Royal and age groupings

[G&TQ]

Hello All,

We are cruising in a few weeks on RC Vision of the seas. My son is 11 and will be 12 in July. He is in middle school and most of his class mates are 12 and all of his best friends are also. That being said what are the chances us getting him into the 12 year old group? I am afraid he will be board senseless in the 9-11 group.

[cb at sea]

He won't be bored...the aged activities are dead-on! They consider your age to be that of when you board.

[cello56]

Problem is, the age group is not made up of 12 year olds - it is 12 to 14. So while your son is only four months too young, the 14 year old who is turning 15 in July might not be too happy being with an 11 year old.

[kitkat343]

This issue comes up a lot on these forums, especially for families whose children want to participate in the kids clubs with their siblings or cousins. It is entirely at the kids club staff's discretion as to whether or not they will allow children to move out of their age group. On cruises with very few children, age groups are often combined (these are generally longer sailings, or sailings during the school year). On our first cruise to the Panama Canal, there were only 11 kids onboard. So all the kids who showed up were in the same small group of 4-5 kids, regardless of age.

 

You can certainly try to politely ask the kids club to move your child. I would recommend doing it privately, out of the earshot of other parents, since the kids club staff isn't going to want to accommodate a lot of changes. But you need to be prepared for the fact that the answer may very well be no. Some of the saddest reviews I've read on cruise critic are from people who organized multigenerational family cruises, and the kids refused to go to the kids club because the cousins weren't all in the same age group. The parents were unhappy since they had to spend their whole vacation supervising the kids who refused to go to the kids club. If this issue is so important, then families need to consider Disney, which will allow kids 3-12 to be grouped together.

Edited March 15, 2016 by kitkat343

[mjkacmom]

I doubt it - there is a lot less supervision in the teen clubs, and it's a liability issue. Never sailed RCI, but on NCL, they won't budge if you are a day short.

[Free Spirit Karma]

I am in the same situation. We are cruising on March 20. My older son is 10 and younger son is 7 and their cousin is 12. My son is only 18 days away from being 8. There is the 8-12 kids club. The little one wants to be with his brother and cousin. I was told you have to ask privately to the staff. They review on a case by case basis. Will let you know of the outcome. Cheers

[LJ1012]

We had this situation when we cruised. My three kids were 7, 9 & 11. The 7 yr old was all by himself...and never wanted to leave the kids camp. He made friends and didn't care that his 2 older sibs were next door in the older camp. They keep the children so engaged that we had trouble getting any of them to leave.