What cruise line for 7 and 4 year old

[lukesmom]

I have a 7 year old son and another who will be 4 in January. I don't think they would want to be seperated at the kids club. Is Princess the only kids club that covers that age range and if so what are their kids clubs like. I have heard a lot of good things about Carnival and Royal Caribbean programs but not a lot about Princess. Thanks......

[tmitchell82]

Princess does cover from 3-7 in the Princess Pelican's room. We just took our daughter who is 5 on a Western Caribbean cruise aboard the Crown Princess. We were very pleased with the kids club and our daughter loved it. During sea days the kids club is open from 9-12, 2-5, and 7-10. Late night baby sitting is available till 1am at $5 per hr per kid. On port days, I think it was open from 8-5 and you can leave your kid there while you go ashore (we never did) The always had activities for the kids to do and you get a schedule in your cabin when you arrive. There was t-shirt painting, play dough day, pirate night, and several "kids dinners". DW is a director of a day care and thought it was run very well and had very good policies and procedures in place to manage it. Staff was great with the kids as well. I do think you find few kids on Princess, particularly if you go when school is in session. There were only 27 kids between 3-7 on our cruise. Granted, that was nice to have a group that size and DD made quick friends. We would see other families and DD was saying "hi jackson". Don't have much to compare it to, but I would take DD back on Princess again without question.

 

Tim

[smoothy]

We did Celebrity this past summer to Alaska with DS6 and DS4. Even though they were technically in different age categories, they did most activities together probably due to numbers. I dont think I ever saw more than 10 kids in the combined group (often much less than that). The boys had a wonderful time, it was a fight every time we went to take them out.

[spinard2000]

I have a 7 year old son and another who will be 4 in January. I don't think they would want to be seperated at the kids club. Is Princess the only kids club that covers that age range and if so what are their kids clubs like. I have heard a lot of good things about Carnival and Royal Caribbean programs but not a lot about Princess. Thanks......

 

My son (5 yo) prefered the Carnival Kids Club over Norwegian...but I think he just clicked with the staff more. Seemed to me that Carnival had more stuff for the kids to do, like crafts and activities. Norwegian showed more movies & took the kids to the age appropriate shows (which we could have done as a family :rolleyes:). DK about RC b/c I also have a 2 yo & they won't take kids under 3.

 

The Carnival Kids Club was all in one room, so they would be near e/o at least.

[MamaParrotHead]

We had kids 4. 6 and 10 on our cruise last week. The kids were BEGGING to go to Camp, it was one of the highlights of the whole trip for them. TONS of activities. And as someone mentioned above, the kids would be in the rooms next to one another. Our kids didn't mind being separated, they aren't together in school and this wasn't a whole lot different.

[Keith1010]

I just want to highlight what a wonderful kids program that Princess offers. I think it is tops for the cruise lines that it competes with.

 

Keith

[CanadianTwosome]

I think any line you choose is going to have a great kids' program these days. As Spinard2000 noted, it's most likely the staff that are going to make the most difference, and there's just no way to predict that. The mix of kids on board plays a big role as well. Our family has been sailing NCL exclusively since I introduced them to cruising, and our daughter has had excellent experiences. We also really love the Freestyle concept and being able to eat when we want and with whom we want; the flexibility really works well for our family.

 

Also, our last two cruises have been in January and I can confirm that there are fewer kids on board, so there is a good chance that (as others have mentioned) the lower age groups will do some activities together. MamaParrotHead makes a good point as well, though - unless you home school, your kids have time apart during school, so a ship's kids' program wouldn't be much different. It would probably be a nice mix of together and apart. :)