yes, the times are flexible they can stay as long or as short as they want to as long as it's during the posted times for that day. On sea days it's a few hours in the AM, pick them up for lunch then they go back a few hours in the PM then pick them up for dinner then they can go back for the evening session. I believe on port days they can stay thru lunch but we haven't used that in quite awhile. They can go to dinner certain nights with AO, sign them up in the morning on those days cause the spaces are limited.

 

My grandson (12) has been going to AO since he was 3 and absolutely LOVES it. We can't get him out of there. He discovered Late night party zone a few years ago and we let him stay there on the nights that we're not in port the next day. He usually comes back around midnite.

 

The age group 9-11 has the option of signing themselves out, the parents have to sign them up and check whether or not they can leave by themselves. We just tell him he has to come back to the cabin and wait for us if he signs himself out unless he knows where we'll be at that time from going over the agenda together in the mornings.

 

Hope this helps.