kids program on princess

[wifey526]

I will be traveling on the crown princess on 3/6/10 and my son will just be turning 8 a few weeks before. Will they let me keep him in the 7 year old program?

[wifey526]

I will be traveling on the crown princess on 3/6/10 and my son will just be turning 8 a few weeks before. Will they let me keep him in the 7 year old program?

[1025cruise]

From what I have read, no. Unfortunately, I don't have any experience in this matter, but from other readings, they are sticklers for age.

[paul929207]

I am under the same impresson. The age limits are strictly inforced.

[jenonacruise]

No , you son will be put in an age appropriate program. my son was 8 on the Coral and he loved every moment of it but on that ship there was only 11 kids and at that time the few kids that were there would come together and watch movies and play or go into there seperate rooms and the older kids would play video games.

[Iamcruzin]

I will be traveling on the crown princess on 3/6/10 and my son will just be turning 8 a few weeks before. Will they let me keep him in the 7 year old program?

May I ask why you want your son to participate in the 7yr old program?

[cruisemom42]

I have cruised with my son on Princess several times. It's been my experience that they are quite strict with the age requirements. For example, the day we boarded our Baltics cruise was DS's 13th birthday. I had a hard time convincing them to let him participate in the teen program because based on all the paperwork they had, he was 12. :cool:

[karatemom2]

They might. It will probably depend on the number of kids in the program and how strict the person in charge of the program is in adhering to the age groups. In our experience, we have never seen a child allowed to move up to an older age group. That seems to be a big no. However, we have on at least two cruises with Princess seen them allow an older child who had just passed the upper age threshold to remain in the younger group. So while there is no guarantee it doesn't hurt to ask.

[Love Boat Dream]

I sailed with a friend who had a child in the younger and older programs. The little one wouldn't stay without her brother (he was just a year older) so they allowed him in the younger program. I think they will allow a child to go to a younger program, but not an older one.

[Colo Cruiser]

I sailed with a friend who had a child in the younger and older programs. The little one wouldn't stay without her brother (he was just a year older) so they allowed him in the younger program. I think they will allow a child to go to a younger program, but not an older one.

 

I think you are right.

[cruisemom42]

They might. It will probably depend on the number of kids in the program and how strict the person in charge of the program is in adhering to the age groups. In our experience, we have never seen a child allowed to move up to an older age group. That seems to be a big no. However, we have on at least two cruises with Princess seen them allow an older child who had just passed the upper age threshold to remain in the younger group. So while there is no guarantee it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

But not if that older child is an 18-year-old trying to stay in the teen group. I don't believe that is allowed.

[Cruisin' Chick]

I have heard of a child being moved down to a group (just not the other way) so you can always check. It could be possible that there won't be that many kids onboard unless there's some on spring break or a lot of homeschooled kids. (I can predict that the Mexican Riviera cruises in late March/early April will have a ton of kids as the schools around here will be on break the week leading up to Easter)

 

I'm just wondering, though, if maybe the child may feel like being with his own age group. My girl was in the middle group (8 to 12 yr olds) when she was 8, and did fine. And her previous cruise, the grouping was 7 to 9, and she was fine there.

[merela]

The older child can be moved down to a younger group, especially when there is a younger sibling involved. But your 8YO might get really bored with the stuff they do in the younger group.

 

On our last Princess cruise 2 weeks ago, there were over 700 kids on the ship (Xmas cruise) and the breakdown of the age group was as follows:

3-5

6-9

10-12

13-18

 

But the breakdown in age groups will change depending on the number of children on the ship per age category. I've been a cruises that had 3-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-18 age groups.

 

In seeing how the Princess kids' program was run, I think the child whose age is in the middle of each age group benefits the most from the kids' club. I will give you an example. One of the activities they do in the 6-9 age group is scavenger hunt. You need to be able to read a list of items and instructions before you can proceed with the activity. Most 6YOs are not fluent readers yet, but 9YOs are proficient readers in most cases, so any activities that involved a bit of reading would not appeal to most 6YOs. So most 9YOs will find the 6YOs boring, unless they are friends or family in the first place. In any case, your 8 year old will do great in the 6-9 age group because he is right in the middle of that age group. So it's up to you to see whether you want to move the 8YO to the younger group.. You can determine that once you get on board. One year, my 6YO happily moved down to the 3-5YO group because she was not comfortable with the older kids in the 6-9 age group.