How long to leave toddler in Kids Club?

[ToddlerMom]

I guess this is a "bad mom" question...

 

I know that there's no limit on the number of hours a 2 year old can be in the Kids Club on Carnival but how long would you leave your toddler there? 2 hours at a time? 4 hours? I don't anticipate that we'll leave her there for longer than 2 hours during the day but we'd like one nice evening to ourselves and would probably want to leave her in the Kids Club for about 4 hours that night. Do you think that would be okay?

[Tggrtoes]

Oh, this is sure to be a heated discussion. :eek::p I'm kidding (sortof) but this is something only you can answer for your kids and your family. I will tell you what we have done on our past couple of cruises. We sailed a couple of times with DS on Princess before he could go into kids club. We finally chose Carnival when DS was 2, specifically for the kids club. DS spends 1-2 hours there in the morning most sea days while mommy suns by pool and reads a little bit and then he has lunch with us and some family time and usually a nap or at least a little quiet time in the room. It's usually time to get ready for dinner with some time to wander around a bit before eating (it was his choice if he wanted to eat with us or in camp - if he ate with us, I'd offer to walk him to camp mid way through if he got wiggly. He'd usually pick Camp.). he'd then spend a couple of hours at camp in evening. (we're from west coast so were on a later "schedule" than normal when in FL itineraries).

 

I got some snotty comments from some about not spending time with my DS on vacation. But for us, it is the right choice. We are very hands on involved parents. I think Mommy's and Daddy's are better parents if they can refuel a little bit. AND DS really loves Camp - it's not a punishment or banishment for him. he enjoys the other kids and I think it's good social interaction, but with balance of course.

[Cruisin' Chick]

When our daughter was old enough for Camp Carnival (her second cruise), she absolutely loved the program. When she would wake up, she'll ask if "ship's school" was open yet. We even left her in the kids' room when we were in port (I'm sure that will get a discussion going here) but only if we were planning on sticking close by (no excursions). She didn't mind.

 

Of course, she wasn't in the kids' room all the time as she likes the big production shows.

 

On our last two cruises, she did go off the ship with us in the ports as we were in Hawaii. But as a teen on our last cruise, she did her own thing with her fellow 13/14-yr-old girls while on the ship.

[cb at sea]

My daughter LOVED stuff like this, too....she really thought she was going to school and would stay as long as I'd let her. Just do what makes her and you happy! There is no right or wrong answer!

[ashmac8]

For us our son really didnt enjoy it. He was 4 at the time and thought it was basically the same as his pre-k program at home and didnt enjoy it.

 

There was no carrying on or crying but he did tell us it was "lame" and "kinda boring" so we never took him back.

 

Having said that we are cruising again in the spring and will give it another try. If he likes it fine, if not we will do a combination of activities that we all enjoy.

 

I will only leave him if he is enjoying it and doesnt think of it as school. My niece went everyday on her cruise and didnt mind but refered to it as the ship's daycare.

 

We'll see next time. I will certainly report back.

[Kerry's Girls]

I think 4 hours at night is different than during the day. They can go in their jammies, watch the movie and fall asleep. My twins went the week after they turned two and one of them hated it, so the staff suggested I bring her back after she'd fallen asleep. I brought her asleep in her stroller and still had plenty of time in the evening to have some alone time.

 

Best,

Mia

[cruisincarly]

Leave your toddler there as long as both you & s/he are happy with it, and to heck with what other people think. It's your vacation!

 

Our first cruise with our toddler was a transatlantic on Cunard (no ports) and he was 18 months. We would leave him for a couple hours during the day, and he was often not super happy about being picked up. Had lots of fun there, and didn't want to go! We'd leave him longer in the evening because we'd drop him off right before our late-seating dinner and he'd be asleep within the hour. So it didn't really matter if he was sleeping in the nursery or in our room -- except that if he was in the nursery, we could be playing darts in the pub :-)

 

Our second cruise, he was 2.5 and we were on Disney. He spent 2-3 hours in the nursery about every other day. Again, he loved it (though not quite as much as the Cunard nursery), so we didn't think twice about it.

 

Our next cruise is on Norwegian and we'll be taking cues from him as regards how long we'll leave him. He'll do all the ports with us, but beyond that, he'll go as often as he wants, but it will probably be pretty similar to the Disney cruise.

 

He's in daycare full time at home, and he loves to play with other kids. Its a better vacation for everyone if he gets to do what he wants (play with toys and other kids some times, and play with mommy and daddy most of the time), and we get what we want (a happy kid and some time to ourselves).

[JMB22]

I don't think four hours is too long. You deserve a break and I hear many children really love the Kids Club. If she doesn't like it, you guys can keep her with you, but if she likes it, I don't see any harm in it. :)

[crusinmama06]

I say it depends on the child. :D

 

What one child finds "lame" and "boring" - the next could think it was the best kids club ever and never want to leave. ;)

 

So just follow her lead. If after 2 hours you get paged - then call it a night. :) But you just might have to drag her kicking and screaming after 6 hours - you just never know. :D

[sandytoes03]

You're not a bad mom!

 

If your DD is having fun, then you guys should go have fun too. :)

[Woodmnky]

Follow your little ones cues and you should be fine. As far as pre-planning consider how long you can leave her when you are at home? Does she spend the day in daycare and do OK with this? If so, it is likely that she will let you leave her longer than if you and she are never separated. The fact that you are concerned about it assures that you are not a bad mom, because a bad mom woundn't care as long as she enjoyed her vacation.

[IttaBit]

I agree that it is all about your child. When we took our then 3.5 yo on the Mariner, several years ago, she constantly begged us to go to her "class". When we'd go pick her up, she'd be playing with the other kids, having so much fun, she'd ask us to come back later. My husband finally had to put his foot down and tell her that she was going to stay with us and that was final. :D Play it by ear and remember, cruising with a child is a whole different experience because it's not your schedule you'll go by, it's theirs.

[snorkelman]

The biggest factor will be whether your child enjoys the kids program. We talked it up with our children before their first cruise and got them excited about it. They ended up loving it and although we regularly check on them during the day/evening, they almost always cried when we made them leave at 10pm. We made a point of always eating breakfast and lunch with our kids, but we always allowed them to be in the kids program for dinner, as they much preferred that than the boring diningroom, and my wife and I did not want to eat in the windjammer every evening.

[alj1208]

While my DS, 4, loved the kids' club on Celebrity, we just weren't comfortable leaving him for more than two hours at a time, usually only once a day/night. As great as the ship-board kids' clubs are, the bottom line is, you're leaving a very young child in unfamiliar circumstances. That child may or may not be able to articulate whether they are uncomfortable. We just felt kind of guilty leaving our little guy with strangers in an unfamiliar place for longer than a few hours. Our son is very outgoing, so it wasn't that he didn't like meeting new people and doing new things. Not to discourage you if you are comfortable leaving your child longer, but for us, it was fine to maybe go to dinner a few nights or grab some time at the pool, but that was all. I would be more comfortable leaving an older child for longer, as that child could communicate any concerns.

[mitsugirly]

We took our 3 year old with us on her first cruise last month (and although not on the Carnival, I'm sure they are all pretty similar with the programs). She LOVED IT!! She begged to go there every day and was so disappointed to leave. They did not feed them while they were there, so we would take her out after about 2 hours or so to feed her and she would beg and cry to go back.

 

The programs they have planned for the children are awesome. There was something different to do every night that had some type of "theme" to it. She would leave with her face painted and all kinds of cute little projects they made. Then there was open gym as well, which she loved.

 

I can say, by looking at the sign in and out sheet, that there were kids that had been there all day long because they refused to leave (yes, the parents would check on them every 1-2 hours to ask if they wanted to leave...only to get a "no" reply).

 

There were probably 1 or 2 days that we left ours there longer than 2 or 3 hours, but we did go and check on her (some times they would bring her out to talk to us and she could tell us if she wanted to leave, other times they would just go in and ask her and come back with the answer).

 

But as others have said, it's the child's preference and each child is different.

[dsrdsrdsr]

It's pretty common where both parents work to leave a child in a land-based "kids club" for 9 hours or so. I don't see why it should be different at sea. Of course, if the child spends the nine hours screaming and wailing, you might need to reconsider!

[momof3cruisers]

When our daughter was old enough for Camp Carnival (her second cruise)' date=' she absolutely loved the program. When she would wake up, she'll ask if "ship's school" was open yet. .[/quote']

Okay that is so darn cute!!

 

I figure you will know when you do it the first time or two. Seems to me you are going to have to play it by ear.

 

My kids are older and I am figuring I won't know until I go either. You hear all about these teens that want to stay out late with all their new friends but when I brought this up to my daughter who is 15, she looked at me like I had two heads and wanted to know why she couldn't just stay with us. I said her dad and I might want to go to the casino or to the adult comedy show. So then she asked why she couldn't just stay in the cabin with her brothers and they could all play their DSs or something. Too funny. And here, I was concerned I was going to have to be a mean mom and make her come "home" before all the other teens.

 

FTR she is an extremely social and outgoing kid. We'll see what she thinks once we are actually on the ship though.

[chipmaster]

Everything depends on YOUR TODDLER and how he/she responds to the kids club.

 

I had children love it, hate it, not predictable at all. I once left my "toddler" at a club for a few hours at a ski resort. Came back to finding him in a meltdown, he simply wasn"t ready at that time/place/age. It went from full day skiiing to 1/2 sledding and snowman making. A few years later he loved his time in clubs/daycare. Someone else's right answer could be totally NA for you.

 

I guess this is a "bad mom" question...

 

I know that there's no limit on the number of hours a 2 year old can be in the Kids Club on Carnival but how long would you leave your toddler there? 2 hours at a time? 4 hours? I don't anticipate that we'll leave her there for longer than 2 hours during the day but we'd like one nice evening to ourselves and would probably want to leave her in the Kids Club for about 4 hours that night. Do you think that would be okay?

[Onessa]

While my DS, 4, loved the kids' club on Celebrity, we just weren't comfortable leaving him for more than two hours at a time, usually only once a day/night. As great as the ship-board kids' clubs are, the bottom line is, you're leaving a very young child in unfamiliar circumstances. That child may or may not be able to articulate whether they are uncomfortable. We just felt kind of guilty leaving our little guy with strangers in an unfamiliar place for longer than a few hours. Our son is very outgoing, so it wasn't that he didn't like meeting new people and doing new things. Not to discourage you if you are comfortable leaving your child longer, but for us, it was fine to maybe go to dinner a few nights or grab some time at the pool, but that was all. I would be more comfortable leaving an older child for longer, as that child could communicate any concerns.

 

When our DD was younger like this, we'd drop her at the Kid's Program, and we'd arrage that we could kind of "peek" in to see how she was adapting. We stop in after an hour-and-a-half or two and say "hi" with the intention that if she wanted to come with, we'd sign her out. Generally we'd get that "what are YOU doing here" look that made it clear she was not finished playing :D.

[Volunton]

Our kids are three-years-old (boy and girl). We'll be on the Allure of the Seas this coming Sunday. YIPPEE!

 

I don't want to be a 'ship-disturber' but we've been engaged in a lot of propaganda to get them prepped for the Kids Club. They go to daycare 2.5 hours a day three mornings a week - which they REALLY ENJOY! This only started in mid-September 2011.

 

Soooo, naturally we are keeping our collective fingers and toes crossed that they will enjoy going to the Kids Club for 2-3 hours a day, even just four times during the week.

 

The added bonus is they are going to be with three friends (all from one family) on the cruise, so that SHOULD make things easier re: not being put there alone.

 

If anyone can offer any tips/advice about what the Kids Club on the Allure offers, that would be MOST appreciated.

 

And I will report back re: our family experience post-cruise. :)