Children on princess

[shredie]

Interesting. According to the website these are their hours:

 

Youth Program Hours

 

Sea Days Port Days

9 am - noon 9 am - 5 pm

1 pm - 5 pm 6 pm - 10 pm

6 pm - 10 pm

 

.

This is how it has been on every Princess cruise I have taken. There has never been a two-hour closure. As I've said, we like to have the kids with us for those mealtime hours so we can eat as a family. We don't view the kids' facilities as a baby sitting service where we can park the kids whenever the mood strikes us.

Edited August 29, 2015 by shredie

[calvin31]

My daughter will be on a cruise beginning tomorrow (unfortunately without me this time) & and know she will be well taken care of, make lots of new friends, enjoy all the activities, & have plenty of quality time with her family in the meal/off times. It's a brilliant program that any child should enjoy. [emoji3]

 

 

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[Mom2kmo]

Interesting. According to the website these are their hours:

 

Youth Program Hours

 

Sea Days Port Days

9 am - noon 9 am - 5 pm

1 pm - 5 pm 6 pm - 10 pm

6 pm - 10 pm

 

Huh, even though I am spacing it is not putting them in.

 

These have always been the hours on sea days on the last 6 cruises we have been on. I just spoke to Princess Friday and was yet told again the same thing. Also, if you are spending the night in port, ie. St Petersburg Russia, the hours are from 8-5 and 6-midnight.

[ceilidh1]

They also do split the kids into different age ranges and club spaces - 4 I believe if you include the nursery.

 

Having one club for all kids aged between 3 and 12 didn't seem practical to me - and certainly didn't work well for my 3 year old! Within 3 minutes of walking into the club on Disney he was bowled over by a couple of 10 year olds playing tag! I love that Princess has clubs split by age - 3-7 years, 8-12 years; and teens! The activities are far more tailored to suit those age ranges - realistically, what activity would interest both a 3 year old and a 12 year old?

[shredie]

Having one club for all kids aged between 3 and 12 didn't seem practical to me - and certainly didn't work well for my 3 year old! Within 3 minutes of walking into the club on Disney he was bowled over by a couple of 10 year olds playing tag! I love that Princess has clubs split by age - 3-7 years, 8-12 years; and teens! The activities are far more tailored to suit those age ranges - realistically, what activity would interest both a 3 year old and a 12 year old?

My impression of Disney is that it is not an organized "club" with appropriate activities for children of different ages but instead a series of large holding "cells" to keep the children confined until their parents come back to get them from the baby sitter.

[bashawclan]

Hi everyone, I have a quick question about princess. I love to cruise and have been on 3 princess cruises but not with my children (3 and 5). They have been with us on Disney fantasy twice,but no other line. As an adult, I love princess, but wasn't sure if my kids would enjoy it. Disney prices this winter are so crazy I don't think we can swing it again, so I was thinking of trying to Jan Regal Princess 7 day. Does anyone have experience with children on princess? Is the staff friendly? If we book a mini suite will there be enough room for 4 of us to fit comfortably in the cabin? How about the princess Pelicans program? Did your children enjoy it? My kids would be 4 and 6 when we sail. I loved regal this spring, but didn't check out the kids club at the time. Thanks so much!!

 

 

Caroline

 

5 yr old Granddaughte loved the pelicans. Literally wanted to be there all the time.

[ceilidh1]

My impression of Disney is that it is not an organized "club" with appropriate activities for children of different ages but instead a series of large holding "cells" to keep the children confined until their parents come back to get them from the baby sitter.

 

That was exactly how I found the Disney program. It was a huge disappointment. We paid a big premium to sail Disney thinking that the kids would have the time of their loves. They hated every second they were in the club! Sticking with Princess in future!:cool:

[GoldenRose]

Those were not the kids club hours on the Princess cruise we just got off of. They were only open from 9-12, 2-5, and 7-10, and you were expected to pick the kids up at least 15 minutes early.

 

Sometimes the timing was very inconvenient if you were hoping to do activities with your spouse. We signed up for both the Chef's Table Dinner and the Ultimate Ship's tour, both of which they schedule after people sign up, and both were scheduled to include times the kids clubs weren't open. My mother was sailing with us and was able to bridge the gaps in time, but we were extremely frustrated with the hours of the clubs.

 

For what it's worth, we've sailed with kids and used kids' clubs on Princess, Disney, Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity. Our 4 year old extroverted daughter has never met a kids club she didn't like. She absolutely loved the Pelicans club, and she really enjoyed the crafts she did. That said, she still seems to prefer Disney (although it's hard to tell since we just got off Princess a week ago). Our 10 year old son is shyer and quieter and actually prefers the Celebrity kids club to any of the others because there is so much personal attention there, and I think Princess was a close second. He will sometimes go with his sister on the Disney ships, and we all like that they can stay together and just do different activities. He doesn't really like the chaos in the Disney clubs, but he likes Disney cruise line best overall because there are so many activities we can do as a family. He would generally rather be with us, doing activities as a family. (Our daughter would rather ditch us and do activities with her peers.)

 

Princess advertises Jr Ranger and Jr Chef programs on their Alaska routes, and my son was looking forward to both. They didn't do either on our cruise. They said Jr Ranger is only available on some Alaska routes, but not ours, and that they didn't have enough people sign up for Jr Chef. This was not a huge deal, but it made for minor disappointments since he had seen their commercials and thought those looked good.

 

We loved our cruise with Princess and thought they did a fantastic job overall, including (more or less) with the kids. We would cruise with them again. We would also cruise with Disney again, and we certainly feel like Disney makes some aspects of cruising with kids easier. I think my kids would still say they prefer Disney, but they definitely enjoyed Princess.

[shredie]

Those were not the kids club hours on the Princess cruise we just got off of. They were only open from 9-12, 2-5, and 7-10, and you were expected to pick the kids up at least 15 minutes early.

Which ship? That was an anomaly.

[ehogan]

Our son and his family (kids 5 and 8) just returned from the Grand Princess to Alaska.

 

The kids had a wonderful time in the Princess clubs. They were separated by age groups which made our elder granddaughter ecstatic since she got to be away from her younger sibling!

 

From the Junior Chefs program to the talks with the Park Rangers, to talent shows, to arts and crafts to wii on the giant movie screen to pajama parties, they were in seventh heaven.

 

If the pictures they showed us are any indication, they had a wonderful time...as did their parents who had some alone time.

Edited August 31, 2015 by ehogan
Spelling

[GoldenRose]

Which ship? That was an anomaly.

 

Ruby Princess, roundtrip Seattle to Alaska. Beautiful ship, some of the best service we've had at sea, surprisingly good food, fun ports - truly a great trip. The kids programs, particularly the limited hours, were actually the most frustrating thing about the vacation, and they weren't bad.

[jchris1230]

From what I have read here, the kids club closes at 10 p.m. on sea days but I was reading in fine print that if you want to go past 10 pm, its a $5/hour charge till 1 a.m. Did any of you use this service?

 

According to the website, they are closed at 5pm. on port days. So are they closed all the rest of the evening after that? Their website isn't very clear.

 

We are debating between Princess Regal and Celebrity Reflection and so far it seems Celebrity has better hours on port days.

 

We have no family or anyone to watch our daughter at home so we do look forward to having Dates on our cruises, its a rarity.

 

Thank You

[JimmyVWine]

In my experience, and after talking with other parents, the conclusion that I have reached is that as a parent, you might walk into the Princess Youth Areas and be completely underwhelmed, especially when comparing the space and facilities to DCL. But the kids don't pick up on this nearly as much and really enjoy themselves. So don't let the lack of "sizzle" throw you off. Kids don't need or notice nearly as many bells and whistles as we parents like to think they do.

[Cruisin' Chick]

From what I have read here, the kids club closes at 10 p.m. on sea days but I was reading in fine print that if you want to go past 10 pm, its a $5/hour charge till 1 a.m. Did any of you use this service?

 

According to the website, they are closed at 5pm. on port days. So are they closed all the rest of the evening after that? Their website isn't very clear.

 

We are debating between Princess Regal and Celebrity Reflection and so far it seems Celebrity has better hours on port days.

 

We have no family or anyone to watch our daughter at home so we do look forward to having Dates on our cruises, its a rarity.

 

Thank You

 

I'm guessing you asked this on a separate thread (or someone did) and I believe they just mentioned day hours because usually the ship sails by 5 pm for most ports. Evening hours will be as usual.

 

When my daughter was young, we would take advantage of the kidsitting. You have to sign up for it at least a day ahead and the amount is prorated by the quarter hour. Usually they watch kid-friendly movies and maybe do arts and crafts. By the time my girl was 8, she wasn't interested in staying past 10pm, but she liked going to the shows with us (she tends to be a night owl like me while we're on vacation).

[dforeigner]

Our little ones have cruised on Princess, Celebrity, and Disney. They love going to the club regardless of the cruise line.

[Wehwalt]

[quote name='JimmyVWine']In my experience, and after talking with other parents, the conclusion that I have reached is that as a parent, you might walk into the Princess Youth Areas and be completely underwhelmed, especially when comparing the space and facilities to DCL. But the kids don't pick up on this nearly as much and really enjoy themselves. So don't let the lack of "sizzle" throw you off. Kids don't need or notice nearly as many bells and whistles as we parents like to think they do.[/QUOTE]

You are paying for the privilege on Disney, prices being what they are. Edited September 6, 2015 by Wehwalt