I'm scared to book RCCL now!

[Luxuriate]

My husband and I had cruised quite a bit before we had our little boy. He is 2 1/2 now. We are planning to wait to cruise again until he is 4 and (hopefully... gulp) totally potty-trained.

 

We are big Celebrity cruisers. We thought that since RCCL is now a part of Celebrity that we would give them a chance as they seem to be focused more on the "family" crowd. After reading all about the "strike" system I am terrified.

 

I am terrified that my son will get too many strikes early on and won't be allowed back in. He has been in daycare since he was two months-old but I guess I expect the worst. Mostly, I'm terrified that my and my husband's vacation will be ruined because of an overly strict kids area rules.

 

Please don't flame me but when I am on vacation I expect to relax a bit and that includes being able to take my son to someone who will provide him with fun and a caring environment while I am not around. That is what I pay for. Know what I mean?

 

Should I switch my focus to Carnival? Frankly, I would like to cruise longer than 7 days so I'm not really hip on Carnival.

 

What do you all think?

 

Thanks, Cheryl

[crusinmama06]

He will be fine...I swear! And I am the one who posted about the strike system.....lol.

 

Gabriella was turning 3 the day before the cruise. So she was a YOUNG 3. We had a very NEW overzealous camp counselor.

 

If you have ANY problems...just go directly to the head of AO. And if that doesn't work then go to Guest Relations.

 

ALL of my stress stemmed from the fact that I had NO idea about the strike system. I had never seen it before we experienced it. So it threw me for a loop. And I read these boards all day long. ;)

 

If it happened again, I would NOW know what to do. And I plan on taking Gabriella on another RCCL cruise so if it didn't scare me it shouldn't scare you off. That's not what my intentions were. :(

 

It comes down to this...RCCL Adventure Ocean is VERY activity centered for the 3-5 group. They go from one activity to another every 15 -30 minutes. They pack alot into the sessions. And most of it is craft/science/theatre/storytime. And that requires alot of sitting time. THAT was Gabriella's downfall. She just needed more physical activity.

 

Now if she was in the older camp where my 7 year old was, then she would have had a blast cause that's all they did were non-stop physical

activities.

 

So it REALLY depends on YOUR child. If he attends preschool and is 4 at the time, then he will be able to sit for the planned activities.

 

And remember, although we got 2 strikes the first day...we got NONE the rest of the week after I had a little conversation with Guest Relations and the head of AO. :D

 

So I am blaming it all on the counselor NOT the program.

 

Please don't miss out on some great ships. We LOVED going on Freedom.

[Luxuriate]

I know I am probably worrying about this way too early...we are looking at probably January 2009...but I am a planner and reading about such a strict program really threw me for a loop!

 

I have to keep telling myself that my son will be a lot different in 1 1/2 years than he is now. It has been such a long time since my husband and I have had any real (lengthy) time together, so I find my self stressing over whether we will have good, fun, comforting, daycare available during "Mom and Dad's" vacation.

 

Thanks for any advice you can send me.

 

Cheryl

[alcheme]

Yeah. Don't worry about it. There were a couple stories in that thread of people who had problems with AO staff, but I think those are the exceptions rather than the rule. As I said before, my son had a blast on his RCCL cruises and we're going back next Feb. :)

 

I think you'd probably end up happy with either RCCL or Carnival, so I'd recommend looking at both and picking based on whatever is most important to you, whether that be the price, the ports, the ship, etc.

[Gocruzin]

Why not stick with Celebrity? They have a great kids program. DS and I loved it so much we are going with X again this Oct. after talking DH into it. DS never wanted to leave the FunFactory and they do not close midday like RCL does (as long as you feed your child lunch). As long as you aren't to relaxed and let your child run wildly Celebrity would be just fine.

[crusinmama06]

There's an update to my saga....RCCL corporate office called today. :eek:

 

They just wanted to talk to me. They received my letter. The situation will be addressed with the staff. And they had NEVER seen this type of situation from an AO counselor.

 

I'll keep you updated with any more.

 

But be assured....they are trying to correct the situation.

[Luxuriate]

Hmmm, maybe I will stick with Celebrity though. I saw some nasty posts from Celebrity snobs concerning kids that had me kind of worried.

[MellowMel]

I truly believe the bad experiences are few and far between. My kids have done AO twice on two different ships and the strike system was a non-issue. We'll continue to take them on RCI and I won't give the system a second thought! RCI wants families to enjoy themselves so they'll resolve issues that are brought to their attention, as evident with Michelle's experience.

[rebeccalouise]

I have done mostly Celebrity and just got off the Radiance. My son, age 6, has been on 12 cruises (NCL,CArnival,Disney,Princess also) and I prefer Celebrity to all of the lines. The Fun Factory blows away all the others. The counselors are great. The kids are well-behaved and I have used it on three different Celebrity ships (Galaxy, Millenium and Constellation).

 

Radiance of the Seas was nice but I am sticking with Celebrity. Just had a better time on those cruises.

[lagbunch8]

My husband and I had cruised quite a bit before we had our little boy. He is 2 1/2 now. We are planning to wait to cruise again until he is 4 and (hopefully... gulp) totally potty-trained.

 

We are big Celebrity cruisers.

 

Thanks, Cheryl

 

If you are big Celebrity cruisers than I would stick with RCCL for your family cruise. I don't think you would be happy with Carnival.

 

All three of my boys were 4+ before being completely potty trained but, with my twins the cruise helped. "You can't go on the Mickey Mouse ship if you don't poop in the potty" Worked wonders!!:)

 

Please don't alter your plans or be terrified by one post on a message board. The OP even said that she had sailed RCCL before with no problems. It seems more like an isolated incident than the rule for RCCL. Happy Cruising!

 

Mary

[Luxuriate]

I've been reading more horrible posts about RCCL and the kids area. My son is a good boy, he really is. He has been in a home-daycare since he was 2 months-old and I have never had a problem. I don't know why I am worried about this "strike" system but I am.

 

Really, I am a normal, down-to-earth-mom but I just don't want my RCCl vacation to be ruined by a lousy strike system.

 

Please don't flame me, but I just want to have a little "alone" time on my cruise.

 

Cheryl

[Flipflopsnfrozendrinks]

HI,

My son had a great experience on Jewel of the Seas. He was an unmedicated ADHD kid, with lots of the hyperactive part. He has been tested as "superior" IQ, so keeping him engaged can be tricky sometimes. If he gets bored, he gets wild. Because we were on a longer (11 night) cruise during school, there were not a lot of other kids in AO. The counselors were great with Patrick and really kept him involved, but not to the point of annoyance. We had a wonderful family vacation, thanks in part to the AO counselors.

 

We will be doing Celebrity in Feb, so I am a little concerned about the "snobs". But on the Jewel, people kept coming up to me and DH and telling us what great kids we have and how nice it was to see them know how to behave on a cruise.

 

I hope this makes you feel better about RCI, I would sail them again with my kids in a heartbeat.

Kim

[crusinmama06]

I've been reading more horrible posts about RCCL and the kids area. My son is a good boy, he really is. He has been in a home-daycare since he was 2 months-old and I have never had a problem. I don't know why I am worried about this "strike" system but I am.

 

Really, I am a normal, down-to-earth-mom but I just don't want my RCCl vacation to be ruined by a lousy strike system.

 

Please don't flame me, but I just want to have a little "alone" time on my cruise.

 

Cheryl

 

I understand (obviously...lol...since I was the one it happened to) but your vacation won't be ruined as long as you are informed (as you are now). I ran into one crazy AO counselor. She was told that she was wrong. Problem solved (I hope...lol). And Gabriella enjoyed the rest of her week at AO. :D

[maggipie]

I wasn't even aware of any strike system!!

 

I also agree that if you are a big Celebrity fan, you should stick with Celebrity. My daughter has been on NCL, RCCL and Celebrity, and hands down, both she and we felt the Fun Factory on Celebrity had the best program. The counselors just seemed a lot more involved and enthusiastic than on the other ships. My son just got potty trained, so he will be in the Fun Factory for our upcoming trip, and I'm hoping he loves it as much as she does!

[helenb]

FWIW, Celebrity was our favourite line before kids, and now with kids, we like Princess. It lies between RCCL and Celebrity in most aspects (quality of food, formality, etc.) but is very kid-friendly, and not nearly as strict about the strikes-style system as RCCL.

 

Just my two cents. ;-)

[shellie100]

I don't think Celebrity has a "strike" system, but I can tell you they kicked my nephew out of the kid's club after his 2nd pee accident. He was potty-trained but you know when kids are in a new place and overly excited how easy accidents happen.

[Terpnut]

Whether or not there is a "strike" system explicitly in place on a particular cruise line or ship, the bottom line is that there will always be a way for any kid's camp to deal with and expel the really bad kids. You can't allow one problem child to disrupt the rest of the group or allow that child to consume an inordinate amount of counselor time/attention/resources--this is just common sense. Thus I would not worry at all about any strike or other system but rather I'd be cognizant of whether my child has unusually bad behavioral problems. If your son is mostly well behaved and socializes well, he will not have any problems in any of the kid's camps.

[crusinmama06]

Whether or not there is a "strike" system explicitly in place on a particular cruise line or ship, the bottom line is that there will always be a way for any kid's camp to deal with and expel the really bad kids. You can't allow one problem child to disrupt the rest of the group or allow that child to consume an inordinate amount of counselor time/attention/resources--this is just common sense. Thus I would not worry at all about any strike or other system but rather I'd be cognizant of whether my child has unusually bad behavioral problems. If your son is mostly well behaved and socializes well, he will not have any problems in any of the kid's camps.

 

Um, my child was NONE of these but was almost striked out by an overzealous counselor. She doesn't have ANY behavior problems....she had a speech problem where she couldn't be understood (she had JUST turned 3).

 

So no, the strike system wasn't working to expel the "really bad kids".

 

It's just smart to be aware of the system and know that if you go against a counselor like we did...you CAN do something about it.

[Terpnut]

Um, my child was NONE of these but was almost striked out by an overzealous counselor. She doesn't have ANY behavior problems....she had a speech problem where she couldn't be understood (she had JUST turned 3).

 

So no, the strike system wasn't working to expel the "really bad kids".

 

It's just smart to be aware of the system and know that if you go against a counselor like we did...you CAN do something about it.

Michelle, I wasn't accusing your child of being a problem. The point of your cautionary story was that the IMPLEMENTATION of the strike system went awry and that one or more counselors were overzealous in implementing the system. My point is that, strike system or not, an overzealous counselor may still misdiagnose the situation and cause problems for a child and parent. So whatever "system" is in place, there is always some provision--either totally subjective or using "strikes"--to handle the rare problem kids.

 

Thus I was merely suggesting to the OP that she should not worry about the strike system but to focus on her own child's behavior and readiness for camp. You can't predict or control whether there will be a bad counselor, but you can (probably) predict if your own child will be a problem in a camp environment. So if the OP's child is like 95% of the kids who are well-behaved, then she shouldn't worry it and her son will have a great time! :)

[crusinmama06]

Michelle, I wasn't accusing your child of being a problem. The point of your cautionary story was that the IMPLEMENTATION of the strike system went awry and that one or more counselors were overzealous in implementing the system. My point is that, strike system or not, an overzealous counselor may still misdiagnose the situation and cause problems for a child and parent. So whatever "system" is in place, there is always some provision--either totally subjective or using "strikes"--to handle the rare problem kids.

 

Thus I was merely suggesting to the OP that she should not worry about the strike system but to focus on her own child's behavior and readiness for camp. You can't predict or control whether there will be a bad counselor, but you can (probably) predict if your own child will be a problem in a camp environment. So if the OP's child is like 95% of the kids who are well-behaved, then she shouldn't worry it and her son will have a great time! :)

 

I gotcha. ;)

[Onessa]

I've found the children's program on RCCI to be one of the more physically active programs (DD - now nearly 12YO - has cruised on Princess, RCCI, NCL and HAL over the years).

 

RCCI typically has more male counselors than other lines and has some of the best policies as far as counselor experience and educational background. Some of our best experiences have been on RCCI. DD is not the type to ever get into trouble but can be very hard on herself and get over emotional (and, yes, we know exactly where she got those personality traits from! :) ) I've found that the counselors on RCCI have always been very 'in tune' with her and have done an outstanding job keeping her from melting down. They've been so good at adjusting activities to the group that they have - we were on one AK cruise on Radiance where the ship had more U12 kids on board than any other Radiance-class ship ever to that point in time. We've been on board when DD was one of 10 kids in the about 6-10YO age. We've done a few other RCCI with more 'normal' number of kids. She had a marvolous time on each cruise.

 

Don't sweat it. If you have specific concerns about 'limits' for your child, share them with the counselors for his age group. If you have issues with a counselor, address it with the head of AO.

[crusinmama06]

I've found the children's program on RCCI to be one of the more physically active programs (DD - now nearly 12YO - has cruised on Princess, RCCI, NCL and HAL over the years).

 

RCCI typically has more male counselors than other lines and has some of the best policies as far as counselor experience and educational background. Some of our best experiences have been on RCCI. DD is not the type to ever get into trouble but can be very hard on herself and get over emotional (and, yes, we know exactly where she got those personality traits from! :) ) I've found that the counselors on RCCI have always been very 'in tune' with her and have done an outstanding job keeping her from melting down. They've been so good at adjusting activities to the group that they have - we were on one AK cruise on Radiance where the ship had more U12 kids on board than any other Radiance-class ship ever to that point in time. We've been on board when DD was one of 10 kids in the about 6-10YO age. We've done a few other RCCI with more 'normal' number of kids. She had a marvolous time on each cruise.

 

Don't sweat it. If you have specific concerns about 'limits' for your child, share them with the counselors for his age group. If you have issues with a counselor, address it with the head of AO.

 

Carnival is more physically active for the younger group. On RCCL my older daughter's group 6-8 had ALOT of physical activity going on. The 3-5 group, not at all.

 

On Carnival is the "Exerseas Program" for the 2-5 year old group. So Gab was able to move around more at Camp Carnival than at Adventure Ocean.

 

Oh well...it's all good. :) Next up will be Carnival then probably back to RCCL.

[CruiseQueen13]

I love Celebrity and my dd has been on Celebrity a few times - first one at 5 yrs old. People were very nice and we only had 1 incident.

 

Two older couples (60's) sailing together out by the pool everyday. As soon as they saw us coming the women would start whispering, pointing and were very unfriendly toward us. Our daughter was very well behaved so we were put off by their attitude. After day 2 - I stopped saying hello to them.

 

About 5 days into the cruise. The one woman was staring at us outside the dining room and her husband kept telling her go ahead. She came over and apologized for being so rude to us because we were trvlg w/ a young child. She said they haven't had many positive experiences in the past (especially at the pool area) and expected the worst when they saw her - screaming, running, etc. She complimented us for being such hands on parents and for supervising her properly.

 

Other than that - have NEVER had a problem. We love Celebrity.

[Luxuriate]

I'm booking Celebrity! I thought that RCCL would be the best bet but it sounds to me that Celebrity is just as family friendly.

Thanks all. That is why I love these boards.

 

Cheryl

[rebeccalouise]

some cruises I do purely for my son. Like Disney for example. I wouldn't do that one again.

 

Since Celebrity has a great kids program and I am a fan of the ship in all other aspects- I normally sail Celebrity.

 

However, this spring we tried Radiance and it was just ok. Not that excited about it.

 

Next spring- we booked the Norwegian Gem, just for a change of pace. Plus they sail out of NYC, which I prefer to Florida. No planes needed from where I live.

 

Each line has tradeoffs. Norwegian is going to be more casual and has a water slide and huge arcade, etc. But the rooms are smaller than Celebrity for about the same price.