Any chance of 5 y/o moving up in kids club??

We are planning a cruise with another family. Their children are 6 & 8. Our son is a very big and mature 5 y/o. He obviously would want to be with his friends at the kids club. Will any of the cruise lines bend the rules and let him go with the 6-8 y/o??

We are planning a cruise with another family. Their children are 6 & 8. Our son is a very big and mature 5 y/o. He obviously would want to be with his friends at the kids club. Will any of the cruise lines bend the rules and let him go with the 6-8 y/o??

 

On CCL, I would not plan on it, though some have reported success, but it is usually in the older moving down, and not the other way around. Success seems to be related often to how many kids on board - less popluar times of year make it more do-able.

The same thing happened to me. My DD is 5. She didn't want to go with the little kids. At RCCL they let her move up but they give you only one chance. They told me if she acts up or cries , they'll move her right back down. So my DD was fine, she made friends that were 6. She really only went to the club at night or when they ate at johnny rockets. This was on the Independence. Can't say about Carnival, never been. Hope this helps.

I have no experience with this, because unlike 90% of the posters on this board, my kids were not advanced for their age, really mature, or particularly big; in fact, we have a couple of "runts".

On Princess, the Pelican club is up to age 7. From 8 to (either 12 or 13) is the Shockwaves.

 

They are very strict on the ages with not moving them up to Shockwaves any earlier than 7 years old.

 

The 5 and 6 year old would be fine in the Pelican Club. If the 8 year old wouldn't mind, I do believe they would make an exception for the 8 year old to stay with his group in the Pelican Club if he wanted to.

 

They just won't move the younger kids up to the older kids club.

 

So, Princess might be a good thing to check on.

Club HAL is also ages 3-7. That could be another option. I will tell you our experience with Club HAL was not a good one. The counselors were horrible and made up rules as they went along. (I know it was just one group of counselors for one week, many of whom were new, but it really was horrible.) The rest of our HAL cruise was awesome. Even if they did let you move the 8 year old down, I think some might object to letting an 8 year old in with 3 year olds.

On Disney they can move up.

Actually, on Disney, I think the ages 3 to 10 group is now all in the same space, so that would be an option for you.

 

On Carnival they were not very flexible at all, even though there were not a huge number of kids on the ship when we sailed. On the first day, DD (age 5) met a new BFF (who was 6) while we waited a very long time for the tender to HMC. They played together a lot during the week at the pool, dining room, etc. but found it frustrating that whenever they went to camp, they had to go to separate rooms. However, if it wasn't too busy, they would let the 6 year old "visit" DD in the ages 2 to 5 room.

Think of it from the cruiselines' standpoint: if many parents were bothering the staff on the first day with the line, "my child is very mature for his age," the kids' program counselors wouldn't have time to be explaining the program and signing up the kids. They probably hear it all the time and when they see the kids interacting with another kids, roll their eyes. When I've helped out in grade school classrooms, I often see some kids misbehave or mistreat other kids, and these are generally the kids that I heard parents raving about how smart they are or well-behaved they are.

 

Another thing to think about is if you're a kid that has made that next rung and feel, great I'm with the older kids now...and then a younger kid gets in the group, you probably wouldn't be too happy.

 

I'm glad when they are strict about the age groups.

Thanks for everyone's info. Just to clarify, we are traveling with my sons two best friends who are 6 & 8. My son (5 y/o) is bigger than the 6y/o and almost as big as the 8 y/o. He has been in a daycare setting since he was 8 weeks old, so he is very used to this environment. He doesn't have behavior issues and I don't think the couselors woud be "rolling their eyes" at him!! No child in the 6-9 age group would ever think he didn't belong there. This is the age group he is used to playing with at home and on his sports teams. I wouldn't have brought this up if I didn't think he could handle it, or would disrupt the older age group. It is only an issue because it's hard to tell your son that he can't play with the kids he came with!

That being said, we have decided to stick with Carnival, even though they say they wont move him up to the next age group. When I told my son this he said "That's okay, I'll just make some new friends too!" Now that's mature! I am proud of him and I know he will be just fine, hopefully just not bored playing with 2y/o :)

Awww, it sounds like your son has a wonderful attitude! You must be a proud mama! :D

 

And you'e right, you can try it. And like he says, if they say no, then at least he can make new friends. I can give you some hope. We had the same situation on a Carnival ship in August 2 years ago. We had 2 kids in the 6-8 group and 1 left behind in the 2-5 group. The 5 year old wanted to be with her brother (age 8) and my daughter.

 

So I told the mom to ask NICELY -- make no demands. And if the counselors have room, they will try to accomodate on a "provisional basis" -- will give him a chance for 24 hours and see if he is mature enough to handle the older group. That's what we did and it worked. ;)

 

So we were able to move a 5 year old into the 6-8 year old group in August. So there. You have proof that it does happen. :D It is possible.

 

The 5 year old was close to turning 6. And she was mature. But we also prepared her that they could say NO. Good luck!

There are no guarantees - so if he'll be glad to meet new friends, great. If you'd rather he be with the kids he's vacationing with, consider waiting until after his 6th birthday (hopefully the involved 8-year-old won't turn 9 in the meantime). Or consider Disney, where kids that age are always together.

my family has been on Carnival many times and our oldest son who is now 18 was always moving to the older group because most of the time his older cousin was going and he wanted to be with them, we would just go the first day to whatever group he would be in and not once did they even ask us how old he was or if he was in the wrong age group, so if you want him to go with the 8 year olds just go to that group and sign him up, it work for us on every Carnival cruise we went on. at this age it is not a big deal, when you start talking about teenagers that is when we told him he had to be in the right age group because you dont want 12 year olds hanging out with 17 year olds. good luck I am sure you will be fine.

My experience has been that Princess is very strict about the age requirements. On one of our cruises, my older DD was turning 13 the day after disembarkation. She's 5'7" tall, very mature, takes high school math, etc etc. Princess still said she would have to be in the Shockwaves (ages 8-12). DD just elected to hang out with us instead.

 

Our most recent cruise was with RCI on the Mariner OTS. Our younger DD was turning 9 during the cruise. They let her move up to the 9-11 group, and it didn't seem to be any big deal. So that was nice for us.

 

While we were able to take advantage of RCI's "move up" policy, I do respect the Princess strict policy as well. Once you start making exceptions and leaving it to the discretion of the youth counselors (who probably don't want to get into a confrontation with an assertive parent), you are likely to end up with kids who shouldn't have been moved up. And think of the effect on the older kids in the age group. How do you think the 12 year old feels when a 7 year old is allowed in the group? Just something to think about.

I have no experience with this, because unlike 90% of the posters on this board, my kids were not advanced for their age, really mature, or particularly big; in fact, we have a couple of "runts".

Good one!:D

 

No child in the 6-9 age group would ever think he didn't belong there.

The kids will ask him how old he is -- in the same way as adults ask each other "where are you from" or "what do you do for a living", in a kid's world "how old are you" and "what grade are you in" are the appropriate small talk questions.

 

DD is "old" for her grade (she has a September birthday and there is a September 1st state mandated cut-off so she is one of the older kids in her grade). She has childhood friends who are all sophomores, she is a freshman -- it's not like they make fun of her or exclude her, it's just something that naturally comes up everytime she meets a friend of one of her old friends.

 

My experience has been that Princess is very strict about the age requirements. . . . Our most recent cruise was with RCI on the Mariner OTS. Our younger DD was turning 9 during the cruise. They let her move up to the 9-11 group, and it didn't seem to be any big deal. So that was nice for us.

Many lines have their policies dictated to them by their liability insurance coverage. I know at one time RCI had a "rule" that move ups could be ok'ed on an individual basis, but that move downs were not allowed due to limitations placed upon them by their insurance company.

. . . you are likely to end up with kids who shouldn't have been moved up. And think of the effect on the older kids in the age group. How do you think the 12 year old feels when a 7 year old is allowed in the group? Just something to think about.

On our last cruise, Celebrity allowed some 10 and 11YOs to use the teen facility. Trust me -- these three girls were the ONLY kids who used the teen facility that cruise. The 12 and up kids wouldn't go near the place because, as they explained it, it was overrun by "little kids"! :eek:

 

Fortunately the teens were able to occupy themselves elsewhere with no disruptions, but it was a shame that they couldn't use the facilities designed for them. If I was the mom of like a 15YO or so boy, I wouldn't have let him near that group of precousious little girls -- had anything gone wrong, you know the bigger kids would have been blamed, even if they had nothing to do with it!

I have no experience with this, because unlike 90% of the posters on this board, my kids were not advanced for their age, really mature, or particularly big; in fact, we have a couple of "runts".

 

Love it!:D What a great sense of humor you have. (I meant to warn you though that when I made a similar comment some time back, I got flamed as a "non-parent child hater" (not true) who lies about thinking cruising is a wonderful family vacation (also not true). But sometimes people don't like to let the truth get in the way of their comments.)

 

Anyway, it's great to have members who can make the rest of us chuckle about it.

 

beachchick

Love it!:D What a great sense of humor you have. (I meant to warn you though that when I made a similar comment some time back, I got flamed as a "non-parent child hater" (not true) who lies about thinking cruising is a wonderful family vacation (also not true). But sometimes people don't like to let the truth get in the way of their comments.)

 

Anyway, it's great to have members who can make the rest of us chuckle about it.

 

beachchick

 

Thanks! The older you get, the more you realize that life should not be taken so seriously. My comments were true though; great kids, some adults now, but not a genius in the bunch!