Freedom of the Seas - 5yo & 8yo

[Roadrage00]

Hello Everyone,

 

This will be my 3rd cruise and my husbands 2nd. We just booked for fall (September) on Freedom of the Seas with our two kids. Our son will be 5, and our daughter will be 8 (She actually turns 8 on the 2nd day of the cruise).

 

A couple of questions - do they do any sort of "Birthday" surprises on the cruise for kids?

 

Second - how great is the kids club for kids in this age range? My kids are both pretty social.. they love to make new friends, and aren't really shy - so I think they'll have fun. Part of the reason we booked a cruise over a resort was because we wanted this option where our kids could go & have fun and my husband & I could have a "real" vacation away from the kids for a few hours on some of these days.

 

Do the kids have the option to eat in the kids club area, so my husband & I can have dinner alone one or two nights? Any other info would be welcomed!

 

Thanks,

Erin :)

[nicolen1101]

My son loved the kids club, he was 4 when we went. They do have nights when they take the kids to Johnny Rockets with no service charge while you are at dinner, you just have to sign them up the morning of. It will be listed in the cruise compass. It was both formal nights and one other night.

[sunshine0503]

Our kids first cruise was on the Freedom in 2011. My kids were 3 3/4 and 6 1/2 at the time. They LOVED the kids program and would choose to hang out there instead of with us if given the option.

 

I thought there was an option for them to pick the kids up from dinner and take them to the AO, but we never utilized it. Sorry, cannot help you there.

 

We have celebrated many birthday's on cruises.... since the staff know the date of your birthday, based on your reservation, they normally bring out a dessert and sing happy birthday to you. You can always order stateroom decorations if you want, or bring your own to surprise her.

[bevomom]

The kids will have a blast in Adventure Ocean. They open around 9, close for lunch, then have an afternoon session and an evening session. They have special nights where they take them during dinner and you can have some kid-free time, and offer events on port days if you want to do an excursion by yourselves. We did this one time when we wanted to scuba dive. The kids stayed aboard with the AO staff and had a great time. The paranoid mom in me was nervous about it at first, but we booked through the ship so I knew they wouldn't leave without us!

[2CuteKiddies]

I'm going to dissent a little regarding the 5 year old based on our experience on Mariner. Some things may be different on Freedom, such as facility size, but I think the Adventure Ocean program is relatively standardized.

 

Don't count on him wanting to be in Adventure Ocean a lot. He's going to be in the top end of the 3-5 age group. Our daughter is also 5 and was bored in the club, which I think led to some frustration on her part and unprofessional behavior on the part of the staff (she didn't go back after the 2nd day). Many of the activities were geared towards the younger end of the range, such as Fisher Price Little People based activities. Most of the activities were sedentary with little active play time for the kids to burn some energy (possibly due to the tiny 3-5 area on Mariner). They let her free play when she didn't want to participate in activities, but then complained to us about it when we picked her up.

 

I don't have experience with the 6-9 group, but it looked like they had a much more interesting setup and the activities listed looked better.

[Mandy923]

We just got off Freedom's sister, Liberty OTS, in December. MY children were (almost) 4 and 7 at the time. (And a 15yr old)

 

My 7yr old LOVED the kids club. He is not very social or outgoing either. He is a pretty quiet and shy kid. But he had an absolute blast. One night they even when to the adult nightclub (early, around 6pm) and had a big dance contest- that my son won!

Talk about stepping outside of your comfort zone :)

 

On the other hand. My daughter was 3 (1 month shy of 4) and is a very social, NOT shy kid. But 100% did NOT enjoy her section of the kids club. I couldn't ever really pin point why. But she went the first day. Reported that she "hated it" and then cried the next day when we tried to take her. So she spent most of the cruise with us. Which is fine- but I was a little baffled that she didn't enjoy it more.

 

One difference that I noticed between the 3-5 and the 6-9's was the amount of children.

For the younger crowd, it was 25-30 kids in there. And for my son's group I never saw more than 10-12 kids. I'm assuming this is because 3-5yr old's aren't in school yet, and we were sailind 2 weeks before Winter break. So School was in full swing.