How to Find Out How Many Teenagers are on board.....

[Smokeyham]

Just learned an interesting bit of information while doing a Bon Voyage Experience (BVE) on board the Grand Princess.

 

My friends (who are going on a cruise) signed their young daughter up for the kids club. Outside of the club was posted a list of the numbers of teenagers by age and by sex (i.e. 2 X 13 year old boys). Of course, no names or anything else that might identify the young people, were posted. I don't know if every ship does this, but I think it is a nice thing to do.

 

Why might you care? If you are considering whether or not to sign up for the Sanctuary, so you can have access to the "Adults Only" environment, then this might factor into your decision.

 

By the way, there are only three teenagers on my friends 14-day round trip from San Francisco to Hawaii and back.

[RickEk]

Just learned an interesting bit of information while doing a Bon Voyage Experience (BVE) on board the Grand Princess.

 

My friends (who are going on a cruise) signed their young daughter up for the kids club. Outside of the club was posted a list of the numbers of teenagers by age and by sex (i.e. 2 X 13 year old boys). Of course, no names or anything else that might identify the young people, were posted. I don't know if every ship does this, but I think it is a nice thing to do.

 

Why might you care? If you are considering whether or not to sign up for the Sanctuary, so you can have access to the "Adults Only" environment, then this might factor into your decision.

 

By the way, there are only three teenagers on my friends 14-day round trip from San Francisco to Hawaii and back.

 

You can always call Princess and they will freely give out this information.

[Smokeyham]

You can always call Princess and they will freely give out this information.

 

Thanks... I did not know that!

[Nightowl11]

Wow. Only 3 teenagers on that cruise? Does that mean only 3 that signed up/registered for ReMix? Or shipwide? Is this a cruise that is during the school year? If so that makes sense. I'm thinking about doing that cruise, but during the holidays, so I'm sure there will be a lot more teenagers in December. There are already several listed on the Roll Call.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

You can always call Princess and they will freely give out this information.

I did it once and it was a no go ...

[antsp]

They will give you this information if you have a child on your booking, we sometimes ring so we have an idea for my daughter.

[Smokeyham]

Wow. Only 3 teenagers on that cruise? Does that mean only 3 that signed up/registered for ReMix? Or shipwide? Is this a cruise that is during the school year? If so that makes sense. I'm thinking about doing that cruise, but during the holidays, so I'm sure there will be a lot more teenagers in December. There are already several listed on the Roll Call.

 

I believe this is the number on board, since this was posted even before most passengers were on board (we were doing a Bon Voyage Experience and so had early access).

[Hoosier-Cruiser]

I did it once and it was a no go ...

 

Same result here. The customer service rep had no idea how to go about looking up that information.

[24639]

Same result here. The customer service rep had no idea how to go about looking up that information.

 

I am so surprised at this. Definitely not saying you are wrong. We all know what it's like calling Princess and getting a straight answer. But, I ask about the number of minors on board every time I book a cruise. It is a big factor for a lot of folks and for me even though I travel with my kid.

[Colo Cruiser]

We have called several times and had no issues finding out numbers.

[RickEk]

They will give you this information if you have a child on your booking, we sometimes ring so we have an idea for my daughter.

 

Doesn't matter if you have a child on your booking or not, the information is available and freely given.

 

Same result here. The customer service rep had no idea how to go about looking up that information.

 

From what I understand, the rep on the phone does not have access to this information, they have to make a call to their Help Desk... but again, the information is there and I've never had a problem getting it. You must have gotten a "newbie"... :)

[SeagoingMom]

May I ask those of you who have succeeded in finding out ahead of time how many children will be on board (or at least how many are currently booked), are you calling as booked passengers? Are you calling as pax who have already booked children in your party? Or are you calling as potential customers who might want to either book or avoid a cruise with a lot of kids? It seems to me that unless one were booking last minute the number of children booked would change as time progresses, so I wonder how useful this info would be...

[Colo Cruiser]

May I ask those of you who have succeeded in finding out ahead of time how many children will be on board (or at least how many are currently booked), are you calling as booked passengers? Are you calling as pax who have already booked children in your party? Or are you calling as potential customers who might want to either book or avoid a cruise with a lot of kids? It seems to me that unless one were booking last minute the number of children booked would change as time progresses, so I wonder how useful this info would be...

 

 

Yes to all of the above and yes the number changes all the time right up to the last week.

[we3peas]

The number is how many are booked- not how many have signed up for the teen/kids club. We just came back from the Coral and there were 22 teens signed up but really only about 8 went to the teen club regularly. My daughter was an intermittent user of the club.

[Nightowl11]

For those of you who have received responses from the customer service reps, how accurate were they when you finally got on board? Do you think they are just giving you a generic/average number just to please you or a real/accurate number of kids for your specific cruise?

[Colo Cruiser]

For those of you who have received responses from the customer service reps, how accurate were they when you finally got on board? Do you think they are just giving you a generic/average number just to please you or a real/accurate number of kids for your specific cruise?

 

 

No they give you actual numbers by age group for the cruise.

Never obsessed enough to check once we boarded to compare, too excited with everything else and never thought about the numbers again. :D

[Julia’s Journey’s]

You can always call Princess and they will freely give out this information.

 

 

Often they don't give it out, only one cruise was I interested and it took a couple of calls before I could get the info, I knew of my 2 kids and a friends 2 which when I told them they said that was half the kids onboard - there were 9 including the captains son. I haven't called for another cruise.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - Oy, excuse the auto correct ;)

[Cruisin' Chick]

Just learned an interesting bit of information while doing a Bon Voyage Experience (BVE) on board the Grand Princess.

 

My friends (who are going on a cruise) signed their young daughter up for the kids club. Outside of the club was posted a list of the numbers of teenagers by age and by sex (i.e. 2 X 13 year old boys). Of course, no names or anything else that might identify the young people, were posted. I don't know if every ship does this, but I think it is a nice thing to do.

 

On some of our cruises, when stopping by the kids' area to sign up our daughter, I've seen the breakout by age. If I see it, I'll look to see how many are the same age as my daughter. If I don't see it, I probably don't even think of it. I do know there were only three 5-year-olds on our first Princess cruise, because I did see this list. My daughter made friends with one of her fellow 5-year-olds (hubby and I joked it was a "shipboard romance").

 

Why might you care? If you are considering whether or not to sign up for the Sanctuary, so you can have access to the "Adults Only" environment, then this might factor into your decision.

 

By the way, there are only three teenagers on my friends 14-day round trip from San Francisco to Hawaii and back.

 

Of course, when most schools are in session, there will be fewer school-aged kids. On the Hawaiian cruises, the holiday cruise will have many kids -- in fact, that's the only time we can do that cruise until the girl goes off to college. Many school districts (such as ours) are very picky about students missing school while it's in session. They'll say it's because they'll miss lessons, but most likely it's the money issue. In California, each school gets its money based on pupil/day.

 

College kids have to fit their vacations around breaks too. So you'll usually not find them on cruises longer than 7-days, aside from the holiday or summer breaks, unless they have early finals and can register for classes online.

 

Wow. Only 3 teenagers on that cruise? Does that mean only 3 that signed up/registered for ReMix? Or shipwide? Is this a cruise that is during the school year? If so that makes sense. I'm thinking about doing that cruise, but during the holidays, so I'm sure there will be a lot more teenagers in December. There are already several listed on the Roll Call.

 

Don't forget that when you book a cruise, you provide the cruise line with your passport/birth certificate info. They'll know the date of birth for each person in your cabin. They will figure out the number of kids' program staff to hire for each sailing based on the number of kids that will be in each group -- ahead of the cruise. So even if some kids never show up at all in the Pelicans, etc., the staff is in place. That's why on the holiday cruises there are more kids' staff -- and some might be teachers wanting to pick up a little dough during their winter break.

[Smokeyham]

 

They will figure out the number of kids' program staff to hire for each sailing based on the number of kids that will be in each group -- ahead of the cruise. So even if some kids never show up at all in the Pelicans' date=' etc., the staff is in place. That's why on the holiday cruises there are more kids' staff -- and some might be teachers wanting to pick up a little dough during their winter break.[/quote']

 

Does this mean that the way they hire staff for kids' programs is different from how they manage other staff? My understanding is that staff are hired for contracts which last around four to six months.

[caribill]

For those of you who have received responses from the customer service reps, how accurate were they when you finally got on board?

 

For one holidaye cruise they tolkd me around 550.

 

No, I did not bother to count them once on board.

 

However, I hardly saw any of them. If I had not been told there would be that many, I would have thought there were very few.

[SeagoingMom]

For one holidaye cruise they tolkd me around 550.

 

No, I did not bother to count them once on board.

 

However, I hardly saw any of them. If I had not been told there would be that many, I would have thought there were very few.

This is, of course, an interesting observation which causes one to think about what is really important -- the actual number of kids or how well the children's programs function (how many of the children want to participate) and where and when children on board might cause either joy or disturbance (depending on the perspective of the passenger.) In other words, how well does the ship "absorb" children. Of course, for some pax, the relevant questions might be "how well-behaved will the children be?" and "how responsible will the parents be?", but those are not questions the cruise line is likely to be able to answer... :rolleyes:

[RickEk]

Often they don't give it out, only one cruise was I interested and it took a couple of calls before I could get the info, I knew of my 2 kids and a friends 2 which when I told them they said that was half the kids onboard - there were 9 including the captains son. I haven't called for another cruise.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - Oy, excuse the auto correct ;)

 

I guess you just have to get the right person on the phone... from what I understand, the info is a phone call away from the Reservations agent. Maybe some don't know that they can do that...

[Cruisin' Chick]

Does this mean that the way they hire staff for kids' programs is different from how they manage other staff? My understanding is that staff are hired for contracts which last around four to six months.

 

When we were at the orientation for the kids' program on the Island for the holiday cruise in 2005/06, each "counselor" was introduced with country and background mentioned. Some were teachers. I do remember talking with one of the permanent staff in the program and she mentioned that there were fewer kids the sailing before, which made sense as most schools were still in session. And obviously this is the same every year -- they know they need a bigger staff for the holiday sailings than the non-holiday or non-school break ones. Undoubtedly their hiring is different from the rest of the ship, which would have a steady need for the same number. Even with say the bar staff -- the minors on board still can buy their soft drinks from the bars.

[YOLO so make it count]

I have just phoned and asked for this information, I was told there was 52 minors booked onboard, but they could not break this down into age groups.