Major disappointment with the Coral

[Avidcruiser]

I totally agree with the OP. My children, 2 boys ages 6 and 10 have been on several cruises on both Royal Carribbean and Princess. We have never had a problem. They have loved the children's programs because of the variety of activities they offer. They would have been totally bored to watch a movie every night and I would not have been happy about it either.

 

I think Royal Carribbean really has a wonderful children's program. I can't ever remember them just watching a movie, except for maybe a late night (after 10pm) activity. A movie might have been a choice, but there was always several other activities going on.

 

We love cruising. I think it is a great family vacation. There is something for everyone. It is a chance for us to all be together, but also do things we enjoy separately for a little while too. If my children enjoy cruising and the children's program, what's wrong with that? If I enjoy taking in a show with my husband or going to the casino with him for a few hours while my children are having fun and safely supervised, what's wrong with that? Nothing, I say!

[spongerob]

When a poster does not have a 100% fabulous time on Princess and mentions it in a post to warn other future travelers of things to watch out for or perphaps have an actual Princess employee see it and do something about the problem, you all come down harshly on them.

That is not correct...the tone of the responses is usually in proportion to the tone of the post.

This board is great to get references and information on ports, ships, lines etc. By giving me a rash of **** for posting my opinon and problems you are not allowing other readers to get the entire picture of a cruise, the line, the ship etc.

There are two sides to the story. Perhaps your approach to Kara, if in any way similar to how you have framed your comments here, garnered the response you received. Trust me, I am among many things a CS professional and it's amazing how often that clients forget they are dealing with a real human being, who just happens to work for a huge faceless corporation. But that's another discussion.

[mr green]

As an aside to the main issue, in Britain Princess is marketing some Sea Princess cruises as offering 'free child places'. This seems a bit strange to us, particularly since they're not during school holidays. However, since our past experiences with children on cruises have been almost entirely holiday-enhancing, we have not let it deter us from booking.

Ibrasu

 

G.B. must have changed its tune. The Sea Princess sailed with P.& O for a few years, and she was 'For adults only', all the childrens areas being removed. Last fall she returned to North America, once again under the Princess umbrella. Before her return she had the 'kiddie areas' reinstated, but, as she is still very popular with 'The Brits', it would seem that she is being advertized back in the U.K., as being 'Children friendly'. If Ibrasu is correct, and I have no reason to doubt the post, then it may seem that Princess is making an effort to encourage 'family cruising'. john

[jennew]

It's all in the tone (as SpongeRob mentioned).

 

Perhaps if OP had appraoched the staff at the kid's center and said "My kid's are not really happy with all the movie watching, is there something else they could do instead?" she might have gotten a lot of cooperation.

 

My son did not like the kid's club on NCL- BUT...it was not the fault of the staff. They did thier best to encourage him and interest him. I never thought to ask them to change their whole program.

 

Do you think that ~maybe~ the OP could have been partly to blame regarding the kid's displeasure. Mom's and Dad's certainly can set the tone for things. Perhaps if Mom had suggested "Hmmm....well how about watching this movie tonight and then tomorrow we can hit the pool? You like this movie and it would a great way to relax..."

 

I have five kids and I know how powerfully Mom's attitude can affect the kids. Just a thought

[DrivesLikeMario]

Our youngest son is 13 and in the next few months, will have been on 13 cruises. Both of our sons have been on many land vacations also. Not all Princess cruises are like the one you experienced.

 

We enjoy their company and have NEVER "sent" them to the childrens' program. :eek: IF they wanted to go, they could, if they didn't want to go, we, as parents, occupied them. On most evenings, we'd have a great time together playing board games, seeing the comedian's show, playing giant chess, playing video games, playing paddle tennis, playing poker in our cabin and doing many other activities. We bring things to keep them busy. I learned that from one of our very first cruises with them - bring a few things from home to keep them happy.

 

To address the original topic:

 

On our Coral Princess cruise during Spring Break, I had never seen such totally out of control kids in my life. I do not blame the kids at all - it's their parents that were not responsible and obviously could care less about their kids. The kids were all over the place and bored to death. I could go on for pages about what they were doing. :eek:

 

There must be a problem with the director of the kids' program on the Coral, because we experienced it too - the movies every night, cartoons during the day - that's totally ridiculous. On other Princess ships, the program has been very fun & entertaining, especially in the 7-10 PM slot in the evenings.

[oceandrive]

Leave it to Disney cruises...

 

Or leave your kids at home !

 

Must be tough for cruise lines...Every parent have a different expectation for their kids activities (let alone when mom and dad have a different approach and they argue).

 

Must be tough for these kids...Mom decides for them when they should be tired or not !

[bdjam]

There are two sides to the story. Perhaps your approach to Kara, if in any way similar to how you have framed your comments here, garnered the response you received. Trust me, I am among many things a CS professional and it's amazing how often that clients forget they are dealing with a real human being, who just happens to work for a huge faceless corporation. But that's another discussion.

Excellent point – I’ve seen how some people on board ships are treated by passengers and it is sometimes embarrassing. Not to say this was the case in this instance, but its worth noting and remembering when issues come up in the future.

I think something that we need to remember with Princess is that the cruise line was not created to cater to children much like the Disney cruise line was. Disney set out to establish a cruise line that would have both a full range of adult and children activities. According to the posts, the cruise lines belonging to RCI seem to follow suit. But until Princess took the misguided step to compete head to head with RCI in the Caribbean, they were not a cruise line that catered to children. The number of minors on board was always limited to 10% of the overall passenger population. While Princess might market its family-friendly facilities, I think it could be agreed that this applies to the larger, newer, MUTS laden (for lack of better description) ships. The Sun and Explorer Classes of ships don’t fit these molds.

Again, a good, knowledgeable, cruise savvy and ship-experienced Travel Agent could probably give good advice in these situations. In the meantime, if you’re not satisified with the children’s programs on Princess, comment to the cruise line – polite and constructive will get you further than yelling at the Youth Director. And until Princess improves, visit RCI or Disney. Sounds simple to me.

Oh - and as for trashing negative posts, the response to the responses proves the point...there wasn't much room to do much else. If a poster has the feeling that the cruise line should entertain their kids without question, then how do you positively discuss that?

[DrivesLikeMario]

It's too bad that Princess has done away with their 10% rule when it comes to children. There were over 720 kids on our cruise 2 weeks ago.

 

The good thing is that they've added something called "Youth Security" crew members since the out of control kids we experienced on the Coral in 2004. These new crew members are on all holiday sailings and during the summer, from what two of them told me. They seem to make a big difference in the behavior of some of the neglected kids.

[HAPPYHOURS]

If a poster has the feeling that the cruise line should entertain their kids without question, then how do you positively discuss that?

 

Couldn't have hoped to put it any better!:cool:

[bdjam]

It's too bad that Princess has done away with their 10% rule when it comes to children. There were over 720 kids on our cruise 2 weeks ago.

 

The good thing is that they've added something called "Youth Security" crew members since the out of control kids we experienced on the Coral in 2004. These new crew members are on all holiday sailings and during the summer, from what two of them told me. They seem to make a big difference in the behavior of some of the neglected kids.

There was an increased level of security on my Dawn Princess cruise a month ago as well – especially noticeable were the tuxedo-clad security guards at Jammers disco…it seemed their main activity was keeping those under 18 out of the room at night. While I think this a good thing to keep order on the ship, it’s unfortunate that it has to come to that…

[DrivesLikeMario]

it’s unfortunate that it has to come to that…

 

Isn't that the truth! There are just too many selfish parents out there that are more concerned with getting in their "me" time, that they don't take the time to teach their children the right way to behave. The constant reinforcement of it is too much work for already stressed out and over-worked parents I guess. They'd rather leave the hard work to someone else. :rolleyes:

[regnig]

Same attitute abouts schools........It is their job to teach my kids, not mine........:rolleyes:

 

And, let us not forget also to teach them "manners”, “how to be honest”, “how to be responsible for their own actions”, and so on and so on and so on……

[STUR]

Having to spend time with your children...priceless. :rolleyes:

[color="red

 

I DISAGREE WITH YOU

 

DID YOU PLAN YOUR VACATION FOR YOU OR YOUR KIDS ?

" IT WAS THERE VACATION TO" (NOT YOURS)

 

NEXT TIME GO DISNEY

 

WE LERNED A LONG TIME AGO

 

THE KIDS HAVE DIFRENT INTREST

 

WE TOOK OUR GROWEN KIDS LAST YEAR FOR OUR 40TH ANVERSARY WITH OUT THERE KIDS AND WE HAD A BALL

 

NEXT TIME IF YOU ARE TAKING CHILDREAN THINK OF THEM NOT YOUR SELF

 

DISNEY /DISNEY/ DISNEY

 

STUR

[bdjam]

I DISAGREE WITH YOU

 

DID YOU PLAN YOUR VACATION FOR YOU OR YOUR KIDS ?

" IT WAS THERE VACATION TO" (NOT YOURS)

 

NEXT TIME GO DISNEY

 

WE LERNED A LONG TIME AGO

 

THE KIDS HAVE DIFRENT INTREST

 

WE TOOK OUR GROWEN KIDS LAST YEAR FOR OUR 40TH ANVERSARY WITH OUT THERE KIDS AND WE HAD A BALL

 

NEXT TIME IF YOU ARE TAKING CHILDREAN THINK OF THEM NOT YOUR SELF

 

DISNEY /DISNEY/ DISNEY

 

STUR

Actually, you ARE agreeing with me… :confused:

[donna5]

Donna5: "Do parents pay extra(above cruise price) for the children's and teen center? If not, not much to complain about."

 

Following your reasoning, since children don't get to use the casino, and they don't pay 'above cruise price' for it, then I guess most adults wouldn't complain the casino was closed for the night, or used monopoly money for the payouts, or some equivalent.

 

If a cruise line offers and advertises a children's program (or gambling, or whatever), it is reasonable to expect them to deliver same. If you are frequenting a cruise line that offers a children's program, you can expect and be prepared to cruise with families.

 

Bad example!! Adults do pay extra to use the Casino!!!

[TNTLAMB]

My DW and I are retied teachers and also the parents of 8 children. We have cruised with our kids and suspect the reason most of the 8 - 12 year olds were not in the evening program was because they were with their parents who organized and paid dearly for a family vacation and planned on spending it on family activities, not in the Casino or other adult activities. If ever there was a time to be vigilant with kids, it is on a cruise. especially your young teens.The activities for the fifteen year old are on most cruise lines not appropriate for fifteen year old as they are also with 17 and 18 year olds. By the time you have had dinner with your children in the main dinning room for the pupose of family time and teaching some social skills and manners, you get them back to the cabin and calmed down its 8:00 or 9:00. One eveninq or the formal evenings in the kids club is one thing and the movies tolerable but every evning is another. Your fifteen year old should have been back in the cabin by 10:00 and able to stay with the youngers still allowing the late shows and other adult activities. Past that time is asking for trouble on any cruise. Its would still have allowed the late show and any other adult activities. Playing games and swimming with your kids isn't punishment. Kara if it is the Kara I'm thinking is of a British persuasion and sounds short at the best of times. Even from the OP's discription she sounds wise about what Kids need. I can gurantee you of one other thing and that is varying your schedule and expectations for behavior on a cruise is asking for disaster. Many a young teen has gone astray on cruise ship. They are found in the stairwells why their parnets think they are at the disco. Parents and older siblings in a family are not off duty because they are on vacation.

[CruzinSuz]

The P. O. Arcadia is adult only. There should be more adult's only venues in cruises and in land based vacations. Why is that adult's are discriminated against. There have been so many unruly children on so many of our cruises that we almost gave up cruising. We've come to the conclusion that in order to enjoy Adult's only, you DO have to pay much more money. If that's what it takes then we will.

I think the attitude that the kids program be designed to accomodate a few on that particular sailing is very selfish.

[CruzinSuz]

The P. O. Arcadia is adult only. There should be more adult's only venues in cruises and in land based vacations. Why is that adult's are discriminated against. There have been so many unruly children on so many of our cruises that we almost gave up cruising. We've come to the conclusion that in order to enjoy Adult's only, you DO have to pay much more money. If that's what it takes then we will.

I think the attitude that the kids program be designed to accomodate a few on that particular sailing is very selfish.

[jbobst]

I have been following various threads in the cruisecritic forum now for a couple months as we get ready to sail on the Grand Princess in February. I don't think I have seen such angry responses and mean attitudes before in the threads that I have followed.

 

I have to agree that it is very unfortunate that people who post negative threads are criticized so much. Yes there are two sides to a story, yes we all know parents who behave in extreme ways, but negative things do happen on a cruise, and I am glad to hear about all the different perspectives from people...good or bad. Hearing something like this will not deter me from cruising, but it will give me information that I didn't have before, and might help me out if I happen to get into the same situation.

 

Certainly there are people who are constantly unhappy and will never be pleased... but I didn't really detect this from the original post. Could be wrong, but my goodness...why be so harsh in the responses?

 

As for children cruising, I have two children myself. They both loved our first cruise last year and are really looking forward to the one next month. It's a great way to vacation for families and adults without children too. However, after hearing some the extreme comments about children and how they should only go on Disney or carnival cruises, I have to say that I am bit nervous about our upcoming Princess cruise.

 

I appreciate both perspectives from people who are willing to share their experiences on this forum. I sure hope people continue to post their experiences and are not turned off by threads like this one. We all have to keep in mind that we handle things differently and we should never take one person's experiences as the way it will be for us.

[bdjam]

Cruise News Daily (www.cruisenewsdaily.com) just reported today that a 15 year old girl has gone missing from a Costa ship and it’s presumed that she’s gone overboard off the coast of Cozumel. Reports are that her 11 year old sister was with her at the time, but that’s not been confirmed. Folks, if there’s ever any reason why you should be watching your kids – whatever their age – this is it. Not every child/teenager is savvy enough to recognize that a cruise ship can be a dangerous place. Unsupervised kids can be a danger to other passengers and crew members and also to themselves.

Why get hot under the collar about this issue? Here you go.

[TexasMom2]

I'm really getting tired of those of you that have just started cruising Princess telling us to go elsewhere. We were happy with the product and apparently you are not, so I would suggest you go elsewhere.

 

I do believe Kara should have returned the call and answered the OP's questions. It is very rude not to return calls and then be mad when someone goes to your superior.

 

Do parents pay extra(above cruise price) for the children's and teen center? If not, not much to complain about. Ever hear of a Nanny? I pay full fare too, and don't get to use the teen center(games). And the adult only pools seem to get young ones in them and Princess doesn't enforce the rules. Princess could make more money off more bar areas instead of teen/children areas.

I say Princess ought to start doing some adult only cruises on diff. itinerary's and ships and see which makes more money. When there are less children around the pool area, and decks, I spend more time there and buy more drinks. I wonder if it is that way with other adults.

 

That being said, I have been on cruises where the kids should be thrown overboard, and some cruises where the kids were a joy to be with. On the Tahitian in Oct. There were only two, a little girl(which we only saw a few times) and a little boy(would have loved to take him home). Both sets of parents made sure they were always with the children.

 

Maybe a land vacation, that has baby sitters or a cruise that has baby sitters are a good choice. I'm sure they charge extra for that at resorts.

 

Now I'll get off my soap box.

 

And my hats off to the parents that actually enjoy doing things with their children, and not pawning them off on others, and bringing them up with manners and teaching them right from wrong, and to follow the rules.

 

I wasn't telling Princess fans to "go elsewhere", only folks who have kid allergies. Let's face it, Princess wants families to cruise - that's where the money is. There won't be a ship out there without some number of kids on board. Marketing an adults only cruise might be a good idea, but it seems Princess (or another line, or several lines) would have done it by now if it were profitable. Maybe a good comparison would be the no-smoking ship, Carnival Pride, that fizzled out. I wondered why, when there are tons of non-smokers out there who cruise and would seemingly sell out the ship week after week.

 

This thread has morphed from a piece of advice (genuine, I believe) to parents that evening activities for kids on a particular ship are lacking, to a debate between cruisers who bring their kids and cruisers who don't like kids. If Princess markets their kids program as best in class, at least some of this discussion might bring to their attention that it's not and improvements could be made, maybe at least choices for kids in the evening. And I'm not talking for 5-6 hours, sometimes parents just need an hour or so for a show, or lounge act, or just stargazing. Like what they read about in the brochures.

[Host CJSKIDS]

:eek: Wow!

 

I only said that as they posted the same thing 3 times and I found the post very negative to the OP who posted how unhappy they were with the kid's programs and then gets slammed for their choice of Princess and is repeatedly told to cruise Disney. A lot of the advertising that I see is now showing Princess as a family cruise contrary to what a lot of posters here like. Princess may have been at one point a cruise line that wasn't for families but it is now and there's nothing wrong with expecting programs for all ages. Having nothing but movies showing every single night is extremely lazy in my opinion. If you're not going to do it properly then don't market your cruise line as having kid's clubs!

[Host CJSKIDS]

Cruise News Daily (www.cruisenewsdaily.com) just reported today that a 15 year old girl has gone missing from a Costa ship and it’s presumed that she’s gone overboard off the coast of Cozumel. Reports are that her 11 year old sister was with her at the time, but that’s not been confirmed. Folks, if there’s ever any reason why you should be watching your kids – whatever their age – this is it. Not every child/teenager is savvy enough to recognize that a cruise ship can be a dangerous place. Unsupervised kids can be a danger to other passengers and crew members and also to themselves.

Why get hot under the collar about this issue? Here you go.

 

There's a difference between getting hot under the collar about the issue of watching your children on the cruise who are running around without supervision and having your children ages 8 to 12 checked into the kid's club for the evening which is exactly what the OP was about. Maybe if something more was offered besides watching a movie every night it would have given the kids something more to do!

[bdjam]

Princess may have been at one point a cruise line that wasn't for families but it is now and there's nothing wrong with expecting programs for all ages.

I don’t disagree that Princess is marketing to families on the 7-day Caribbean runs, especially where they are competing with RCI. I disagree that this is the same for all of their itineraries and the Coral Princess itinerary the original poster was on is one of those exceptions.

Having nothing but movies showing every single night is extremely lazy in my opinion. If you're not going to do it properly then don't market your cruise line as having kid's clubs!

If you feel that Princess’ kid programs are lazy or lacking, then there are other cruise lines out there which might suit you better. Just because some people feel that movies in the kids clubs at night is improper doesn’t mean the cruise line does. The movie was in the kid’s club and if Princess markets they have a kid’s club, I’m not sure what is improper about that.

Maybe if something more was offered besides watching a movie every night it would have given the kids something more to do!

Is there marketing material that indicates what Princess presents on Coral Princess at night for kids? If not, then the original poster was assuming something that may or may not have been true. If the kids are not interested in what is being offered in the kids clubs, then it is – according to the written documents handed out at the beginning of a Princess cruise – up to the parents to supervise them. I don’t see how it’s the cruise line’s fault if the kids are bored and the parents don’t supervise them.

The original poster on this thread expected Princess to “entertain” their kids – I believe that was the word that was used. Princess indicated that they were programming according to what they thought the kids would want – a quiet evening because they were tired. The original poster didn’t agree with that and expected the Youth Counselor to change the program to suit his or her kids. What’s to say the majority of the kids on board weren’t happy with what was being offered?

In any case, according to the guidelines that Princess presents, kids are not supposed to be unsupervised when on board.

[margaritawoman]

We have cruised for 20 years. We love it, but we never took our children until they were in their teens. I do not feel a cruise is a vacation for small children. I know many will disagree but this is my opinion. I never understand why people feel their children should be completely happy with every experience they have. If this had been my vacation I would have decided that the childrens experience on Princess wasn't for my family and next time choose another cruiseline. I would have told my children we had a great family vacation. Next time we cruise maybe the childrens program will be more to your liking. Children need to learn that things in life are not perfect and don't always go their way. As for what Princess was offering for children in that age group at night, I would have had on problem with the movie nights. My husband and our best friends (we always cruise together) will be on the Coral 3/4/2006. We are looking forward to it.