Almost afraid to ask.. but how are the kids clubs these days?

[jstuartys]

Hi.  This may not be a popular question and I hope we can keep the behavior bashing to the other thread... 

 

But, how are the kids clubs looking these days?  Are they still limited capacity with first come, first serve signups, or is it a little more open season now?  We are on the Harmony in 2 weeks.

 

In Dec, we weren't able to get much club time for the kids on the Mariner, so even though it's summer, I am hopeful we can get a little more parental freedom this round.  

Edited June 15, 2022 by jstuartys
typo

[smokeybandit]

They're pretty much back to normal.  Just if your kid has a regular cold or any allergies, make sure they are medicated since the staff gets antsy for any symptoms of anything (not really their fault of course)

[Bizaro86]

3 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

They're pretty much back to normal.  Just if your kid has a regular cold or any allergies, make sure they are medicated since the staff gets antsy for any symptoms of anything (not really their fault of course)

 

If your kid has a regular cold don't send them to the kids club.

[smokeybandit]

1 minute ago, Bizaro86 said:

 

If your kid has a regular cold don't send them to the kids club.

They threatened to call medical because my son had a headache. A headache because he doesn't drink anything all day on a cruise. We forced him to stay hydrated the next day and he had no issues the rest of the cruise.

[jstuartys]

Thanks!   Definitely hoping our kids stay cold/allergy free.  

[sandy toes]

Just back from a 9N on Sat. Our 11 yr old was at near the top age for her group. They only allowed 30 kids in her section and the 5 yr old only had 15 allowed. We will be back the end of July and plan to bring lots to do for her to keep herself active IF she can't get in. There are lot of activities around ship but I do not believe parents should be entering their 5 and 7 yr olds, as evidenced by the crying of 2 little girls when they didn't get high points and move on in a basketball game and then another day on corn hole. These were BOTH clearly adult activities. Both times parents had their kids first in line at sign up. I understand the crew member trying to keep the peace but it really didn't make for much happiness, even bending the rules, the kids just cannot compete with grown athletic guests. The flip to that was the parents that just told their kids it was OK to run around ship in their little packs. I am NOT trying to tick anyone off. Just making observations from our recent cruise.  

[broadwaybaby123]

My niece and I will be able to show you in 2 weeks.  She's co-hosting my YouTube channel with me and we're taking folks on virtual cruises.  She's my Special Reporter for the Kids Club.

[megsterl]

2 hours ago, broadwaybaby123 said:

My niece and I will be able to show you in 2 weeks.  She's co-hosting my YouTube channel with me and we're taking folks on virtual cruises.  She's my Special Reporter for the Kids Club.

How do we follow?  

[kitkat343]

6 hours ago, sandy toes said:

Just back from a 9N on Sat. Our 11 yr old was at near the top age for her group. They only allowed 30 kids in her section and the 5 yr old only had 15 allowed. We will be back the end of July and plan to bring lots to do for her to keep herself active IF she can't get in. There are lot of activities around ship but I do not believe parents should be entering their 5 and 7 yr olds, as evidenced by the crying of 2 little girls when they didn't get high points and move on in a basketball game and then another day on corn hole. These were BOTH clearly adult activities. Both times parents had their kids first in line at sign up. I understand the crew member trying to keep the peace but it really didn't make for much happiness, even bending the rules, the kids just cannot compete with grown athletic guests. The flip to that was the parents that just told their kids it was OK to run around ship in their little packs. I am NOT trying to tick anyone off. Just making observations from our recent cruise.  

So do you sign up for a limited number of hours ahead of time, or is it first come, first serve and people are stuck waiting in line to get their children in?  Also, is the family time dining running and are they taking the kids from the dining room to the kids club?  

[Ashland]

18 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

So do you sign up for a limited number of hours ahead of time, or is it first come, first serve and people are stuck waiting in line to get their children in?  Also, is the family time dining running and are they taking the kids from the dining room to the kids club?  

No family dining.

[broadwaybaby123]

8 hours ago, megsterl said:

How do we follow?  

It's on YouTube, the channel is CruisingWithKristen but it's got no videos yet. I haven't finished editing from my last cruise (where my niece didn't come) and this cruise hasn't happened yet (she'll be helping me on this one).

[ChristyLNDRN]

Currently on Harmony (just docked in St Thomas).  My kids are tweens/teens but my brother’s two kids ( 6 and 8) have  been using the kids club multiple times a day and LOVING it.  They keep begging to go back and don’t want to leave when he picks them up.  He has had no problems dropping them off whenever it is open. 

[kitkat343]

8 hours ago, ChristyLNDRN said:

Currently on Harmony (just docked in St Thomas).  My kids are tweens/teens but my brother’s two kids ( 6 and 😎 have  been using the kids club multiple times a day and LOVING it.  They keep begging to go back and don’t want to leave when he picks them up.  He has had no problems dropping them off whenever it is open. 

Can you ask your brother to ask the kids club how many children are on board?  I'm just trying to get a sense of whether we will be able to use the kids club for our cruise in August. 

[Ashland]

You can never know how many kids they'll be from one week to the next. The week before us mid April had 1100 our cruise the next week had 400.

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, Ashland said:

You can never know how many kids they'll be from one week to the next. The week before us mid April had 1100 our cruise the next week had 400.

 And even knowing the kids on board, you never know how many kids will go to kids club.  

[Jhousley]

We were on Harmony last week and had an 8, 10, and 14 yr old.   The 8yr old group was usually pretty good and quiet, the 10yo group was always very loud, and we rarely saw our teen.   The 10yo had lots of issues with one particular mean girl in her group who was hateful and making racist comments to other kids.   We complained to the staff and to guest services and that girl was finally moved down on one of the last days after a few more incidents.   My 8 yo wasn't too fond of his group and liked it better when he got to move up to be with his sister.   There were easily well over 30 kids in each of the rooms. To my wife who is an educator, she didn't like the way the rooms were run and even I could tell they didn't seem to have a good handle on the kids and just let them get too rowdy with not enough discipline. 

They are open for 3hrs at a time (seems like 9-12, 2-5, 7-10, then late night for a fee) which always seemed to be at times that didn't mesh with when we wanted to drop the kids off and we were either waiting for them to open or having to go back relatively quickly to pick them up so there didn't end up being enough alone time to really matter.  

In the end we weren't very impressed with the younger kids clubs - the teen had a blast though.

 

Ymmv.  Enjoy your cruise, we really liked the boat and itinerary for our first cruise on RC.

 

[Ashland]

2 hours ago, Jhousley said:

We were on Harmony last week and had an 8, 10, and 14 yr old.   The 8yr old group was usually pretty good and quiet, the 10yo group was always very loud, and we rarely saw our teen.   The 10yo had lots of issues with one particular mean girl in her group who was hateful and making racist comments to other kids.   We complained to the staff and to guest services and that girl was finally moved down on one of the last days after a few more incidents.   My 8 yo wasn't too fond of his group and liked it better when he got to move up to be with his sister.   There were easily well over 30 kids in each of the rooms. To my wife who is an educator, she didn't like the way the rooms were run and even I could tell they didn't seem to have a good handle on the kids and just let them get too rowdy with not enough discipline. 

They are open for 3hrs at a time (seems like 9-12, 2-5, 7-10, then late night for a fee) which always seemed to be at times that didn't mesh with when we wanted to drop the kids off and we were either waiting for them to open or having to go back relatively quickly to pick them up so there didn't end up being enough alone time to really matter.  

In the end we weren't very impressed with the younger kids clubs - the teen had a blast though.

 

Ymmv.  Enjoy your cruise, we really liked the boat and itinerary for our first cruise on RC.

 

What do you mean the "mean" girl was moved down?? She should have not been allowed to attend AO at all with this behavior. 

[HalfWhit]

I'm taking my two grandsons in August. They are 8 and 9. Can they be in the same club? I see the cut off is 8 for one group. They really want to hang out together. 

[jstuartys]

On 6/18/2022 at 12:06 AM, Jhousley said:

We were on Harmony last week and had an 8, 10, and 14 yr old.   The 8yr old group was usually pretty good and quiet, the 10yo group was always very loud, and we rarely saw our teen.   The 10yo had lots of issues with one particular mean girl in her group who was hateful and making racist comments to other kids.   We complained to the staff and to guest services and that girl was finally moved down on one of the last days after a few more incidents.   My 8 yo wasn't too fond of his group and liked it better when he got to move up to be with his sister.   There were easily well over 30 kids in each of the rooms. To my wife who is an educator, she didn't like the way the rooms were run and even I could tell they didn't seem to have a good handle on the kids and just let them get too rowdy with not enough discipline. 

They are open for 3hrs at a time (seems like 9-12, 2-5, 7-10, then late night for a fee) which always seemed to be at times that didn't mesh with when we wanted to drop the kids off and we were either waiting for them to open or having to go back relatively quickly to pick them up so there didn't end up being enough alone time to really matter.  

In the end we weren't very impressed with the younger kids clubs - the teen had a blast though.

 

Ymmv.  Enjoy your cruise, we really liked the boat and itinerary for our first cruise on RC.

 

Great first hand issue. Thank you!

[kitkat343]

15 minutes ago, HalfWhit said:

I'm taking my two grandsons in August. They are 8 and 9. Can they be in the same club? I see the cut off is 8 for one group. They really want to hang out together. 

It's possible, but there's no guarantee.  Your best bet is to very politely and quietly ask when there are few people around, offering to either move the eight year old up or the 9 year old down (as a general rule cruise ships are more likely to agree to move children down than up, but depending on the numbers breakdown on your sailing they may have more flexibility the other way - Disney blocks guests from booking when the have too many children in a certain age group because they don't want to turn anyone away from the kids club, but I don't think any of the other lines do that and therefore the number of children in certain kids club age groups might just get unbalanced occasionally) .  

 

August is tough because the kids clubs are usually quite full.  We've sailed during the school year when there are only 10-15 children on the whole ship, and on sailings with so few kids they combine all the ages into one group.  Unfortunately, they do tend to be stricter about age limits when the clubs are full because its harder to deal with any additional issues.  It really depends on the person you ask as to whether this accommodation will be granted, and if it is an absolute dealbreaker, then you need to sail a line that can accommodate this need (I think Disney has a wide range of ages in their kids clubs, although that isn't always great for the smallest kids who sometimes report being overwhelmed with the big kids).  It's sad to read reviews from people who went on family reunion cruises that were ruined because the cousins refused to go in separate  groups for the kids clubs and the parents were miserable because they didn't want to have to watch their kids on vacation.

Edited June 20, 2022 by kitkat343