Regal Princess - Kids club for 3-7 year olds

[mamalovestraveling]

Hello,

 

We will be going on the Regal Princess in May for a Baltic sailing. We read really mixed reviews about the Pelicans club. Do you have any insight? I read they did not open Pelicans until the evening hours during their entire cruise, which would be very disappointing for our kids, since that is currently the only reason they love cruising. We are not going during major holidays and fear that if not enough kids are there, they might do the same? We just went on a Holland cruise and the kids club was great on sea days, but we hated it on port days as they just put all the kids in one room in front of the TV, which our kids did not enjoy.

Since the upcoming cruise is a port intensive itinerary and we are just now getting started on shore excursions, we became very hesitant in committing to a tour or might even feel the need for some private tours (but they are so expensive) in case the kids club throws a curve ball at us.

 

Any feedback is much appreciated!

[Cruisin' Chick]

Hello,

 

We will be going on the Regal Princess in May for a Baltic sailing. We read really mixed reviews about the Pelicans club. Do you have any insight? I read they did not open Pelicans until the evening hours during their entire cruise, which would be very disappointing for our kids, since that is currently the only reason they love cruising. We are not going during major holidays and fear that if not enough kids are there, they might do the same? We just went on a Holland cruise and the kids club was great on sea days, but we hated it on port days as they just put all the kids in one room in front of the TV, which our kids did not enjoy.

Since the upcoming cruise is a port intensive itinerary and we are just now getting started on shore excursions, we became very hesitant in committing to a tour or might even feel the need for some private tours (but they are so expensive) in case the kids club throws a curve ball at us.

 

Any feedback is much appreciated!

 

I've only seen one thread here about a third person account about the children's program on the Regal. So if that's what you're going by, I would do a bit more research to find a parent's account and see if it's regarding a cruise without sea days or not. On the cruises we've gone on when our child was in the Pelicans and then the tween group, you can sign up ahead of time if you wanted your child to stay on board while you went into port. Of course, this was ten years and more ago. One thing to note is that in May, there may not be too many school-aged kids on board (so any families may tend to have much younger kids).

 

We did go on our first Princess cruise when our girl was 5 during Valentine's week and she was one of only three 5-year-olds. The hours were not cut, even during port days, just a regrouping of the age groups and maybe not all of the usual slate of activities (eg. none of the science-oriented activities). She did stay on board in two of the port days (only getting off the ship in Cabo as I was too ill from hay fever to go with hubby, so she did).

 

Maybe you can email Princess for a definitive answer on this (I suggest this over calling as the CSRs won't know or might not give you the right answer).

[cb at sea]

The clubs are open during the day, whether there are 3 kids or 300! No worries!

[kitkat343]

We were on the Coral Princess in 2013 with our then 2 year old son. There were only 11 children under the age of 18 on the whole cruise, 3 of whom (including my son) were under the age of 3 and were unable to be dropped off at the kids club. We brought our son to the kids club during the day on sea days and at night, and Princess did not cut their hours at all. In fact, they still had 4 counselors working at the kids club, since that is their minimum staffing level. They basically combined all the age groups, and did nice arts and craft projects during the day. At night, there were arts and crafts or Wii games available. They were willing to open the toddler room for us (all the drop off kids were in the elementary aged room) and my husband and I supervised our son in the toddler play area, and he enjoyed playing in the foam area and riding bikes around.

 

We have always booked private tours as a family, since it has enabled our son to enjoy all the ports we have visited.

 

I would email princess to confirm that they will not reduce the kids club hours. You might also want to post this question in the Princess forum.

 

 

Please note that the Regal cannot dock directly in Stockholm, and that you will miss the sail in to the archipelago, and need to take a tender and train into Stockholm. Please also note that my family (including our then 3 year old son) were able to easily DIY all of the ports on the Baltics with the exception of St. Petersburg, where we booked a private tour. In general the ports are very close to the major attractions in the Baltics, and public transportation is excellent (the exceptions are if you don't dock directly in Stockholm or choose to travel to Berlin). A review of our trip to the Baltics last August is linked below in my signature, and it may help you in terms of planning family excursions in the Baltics.

Edited April 6, 2015 by kitkat343

[kitkat343]

Sorry - I forgot to mention that in Stockholm depending upon your children's ages you might want to consider a private tour with transportation. Stockholm itself has outstanding public transportation and is quite easy to navigate if you dock directly in Stockholm.

 

However, depending upon your children's ages if you are worried about them melting down and needing to go back to the ship quickly you might not want to need to wait for a train to Nynäshamn. If your children are old enough that they don't have tantrums, you should be fine to DIY in Stockholm, as the train station is quite close to the port in Nynäshamn.

[Noelle2375]

Hello. We were on the Regal for an Eastern Caribbean trip and my 3 and 5 year olds LOVED the Pelicans! They went every night and they even stayed on when we ported in St. Maarten and could not WAIT to go back that evening to do fun things! They did such a great job with keeping them entertained and they were very nice. They cannot wait to go back on the Regal!