Disappointed in Kids Program on Royal

[CruzinisParadise]

I just got off the Royal on Sunday and was very disappointed with the way the kids program was run on this ship. Let me start by saying, I've been a big cheerleader when it comes to their program but not with these counselors. I have a 5 yo son and 12 yo daughter. Registered them right away so they could begin to enjoy the program at the start of the cruise. Well, my son went into the Pelicans room twice the ENTIRE cruise! I always had to sign him into Shockwaves which is for the 8-12 year old group. I immediately questioned them about this on the first night and they said to me, "when more kids come we'll transfer them into the pelicans room." Now of course there were not a lot of children onboard but enough to have each room open. I believe the only reason he actually got to play in there twice was because I continually voiced my opinion about how he belonged in that room and so did the rest of the the 3-7 year olds. It was such a great play area for them. It was like dangling an ice cream cone in front of a little kid and telling them they couldn't have it. So many fun things to do inside for younger children. They never used the outdoor play area for the littles either.

My daughter who has always loved the program, refused to go in the first 3 days because she didn't like being in the same room with her little brother. The counselors asked why she wasn't coming in and I told them straight out, "Separate the two groups!" This is the kicker, my daughter is going to be 13 in 5 weeks but they wouldn't allow her into the teen room! For some reason it was ok for the 5 year old to be with 12 year olds though?

My son still had fun but he mostly just played video games in that room which of course he loves because he's a gamer! Once my daughter finally started to go in and meet up with some of her friends she enlightened me a bit. Her perception was laziness on the counselors part. They didn't seem to do much with the kids which has not been the experience I've had over the past 8 years with their kids program.

My children still had a great cruise but this is not the way we've ever seen this program run. Hope this helps those with children.

[Mommypig]

I just got off the Royal on Sunday and was very disappointed with the way the kids program was run on this ship. Let me start by saying, I've been a big cheerleader when it comes to their program but not with these counselors. I have a 5 yo son and 12 yo daughter. Registered them right away so they could begin to enjoy the program at the start of the cruise. Well, my son went into the Pelicans room twice the ENTIRE cruise! I always had to sign him into Shockwaves which is for the 8-12 year old group. I immediately questioned them about this on the first night and they said to me, "when more kids come we'll transfer them into the pelicans room." Now of course there were not a lot of children onboard but enough to have each room open. I believe the only reason he actually got to play in there twice was because I continually voiced my opinion about how he belonged in that room and so did the rest of the the 3-7 year olds. It was such a great play area for them. It was like dangling an ice cream cone in front of a little kid and telling them they couldn't have it. So many fun things to do inside for younger children. They never used the outdoor play area for the littles either.

My daughter who has always loved the program, refused to go in the first 3 days because she didn't like being in the same room with her little brother. The counselors asked why she wasn't coming in and I told them straight out, "Separate the two groups!" This is the kicker, my daughter is going to be 13 in 5 weeks but they wouldn't allow her into the teen room! For some reason it was ok for the 5 year old to be with 12 year olds though?

My son still had fun but he mostly just played video games in that room which of course he loves because he's a gamer! Once my daughter finally started to go in and meet up with some of her friends she enlightened me a bit. Her perception was laziness on the counselors part. They didn't seem to do much with the kids which has not been the experience I've had over the past 8 years with their kids program.

My children still had a great cruise but this is not the way we've ever seen this program run. Hope this helps those with children.

 

I cruise on Carnival when I take the grandkids. I think their kids program is pretty good. I have read that on Princess that they only have a kids program available if there are 20 or more kids on board, and I wasn't willing to risk not having a place for the kids to play.

 

Linda

 

 

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[Bloemerl]

How disappointing to read your review. Our family is booked on the royal in 2 weeks and it includes our 10 year old grandson. Did his age group have a good time ? I have also wondered about the vidio games. What is the charge to play them. The only thing I've heard is that they can swipe charges with their room card. This seems very scary to me as to how to limit his play.

[capriccio]

I just got off the Royal on Sunday and was very disappointed with the way the kids program was run on this ship. Let me start by saying, I've been a big cheerleader when it comes to their program but not with these counselors. I have a 5 yo son and 12 yo daughter. Registered them right away so they could begin to enjoy the program at the start of the cruise. Well, my son went into the Pelicans room twice the ENTIRE cruise! I always had to sign him into Shockwaves which is for the 8-12 year old group. I immediately questioned them about this on the first night and they said to me, "when more kids come we'll transfer them into the pelicans room." Now of course there were not a lot of children onboard but enough to have each room open. I believe the only reason he actually got to play in there twice was because I continually voiced my opinion about how he belonged in that room and so did the rest of the the 3-7 year olds. It was such a great play area for them. It was like dangling an ice cream cone in front of a little kid and telling them they couldn't have it. So many fun things to do inside for younger children. They never used the outdoor play area for the littles either.

My daughter who has always loved the program, refused to go in the first 3 days because she didn't like being in the same room with her little brother. The counselors asked why she wasn't coming in and I told them straight out, "Separate the two groups!" This is the kicker, my daughter is going to be 13 in 5 weeks but they wouldn't allow her into the teen room! For some reason it was ok for the 5 year old to be with 12 year olds though?

My son still had fun but he mostly just played video games in that room which of course he loves because he's a gamer! Once my daughter finally started to go in and meet up with some of her friends she enlightened me a bit. Her perception was laziness on the counselors part. They didn't seem to do much with the kids which has not been the experience I've had over the past 8 years with their kids program.

My children still had a great cruise but this is not the way we've ever seen this program run. Hope this helps those with children.

 

Out of curiosity - did they tell you how many kids were on board in each age group? Not being a public school vacation week may have greatly reduced the numbers.

[paul929207]

I cruise on Carnival when I take the grandkids. I think their kids program is pretty good. I have read that on Princess that they only have a kids program available if there are 20 or more kids on board, and I wasn't willing to risk not having a place for the kids to play.

 

Linda

 

 

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I believe Princess always has the kids program on all ships except the Ocean and Pacific Princess. On those ships the program is only offered if there are at least 15 children on board. These two ships do longer cruises to exotic ports of call. Often there are few if any children on these cruises.

[katisdale]

We were on a cruise (Island Princess) with only 5 children aboard. Our two grandchildren and three kids from another family were the only kids. The entire program was run although only our grands participated. The other kids were French and never attended. Our two were kept together and could choose to do any activity they desired. They loved the individual attention. Our granddaughter especially loved doing some of the craft activities more than once.

[Loonbeam]

The kids staff is on board regardless of number of kids, so unless they have been reassigned they will usually do something...

[CruzinisParadise]

They always run the kids program (on the ships that have it) because I've been on the Ruby and the Crown with less kids and the program was run correctly. I did know how many kids were on but I forgot sorry :( There is no charge for the video games. They have Wii and I think it was xbox. They have PC's set up and cordless remote controllers for the games. The kids did do arts and crafts as well. It was just hard to tell my son everyday that he couldn't play on the really cool jungle gym or lounge in the nice space they had for movies, or ride the little trikes they had outside or play on that play structure. I've never dealt with this in the past 8 years that my daughter has been using the program. I've let Princess know about this so that maybe they can rectify the counselors behaviors soon and future cruisers can enjoy!:)

[adh27]

Thanks for the review. Good to know for future reference.

[PrincessCatarina]

Well, my son went into the Pelicans room twice the ENTIRE cruise! I always had to sign him into Shockwaves which is for the 8-12 year old group. I immediately questioned them about this on the first night and they said to me, "when more kids come we'll transfer them into the pelicans room." Now of course there were not a lot of children onboard but enough to have each room open.

 

I was astonished to see how often the Pelicans room was closed during posted opening hours even in August when there were about 50 toddlers on the Royal and 800 kids total. The Pelicans room is great and keeping it closed seemed to be for the convenience of the staff who just took a few of the toys over to the room next door where the babies would then have to sit on a cold non-carpeted or padded floor. Furthermore the video games made it too loud for us to last for more than 15 minutes at a time (our daughter was 23 months at the time). We will be trying RCI cruise next due to their highly rated children's facilities in the hopes the opening hours are more generous. In summary I found the new Pelicans product to be a little confusing - they have a truly wonderful facility allocated to it but allow very little use, which does not encourage families to come back. We would have signed up for another cruise on the Royal or Regal next year right away had this been different.

[capriccio]

They always run the kids program (on the ships that have it) because I've been on the Ruby and the Crown with less kids and the program was run correctly. I did know how many kids were on but I forgot sorry :( There is no charge for the video games. They have Wii and I think it was xbox. They have PC's set up and cordless remote controllers for the games. The kids did do arts and crafts as well. It was just hard to tell my son everyday that he couldn't play on the really cool jungle gym or lounge in the nice space they had for movies, or ride the little trikes they had outside or play on that play structure. I've never dealt with this in the past 8 years that my daughter has been using the program. I've let Princess know about this so that maybe they can rectify the counselors behaviors soon and future cruisers can enjoy!:)

 

Thank you for the info and for notifying Princess. We'll be on a family cruise that will include only one child (my DB's 7 year old grandson) in December - before the holidays - and I am hoping he has a good time (it is his first cruise).

[e2011]

Our daughter is 6 and she loved the kids club. We only had 31 kids on our cruise to Grand Turk so they did combine the two groups. Our daughter spent most of the time making crafts and using the Playstation games. Now one thing that may be different is we only sent our daughter there for 2-3 hours a day so we could have a nice dinner. But even on the Disney ships we do the same because I don't see the point in taking a family vacation only to dump the child off in the kids club for 8 hours a day but that is just how we roll and everyones agenda is different. I simply point it out since kids who are in the Royal kids club for many hours a day may get board quickly. There was not near as much for them as on a Disney or RCCL ship.

Edited November 13, 2013 by e2011

[CruisinChris]

Definitely not my area of expertise but it sounds to me like right now they're running with minimal staff. Perhaps too few to correctly supervise two rooms and maintain a proper child-staff ratio. Just a thought.

 

 

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[Iamcruzin]

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Maybe I missed it but I didn't read anywhere in the OP's post that they left their child in the kids program for any length of time and the child did enjoy what time they spent in the program. It seems that the issue was the fact that they combined the two groups. Over the years we pulled our kids out of school to cruise twice in May and once in November. All three times all three programs were available. My kids would have been board out of their minds if the had to follow us around on a sea day. Personally if it wasn't for the kids program I would have left them home with their grandparents. There isn't any evening entertainment that I would consider family friendly and I wouldn't want to have a 5 year old hanging around in the cocktail lounges. We spent plenty of quality family time in port so if my children want to escape me completely on a sea day that's fine with me. At least I can relax and don't have to worry about them annoying other passengers.

 

OP I I don't know if you are aware that there was a soot problem on the Aft decks so maybe that was the reason they wouldn't open that deck area for the young children.

[helenb]

I believe Princess always has the kids program on all ships except the Ocean and Pacific Princess. On those ships the program is only offered if there are at least 15 children on board. These two ships do longer cruises to exotic ports of call. Often there are few if any children on these cruises.

 

This is correct. There are no permanent children's facilities on these ships, as they are smaller and were built for Renaissance (which did not allow passengers under 18). However when there are enough children onboard they will offer programming. I sailed Pacific Princess once when there were 30 kids onboard, and they held activities in Sabatini's and the steakhouse during the day.

 

All other Princess ships offer children's programming on all sailings. We sailed the Coral once in early January and there were only 10 kids onboard. The counselors opened up the facilities every day and let the kids come in and do what they wanted. When the kids were 'bored', the counselors would suggest other activities. My kids loved it!

 

As for the poster asking about the video games, they are free. In the children's areas there are game consoles set up and the kids can play as much as they want, although my DD has often told me that 'the boys' will gang up and hog the games, preventing the girls from playing. This is separate from the arcade, which is open to all passengers and is 'pay per play'.

 

We were on one cruise line (can't recall if it was Princess or Celebrity) where they had special times where they would open the arcade to the kids' club and make all of the games free during that limited time period.

Edited November 15, 2013 by helenb

[Bloemerl]

Thanks for all the info on the video games. Do you have any idea what the cost "per play" is ?

[kimblythe]

There is no cost on the games....the kids just walk in and pick which one they want. Units are set up with the games already loaded into the system. So there in no taking of games in and out of the box. They just go to the machine that has the game they want in, sit down and play!

[Cruisin' Chick]

Thanks for all the info on the video games. Do you have any idea what the cost "per play" is ?

 

The arcade is where they would have to pay to play the games, and I know on the Golden Princess, the arcade is not anywhere near the kids' area (on a different deck). I don't know how much those machines cost, but sometimes I would be near that room and can tell people were playing.

 

The video games in the kids' rooms (Shockwaves and Remix) were free. On our December cruise, the teens apparently got use of the MUTS screen to play WII games late at night on some nights, according to the Remix Patters.

 

I think one problem the OP encounter was that during time when there's fewer kids, the age groupings may be combined. On my daughter's first Princess cruise (after a few on Carnival), she was one of only three 5-year-olds as we went in mid-February, taking her out of kindergarten for the week (we got a really great friends and family discount:)). The science program wasn't in force because of the low number of kids. I believe they still had the kids' dinner once during the week. But we knew going in, not to expect a full-fledged program at that time.

 

It was much different on the next cruise, as it was mid-summer, and there was a full program. She was now in the Pirateers (which was later renamed Shockwaves) and then did all sorts of activities and she loved it.

 

Her 4th and 5th Princess cruises were when she was 13 and 15 and she would check into Remix to meet kids her age and then they would either play video games or else leave to do things elsewhere -- watching movies on MUTS, seeing the shows (she's been going to the big productions shows since her first cruise at 23 months), etc.

 

We don't insist that she spend her time during sea days with us as she usually finds kids her age to spend time with and it's her vacation too. And our last three cruises have had at least ten sea days on each one (we love them:)). Sometimes she'll want to watch a movie with us or see a show with us and that's fine too.

 

As for the 12-year-old not being allowed in the Remix group, I would side with the cruise line on that. Think about it: there are kids up to age 17. Fortunately for me, my daughter didn't want to hang with the 17-year-old boys and her group of six on the last cruise seemed to be about her age, three boys and three girls, and every time I ran into them, they seem to be keeping busy, watching movies or checking out the art work in the gallery. She said they also organized a ping pong tournament.

 

It's a bit unfortunate that the OP's kids had problems with the kids' staff. I believe that at holiday times (the time we've gone the last three times), the staff has plenty of teachers and other school workers trying to make extra money, and they seem to be quite competent.