NCL Jewel Kids Club - Yes or No?

[dstewart1075]

I'm booked on the FL/Bahamas cruise out of NY in early June. I'll be traveling with my husband and our 3 year old daughter. I love the fact that Nickelodeon is doing activities on the ship and she absolutely loves Dora.

 

We booked a courtyard villa for the convenience of having extra space and amentities that I think will help out with the little one.

 

As far as on the ship, I am really on the fence about using the kids club. She's a bit clingy at this age and I'm concerned about leaving her with strangers and her being upset. She does love playing with other kids. It would just be to enjoy going for dinner one night, a show or even just a couple of hours in the afternoon to ourselves. We've been cruised the last couple of years with her on each of her birthday's but she always stayed with us the entire trip. We still had a great time. My point in vacations is that we are taking a family vacation and I felt bad about dropping her off. But mom and dad do love some alone time too. Any thoughts or recommendation would be greatly appreciated.

 

As far as offshore excursions, we're really looking to just spend some time at the pool and beach but are there any excursions that anyone would recommend that would be suitable and enjoyable for a 3 year old?

 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments!:)

[decoste45]

Hi,

We were in a Courtyard on a 2 week repositioning last year on the Jewel... what a great ship and the Courtyard is heaven!

 

Below is our experience with the Jewel Kids Club:

 

Our DS was about 2 1/2 on that cruise and it started on Oct 30. We signed up our son for the Kids Club and the second day we took him and he played for a couple of hours.

On Halloween evening all the kids dressed up and we took our ds to the kids club for the party and trick or treating. He was so excited! I never found out all the details on what happened, but after those few hours our son would not go back to the club - he would start crying and just say no, no, no if we mentioned the camp. One of the older kids (around 10 years old) told me that they had made my son go into a haunted house that they had set up and that he was terrified and had been crying for 45 minutes. They told us that they had tried to call us on the phone they gave us - which did not work as it hadn't been charged. It made me mad as we wrote down which restaurant we were at and even called from there to check on him and nothing was said.

 

Our son is not a clingy child, he can be a little shy but nothing major. He goes to daycare so he is used to not being with us all the time.

DH and I took DS back to the Kids Club the next day and when I asked the staff what happened to make him so scared, the gal "in charge" looked at my 2 1/2 year old and said, "Halloween is over" in a really harsh voice. If this person is qualified to be with little kids then she should know that a young child does not understand Halloween and how it ends after the one day. He was so scared of going to the kids area that we never did get him to go back. Even now he says that he does not want to go to camp on our next cruise. It made me really mad!!

I did put in a complaint, but I didn't receive a call or anaything.

 

Do I believe that this will happen to other kids outside of Halloween? No, many, many kids go to the Kids Club and have a great time and make new friends. Our son did not.

I would suggest that you try it, but make sure that you don't leave her for very long. Also, make sure that the phone they give you works and also take the phone from your suite. Check in on her often.

 

Have a great cruise!! You will love the Courtyard. :D

[lolakat]

We were on the Jewel last year when my DD was 2 years 8 months. We also had been on a few cruises with her before that and we also stayed in the courtyard villas. Over all we had a great time and enjoyed the Nickelodeon activities.

 

However, we decided to try the kids club for the first time and it was a HUGE disappointment. I brough DD to the club during a time when there was supposed to be a scheduled activity (Under the Sea with Captin Snook... or something like that). I found the 2-5 year old group in a small room with some blocks spread out on the floor and one couselor who was mostly busy checking people in at the door. I felt a little uneasy but DD had sat down to play with some blocks so I decieded to give it a shot. About 20 min later I got a call that DD was crying. I went and picked her up. The kids were still just milling around in the room with no evidence of an activity going on. The counselors seemed indifferent and the room was not as clean as I would like. It felt like a place to just lock the kids up so the parents could escape for a minute not a place a kide would actually want to go to for fun... does that make sense? I never brought her back and we had a good time as a family but just didn't do any "adult only time."

 

We also checked out the "under 2 zoo" and this was truly awful. About a dozen mostly broken toys in a conference room just behind the main theater.

 

I guess this sounds like a lot of complaining. I really do like NCL and as you can see from my signature below I've cruised with them several times. I think the courtyard villa area is amazing and it is what keeps bringing me back to NCL. That said I found the kids programs, at least for young kids, to be just flat out bad and I don't think I'll bring my DD back to them until she is much older. (The school age kids group seemed to be doing some fun things.) We are checking out Disney for our next cruise b/c I've heard some great things about their kids programs.

 

As far as excursions I found my daughter loved the beach at that age. We did the day at their private beach which was nice early in the day but got very crowded later on. Be sure to rent a "clamshell" and some rafts at the excursion desk before you get off the boat. The line on teh beach was crazy. Use your priority tender ticket to get to the beach early then maybe think about packing it in when it gets too packed and have a nice lunch on the ship. We got a day pass to the Sheraton on Nassau to use thier beach and pool. It came with a hotel room for the day for $99. It worked out well. We stayed on the boat in Port Carnaveral. The bus ride there and back to Orlando just seemed like too much for us since we just did Disney a few months before. We made great use of the courtyard pool. Many afternoons DD and I had it to ourselves and it is agreat escape from the madness of the main pool deck.

 

Have a great time on your cruise!

[O_2_TRAVEL]

My DD was on the Jewel when she was 3 and the Star at 4. We always had positive experiences and she LOVES Kids Crew.

 

DD is fairly adaptable in new situations. Here is my approach to the handling the kids clubs:

• Go to the first meet and greet. They will meet many of the children in their age group. DD would later seek out those same friends.
  
• Check the schedule and let the child know what the activites are.
  
• Let the child pick some activities in the club and some activities with you.
  
• Check in often at first to see if they are enjoying it
  
• Be flexible! If the child hates it, or isn't into it, adjust your schedules and make the best of it
  

I always think of the Kids club as activites for the kids, just like the ship has activities for the adults. You will like some of them, and some of them are not for you.

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

[dstewart1075]

Thanks so much for the advice! The Courtyard sounds amazing and I plan on really putting it to use.

 

Kids Club - I think I will try it out the 2nd day onboard and stay close by to keep an eye on her and see how she does. I guess we have nothing to lose. It might actually be harder on me than on her. lol If it doesn't work out, then no biggie, it will just be like every other cruise we've been on and we'll stay together.

 

Excursions - I have family/friends in the Orlando area so hopefully I'll just meet up with them, otherwise I'll stay on the boat. GSC - I'm definately going to have my concierge arrange to book us a clamshell and I plan on being out there as early as possible and getting back to the ship by lunch time. Nassau - Torn between the British Colonial Hilton and the Sheraton. Guess I'll check prices and review details on the two.

 

All of you thoughts are greatly appreciated!!! No matter what, I'm sure we'll have a wonderful cruise! Thanks again all!

[bill turcotte]

We been on NCL 3 times with our girls . They love it .

There is a kids buffet in the cafa .. Have your child eat thier .. She will meet all the kids who go to the kids club . Its an easy way for her to get use to the kids . Plus you get to meet all the kids and thier parents .

 

Are you going on your trip when school is open ?--sometimes thier ten kids in the club ,sometimes 50 .. But you will be admazed how much your child will like it .

 

Be carefull on the courtyard level . the pool is very close to the rooms .. but they are so nice its worth it .

Some of the kids club crew will babysit for extra money .

[lolakat]

I also considered the British Coloniel Hilton but went with the Sheraton. THe hilton is very close to the dock which could be good or bad. It doesn't have as much of a "resort" feel as the Sheraton. Although they both had day pass options the Hilton did not have an option that included use of a room in the hotel. We really liked having the room b/c DD took a nap there. The Sheraton pass was $99, I can't remember how much the Hilton pass was but it was less. If you go to the Bahamas destination boards below you will find a lot of discussion about resort day pass options.

 

To address bill turcotte's caution about safety with the courtyard pool: It's always good to be careful but the risk here is pretty low. The pool is with in an enclosed area separated from the hall where you exit the door form your room. So your little one would have to open the heavy door to your room and escape to the hallway then open another heavy door to get into the enclosed courtyard area. Plus there is a 2 foot tall "wall" surrounding the pool (just like the ones on the main deck) which your child would have to climb over to get in the pool So she can't really just fall in. So long as you're with her when she's in the courtyard I personally think it is pretty safe.

 

One other great thing about the courtyard is you can have your butler serve you a meal from ANY resturant in the courtyard at dinner time. So on nights when DD just wasn't up for a full resturant experiece at Le Bistro or Cagney's we would sometimes have the butler serve us in the courtyard. It was much more relaxed and we usually had the whole place to ourselves.

[dstewart1075]

Wow, all great responses! That's why I love these boards. :D

As some of you could tell from my post, she doesn't attend preschool or daycare yet so thats why I've been apprehensive. I'm not a stay at home mom but I do have my mother watching her while I work. Since she's my only one, I guess I can be a little overprotective at times. I do want her to gain some independence. That's important.

 

I will definately try to take everyone's advice. I will give it a go, keep a smile on my face, and like some of you said, I may be surprised. The main thing is at the end of the day I want us all to have fun. And if she seems to enjoy the kids club, I'll be sure to take her back often. The CV phone makes me feel a lot better.

 

bill turcotte: I'll be sailing in early June so I expect mostly toddlers on the cruise as most school kids are not out of school until end of June here on east coast.

 

As far as the courtyard, I get more excited everyday reading all about it. No worries about the courtyard pool because I never let her out of my sight around water and I'll also be getting her swim lessons this spring.

 

Thanks again all!;)

[bill turcotte]

You will have a great time . Are girls still talk about thier 1st cruise . The courtyard is like an upscale hotel . I love it .