Camp Discovery Kids Club Review

[SuzieQ521]

I plan to do an overall detailed review of our Alaska Royal Princess sailing last week but I wanted to do a separate post on the kids club which I was blown away about. It is my understanding that all the camp discovery kids clubs on each specific ship are similar (maybe some variations depending on itinerary such as Alaska).

 

Prior to our cruise, I had tried to do some research about the kids club (specifically the Treehouse level as my son is 4.5 years old) but didn't really get a feel of what it was like. This past January we had sailed on NCL so I had that to compare it to. My son did not care very much for NCL's kids club (he wanted to leave often) and they did not seem to have any structured activities. Princess's kids' club is a world of difference.

 

First off--I really appreciated how were were always given pagers in case they needed to reach us, unlike NCL who would only ask what deck we would be on and then would leave a voicemail in our room (that I did not hear until hours later). Princess also requested that the child keep the Medallion with them which is another way to track them (young kids can keep it by their shoes in the cubby).

 

Then the activities! They had so many themed and structured activities everyday! We literally could have filled a suitcase with all the stuff my son brought home--on cowboy night, he decorated a cowboy hat, on pirate night he received a pirate hat, eye patch and other goodies and got face painted to look like a pirate, he also received various stuffed animals; there was also pajama party night, Olympic game night, under the sea night and on Glacier Bay day-- they had a Park Ranger come and the kids all received junior ranger pins and certificates. For the treehouse level (ages 3-7), they also had a fun jungle gym, Mario Kart, legos and other play areas/games. The second age range (8-12) had lots of fun stuff too and the teens had movies and videogames.

 

The camp counselors were great; my son was there for the morning, afternoon and evening sessions (he kept asking to go!). They are even open during Port times (but you have to sign up for that part the day before) although we never utilized that.

 

Overall, I was so impressed by the kids club and my son still says how much he misses it and the friends he made there.

Edited May 30, 2023 by SuzieQ521

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

Thank you for this

 

my daughter is 10 so a different group to your little one, but it’s fantastic to hear how much your child enjoyed it.

 

if they can get the younger ones engaged, & have so much going on, I’m more confident that her age group will be enjoyable for her too & overall the kids programmes are well thought out.

 

I’ll see if I can get my daughter to write a review after our holiday. Beware Princess- she won’t hold back 😂 

[Kay S]

Mine always loved the kids' clubs.  We had to drag them out.

[Amy G]

Our 11-year-old daughter LOVED the kid's program this past April.  She never wanted to do it before, but on this cruise she fell in love and always wanted to be there.  And yes, she made so many awesome things!

[nattie]

My DS went through all the levels of Princess's Camp Discovery (and whatever it was named before) from about 3 in earliest years to being in the teen lounge on our last 2 sailings. I was ALWAYS impressed by the stuff, activities and level of care kids received at the Club. When DS was very young (2) and couldnt go to the club yet I remember chatting with some counselors in the Princess Cays club facility (you can use the facility with kiddy pool and playstructure as long as you stay with your kid) and they said that Princess hired only people with degrees in early childhood education to work in the kids club. Not sure if this is true 12 years later, but our experience with Camp Discovery and it predecessor has always been great.

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

3 hours ago, Amy G said:

Our 11-year-old daughter LOVED the kid's program this past April.  She never wanted to do it before, but on this cruise she fell in love and always wanted to be there.  And yes, she made so many awesome things!

Almost the same age as my daughter 😃
We’re off on our first Princess Cruise in August.

We were a little nervous about it & hoped she’d enjoy it. 

She’ll be excited to hear that other kids her age really enjoy it, thank you

[jlacy1987]

Thank you for this review! We took my daughter (almost 3.5 years old) on her first cruise a few weeks before Christmas on NCL. She wasn't yet 3 when we were on that cruise. I was really disappointed that NCL did not have anything for kids ages 2-3. There was a tiny, closet sized room for kids under the age of 3 (where parents stay with the kids) but we glanced in one day and it was obviously geared towards babies not toddlers. I knew ahead of time that she wouldn't be able to use the regular kids club since she wasn't 3, but it was still disappointing just how underwhelming the room was for kids under 3.

 

I am so excited for our upcoming Princess cruise because I can see how great their kids room will be and that she is now old enough to partake in the activities. 

[SuzieQ521]

1 hour ago, jlacy1987 said:

Thank you for this review! We took my daughter (almost 3.5 years old) on her first cruise a few weeks before Christmas on NCL. She wasn't yet 3 when we were on that cruise. I was really disappointed that NCL did not have anything for kids ages 2-3. There was a tiny, closet sized room for kids under the age of 3 (where parents stay with the kids) but we glanced in one day and it was obviously geared towards babies not toddlers. I knew ahead of time that she wouldn't be able to use the regular kids club since she wasn't 3, but it was still disappointing just how underwhelming the room was for kids under 3.

 

I am so excited for our upcoming Princess cruise because I can see how great their kids room will be and that she is now old enough to partake in the activities. 

 

She will have so much fun! The Treehouse group (ages 3-7) is such a blast and they have so many fun activities. FYI--they do require potty training. (One of the moms was saying that her daughter went #2 and they paged her to come help her take care of business 😆).

[SuzieQ521]

13 hours ago, JG&Lcruisingnewbies said:

Thank you for this

 

my daughter is 10 so a different group to your little one, but it’s fantastic to hear how much your child enjoyed it.

 

if they can get the younger ones engaged, & have so much going on, I’m more confident that her age group will be enjoyable for her too & overall the kids programmes are well thought out.

 

I’ll see if I can get my daughter to write a review after our holiday. Beware Princess- she won’t hold back 😂 

 

The 8-12 room looked like a lot of fun too...they had a skeeball and air hockey machines,  lots of games plus similar structured programming.

[jlacy1987]

2 minutes ago, SuzieQ521 said:

 

She will have so much fun! The Treehouse group (ages 3-7) is such a blast and they have so many fun activities. FYI--they do require potty training. (One of the moms was saying that her daughter went #2 and they paged her to come help her take care of business 😆).

Yes our daughter is potty trained thankfully! 

[Crusin'T]

I'm so happy to read this review - thank you! We are taking our soon-to-be 4 year old in October and am really hoping she will enjoy this!

[Mud_Shark]

Yes, good info TY!  We are going with our grand kids (and their parents) next March.  Oldest will be five, and she loves preschool so this sounds right up her alley.  Unfortunately the twins will be 3 months shy of their 3rd birthday, so there will be some jealousy to deal with.

[SuzieQ521]

FYI--these are just some of the items we brought back from the kids club!

[Kay S]

1 hour ago, Mud_Shark said:

Yes, good info TY!  We are going with our grand kids (and their parents) next March.  Oldest will be five, and she loves preschool so this sounds right up her alley.  Unfortunately the twins will be 3 months shy of their 3rd birthday, so there will be some jealousy to deal with.

We took twins from what used to be Pelicans right up through Beach House, which will be their last year in kids' club.  I think they are a little sad about it (but teenagers won't tell you that.)  Our youngest grandchild was a week from turning 3 on one cruise, but they let us take her in the club if we sat with her.  I don't know if they would still do that. It was a long time ago (Old Princess).

[Redwing55]

I'm older but for some reason I enjoy reading how Princess deals with the children.  So many times one hears to go with RCL, etc due to all the amusements.  I suspect Princess just goes old school and does it top shelf.  It seems more people focused than attraction focused.  And, FWIW, for some of the age groups, likely more mentally stimulating.  I do wonder how the teens feel though.

 

Thanks for taking the time sharing your experiences (other poster too!)

[nattie]

11 hours ago, Redwing55 said:

I'm older but for some reason I enjoy reading how Princess deals with the children.  So many times one hears to go with RCL, etc due to all the amusements.  I suspect Princess just goes old school and does it top shelf.  It seems more people focused than attraction focused.  And, FWIW, for some of the age groups, likely more mentally stimulating.  I do wonder how the teens feel though.

 

Thanks for taking the time sharing your experiences (other poster too!)

On our last cruise we took a buddy for my 14 yo, so we had 14 and 15 yo in Caribbean in April. One of the best cruises! Teens had a TON of fun and we actually got so much R&R. They spent a lot of time in teen lounge just hanging with friends they made and the rest of the time was divided between pool, sports court and various food joints. 

[GK95]

I have a 14 yr old and we sailed on Sky Princess earlier this year. She LOVED the kid’s club. I was shocked how much time she spent there. Teens club was open til 1am and although we didn’t allow her to stay that long, we let her come back to the cabin at 11pm which gave my husband and I time to relax at a bar or catch a movie by the pool. The staff was great too. 

[SuzieQ521]

23 hours ago, Redwing55 said:

I'm older but for some reason I enjoy reading how Princess deals with the children.  So many times one hears to go with RCL, etc due to all the amusements.  I suspect Princess just goes old school and does it top shelf.  It seems more people focused than attraction focused.  And, FWIW, for some of the age groups, likely more mentally stimulating.  I do wonder how the teens feel though.

 

Thanks for taking the time sharing your experiences (other poster too!)

We did NCL Bliss in January…although it was a beautiful ship with many features, with the exception of the cool water slide, you have to pay for the other fun things, such as the go carts, laser tag, and arcade. Might be fun for teens but at a big cost.

 

From what I saw from the Princess Teen club, it looked like it was fun for the teens. There’s also a big basketball court and mini golf on Royal Princess.

l 

[Crusin'T]

On 5/30/2023 at 2:33 PM, SuzieQ521 said:

FYI--these are just some of the items we brought back from the kids club!

So fun! My little one would love this!!

[thanosmano]

On 5/29/2023 at 9:58 PM, SuzieQ521 said:

I plan to do an overall detailed review of our Alaska Royal Princess sailing last week but I wanted to do a separate post on the kids club which I was blown away about. It is my understanding that all the camp discovery kids clubs on each specific ship are similar (maybe some variations depending on itinerary such as Alaska).

 

Prior to our cruise, I had tried to do some research about the kids club (specifically the Treehouse level as my son is 4.5 years old) but didn't really get a feel of what it was like. This past January we had sailed on NCL so I had that to compare it to. My son did not care very much for NCL's kids club (he wanted to leave often) and they did not seem to have any structured activities. Princess's kids' club is a world of difference.

 

First off--I really appreciated how were were always given pagers in case they needed to reach us, unlike NCL who would only ask what deck we would be on and then would leave a voicemail in our room (that I did not hear until hours later). Princess also requested that the child keep the Medallion with them which is another way to track them (young kids can keep it by their shoes in the cubby).

 

Then the activities! They had so many themed and structured activities everyday! We literally could have filled a suitcase with all the stuff my son brought home--on cowboy night, he decorated a cowboy hat, on pirate night he received a pirate hat, eye patch and other goodies and got face painted to look like a pirate, he also received various stuffed animals; there was also pajama party night, Olympic game night, under the sea night and on Glacier Bay day-- they had a Park Ranger come and the kids all received junior ranger pins and certificates. For the treehouse level (ages 3-7), they also had a fun jungle gym, Mario Kart, legos and other play areas/games. The second age range (8-12) had lots of fun stuff too and the teens had movies and videogames.

 

The camp counselors were great; my son was there for the morning, afternoon and evening sessions (he kept asking to go!). They are even open during Port times (but you have to sign up for that part the day before) although we never utilized that.

 

Overall, I was so impressed by the kids club and my son still says how much he misses it and the friends he made there.

Hi Suzy, thank you for sharing your family's experience! I'm researching for my nephew who will be sailing with us next year in March (he will be 3.5 then). I have been running all kinds of keywords and I just came seem to find concrete answers to these basic questions about Camp Discovery (specifically Tree House).

1) In order to use the facilities and participate in the activities (supervised by parents or not) you have to sign up right? Is there a capacity cut-off is that why?

2) Are parents allowed to accompany their 3+ toddlers the entire time? I know the fine print says parents must accompany children 2 and under but unsure of what happens if you want to hang out with your 3+ year old.

3) I see a fee schedule for how much it costs by the hour, is this the same as dropping your child off at Camp Discovery or is it a whole separate babysitting service that runs alongside it?

Let me know, thank you!
 

Edited April 20 by thanosmano

[NavyVeteran]

21 hours ago, thanosmano said:

Hi Suzy, thank you for sharing your family's experience! I'm researching for my nephew who will be sailing with us next year in March (he will be 3.5 then). I have been running all kinds of keywords and I just came seem to find concrete answers to these basic questions about Camp Discovery (specifically Tree House).

1) In order to use the facilities and participate in the activities (supervised by parents or not) you have to sign up right? Is there a capacity cut-off is that why?

2) Are parents allowed to accompany their 3+ toddlers the entire time? I know the fine print says parents must accompany children 2 and under but unsure of what happens if you want to hang out with your 3+ year old.

3) I see a fee schedule for how much it costs by the hour, is this the same as dropping your child off at Camp Discovery or is it a whole separate babysitting service that runs alongside it?

Let me know, thank you!
 

I don't have personal experience, but your questions are answered in Cruising with Family & Kids FAQ. The FAQ specifically answers your questions in the following sections:

1) "How do I register my child for the youth program?"

2) "Can adults visit the youth centers?"

3) "Seeking a Babysitter?"

[jeromep]

21 hours ago, thanosmano said:

Hi Suzy, thank you for sharing your family's experience! I'm researching for my nephew who will be sailing with us next year in March (he will be 3.5 then). I have been running all kinds of keywords and I just came seem to find concrete answers to these basic questions about Camp Discovery (specifically Tree House).

1) In order to use the facilities and participate in the activities (supervised by parents or not) you have to sign up right? Is there a capacity cut-off is that why?

2) Are parents allowed to accompany their 3+ toddlers the entire time? I know the fine print says parents must accompany children 2 and under but unsure of what happens if you want to hang out with your 3+ year old.

3) I see a fee schedule for how much it costs by the hour, is this the same as dropping your child off at Camp Discovery or is it a whole separate babysitting service that runs alongside it?

Let me know, thank you!
 

1.  You do have to sign up.  I've done so through their web site for all my cruises with children.  Once we get on board we visit the kids club with our daughter.  There is some obligatory checking of boxes and ensuring that our chosen check in/out choices are correct and we are on our way.  The kids club puts a numbered sticker on the bottom of your child's medallion.  This is their number that links to the records in the kids club.  At our daughter's age, our policy is that she can check her self into the kids club, but we have to check her out.  The idea is that if she gets lost or looses track of us on board, she can go to the kids club, check in, be someplace safe, ask the staff to try to contact us or locate us.  When she is older we might allow both check in and out privileges, but not yet.  I'm not aware of any limits.  Princess knows how many children are on board.  They seem to be able to staff accordingly.  In fact they know the age and sex of everyone that is on the manifest that boards the ship.  I'm not aware of their child to adult ratio, but from what I could tell they have plenty of staff to handle however many children are on board.

 

2.  I'm not aware of anything preventing you from being with your child during club open hours.  When our daughter was super young, we cruised with her when she was 22 months and at that time the cut off for children that young was 3 years and toilet trained, and anything younger than that they did not have any drop off services for those ages.  So, we never used the kids club.  The next cruise with our daughter, she was 8 and the kids club was drop off for her.  We'd drop her off, and she would have fun and then we'd pick her up after dinner or otherwise.

 

3.  The fee schedule is for after hours group babysitting, not for the kids club.  The kids club is included in your cruise fare.  The after hours babysitting is from 10pm to 1am and the kids clubs are closed at that time, but the fee based group babysitting occurs in the kids clubs.  It is the same staff that offers the babysitting that runs the kids clubs.

[thanosmano]

3 hours ago, jeromep said:

1.  You do have to sign up.  I've done so through their web site for all my cruises with children.  Once we get on board we visit the kids club with our daughter.  There is some obligatory checking of boxes and ensuring that our chosen check in/out choices are correct and we are on our way.  The kids club puts a numbered sticker on the bottom of your child's medallion.  This is their number that links to the records in the kids club.  At our daughter's age, our policy is that she can check her self into the kids club, but we have to check her out.  The idea is that if she gets lost or looses track of us on board, she can go to the kids club, check in, be someplace safe, ask the staff to try to contact us or locate us.  When she is older we might allow both check in and out privileges, but not yet.  I'm not aware of any limits.  Princess knows how many children are on board.  They seem to be able to staff accordingly.  In fact they know the age and sex of everyone that is on the manifest that boards the ship.  I'm not aware of their child to adult ratio, but from what I could tell they have plenty of staff to handle however many children are on board.

 

2.  I'm not aware of anything preventing you from being with your child during club open hours.  When our daughter was super young, we cruised with her when she was 22 months and at that time the cut off for children that young was 3 years and toilet trained, and anything younger than that they did not have any drop off services for those ages.  So, we never used the kids club.  The next cruise with our daughter, she was 8 and the kids club was drop off for her.  We'd drop her off, and she would have fun and then we'd pick her up after dinner or otherwise.

 

3.  The fee schedule is for after hours group babysitting, not for the kids club.  The kids club is included in your cruise fare.  The after hours babysitting is from 10pm to 1am and the kids clubs are closed at that time, but the fee based group babysitting occurs in the kids clubs.  It is the same staff that offers the babysitting that runs the kids clubs.

Thank you so much Jerome! I appreciate the thoroughness and detail you went in to answer my questions, especially clarifying the sitting fares and hours. These are all great news that I will share with my family, it's their first time cruising ever and I'm a single cruiser myself so I have never researched the operations of Camp Discovery. Thank you!

Edited April 21 by thanosmano

[Dani24]

We used the kid's club on Princess during our 2019 Alaska cruise. My daughter was 7 at the time, and at the top of the younger kid's age group. Her only other cruise prior was on Disney, so I was hesitant about how it would compare. I was also a little nervous about her being one of the oldest kids and potentially being surrounded by a bunch of really little kids that she couldn't befriend as well.

 

In the end, we were very pleased with Princess! My daughter had a blast in there. She even seemed to enjoy it more than the Disney kid's club (which was far too screen-heavy for our family's tastes). She made a few friends, including one that we spent a little time with on an excursion (that both of our families had happened to book) and at a family activity in the Piazza. 

 

Like the poster above, our daughter came back with all kinds of crafts and a stuffy (which she still has 5 years later). She didn't spend a huge amount of time in the kids club (we like spending time with her, so it was maybe a couple of hours on sea days). And this picture is from our first full day onboard. I didn't get a picture of everything she had done/collected by the end of the cruise, but it was a lot even though I didn't feel like she spent a ton of time there! 😄

 

We're looking forward to our next cruise, where she'll be in the tween's room (though again at the top of the age range!)

[SuzieQ521]

On 4/19/2024 at 9:38 PM, thanosmano said:

Hi Suzy, thank you for sharing your family's experience! I'm researching for my nephew who will be sailing with us next year in March (he will be 3.5 then). I have been running all kinds of keywords and I just came seem to find concrete answers to these basic questions about Camp Discovery (specifically Tree House).

1) In order to use the facilities and participate in the activities (supervised by parents or not) you have to sign up right? Is there a capacity cut-off is that why? YES--You register your kids on the first day and each time you want to drop off your kids, you sign in (then out). They also hand you a pager. I assume there is a capacity cut off but it's also to keep track of the kids.

2) Are parents allowed to accompany their 3+ toddlers the entire time? I know the fine print says parents must accompany children 2 and under but unsure of what happens if you want to hang out with your 3+ year old. NO--parents are not allowed to stay (unless they have changed things recently). The Kids club starts at age 3 and they are dropped off.

3) I see a fee schedule for how much it costs by the hour, is this the same as dropping your child off at Camp Discovery or is it a whole separate babysitting service that runs alongside it? You are only charged for the baby sitting services after 10 p.m. NO charge for regular kids club. 

 

Hope that helps!

Let me know, thank you!
 

 

Edited April 24 by SuzieQ521