How Strict Are Age Restrictions For Kids?

[frisbeewife]

I'll be sailing in August on Freedom with my son and his family. This includes my 3 grandsons who will be ages 12 (4 weeks shy of turning 13), 11, and 3 (6 weeks shy of turning 4). I need to see if anybody has knowledge or advice about the strictness of the age limits on some of the activities.

 

I know RC has programs for kids divided by ages 3-11 and 12-17. But my 11 and 12 year olds are very close and would prefer to be together. Would RC be likely to let the 11 year old accompany the 12 year old to the older activities?

 

As for the 3 year old, I see the Aqua Park on Cococay plus a lot of the shore excursions in St. Thomas have a minimum age limit of 4. Again, considering he will be almost 4 and is the size of a 5 year old (seriously, he wears a size 5 and towers above all the kids in his daycare class) is it possible they would allow him to go on these if he's accompanied by an adult?

 

Thanks for any help!

[Paul65]

The question of "can my child move up a level in Adventure Ocean" is a very common one, and the answer is basically that you can ask, but it is at the discretion of the AO staff. They don't know your children, so they will usually want them to start in their assigned age groups, but after seeing them in an activity or two, may let them change. The 12-14 year olds have more freedom to come and go as they please, though, and 12 is already a little young for that kind of freedom, so they might be reluctant to move an even younger child up into that age category.

 

I'm not sure about the excursions, but since they're not directly operated by RCI, I would think RCI will probably not sell you an excursion for your child, if he doesn't meet the age guideline set by the tour operator. I don't have personal experience on this part, though; it's just my guess.

[akcruz]

It all depends on how many kids are on board and how the kids act. They usually are much more amenable to letting an older child move down to a younger age range than the opposite.

 

Remember, the 12 and up group is a very unstructured program as they see these kids as teens. They do not have to sign in or sign out and are pretty much free to do what they want. They do have some activities but often there is not a lot of participation so they don't actually happen. The younger groups are much more structured, with the option to allow sign in and sign out by the child themselves.

 

Can't help with the excursions question, maybe a call to RC to see??

[frisbeewife]

Thanks for the quick replies! I didn't realize the 12-and-up kids had such freedom to come and go. The 12 year old is not overly mature for his age (although the teenage attitude has already kicked in) so it would probably be better to see if he can go with the 11 year old. It's possible neither one of them will want anything to do with the kid-related activities, I just wanted to be prepared.

 

As for the 3 year old and shore excursions, we'll just play it by ear. I was mainly curious about the Aqua Park at Cococay since I know he's going to see that and want to go. Most of the excursions at St. Thomas are not appropriate for him anyway (snorkeling?? I don't think so.) or are too long (6 hours at the beach?? I don't think so.) so we'll just do something on our own there.

 

The last time I cruised with kids was when the older ones were 3 and 2 and we didn't bother with the onboard kid activities. It was a 4-day too, instead of a 7-day, so there wasn't as much time to worry about keeping them entertained. But we'll be fine - between 3 adults and 2 doting older brothers I'm sure we can deal with one 3 year old. :D

[bondgirl007]

Our experience was a "no" as to switching age groups and a "NO!" to Royal Caribbean sponsored excursions with an age limit. We just booked the same type of excursion on our own with no problems as to a minimum age.

[DM_KidAtHeart]

I'm betting this is one of those thing with RCI that just varies depending on who you end up asking on your ship/the island.

 

As far as the water park on the private island, I'd say wait and ask once you are there. Especially since he looks older, they might not ask his age and just would let you pay for him to do it.

[reallyitsmema]

I would check out the private islands forum in the ports of call area for pictures of the aqua park. The inflatables are very hard to climb up on and many adults have problems with them. Someone would have to hoist him up onto them. Is he comfortable wearing a lifejacket and being in water over his head? I doubt very much they will allow him to do that excursion. The other two boys might need help from an adult too depending on their upper body strength.

[katerkat]

I don't know about the kids clubs or Cococay, since we haven't experienced that issue, but I do know they won't book an official excursion to a child who doesn't meet the age limits. We ran into this when DS was two (almost three) and cave tubing in Belize - we just booked with an outside company that had no age limit, and DS had a blast floating along in my tube. And then a second time for horseback riding - RCCL's limit was age 12 on all their excursions. Well, my eight-year-old has been in lessons for 18 months and has better control over a horse than I do...so we booked with an outside company.