Had any luck "bumping" kids to older groups?

[laginog]

Just wondered if anybody has cruised lately on the Caribbean Princess and has tried to move a child to an older group to be with a friend or sibling with any luck. We will be cruising with friends and her son will be about 6 weeks shy of 10 when we cruise on September 25th. Our Godson will already be 11 and we know he would be extremely bored in the younger group so we don't want to go that route. The younger boy is kind of "shy" though so we don't want to "split" them up either. Our only other option is to keep them with us all of the time. I hate for them to miss the kids clubs because I know they have a blast in there!!! Would "tipping" anybody in the kids area right off the bat help the situation?

[sue d. miller]

No personal experience, but from what I have read, it is possible if you move one down, but not to move one up.

[GloriaF]

No personal experience here either. But how do they know the kids ages? 6 weeks is not much if 10 is the cut off age for the older group.

[sue d. miller]

The zone has a list of all kids on board with ages.

[CruiseFever]

Here's another one with NO personal experience but my impression was that Princess was very strict on the age brackets. I remember reading that on a couple posts but have been unable to find them so far. If I do I'll come back here and link to them.

 

Keep this bumped up on the first page and someone will have your answer whos been there and done that

 

Maybe Bill knows this?

[laginog]

Princess actually shows 8-12 as the age group for them. Our TA didn't think we'd have a problem but I've read differently. I've heard that the Caribbean Princess breaks them into 6-9 & 10-12. I just know that the boys will be heart-broken if they get separated over 6 weeks! I don't know if they have a list or if they just ask their ages. But....there's no way that Austin can go down to the younger group. He's pretty mature for his age and he would definitely be bored with the little ones!!

[kruisey]

Certain that when the Princess crew see him on board they will allow him into the older group....they have to set a a general guideline.

You and the boys enjoy the cruise.

[DrivesLikeMario]

No, we were not able to move our son up to be with his brother in the 8-12 yr. old group. He was 6 weeks shy of being 8 yrs. at the time.

 

The kids' program coordinator was a real (how should I put this nicely?) "pain". We followed her rules that our son attend the 4-7 yr. old group for one day. He did so, and hated every minute of it. He felt like a fish out of water with the 4 yr. olds who spent most of the time singing, dancing, picking their noses and rolling around on the carpet. There was very little verbal action with this group of kids - mostly just jumping around.

 

We approached the 8-12 yr. old counselors who were extremely nice. They said they would LOVE to have him in their group, that they were short a few kids and to bring him right away. They were very welcoming. From that moment on, my youngest son had a fantastic time. (He even won the Connect Four Tournament against the 12 yr. olds.)

 

So, my advice to you is to try the 'legal' channels first. If that doesn't work, take the matter into your own hands and approach the 8-12 yr. group leader. If that still doesn't work, keep your child with you and do fun things together. Tip - The game room has some terrific family games that we would use every night after dinner.

 

Good luck!

[Ella2]

I've seen the children's programming areas on the Caribbean Princess, the age ranges are:

 

3-6

7-9

10-12

 

So no 7-year-old would be stuck with a 4-year-old group! Yikes to Lady Jag, I agree that's too wide an age grouping, glad it worked out for you to switch. :)

 

Laginog, I hope it works out for you to keep the boys together. I would definitely not recommend tipping, though, typically children's programming counselors are not allowed to accept tips as they are not tipped positions.

 

Have a GREAT cruise! :)

[DrivesLikeMario]

The age groups that Ella mentions above are certainly better than what we had!!

 

We've always tipped the kids' counselors. When we generously tipped the counselors (that I mentioned above), the guy counselor actually started to cry and gave us a big hug. A couple times, the counselors acted surprised to be receiving an envelope, handshake and a word of thanks.

 

I guess most parents don't tip, but we figure that they deserve it if they've made our sons' cruise a good experience. It's all a matter of what you want to do, but it definitely isn't expected.

[holton]

On our Sapphire trip this past July they allowed our 8 year old grandson to move up to the 10-12 group with his sister. We believe it was because they needed

more kids in that age group...so it does happen.

[WCAB]

Princess is my first choice when taking a cruise but on our trip in September, we

will have two grand kids with us. The boy will be three months shy of the next

age group, where my grand daughter will be. We checked with our TA and called Princess directly and we were told that they would not let my sisters grand son go up into the next age bracket. This forced us to go with another cruise line because the two kids have their hearts set on being able to stay together and with the change in cruise lines, the ages break off so that they can be together.

 

Carol

[teach21566]

I've posted my position on other posts similar to this, I have the same problem, but in the opposite direction, my son is 5 and my daughter will have turned 7 3 weeks before our cruise, when we booked with the carib princess, it had not sailed yet, and the brouchure gave the age break up as 3-7;) . We chose Princess because of this break up, since on other lines the 7 and 5 year olds were separated. When I heard that the carib princess broke up their groups differently, I was heartbroken:( , because like the original poster, my son and daughter refuse to seperate. I hope that I can have my daughter go with her brother, and I intend to bring her to the younger group in our Oct sailing, plead my case with the counselor and hope for the best. Good luck with your attempts and post back when you get home and I will too

[soohoo]

We are cruising in a few weeks and have a similar situation for the CaribP. Our 12 year old is bringing a 13 year old classmate. My son will refuse to play with 10 year olds when he is in middle school and likes girls. If we have to play the 13 year old move down game, they may get complaints from the other parents as the 13 year old is 5'9", and is going through the puberty stage (hair and all). To a 10-11 yo parent, they may have a problem with the "big" kid moving down. My son on the other hand is short (I'm only 5') but mature in the face. He has a problem with his size as many kids 3 or so years younger are taller.

 

I'm not sure how they'll handle the situation since that time will be an off-season for kids. Anyone go and try to move kids during the non-busy time?

[Nrknits]

I have personal experience with this. My daughter was in the teen group and my son, just a year out of it, in the 8-12 group. Outside of the teen center he "hung" with his sister and her new friends. I asked if he could go into the teen center with them and NO. He must stay with his age group. Insurance or something. In our experience Princess is very strict about sticking to the age group guidelines. The good news is, once the kids go to the center a few times they seem to hook up with a group and hang out with them, not going back to the kids center unless there is something really interesting to them. Your kids will do fine. They'll meet each otheres friends and make new ones for them selve too. Have a fun trip.

[ghgeckos]

Our table mates on the Star had two kids one was 2 weeks from his birthday and they wouldn't let him move up. The cruise was during spring break and it has full. his parents were concerned that he would be too lonely without his sister but it all turned out Ok because their son and my youngest ended up playing together.

[laginog]

Well...if they actually stick to the "8-12" age groups that Princess advertises, we won't have a problem, because they'll truly be 11 and 9 at sailing. That's what our TA said it is. But if they advertise that and everybody plans on that and then when you board, they change the groups to the 6-9 and the 10-12, everybody's plans will get changed!!! We were giong to take our Godson on another cruise soon but we decided to do it now because our friend was bringing her son. Now, if they get split up, it might be upsetting for them.

[imsulin]

I'm just thinking that this sounds a bit to me like someone trying to get free air for their child who is one day past his second birthday at the time of travel. Or the family who takes their child to the buffet that is "free" for children under 12, and their child is a week past turning 12. Or the family who takes their child to a movie, where children under 12 are admitted "free", and their child turned twelve the previous week. My point is that there is a REASON for age guidelines. Most cruise lines are adamant that the age at sailing is the age for the duration of the cruise...which has caused much grief for those minors who turn 21 half-way during the cruise! I couldn't get my DL until I turned 16, and not a minute before. I couldn't drink until I turned 21, and not a minute before. Rules are rules, and guidelines are guidelines. JMO.

[laginog]

Well...that's not exactly the way it's working. We're not trying to "cheat" them. They kind of "changed" the groups on us!! When we booked the cruise, we had checked that Princess had that age group at 8-12 so they could be together. The website still shows this. But...then I started reading on the boards that people were complaining that the Caribbean Princess and the Diamond Princess broke the age groups down differently into the 6-9 and 10-12 age groups. I contacted our TA and she said that "Princess Pirateers" is 8-12 and not to worry about it. Well...people are still evidently having trouble. It won't be a huge deal for us, but it might be for the kids. We won't mind them hanging with us 24/7. But...they will miss out on the kids groups if they don't want to participate separately. So...I guess that will have to be their decision!

[teach21566]

I understand what laginog is saying, LIKE I said before, when we booked the ages said 3-7, 8-12 and so on, but on the Carib Princess, they don't follow this age break up, I called Princess to double check and the first answer was the age break up was what the brouchure advertised, then when I specifially asked about the Carib Princess the woman put me on hold and then came back and said that for THIS CRUISE SHIP the ages are different. NO we are not try to CHEAT anyone, we are just asking for Princess to stand behind what the brochures says. Please laginong, you cruise 2 weeks before us, please let us know what happens

[laginog]

I'll be happy to report back, teach!! We'll probably just go ahead and take them to the older kids group and tell them what our TA said if we have a problem. Then, if they still say no and the boys want to stay together, they'll just stick with us!! The "younger" adults in our group may go to the clubs sometimes but my DH and I would just as soon "hang out" with the kids so....it's no problem for us at all!!! It's not like we were looking for a free babysitter. We just want the boys to have a great time on their cruise...and we thought the kids club would be fun for them!!!

[busybusybusy]

We were on the Golden, and they broke the groups into 8-10 and 11-12. My son, who is almost 11, was disappointed at first, but when he got into the group, he found a lot of 10 year olds. He had a great time. I think it would depend on the ages of the kids travelling on that particular cruise. We were very upbeat and told him to give it a try, and if he didn't like it, we would come for him. He never once returned to the cabin before 10, which is when the activities ended. Also, we chose to let him sign himself in and out, which made him feel a little more grown up.

Have a great cruise!:D