Adventure Ocean Questions

[Boatingmom]

Help! I'm looking for some feedback on Adventure Ocean or Adventure Beach as we're sailing with a 5 & 7 yo in April 05. Is there a fee and do parents participate? What does the presentation that is given for families on the first night entail? If you choose to leave children there do you sign them in and are you given walkie talkiesor pagers like on Disney? Do really shy children really enjoy it??? Is adventure beach fully enclosed? Can I still get some son while with the kiddies??

[jwlane]

There is no cost, and parents do not participate. The first nite is an introduction of the staff, and an explanation of the ins and outs, rules and procedures for the week. When you sign up for the program, the parents are given a pager for the week. Kids are signed in each session, and parents must note who is authorized to pick them up and the end of each session. Our son is not shy, but I've seen some reluctant kids won over in the first couple of days. We haven't been on a ship with Adventure Beach yet, and I'm not sure what your last sentence means.

[ineedacruise]

Here are some pictures. It looks perfectly safe and you will be able to get some sun.

 

http://guillaumin_mj.club.fr/onboard/photos/publicspaces/12/advocean/advocean.html#Anchor-advbeach

 

http://oasis.fortunecity.com/tropicana/431/Voyagertour36.html

[later]

There are some family events with the club. Most club time is kids only. Two of the family events I can think of that you can particiate in are ice skating and watching the talent show the kids put on. The club is free. There is a charge for after hours time at the club. My daughter is nine and loves the kids club. My only problem is getting here away from the club to do some things together with the family.

[say cheez]

We just got back from Mariner 2-13-05 cruise. My 5 yr old daughter & 7 yr old son LOVED Adventure Ocean. They begged to go there. When we had the intro to AO, I filled out the required papers (name, age, allergies, health concerns,...) The parents of 3-5 year olds had the option of signing out a beeper when they drop off their child. I chose not too. My 5 yr old is typically a quiet, shy girl who will watch others around her until comfortable enough to join on. She enjoyed the various activities and was eager to attend. By the middle of the week, my kids had made friends with others. Each session (typically one in AM, PM, & Evening) had a different "theme." (Planets, Bugs, Pajama Party, Pirates, Clowns, Circus, Camping, Sports Night, etc.) My 7 yr. old son enjoys making new friends and being involved. He had no problem joining in. The 3-5 yr olds are next door to 6-8 yr olds. Pay attention to your daily compasses. One day the kids (6-8) did a Circus performance on the Promenade. Then on another night both of my kids had their faces painted to look like pirates and they were led through the ship by the leaders. They were repeating a chant about overthrowing the captain and taking over the ship. Really cute! Don't miss it! There was even opportunities for the parents to sign their kids up to eat dinner with the AO staff at Johnny Rockets. We won't cruise without Adventure Ocean! Great activities and staff! Only cost was if you wanted your child to stay after 10:00 pm. They charged $5.00 an hour per kid. They charge it to your sea pass card and will bill you in smaller increments of time too. You have to sign up for it at AO that day.

[bevo]

How old do the kids have to be to be able to come and go as they please?

[bevo]

Anybody know?????? PLEASE!!!

[NancyB84]

I think just the ones older than 9 could sign themselves in and out... but if they had a younger sibling, they could sign the sibling in and out too. My kids were 8 and 10 and I know the group that my 10 year old was in could sign themselves in and out... as well as sign the younger siblings in and out with them. But that was something that the parents had control of... they didn't just let the kids do it, you had to sign a paper saying it was ok!!!!! I have always said that the one thing that will keep us loyal to RCCL is Adventure Ocean. It was great. The staff was incredible with the kids!!!! No worries about your kids enjoying themselves. Have a great cruise.

[bevo]

Thanks,Nancy! That will make it easier. Do you remember any of the themes or activities the kids did in the 9-11 age group? My kids are getting excited and want to know some of the things they do...

[NancyB84]

The 9-11's did lots of sports, ga ga ball and crazy ball were favorites. They made parachutes and dropped them off the walkway above the sports deck, they made a volcano and erupted it, painted t shirts, played play station and computer games, they made their own candy. Lots of fun things. They also earned Adventure Ocean dollars for every session that they went to and turned them in for prizes at the end. (not sure if they are doing that anymore or not, our cruise was almost a year ago). There were also some family activities... like a scavenger hunt and bingo!!!! They also did alot with the group one age level younger too because there were so few kids on our sailing.

[bevo]

Thank you,Nancy! We can hardly wait!!!

[unique]

Here is a site that may help you. I was able to look up the daily activities on the Mariner for my 10 year old. http://cruiseclues.com/menus.htm#cruisemenus find your cruise and click on it and it gives you options. I looked at the menus, AO activities, and the daily compass.

[bevo]

Why thank you, Unique! I appreciate that!!! :)

[kajohn]

We just got back from the Explorer a week ago. They did not pass out adventrue ocean dollars on our cruise for participation. They were however given a gift when they first signed up, my 7 year old got an adventure ocean lanyard and my 9 and 11 year olds received very nice adventure ocean visors.

 

As far as how old you could be to sign yourself out; at the welcome aboard show, they stated 6 and up could sign themselves out if the parents signed consent. I was not comfortable with that, so we did it for our 7 year old, but my 9 and 11 year olds did it themselves. The only time they couldn't was late night becuase they didn't have charge priveldeges on their sea passes, so we had to go up to pay for their late night sessions.

[Sun and Fun]

Not all children love Adventure Ocean. We cruised in January on the Radiance with our 4-1/2 year old and his friend (same age). The boys went to the welcome meeting with us and enjoyed the volcano eruption (very simple science experiment conducted by a staff member). We thought they'd love it - we were wrong. We dropped them off the next day (we only got one pager between our two families - they ran out). After 45 minutes we checked back. My son had been crying uncontrollably for almost the entire time - they said they were just about to page us. He goes to child care, so he is used to it, however, this wasn't for him. The boys made us PROMISE they'd NEVER go back there :rolleyes: .

 

We are booked next January (there are 37 of us total with 19 of them children under the age of 9 - mostly 4 and 5 year olds). So, we'll try again and see if they want to go. It looked like fun, but not all enjoy it.

 

BTW, when we were dropping them off there was another girl - 5 years old - that was SCREAMING and crying. She did not want to be there. Her Mom simply said that "Going to camp was not an option". However, the next day and subsequent days we saw the little girl with one of her parents at all times. I guess they gave in.:rolleyes:

[NickAndysMom]

We just got off the Vision yesterday. My 7-year-old LOVED Adventure Ocean. He cried when we had to leave for the last time.

 

My 4 1/2-year-old liked it too, but was not as anxious to spend time there as his older brother was.

 

The big problem I have with the program is that there is nowhere for the little ones to lie down when they are tired, at least that was the case on our ship. On the Princess and Carnival cruises I've taken, the after hours sessions for the younger kids were centered on quiet time with a video, like a p.j. party. The kids all had blakets & pillows, and most of them fell asleep before parents picked them up.

 

On the Vision, though, they had no pillows or blankets, and the after hours time seemed to be pretty much a free-for-all. My younger son was tired & they let him lie down in "the cave", but he wasn't particularly comfortable.

 

I think the program is really great for kids older than about 5. So, we'll probably stick to Princess for the next couple of years.

 

Incidentally, there were about 500 kids on our cruise! Overall, they were a great group, really well-behaved. I never would have guessed that there were quite that many kids aboard had I not been told.

 

Also, be sure to take plenty of Motrin, Tylenol, etc., when cruising with your kids. My younger son only participated in the first 3 days of Adventure Ocean. He developed some sort of virus, as did several of the other Adventure Ocean kids, and spent most of his time in our room with a high fever. I don't blame Royal Caribbean for this. It's bound to happen at this time of year whenever you have 500 kids in one place! I was just glad that I'd packed lots of medicine.