Sorry....list of RCI AO questions....

[JRsMom]

Was going through Crusinmama's AO Compass'. And came up with a few questions. Thought it would be easier to just list them out and see what kid of answers I get.....We leave in 8 days!!! I'm too nervous to "search" the boards!

 

Is Adventure Ocean open from noon-2pm for those on excursions? The Compass says to "pick your kids up" at 12. Then lists the next activity at 2pm! This scares me......because we have wave runners booked for noon!:eek:

 

Do you get the Compasses the first night or do they leave you the one for the next day, at night?

 

Do the kids go to the water while in the AO in Labadee?

 

When the kids go to Johnny Rockets with AO, do we have to pay the cover charge for Johnny Rockets?

 

The main activities seem to start at 6:45pm. Our MD seating is 6pm...is it feasible for the kids to eat in the MD with us then go to AO and be "on time" for the activities?

 

The first night, it says "Note: All children must be accompanied by an adult". Is that for the entire first night? Or once we go through and check everything out and the kids are comfortable.....the parents can leave?

 

Last question.....Do you get a pager or something when you drop the kids off?? How do they get a hold of you after you've left??

 

Sorry for all the questions!!! But I'm sure you can all understand, I'm nervous leaving my son with a group of very competent, but complete strangers...in a new place!!

 

Thanks

Jackie

[boulders]

Here are answers to some of your questions. My guess to your first question would be that you would have to pick your child up by noon.

 

Do you get the Compasses the first night or do they leave you the one for the next day, at night?

You get the cruise compasses each evening in your stateroom.

 

The main activities seem to start at 6:45pm. Our MD seating is 6pm...is it feasible for the kids to eat in the MD with us then go to AO and be "on time" for the activities?

 

It's highly unlikely you will be finished dinner at 6:45. Count on finishing around 7:30 or so.

The first night, it says "Note: All children must be accompanied by an adult". Is that for the entire first night? Or once we go through and check everything out and the kids are comfortable.....the parents can leave?

 

The first night is just an open house. There are no kids activities the first night. You can't leave the kids there.

 

Last question.....Do you get a pager or something when you drop the kids off?? How do they get a hold of you after you've left??

 

If they need to get in touch with you, they will call the stateroom. There are no pagers.

[boulders]

Looking over the wording of the compasses, if it says "Pick your child up" at a certain time, yes, you do have to pick your child up by that time. AO will be closed until the next activity listed. Double check on times when you drop your child off. I've found that on port days, there are usually very few children in AO.

[All4fun1]

Do the kids go to the water while in the AO in Labadee?

We were on Coco Cay but I imagine it's set up the same. My ds didn't spend the whole day in AO there. from what I understood there was no plans to take them down to the ocean. I never would have felt comfortable with that! They were in a seperate, fenced in area (all dry land).

 

When the kids go to Johnny Rockets with AO, do we have to pay the cover charge for Johnny Rockets?

No we did not have to pay anything extra. Normally, it's only $3.95 though, and totally worth it! :)

 

Last question.....Do you get a pager or something when you drop the kids off?? How do they get a hold of you after you've left??

I believe they only give out pagers for the 3-5yr olds. Our ds was in this group and they did give us a pager, which we kept for the entire cruise.

 

As the pp said, the first night is just an introduction, and you won't be able to leave your kids there.

 

My ds who is normally very outgoing was nervous about staying in the kids club, but the people working there were so much fun, the activities were interesting to him (he especially loved the face painting). We told the crew member in the AO club that he was nervous about staying, and he got right down to ds level and talked to him about the things they were going to do and ds got interested. We never had any problems taking him there after that. Now picking him up from AO, that was a different story. he didn't want to leave most of the time. Your dc will have a great time!

 

hth!

[crusinmama06]

OK let me clarify some of these things. Sorry Boulder, I'll have to disagree with you.

 

There ARE pagers or cell phones (some ships have cells) if your child is in the 3 - 5 year old age group. You can request them for the 6 - 8 year old group if there are some left over.

 

First night - AO is open for registration (Family Welcome). So you can't leave the kids on the first night BEFORE 10pm. The Late Night Party Zone does open at 10pm for the $5 per child per hour fee. So you can leave your child after 10pm.

 

For port days (while you would be on an excursion) - Adventure Ocean is OPEN. :D When you see the pages that say "pick up your child at noon", you are looking at a Sea Day. If you are in port, Adventure Ocean is open and will take the kids to lunch.

 

Getting to AO by 6:45 is VERY possible. My kids make it to AO before 7pm. When we arrive at dinner, we order the entire meal, including beverages right away. The server will bring the kids meals out first. My kids eat and my hubby takes them up to AO, then returns to the dining room so he and I can enjoy a quiet dessert together. There is no reason for the kids to sit through a 2 hour meal. ;)

 

Labadee - they do not go into the water. The fenced in area is away from the water, far away.

 

Johnny Rockets - no charge for the kid dinners with AO.

 

And I am going to post one of the most recent AO pages we have....

 

This is your Port Day....Adventure Ocean is open all day while you are in port

 

 

This is your first day - The Late Night Party Zone is open after 10pm for child drop off, but not before. Before 10pm is resgistraton with the parents.

 

[boulders]

I haven't cruised with a child in the 3-5 age group and I wasn't offered a pager for the older ones, so I didn't know about pagers for 3-5. :p I personally have never been out of the dining room before 7:15 p.m. on any of my 3 sailings on RCCL. Usually, our order isn't taken until about 6:30. Our food has never arrived before 6:45. Perhaps it's because we share a table with others? :confused:

[crusinmama06]

Perhaps it's because we share a table with others? :confused:

 

Yep, that's exactly the reason. We have been lucky enough (or maybe unlucky enough...lol) to always have a table with just my own family. Or even my family and the friends we were sailing with.

 

If we arrive at dinner at 6pm, the servers will have my complete order by about 6:05 :D

 

Of course, I say that NOW....watch on Independence. They will decide to seat me with a table of 12. :eek:

[JRsMom]

For port days (while you would be on an excursion) - Adventure Ocean is OPEN. :D When you see the pages that say "pick up your child at noon", you are looking at a Sea Day. If you are in port, Adventure Ocean is open and will take the kids to lunch.

 

Getting to AO by 6:45 is VERY possible. My kids make it to AO before 7pm. When we arrive at dinner, we order the entire meal, including beverages right away. The server will bring the kids meals out first. My kids eat and my hubby takes them up to AO, then returns to the dining room so he and I can enjoy a quiet dessert together. There is no reason for the kids to sit through a 2 hour meal. ;)

 

 

Johnny Rockets - no charge for the kid dinners with AO.

 

And I am going to post one of the most recent AO pages we have....

 

This is your Port Day....Adventure Ocean is open all day while you are in port

 

 

This is your first day - The Late Night Party Zone is open after 10pm for child drop off, but not before. Before 10pm is resgistraton with the parents.

 

 

My main concern is in Labadee, Michele. It says on the AO Compass you have on your list (I know, they are from a couple of years ago), it says "Noon Parents please pick up your Explorers!" Then it lists 1:00 Adventure Beach Afternoon. This is a "Port" day and the AO will be right there in Labadee.....so are we OK to do an excursion for noon? ALL the adults in our party are doing the waverunners. I figured if I have to, I'll try to book a different time when we got on the ship. But we picked noon, because by the time we got off the excursion...got the kids and headed over to lunch, the BIG crowds will be gone.

 

The other port days, the time just rolls right over to the afternoon. It doesn't say anything about picking the kids up!

 

I think my son would like Johnny Rockets! That is really cool that they take them down there.

 

I've read about people asking the waiters to bring the kids meal ASAP. But I was unsure how asap they really were. I guess we will try the second night and see how it works for us!

 

Thank you so much!! You have been a great help!! And I will check out GW!!

[crusinmama06]

My main concern is in Labadee, Michele. It says on the AO Compass you have on your list (I know, they are from a couple of years ago), it says "Noon Parents please pick up your Explorers!" Then it lists 1:00 Adventure Beach Afternoon. This is a "Port" day and the AO will be right there in Labadee.....so are we OK to do an excursion for noon? ALL the adults in our party are doing the waverunners. I figured if I have to, I'll try to book a different time when we got on the ship. But we picked noon, because by the time we got off the excursion...got the kids and headed over to lunch, the BIG crowds will be gone.

 

The other port days, the time just rolls right over to the afternoon. It doesn't say anything about picking the kids up!

 

I think my son would like Johnny Rockets! That is really cool that they take them down there.

 

I've read about people asking the waiters to bring the kids meal ASAP. But I was unsure how asap they really were. I guess we will try the second night and see how it works for us!

 

Thank you so much!! You have been a great help!! And I will check out GW!!

 

 

Now I see what you are talking about. No, you won't be able to do Waverunners at Labadee at noon because AO is closed during that time. :( That's kind of surprising to me because Disney take the kids on their private beach to lunch. That is the only way I could do waverunners too.

 

RCCL should really change that and offer lunch at Labadee too for the kids.

 

I am glad you saw that before you got the waverunner tickets.

 

It seems to be the same for Labadee and CocoCay. I checked with those who just went in Dec 08.

[Skeetercat]

Thanks for all the information on AO. I hope you don't mind me adding a question or two??!!

 

We are in the final stages of booking a cruise on the Explorer for the fall with our two girls. My 6 year old always wants to be with her sister who is 9. She understands that she will in a different age group, but is hoping that they will at least be in the same room so that she can feel secure that she is close by. On our last cruise on Princess, the two age groups where in totally separate rooms and she often did not want to go. Can anyone please confirm how the AO room is set up. Is it one big area with age groups doing their own thing? Or does each age group have their own room??

 

As well, do most do early or late seating when cruising with their kids?? We would love to have the occassional meal without the kids, but wasn't sure if we could with the early seating. On Princess, we would feed the kids at the buffet first and then go to anytime dining for 7 p.m. It worked out great because half the time we had nice dinners with them in the dining room and other times we have nice dinners by ourselves. I'm just concerned that the late seating won't allow enough time before we have to pick them up at 10 p.m.

 

Thanks.

[crusinmama06]

As far as dividing the age groups. Usually on the ships, the 3-5 year olds can see the 6-8 year olds but not the 9-11's.

 

I don't personally know how Explorer is set up though. So I would start a new thread and ask how the Adventure Ocean room on Explorer is laid out. If no one here knows, then try to RCCL main board.

 

As far as what dinner to choose. I always do Early Seating. But my kids are slightly younger than yours. The kids dinners for Adventure Ocean are at 5:45pm. So you could take the kids to the AO dinner, and be at Early Seating on time for a dinner alone.