Kids Program - age exceptions?

[brew99]

I am wondering if any exceptions are made for kids moving to a different age range for the Adventure Ocean Youth programs? Our DD who is 10 would really like to hang out with her buddy who is 12 but according to the age breaks they will be in separate groups (9-11 and 12-14). I cam imagine that she will likely also make friends but it may be tough to get her to event try if her buddy is not along with her. Has anyone had any similar experiences and do they make exceptions?

[reallyitsmema]

I am wondering if any exceptions are made for kids moving to a different age range for the Adventure Ocean Youth programs? Our DD who is 10 would really like to hang out with her buddy who is 12 but according to the age breaks they will be in separate groups (9-11 and 12-14). I cam imagine that she will likely also make friends but it may be tough to get her to event try if her buddy is not along with her. Has anyone had any similar experiences and do they make exceptions?

 

They will not allow a 10 yr old to move up to the teen program. If she were within a short time of turning 12, they might make an exception but not a 10 yr old. Also understand that the two teen groups, 12-14 and 15-17, are combined at times. Not sure I would be comfortable having my 10 yr old hanging out with 17 yr olds, there is a huge maturity difference.

[mickev99]

From what I saw with my nephew last year when he was 12, the 12-14 and 15-17 groups are very unstructured with activities. They are pretty much free to come and go as they please. My kids were 9, 9, and 11 on our last cruise, and will be 10, 10, and 12 on this cruise, and I am going to see if they will move my 12 year old down to be with her sisters when we cruise in July. I have heard that that sometimes make exceptions and let them move down.

[Artemis]

In our family's experience, it's rare they bend the age rules, and I would be very surprised if they did on a 2-year difference. The only times I have seen leniency are when the kid count is low (i.e., not spring break, summer, holidays) and when the age gap is small and the two are sibs or traveling companions. My son never seemed to catch a break! The worst was at that awkward tween/young teen stage when his traveling companion got to be in the teen group and my son was with what he viewed the children, even though they were both in the same grade. It was kind of a tough week!

 

All you can do is ask! Good luck!

 

 

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[crazy4themouse]

I adore my brother, but I imagine if our family had cruised when we were little my parents would have done the opposite -- make sure that we *weren't* in the same group! I know my brother and I would have demanded the same thing, lol :p

 

And not only would I never have wanted my son hanging out with the teen groups onboard when he was 10, but I seriously seriously doubt the teens would want a 10 year old in their midst, you know?

 

 

-gina-

[Badger-Badger]

14 is high schoolers. Would you really even want your 10 year old to do unstructured activities with high school kids? Just something to consider.

 

I am glad my girls are so close in age that they are always in the same group ... it would be hard that first day to seperate!

[nolesrule]

They may allow someone to move down to a younger group, but they may not allow that for Voyagers. The programs for older kids are quite different from Adventure Ocean.

 

On our first cruise with the kids, they allowed my 6 year old to be with her little sister in Aquanauts (3-5), but on cruises since, the older kid has been in her appropriate age group.

[cdscooby1]

Spring break on the Oasis 2 years ago they allowed my sons to move down. They were 12 at the time and really did not enjoy no structured activities. The 12-14 year old group is very lacking and they do not watch them at all.

[mickev99]

Spring break on the Oasis 2 years ago they allowed my sons to move down. They were 12 at the time and really did not enjoy no structured activities. The 12-14 year old group is very lacking and they do not watch them at all.

 

This is what I'm concerned about. I am not comfortable letting my 12 year old wander around the ship without supervision with kids that she just met, and I don't know the parents of. Glad to hear that they moved him during a busy time like Spring Break since we are also cruising during a busy time in July, gives me hope. They can always say no, but I'm going to ask.

[waterbug123]

Our DD who is 10 would really like to hang out with her buddy who is 12 but according to the age breaks they will be in separate groups (9-11 and 12-14). I cam imagine that she will likely also make friends but it may be tough to get her to event try if her buddy is not along with her. Has anyone had any similar experiences and do they make exceptions?

 

You will probably have better luck asking if the 12 year old can move DOWN to your DD's group, instead of asking of your DD can move UP to a teenage group.

[Kdiamond55]

We are going to see if my 13 year old can move down to be with her 11 year old brother for some of the days. I have read they may allow it if the child is well behaved and they have a sibling in a different age group. We shall see!

[imjoyful2]

We've been able to have our kiddos switched around but it's because we sail on long cruises when there are hardly any kids on board. (we homeschool so that's how we do that ;) ) Our last cruise was a 15 day repo cruise with only 30 kids out of 3,000 people. And 6 of those children were mine! :P They combined ages 3-11 which was only my 3 yr & 11 yr old so we asked if he could get moved up to the teen program with his 3 sisters and they allowed him to as long as he behaved (which he did). I am thankful they allowed this as he would've been bored out of his mind otherwise. The entire group of teens were awesome and they didn't mind the variety of ages in the group. In fact, the whole group would sometimes take my 2 little ones with them on group activities or to just play with them. As homeschoolers, our kids have friends of many ages, not just their same age so it worked out great.

 

All that to say, it doesn't hurt to ask. ;) It really just varies on the time of year & amount of kids they have on board.