Questions about Celebrity's kids program

[quanmama]

We will be on Celebrity Silhouette next June for our Med. cruise. In the past we often chose to put our boy (now 9 yo) into the kids program while we enjoyed specialty dining (he only went once). Last year on RCCL our son was able to enjoy the kids program and the staff fed the kids dinner while we were at the specialty restaurant. I am wondering if Celebrity's kids program does the same thing? Do they have operating hours all day long and provide food to the kids over the dinner hours if the kids stay at the program during dinner time? I recall that Princess had more limited hours with their kids program (they only had a couple nights that they brought the kids to the buffet). I hope Celebrity's kids program has good operating hours so we could put him in the program when we go to the specialty dining. Not that he does not enjoy the good food at specialty dining, but the rising dining charges make us think if it is worth it for him to go. This will be our first time sailing Celebrity. Thanks!

[alj1208]

We were on Eclipse in March with our 4-year-old DS. The kids' club does have dinner available for the kids. They take them to the buffet. If my memory serves me correctly, you have to sign up for it in advance (just a few hours in advance), and there might be a small charge for it (can't remember). Our ship had the kids club open most of the day, except for a few hours in the afternoon. The kids club was also open until late at night with the "slumber party." We went to dinner alone a few times and had our son eat with the kids, but we did not use the late-night program, so I am not sure if there's a charge for that.

[quanmama]

We were on Eclipse in March with our 4-year-old DS. The kids' club does have dinner available for the kids. They take them to the buffet. If my memory serves me correctly, you have to sign up for it in advance (just a few hours in advance), and there might be a small charge for it (can't remember). Our ship had the kids club open most of the day, except for a few hours in the afternoon. The kids club was also open until late at night with the "slumber party." We went to dinner alone a few times and had our son eat with the kids, but we did not use the late-night program, so I am not sure if there's a charge for that.

 

Thank you for your response. It is helpful. I just realized that all the specialty restaurants require kids to be 13+ in order to dine there so it is important that he could go to the kids program at dinner time.

[cyntil8ing]

The Celebrity kids club closes twice a day, for lunch and dinner. I think it was 12:00 - 2:00 and 5:00 - 7:00. However, they do have 'dinner parties' and will take the kids to the buffet. There is a $6.00/hour charge for this. On port days, they will also have a lunch party with the same fees. In the evenings, they're open from 7:00 - 10:00. There is a per hour charge after 10:00 and they charge for full hours only. We had late dining and once picked them up at 10:10 and got hit with a $12 charge.

 

There is also an all-access type pass that includes some special tours, a backpack and some other swag, and all hourly charges. I don't remember how much it cost, but I do remember working out that the kids would have to be in the club a lot more than we planned in order to break even on the cost. I'm thinking it was in the $125 range.

 

Oh, and we checked with the specialty restaurant on our Summit cruise about our kids (5 and 7) coming with us. The response was yes, the official age was 12, but they would make exceptions. We didn't end up going, but the age limit doesn't appear to be a hard and fast rule.

[junglejane]

Hi Quanmama (she and I have been on Roll Calls together twice but have not yet managed to end up on the same ship.)

 

The Celebrity website is very confusing about the age requirement. However, it does expressly say that children of all ages are welcome in the Tuscan Grille and Silk Harvest. We took our 10 year old to Tuscan Grille twice on our Equinox cruise and saw other young children there. The age 13+ requirement does apply in the Murano/Normandie restaurant, although there have been a few rumors of exceptions. We asked the Maitre D' at Murano about taking our 10 year old and were told no. We didn't try to push it since she had been to Tuscan Grille twice. I really enjoyed the Tuscan Grille because of the beautiful view at the aft of the ship. We ate there while anchored in Santorini and the view constantly changed as the ship rotated at anchor.

 

I do think there were some nights when they had dinners in the kids program. I'm not sure it was every night, though. It may have been on the formal nights. But you could always make your dinner reservation for 7 pm or later. Then you could feed your son in the buffet beforehand and drop him off at the Fun Factory at 7 pm and proceed to your specialty restaurant.

[quanmama]

Wow lots of information here. Thank you all! It really helps me to plan better when we make reservations for the specialty restaurants. I think we will likely eat at Tuscan Grille.

[junglejane]

Quanmama, you will love Tuscan Grille. Oh and I made a mistake in referencing the age requirement for Murano as 13+. I should've said 12+. I think I was mixing Celebrity's rules up with Royal Caribbean's requirement that children be a minimum of 13 to dine in the specialty restaurants after 7 pm.

[quanmama]

Quanmama, you will love Tuscan Grille. Oh and I made a mistake in referencing the age requirement for Murano as 13+. I should've said 12+. I think I was mixing Celebrity's rules up with Royal Caribbean's requirement that children be a minimum of 13 to dine in the specialty restaurants after 7 pm.

 

Thank you Mary! Sounds like Tuscan Grille would be a good choice. Our boy loves to eat good stuff so I hope he could enjoy at least one specialty restaurant meal if possible. We won't have Silk harvest on board Silhouette and it has Qsine instead. Qsine sounds awesome and I am wondering how strict they are with accommodating children (DS will be 10 yo by the time of sailing).

[junglejane]

Somebody posted a thread a while back on the Celebrity board asking about the minimum age for Qsine. Here is the thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1446666

 

If you look at reply #20, someone says they emailed Celebrity and received a response saying all ages are welcome in Qsine. :)

[quanmama]

Somebody posted a thread a while back on the Celebrity board asking about the minimum age for Qsine. Here is the thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1446666

 

If you look at reply #20, someone says they emailed Celebrity and received a response saying all ages are welcome in Qsine. :)

 

That is great news! Now we have another option, or we might do both;)

Thank you again for all your help!

[smoothy]

Just got back from a B2B on the Millennium to Alaska. This was a second B2B for us with the boys (8 and 6), both on the Mille and both to Alaska. In short they love the club, its very difficult to drag them out.

 

As mentioned, the club will bring the kids to supper, there is a kid's buffet set up on deck 10 that the club uses. The only day there is no supper is the first night; the club doesn't open until 7pm. The supper fee ($6 per hour 5-7pm) is only charged while the ship is in port, if it sails at 6pm, they only charge for one hour. Note that although the supper time is 5-7, they don't actually bring the kids up to eat until 6pm.

 

Any other questions about the kids program, don't be afraid to ask, I'll do my best to answer them.

[GoldenRose]

All ages are definitely allowed, and encouraged, at Qsine. We were on the Eclipse last year with our 5 year old, and the first time we dined there, we did not bring our son. (He ate in the main dining room with my mom and step father.) We ended up chatting with the staff, and they encouraged us to come back and bring him. We ended up bringing him, and my mom and step-father, on one of the last nights of the cruise, and everyone really enjoyed it. Our son LOVED Qsine. He tried several new foods, found many things he was willing to eat, and absolutely adored his dessert.

 

He was also totally addicted to having brunch at the Bistro on 5, because he loved the Italian Crepe, and asked to go there every day. We did not always do so, but we did eat there a lot for brunch.

 

We enjoyed Murano (twice, once for their visiting chef's wine dinner) and Tuscan Grille without our son. Some nights he ate in the main dining room with my mom and step-father, and some nights he ate in the kid's club.