RatherBeInAK

Well' date=' as a "triple platinum" (no, that's not an official designation) on Disney, I can somewhat relate. There are 3 age groups, your 11 year old will be in the 8-12 group. There is NOT the "move up" and all that nonsense that sometimes happens on DCL. The biggest difference is that the hours are limited. While on DCL, hours are basically 9am to midnight every day, Princess has different hours for sea days and port days. There is a lunch and dinner break time for staff (during which your kids must be picked up and out of the area) and regular programming ends at 10. You can pay extra for babysitting till 1am if you wish.

 

While we haven't explored each age group on Princess the way we have on DCL, I've seen and heard only good things. The activities are themed toward where the cruise is (at least somewhat). They have the same sort of activities as DCL. I did make a point of talking to parents who had kids in different age groups--everything the kids or the parents said was positive.

 

One caveat that you'll never hear on DCL--Princess does reserve the right to cancel the kid programming if there are fewer than 20 kids on board.

 

We also opted to not pay the huge DCL surcharge when we booked our Alaska cruise. First, Princess goes places that DCL can't go due to contract issues. Secondly, in Alaska the scenery, the excursions, etc. are the destination rather than the ship. We just decided that the things Princess could do that DCL can't made paying DCL rates plain silly. There are differences. For instance, the cabins are a lot smaller than DCL cabins, unless you've booked a mini-suite. While the kid programming area is very kid oriented, the ship as a whole is not. There are family areas obviously. But the adult pools and hot tubs are strictly enforced. Interestingly on Princess, kids are allowed in the fitness center and locker room, supposedly when accompanied by a parent. Funny, I didn't see the parent in the locker room and the kids didn't look old enough to be there. The buffet on Princess is basically always open except very late at night. That makes it easy to feed kids. Oh, there are no mice running around on the ship.

 

Seriously, we feel that we made the right choice to not use DCL for Alaska. We used the money we saved on cruise fare to go high end on excursions. It has been several years, and my now-adult daughter is pushing for another Alaska cruise.

 

I should probably add that my experience is not on the Golden Princess, but on other Princess ships.[/quote']

 

What do you think the odds are that there would be fewer than 20 kids on a September Alaska cruise? Can you find out ahead of time and get a refund? My kids are excited about the activities and my SIL will not want to cruise without a kids club available.