First time on P and O Brittania advice on kids in the evening!

[m011d402]

Hi Everyone

 

Booked our first cruise with P and O this December on Brittania. It’s a minefield learning all the various things you need to know! One question I’m struggling with;

 

We have a three year old and 14 year old. I’m no sure the younger one will always be keen to go in the kids club in the evening. We don’t want to be stuck in our cabin as that’s not much of an evening. Therefore I’m wondering are kids allowed in the bars/entertainment? Specifically I have seen a venue called Live Lounge which seems to have singers/bands on. They would happily sit watching that or an iPad while we enjoyed an evening. Is this allowed?

 

Not talking about every night but it would be nice of an evening to all relax watch some music singers etc with them sat (well behaved!),

 

Any help greatly appreciated or indeed any other advice for a cruise with kids!? I’m guessing on New Year’s Eve they have a party on the deck somewhere so all welcome?

 

Best wishes

 

David

[AndyMichelle]

Britannia is very much a family friendly ship, as the Captain kept reminding us on our last trip. 

Kids are a constant in the Live Lounge, Brodies etc, but there may be some rule of not being allowed on the dance floor after 9.30?

From our perspective, on our last cruise, kids were given far too much freedom with toddlers pulling over equipment on the stage and being allowed to sit on the bar in Brodies playing bingo gone 10pm, amongst various other things. We even found a young girl about 5-6 going up and down in the lifts gone midnight looking for her parents... 

We love seeing kids enjoy themselves, but there has to be some parental responsibility. 

The simple fact you are asking these questions in advance shows you are not that type of parent, so thank you for showing other passengers some respect. 

I hope you have a fantastic time, I'm sure you will. 

Andy 

[Warrior85]

Our two, aged 3 and 6 would sooner stay in the kids club, we have to ration their time in there 😄 There's no issues around them being in the bars, we took them to the silent disco and they loved it. I think they're OK on the dance floor during performances as long as they're with somebody, and keeping clear of the stage.

 

We did new year on the maiden voyage of Arvia and New Year's Even was amazing, big disco around the pool with dancers in costumes designed by the Masked Singer designers apparently.

 

If you're on board during school holidays they should have a kids entertainer doing family shows and a panto.

 

We've done all the family ships in the last 18 months (except Azura, ticking that one off next month!) and haven't got a bad word to say about our experiences, the kids club staff are great, from what we've heard the young teens seem to enjoy their club - nobody is forced to take part in yhe organised activities, they can just go and hang out.

 

They have a kids tea each evening, and the kids menu is available in the main dining rooms.

 

What ever you/they choose to do I'm sure you'll all have a great time.

[CaptainPedantic]

Is there still a night nursery available for the under 5s?

When our kids were little (a long time ago!), we were able to regularly make use of this excellent facility and enjoy our evenings safe in the knowledge that they were being well looked after, and we could easily be contacted by pager if needed.

[Warrior85]

2 hours ago, CaptainPedantic said:

Is there still a night nursery available for the under 5s?

When our kids were little (a long time ago!), we were able to regularly make use of this excellent facility and enjoy our evenings safe in the knowledge that they were being well looked after, and we could easily be contacted by pager if needed.

Yes that's still going, it was great when our youngest wasn't quite old enough to be left in kids club. Her timing wasn't great though, the amount of times we were paged just as the show was starting!

[lebreos]

My boy last cruise aged 8 in august - loves the kids clubs, they have their own food slot at 5pm to 6pm - the only time buffet is closed to all other guests for food. then can go back into kids club until 1045pm. 4? or under can be transferred to night nursery until 1am but you have to book it each night. so we used to transfer him at relevant time into there then pick him up after last show ended having done a second sitting for food. different with freedom dining now.. lately if we are seeing a late show we would pick him up and take him into the theatre where he would enjoy or fall asleep..or to other show venue.

they generally put films on for them in the evening to watch as a group on bean bags etc for lower age groups. 

[Cloudyrain]

My son has always been a bit hit and miss with kids club, and never slept in the night nursery. 
 

we tend to take him for dinner with us in the MDR and request early dining. We then go to bars with music on and sit at the back where he can dance along to the music, or play on his iPad etc. we also take him in to the theatre with some ear defenders occasionally, but usually go in and stand at the back, or get seats right at the back at the end so we can easily leave if he causes a disturbance.

 

on the Britannia specifically we often sat in a bar in the atrium area so we could enjoy the music/atmosphere etc, and he could play his games/colouring etc. 
 

I also found a buggy with a hood and snuz shade worked best for us in evenings as it meant we could go where we wanted and our son could either be snuggled up watching something or even occasionally fall asleep.