Kids Club Royal Compared to Disney

[CleverUserNameHere]

We are looking at booking Anthem of the Seas post Thanksgiving cruise this year and will be taking our almost 4 year old. His first cruise was on Norwegian when he was 2, but our last two cruises have been with Disney. On our Norwegian cruise we kept him with us the whole time (basically parenting in a different location lol), but the last few cruises with Disney we have been letting him go to the nursery for a 1-2 hours at a time and he has always LOVED it and asks to go back. He is potty trained and was eligible for both the Oceaneers club and the nursery but since the age bracket for the Oceaneers club was 3-12 we felt safer leaving him in the nursery. My question is: how do the kids clubs/nursery work on Royal? We haven't sailed with Royal since our first cruise on Anthem back before we had our son in 2017 and obviously we didn't pay any attention to that portion of the cruise. Thanks in advance!

[Tapi]

My kids are now 13 and 11, but they’ve been cruising since they were toddlers. Their first experience with kids clubs was on Royal and their Royal Babies and Tots program. They’ve also experienced the kids clubs on Disney, MSC, Celebrity, Holland America, and Carnival.

 

Overall, they all use very similar check in and check out procedures as well as protocols and guidelines, with well trained and caring staff. They’re all divided by age groups. Some ships have better facilities than others (ranging from massive, multi venue facilities, to small rooms that almost look like an afterthought). Royal has excellent facilities, specially on their newer ships.
 

My kids have enjoyed some clubs much more than others but I’ve always felt comfortable about their safety no matter which line. Interestingly, Disney wasn’t one of their favorites due to the overwhelming number of kids in attendance (they’ve done better in smaller group settings like on Holland America, where they begged to attend every single day and where they actually forged some friendships that lasted long after the cruise was over). 
 

In my humble opinion, Disney and Carnival have too many kids in attendance, even with their expansive facilities. But overall, I don’t have any major complaints about the kids program on any of the lines we’ve sailed on. 
 

Now that they’re entering their pre-teen and teen years, they don’t care much about the kids programs anymore. On our last Royal cruise (Harmony of the Seas in June) both kids refused to attend the kids club because there were so many activities for them throughout the ship all day long. They were BUSY, and so were we. So enjoy the younger years when the kids actually want to attend the club and give you some kid-free breaks throughout the cruise. 😀 

Edited September 21, 2023 by Tapi

[CleverUserNameHere]

2 hours ago, Tapi said:

My kids are now 13 and 11, but they’ve been cruising since they were toddlers. Their first experience with kids clubs was on Royal and their Royal Babies and Tots program. They’ve also experienced the kids clubs on Disney, MSC, Celebrity, Holland America, and Carnival.

 

Overall, they all use very similar check in and check out procedures as well as protocols and guidelines, with well trained and caring staff. They’re all divided by age groups. Some ships have better facilities than others (ranging from massive, multi venue facilities, to small rooms that almost look like an afterthought). Royal has excellent facilities, specially on their newer ships.
 

My kids have enjoyed some clubs much more than others but I’ve always felt comfortable about their safety no matter which line. Interestingly, Disney wasn’t one of their favorites due to the overwhelming number of kids in attendance (they’ve done better in smaller group settings like on Holland America, where they begged to attend every single day and where they actually forged some friendships that lasted long after the cruise was over). 
 

In my humble opinion, Disney and Carnival have too many kids in attendance, even with their expansive facilities. But overall, I don’t have any major complaints about the kids program on any of the lines we’ve sailed on. 
 

Now that they’re entering their pre-teen and teen years, they don’t care much about the kids programs anymore. On our last Royal cruise (Harmony of the Seas in June) both kids refused to attend the kids club because there were so many activities for them throughout the ship all day long. They were BUSY, and so were we. So enjoy the younger years when the kids actually want to attend the club and give you some kid-free breaks throughout the cruise. 😀 

 

Thank you so much for your reply! This is good to hear. I can definitely understand about there being too many children on the Disney ship. We just got back from the wish and we went to open house hours at the kids club but it mostly looked like chaos in there which was why I was much more comfortable leaving him in the nursery. 

[ATLgirl15]

We just returned from Harmony with our almost 2 and almost 4 year old grandsons.  It’s our only experience with kids club but it was great.  The cut off for nursery vs kids club is 3 yo and potty trained.  So your child should be in the regular club. Our 4 year old loved it and couldn’t wait to go each day.  We only sent them in the evenings because we wanted to “play” with them in AM and afternoons were usually nap time for the little one.  Anyone over 3 is able to attend without reservations or for any amount of time they are open.  They close between 12-2 and 5-7 presumably so you can feed them except on port days they are open through lunch.  I heard but didn’t experience that you can sign them up for a kids club dinner on formal night between 5-7.  They are open until 1 am but there is a fee after 10. We never left them after 10 mainly because there is no sleeping option outside of the nursery.  I feel like that’s the one flaw with the program and they should have some mats for laying down at night.  But it seemed well run.  One day they made these silly paper crowns and our grandson wore it so proudly, even on the airplane home.  And then he wore it to school the next week to show his friends. I don’t know how it compares to Disney but all the kids seemed to be excited at drop off time.  As well as parents 🙂