Ocean Adventure Question

[mit01]

My wife and I and our two girls, ages 11 and 13, will be sailing on Freedom over Thanksgiving. I was wondering how strict RCCL is with the age brackets for Adventure Ocean. We're hoping that my 11 year old will be able to hang out with her older sister.

[powelweb]

I believe that your 13 yr old would be permitted to join the younger group.

 

check our the family boards on this site for lots of other tips for sailing with kids.

 

enjoy!

[reallyitsmema]

The Adventure Ocean staff has lists of all the kids ages so they will know how old your daughters are and which group the belong in. People have been able to have kids move to a different group. Just be aware that the older groups can come and go as they please and at least on the Mariner, the 12-14 yr old group was combined with the 15-17 yr old group for some activities during the day if they didn't have a large turn out. Personally, I wouldn't want my 11 year old hanging out in the same area as 17 year olds. There is just too much of an age and maturity difference.

 

Check it out once you get on board. Since you are going a holiday week, there will be lots of kids and less chance of them combining groups.

 

Here is a link to cruisinmama06 collection of kids compasses. Your younger child might just be more interested in her groups activities.:)

 

http://s204.photobucket.com/albums/bb196/cruisinmama06/

[cindy1hill]

Be careful of letting your younger daughter go with the older group. I just returned from Freedom on June 8. My 12 year old went to an age specific party in the Crypy. She ran back to the room crying and shaking. Some of the boys were dancing in A sexual way right in front of her. She asked them to stop and they would not. The AO staff person, Ceasare was at the front door and not watching what was going on inside the room. She did not return to any activities after that. She was afraid the same boys would be there and bother her again. Also the kids in this age group are left to run the ship if they please. I was under the impression they were being supervised, but this is not the case.

[veryhotred]

From past experience they are pretty strict about keeping kids in their age groups unless there are not a lot of kids, then the may join age groups. My kids were joined together because we traveled at off seasons and they were in the younger age groups. They know the age of your kids so you can't hide..lol..not that you are, just saying that ;)

[Brentonsmom]

I have the same concern with my son. He will turn 12 a week before we go. I hope I can get him in the group with the 11 year olds. We were on the Freedom last year and he loved going every night.

 

Tina

[Suzanne74]

I too recommend going down in age group, not up if they want to be together. If not, encourage them to find their own friends in their own groups. My daughter was a 6yr old in a 6-8yr old group and I was very disappointed that they combined them with the 9-11yr old group a few times. 6 and 11 is a big age difference :(

 

If your 11yr old goes with the 11-13 she could be combined with the 13-15yr olds sometimes for activities. While most kids overall are good, I just much rather have my child with younger kids then older.

[Suzanne74]

Oh by the way, there is NO problem letting the kids go down one level. They actually encourage it as opposed to going up. If they go up a level, they need to try at leat one session with their own age group first and then the councelors have to give it an okay after they observe them.

[CJJSmith]

My wife and I and our two girls, ages 11 and 13, will be sailing on Freedom over Thanksgiving. I was wondering how strict RCCL is with the age brackets for Adventure Ocean. We're hoping that my 11 year old will be able to hang out with her older sister.

 

I haven't read any other responses, but I just got off the Monarch a few weeks ago. My boys are 6, 7 and 9. They were perfectly fine putting then in the same age group. My 9 year old is very shy and was mortified thinking he would be alone. Was not a problem AT ALL.

[Cruisn4jewels]

We've been on a few cruises and my daughter always wants to hang out with the older siblings/friends that come along with us. On 2 occassions I've tried to get her put into the group where her friends were and RCI wouldn't allow it. We understand their stance and except for Alaska, my daughter still had a good time. Another thing to consider, if your ship is not overly full with children they sometimes combine age groups. On our Alaska cruise last year my 11 yr old was stuck with the 5-7 yr olds. :( She wasn't very happy about it. I doubt we'll have the same problem on Freedom next month. :D

[mit01]

Thanks for all of you for your input. Hopefully we'll be able to get our girls to even try the kids clubs. They were both pretty much dead set against them two years ago. We'll probably insist that they at least try them. I'm sure they'd make some friends if they give it half a chance.

[morgan1312]

Thanks for all of you for your input. Hopefully we'll be able to get our girls to even try the kids clubs. They were both pretty much dead set against them two years ago. We'll probably insist that they at least try them. I'm sure they'd make some friends if they give it half a chance.

 

Good luck getting them to try it, we had a friend travel with us a couple of years ago, our grandson (now 10) has always LOVED AO, the girls 1 and 2 yrs older than him didn't want to go, half way thru the week they changed their minds based on the stuff he was getting to do, they went the rest of the week and had a great time.

 

Some of the things my grandson loves are:

'the late night party zone' where you have to pay a small fee, I think $5.00/hr for the first kid, don't know about additional kids, that goes from 10:00 PM to 1:00 AM

the nights the kids take over Johnny Rockets if there's one on the ship for a kid's dinner together

Gaga ball, whatever that is...

Pajama party night

pirate night where the dress up as pirates and come thru the dining room on some of the smaller ships, not sure about Freedom class

the kids talent shows and circuses

Plus we always do late seating for dinner so we feed him ahead of time and take him to AO so he doesn't have to dress up or sit thru dinner in the dining room.

 

Janet

[CJJSmith]

Good luck getting them to try it, we had a friend travel with us a couple of years ago, our grandson (now 10) has always LOVED AO, the girls 1 and 2 yrs older than him didn't want to go, half way thru the week they changed their minds based on the stuff he was getting to do, they went the rest of the week and had a great time.

 

Some of the things my grandson loves are:

'the late night party zone' where you have to pay a small fee, I think $5.00/hr for the first kid, don't know about additional kids, that goes from 10:00 PM to 1:00 AM

the nights the kids take over Johnny Rockets if there's one on the ship for a kid's dinner together

Gaga ball, whatever that is...

Pajama party night

pirate night where the dress up as pirates and come thru the dining room on some of the smaller ships, not sure about Freedom class

the kids talent shows and circuses

Plus we always do late seating for dinner so we feed him ahead of time and take him to AO so he doesn't have to dress up or sit thru dinner in the dining room.

 

Janet

 

 

Well I couldn't get my kids to go other than the first day to check it out. They thought they would want to go but we had so much fun as a family they preferred to hang with my husband, my sister and I instead. :) My kids are 6, 7 and 9... we went the first night around 10 to check out the late party zone and I have to tell ya... it was NOT for my young kids. It was choas with kids running all over, and not well organized from what I saw. Of course it was the first night, but we didn't go back. There were kids in there that looked to be 6 or 7 being dropped off to play at 11 pm. My kids are dead tired by that time - I can't imagine dropping off my 6 year old that late. My husband and I just took turns staying in the room after we did the show and then put the boys to bed late as it was...

[crusinmama06]

I agree with the others, let the 11 year old in the younger group. There is more for a 9-11 year old to do, more organized acitivities than the 12-14 year old group.

 

Like mema said, check out the link in my signature and take a look at the activities for each.