Review of the Kids Program on Mercury March 29-April 9, 2010

[cruisebunny32]

First some Background. Hubby and I are 39 and 40 and have been cruising on Celebrity since the mid 90s. We have always enjoyed Celebrity for their service, food and amenities. Our Kids are 9 (8th cruise) and 4 (3rd cruise). We have sailed almost all of the ships in the Celebrity Fleet...across all 3 classes, so I could answer questions from any ship.

 

The Mercury was sailing from Charleston, SC over my Son's spring break. So we drove down from NJ and stayed overnight precruise in the Best Western. They had a stay and park package.

 

Embarkation

We boarded Mercury on Monday, March 29th. If you have been following this ship, you will know that past 3 sailings have had issues with Noro Virus and the embarkations have been difficult. We were told via phone call from Celebrity that we were not able to start boarding till 4pm on Monday. The terminal is very small.

 

We were allowed to drop off our carry-ons in the cabin and then have lunch. The life boat drill was post poned till Tuesday morning (No life Jackets!!!!) We sailed at 7:30pm ish. We still met at the Sky bar!!! as planned on Cruise Critic. We found out there are only 60 kids on board!!!! Wow...we are used to 300 plus kids over spring break. The kids met a few of the kids of famlies who posted on our thread.

 

Fun Factory

The Fun Factory his located on Deck 9, Aft.

Since there were only 60 kids on board, the kids club only had 2 groups. Cadets were 3-8 and Ensigns/Teens 9-17. At first I was a little leary about my 9 year old being grouped with teens, but luckily there were 6 kids that were 9 years old, and they hung out together. At first we did not allow him to sign himself out....but later on, as we got to know the kids and the counselers, we let him sign himself in and out..after aboout 5 days. There were 4 counselers in the program...Talley, Jacqui, Liz and Lester, all girls. The rotated with the groups. Talley told me that since she had gotten on board in early March, they had only averaged 9 kids per sailing...so they were excited about 60 kids!!!

 

The Fun Factory was surprisingly larger than I thought it would be. They have a video game room with various games such as Planet 51, Lego Star Wars, Madden 2010, Madagascar. They also had a Wii with Rock Band and Mario Cart. An area in the back with a table for crafts...which my daughter came home with tons of stuff she made. Also a Ball pit area, which opened after 7 days due to the Code Red Status from the Virus.

 

Upon entering the kids had to wash their hands, and parents had to use Purell. The kids had to be signed in. The first day you must fill out a registration form. The kids are also given Muster Station bracelets. These they must wear throughout the entire cruise. In the event of an emergency if you child is in the Fun Factory, the staff will bring them to the muster station.

 

Activities-They have Daily programs for each group

The Day is broken up into 3 sessions. 9am-11:45am. 2pm-4:45pm and 7pm-9:45pm. On port days, the fun factory is usually open from 12-2 for lunch so you can leave your child if you do an excursion. They will feed your child, and have a quiet time (movie, reading). There is a charge of $6/hour/child for these 2 hours. On sea days, you must pick up your child during this time. Due to the code red, they did not have the Lunch option. they did open for quiet time towards the end of the cruise.

From 5-7pm the factory was closed for sanitizing. They also had a Slumber Party for 10pm till 1am. This also had a $6/child/hour charge My kids did not participated in any of the charged times this cruise.

 

Each Session had a theme. They usually do a craft, game and story related to the theme. The also had some outside time when they went to the Sports deck to play or went around the ship on hunts or parades. Here are some examples from the Cadets:

Wacky Weather, Around the World, Under the Sea Adventures, Alien Invasion, Happy Birthday, Pirate Adventures, Dogs and Cats, Bugs bugs bugs.

 

There were Family events as well. Disco, Bingo, Scavenger Hunt, Talent Show.

 

We sailed during Easter, so they had an Easter party that morning. Two counselers had bunny costumes. They had Easter Baskets for each kid, a coloring contest, Pin the tail on the Bunny, Easter Bingo, Guess how much Candy is in the jar and Easter Egg Hunt. The Bingo gave away fun prizes like water bottles, back packs, and frisbees.

 

Older Kids and Teens

My son was very excited about being able to go to the Teen area each night from 7-10pm. This group did a lot of scavenger hunts. The went out in groups in search of colors, shapes, meeting people. They also did sports and played on the Wii. They had Lots of board games in the teen center as well. They also took them to a few of the shows.

Some of their themes include: Casino Night, A Touch of Broadway, Seek, Design, Imagine, Battle of the Sexes, Around the World, And the Winner is, Survivor night and Carnival night. They also had a separate "Teens Only" 12-17 activities from 10pm-12pm at the Teen Center. The 9-11 year olds could go back to Fun Factory at this time or Join their Parents.

 

The last night they had a farewell party and they both got t-shirts that they colored and had other kids sign. My son got an autograph book and got a few email addresses of kids he was with. Since it was a longer cruise, with a small amount of kids, they were able to make good friends with the other kids.

 

Over all Impression

I was very impressed with the amount of activities and how engaged the counselers were with the kids. My kids had a blast at the Fun Factory and begged to go there every day. They loved the counselers as well. They were down to earth and could be found sitting on the floor with them and giving them hugs good bye. This is what we have found on most of the sailings, fleet wide. Celebrity always does a good job selecting their staff.

 

Other things to know when traveling with kids on Celebrity

Most rooms have pull out sofa beds or hide away beds for the kids to sleep on. The Cabin Steward will fix these accomodations at night.

 

There is a childs menu in the main dining room. They have Hamburger/Cheesburger, Hot Dog, Chicken Nuggets (real piece of chicken breaded) Fish Sticks (did not try) and something from the Menu. They also had Fruit and French Fries. The kids can also order from the adult menu. My daughter had chocolate milk every night. My son had a soda Card.

 

The Buffet area has a wide variety of items that kids like including Pizza and Pasta (served most of the day) Hamburger and Hotdogs and french fries at the grill, Made to order Sandwiches, Salads, Ice Cream Bar. Breakfast has the Waffles, Pancakes, French Toast, Eggs and Omelets, Cereal Bar, and Breads.

 

Most people with Kids have main seating at 6pm. We always do the late seating. We feed the kids at the buffet area during their 5-7 time and take them to Fun Factory/Teen area at 7pm and enjoy pre dinner cocktails with our friends, go to our 8:30 dinner and then pick them up at 9:45, just as we are being served our dessert and bring the kids to the dining room. We had the kids eat with us the first night, Formal nights and Easter Sunday, and let them choose if they wanted to go to dinner each night. They usually chose to go to the kids program. This allowed Hubby and I to have dinner with our friends/family and also have the kids for dessert.

 

There are other activities on board as well. The kids played shuffle board, ping pong, basket ball, swam in the pool etc. (We also loved the lawn club on Solstice) My son loved the Cooking Demos and Went to Bingo with me a couple of times.

 

I did my best to cover everything. Feel Free to ask any questions. Choosing Celebrity as a Family Cruise Option has been great for us!!! Enjoy your Cruise!!!

[STXCruisers]

Hi Alisia! Welcome back from your cruise. I was so happy to hear that all went well for you onboard Mercury. She is a great little ship. Sounds like those great kids of yours had a wonderful cruise as well. They are great little cruisers!

Doris

[land lover]

Wonderful overview...Thanks.

[Scrapchick]

Thank you for posting this. I just got off the Equinox with my 8 year old and she had a marvelous experience in the Fun Factory. I think Celebrity does a fantastic job with kids and I don't get why they are considered less friendly to families. Is it because they don't have a rock wall?! My DD said this was the best cruise ship she has ever been on, and she's a vey experienced cruiser.

 

So glad you liked your experience too.

[junglejane]

Scrapchick, glad to hear you had a good experience on the Equinox. We are about to book it for June 2011. Did you happen to notice what was going on with the teen program? Our kids will be 14 and 10 by then.

[Scrapchick]

JJ... We had a MARVELOUS time... Can't say enough good things about the kids club or the staff. They were simply wonderful and ran a great program. DD didn't spend all her time there but she picked and chose what she did based on the activities offered and she had a blast in the Fun Factory.

 

She was in the 6-8 group but was one of the bigger older kids and they gave her the option of joining the Ensigns 9-11 group, and also allowed her sign out privileges. They were flexible, used a bit of common sense and had a great attitude. DD hugged her favorite counselors every time she saw them.

 

I didn't see a lot of the teen program. We sat at a table with another family and their 13 year old son, but he didn't go much largely because he missed the first night and felt the opportunity to make friends had passed by. He was very mature and happy to do his own thing for the most part and surprisingly, he and DD got on extremely well and spent time together outside the kids club. The teen facilities were a very decent size and led out to a basketball court area on the open deck.

 

I think the early teen years are a tough age on a ship, when activities aren't quite so organized and kids hang loose with each other a bit more. I did see youth staff in the teen area. The 9-11 program just seemed like a slighter older version of the 6-8 program and included things like scavenger hunts and trips to the theater to see the shows. They also had sign out privileges too.

 

HTH... I cannot say enough good things about the Equinox or the Fun Factory... I promised the staff I would write a review and give them some credit for their efforts because they make a HUGE difference to people like me, as well as my DD.

[Texed]

Bunny,

Thanks for posting.:)

[junglejane]

Scrapchick: thanks so much for responding. We had great experiences with the Fun Factory on the Infinity and Summit when our kids were younger, and we're just wondering what goes on with the teens. I assume you confirmed that the Fun Factory is open on port days for our 10 year old?

 

Texed: did I see somewhere that you are on the June 6, 2011 Equinox? That's what we're booking. Just trying to pick our cabins.:)

 

Cruisebunny: thanks for posting your review of the kids' program!

[LaurieHoffman]

thank you for the info... My kids are 12 & 14 and we sail on the Infinity June 18th. I know it is summer and there will probably be more kids than 60 but I hope not to many more. We just got back from a spring break Carnival cruise yesterday and there were lots of kids on board Those in the kids programs were well supervised but those whose parents let them fun will were not and it was a pain in the butt with them running up and down the hallways, knocking on doors etc...

 

I am hoping the kids on Celebrity will be more mature and have better manners than what we just saw.

 

I know my kids will love the kids program regardless. They make friends very quickly and love doing different activities..

[Scrapchick]

JJ... Yes, I can happily tell you that the Fun Factory is open on port days. It's open more hours than just about any other cruise ship kids club I have experienced. They do a lunch and dinner party from 12-2 and 5-7 for those kids who want to do it, both on port days AND sea days. DD went to the dinner party a couple of times because friends of hers were going. The only stipulation was that the kids could not stay longer than 6 hours at a time without leaving for one full hour for a break.

 

DD came off the ship with us quite a lot this trip, more than ever before. We went zip lining, dolphin swimming, did lots of fun things. She chose to stay on the ship a couple of times while DH and I went off for a couple of hours. Sign out privileges are revoked on port days. The Fun Factory charges $6 per hour for the lunch and dinner parties on port days. Other than that, there is no charge until after 10PM.

 

I had a chat with the staff about what Celebrity had told me and my TA about the kids club being closed on port days and they were appalled to think their own shore based people were saying something that was completely untrue, when they were open every single day. Anyway, the club is definitely open in port. The staff are AMAZING and run a full program even on port days, not just babysitting. Their program is very educational and fun, and included taking the kids to see the hot glass show, doing story time with the Captain etc. A great program and a great group of young women who run it.

[cruisebunny32]

Yes..I can attest that the program is open on port days during lunch. We had the special circumstance of the code red from the Noro Virus...so It was different. But they usually have it open on port days and the do feed the kids lunch. I remember they had special lunches for them.

 

The kids did go on special trips as well. They have gone to the bridge, back stage, the kitchen etc. To see what goes on behind the scenes.

 

I think the teens also enjoy the cruises...Who wouldn't??? The teens on our cruise (and every cruise) were happy and having fun. We have been lucky that they have manners (for the most part) My neices and nephew made friends with kids and traded emails/texted the kids for a while.

 

Hey Texed.....We had WAFFLES practically every day and thought of you!!!!!!

[Scrapchick]

The WAFFLES... You had to mention the waffles!!! They were absolutely incrdedible, always hot and fresh and that whipped cream infused with vanilla bean was to die for... A dollop of that on top of a hot waffle and a bit of syrup.... Worth every single calorie each morning....

[wilson4]

I am absolutely delighted to read the good things about the Celebrity children's clubs. I was wondering after reading some previous posts, if we had done the wrong thing in booking Celebrity with our 10 year old twins!!!!!!!

 

A big hi to Scrapchick who we met on the Ruby Princess last year!!!!

We loved that trip so much, we are hopeful that the 10 day Ultimate Caribbean on Equinox will not disappoint.

[Texed]

Texed: did I see somewhere that you are on the June 6, 2011 Equinox? That's what we're booking. Just trying to pick our cabins.:)

 

We are looking at three cruises in June, nothing definite yet. :)

[Texed]

Hey Texed.....We had WAFFLES practically every day and thought of you!!!!!!

 

It is so nice to be remembered. ;)

[cage keeper]

Thank You Cruisebunny for the great review. Can I asume the kids clubs are the same fleet wide? We are doing Milly this summer, back to back. On the second portion we will be joined by our two 10 YO grandsons. Not only our first Celebrity cruise but our first with kids. I am hoping our kids choose to do the same and eat early then go to the kids club while we have late dinner. I love them dearly but these two just can't sit that long. It's also the first Vacation I will be doing with my siblings. The kids were worried they would be bored. I will let the read your review to see all the fun things your guys did.

[carolinesmom]

I thought I would chime in. We did our first cruise on the Century over spring break 3/29 to 4/3. My children are 14, 12, 9, and 6. They all enjoyed the kids clubs. We all had dinner together every night as a family, the early seating at 6. Then the kids all went off to their respective clubs, which allowed my husband and I to have a drink and take in the evening entertainment in the theatre. We had to pick our youngest up by 10pm since she needed to be signed out with us. My son could sign himself out and simply met us at the cabin. One night he was actually sound asleep when we came in around 10!

 

There were tons of children on the ship. They told us the first night when we were signing the kids up that there were 260+ teens on board. I was so glad to hear that, since my daughters were a little worried about meeting other kids. Since there were so many kids on board, they used the Fun Factory primarily for the 3-5 and 6-8 year old groups, until after 10pm when the 9-11 joined them for the slumber party portion. The 9-11 year olds spent a lot of time in the Teen Club, not with the teens though. The teens took over one of the clubs during the early part of the evening, mostly Hemisphere and the Crystal Room. I think this was fun for them to be in a real lounge. My daughters stayed together every night and made several new friends. Sometimes they did the organized activities and sometimes they hung out at the basketball court with friends. All I can say is, they had a great time and were sad to leave. In spite of all the kids on board, I never found it to be unruly in the least. It was a great experience for all of us.

[Scrapchick]

I am absolutely delighted to read the good things about the Celebrity children's clubs. I was wondering after reading some previous posts, if we had done the wrong thing in booking Celebrity with our 10 year old twins!!!!!!!

 

A big hi to Scrapchick who we met on the Ruby Princess last year!!!!

We loved that trip so much, we are hopeful that the 10 day Ultimate Caribbean on Equinox will not disappoint.

 

 

I remember meeting you too!!! Thanks so much for posting and saying hello. You will LOVE the Equinox and I promise you the kids will have a fabulous time in the Fun Factory.

 

Hope our paths cross again on a ship soon...

[cruisebunny32]

Thank You Cruisebunny for the great review. Can I asume the kids clubs are the same fleet wide? We are doing Milly this summer, back to back. On the second portion we will be joined by our two 10 YO grandsons. Not only our first Celebrity cruise but our first with kids. I am hoping our kids choose to do the same and eat early then go to the kids club while we have late dinner. I love them dearly but these two just can't sit that long. It's also the first Vacation I will be doing with my siblings. The kids were worried they would be bored. I will let the read your review to see all the fun things your guys did.

 

Yes. We have experienced very similar programs on all 3 classes of Celebrity ships. The M-class ships have a very nice Fun Factory lay out. I am sure your kids will have a blast!!!!!

[Gaynors]

We were on the same cruise with Cruisebunny with our 7 year old and 9 year old. The only variation I would like to add is that we haven't done Celebrity before with our kids, but we've done Royal Caribbean (Radiance Class, Voyager Class, and Freedom Class), as well as Princess and Costa. So we've tried several other kids club programs but all of those cruises were only 7 days and this was 12. Our kids loved the Celebrity kids club, it was nice that there were only 60 kids onboard so all the activities were manageable and the kids got a lot of attention. DS did miss the golf course, rock wall, skating and other entertainment from Royal Caribbean, DD missed the waterslide from Costa but both still found plenty to do - DS loves shuffleboard :rolleyes:.

 

We had early seating, our kids ate with us every night (which they have pretty much always done on cruises), they enjoyed the menu greatly. Out of the 11 nights they only ate off the kids menu twice and DD loved the fish fingers. Their favorite meal was the rack of lamb (mine too!) and DD enjoyed the shrimp cocktail appetizer almost every night. The kids also enjoyed several of the chilled soups, but I was disappointed that they didn't offer one every night as I remember from the past. Since we had early seating the kids would sometimes go to the kids club after dinner, we all enjoyed family disco night.

 

So if anyone has hesitation that kids might not enjoy Celebrity as much as some other lines don't hold back go for it. It is well worth it and we were on one of the oldest ships with the least amount of frills. We would go back in a heartbeat.:D

[cage keeper]

I am so glad you did this review. It will be the first cruise for both boys so they won't miss the other stuff. If this goes well I may have to take them on Explorer.

[Jo and Rob]

You have got me thinking now, is it better to eat early with the children or late on our own? What do the kids clubs do while you are eating? Are you able to see a show before a late sitting at dinner? Would the children enjoy the shows?

[MIAMIMEDIA]

I did my best to cover everything. Feel Free to ask any questions. Choosing Celebrity as a Family Cruise Option has been great for us!!! Enjoy your Cruise!!!

 

Did you tip any of the counselors?

Is this expected or not?

Thanks

[Gaynors]

You have got me thinking now, is it better to eat early with the children or late on our own? What do the kids clubs do while you are eating? Are you able to see a show before a late sitting at dinner? Would the children enjoy the shows?

 

I think it just depends on your kids. Most nights dinner runs from a minimum of 1 1/4 hours and depending on your server and pace (amount of courses ordered) can take as long as 2 hours. Our kids have been cruising for years and are used to sitting at the table that long (of course we do bring books or writing and coloring stuff to help them and us out). They really enjoy the dining room food vs maybe some other children who would prefer pizza or hamburger every night. They even love to go to the dining room for breakfast since my son has discovered he really likes eggs benedict :eek:, which you can't get at the buffet.

 

As far as the shows I can't help very much. We don't usually go to the shows. However, the 9-12 year old kids club went to the shows as a scheduled activity on several nights. I think they went to the 9 pm show, which would work if you had early sitting with the kids or late and sent them to the kids club. On those nights I believe show time for late sitting was 7:30.

 

Have a great cruise!:)