23 month old able to 'sneak' into NCL kids club?

[dseeman]

We will be traveling with my 23 month old and 3 1/2 year old sons on NCL Sun. I know my older son will want to hang out in the kids club, and his little brother will want to do everything big brother does. It appears that they are allowing 2 year olds into the drop off club. What are the chances my above-averaged size 23 month old can be mistaken for an official 24 month old?

 

Will the kids crew have a list of all the kids and their ages, or do they rely on the honor system?

[beachchick]

We will be traveling with my 23 month old and 3 1/2 year old sons on NCL Sun. I know my older son will want to hang out in the kids club, and his little brother will want to do everything big brother does. It appears that they are allowing 2 year olds into the drop off club. What are the chances my above-averaged size 23 month old can be mistaken for an official 24 month old?

 

Will the kids crew have a list of all the kids and their ages, or do they rely on the honor system?

 

By the average person, the chances are good; for the cruise line and kids crew, absolutely zero. They have a list, including ages, of all children onboard. You cannot fake that birth date, which is used for boarding and must match the birth certificate exactly. They will know exactly how old your 23 month old is. Size and "maturity" will not matter at all. They do not make exceptions to the minimum age requirement of 2. Once in a while, they do make exceptions within the structure of the program for slightly older children to move down with younger siblings/friends; once in a very blue moon, they will allow a child who is very, very close to the next group to move up, but it depends on many factors and is not standard or common. However, the absolute minimum age of 2 to be allowed in at all has no flexibility whatsoever. If they allow in your almost age child, then every parent of an almost age child will expect the same treatment. As well, there are liability concerns because their insurance has been structured with this age minimum as a standard. They simply cannot risk it.

 

I know it's disappointing, but it's the way it should be, IMO.

 

beachchick

[crusinmama06]

Yep - beach chick is right. There is no "sneaking" when you are dealing with a cruise line who has the exact ages and birth dates of everyone onboard.

 

When we travel - we plan accordingly and have moved cruises to make an "almost 3 child" by 2 days to a child who was EXACTLY 3 in order to allow for the best activities onboard.

[6rugrats]

 

Will the kids crew have a list of all the kids and their ages, or do they rely on the honor system?

Just the fact that people ask this question shows you why they don't rely on the "honor" system.

 

Agree, zero chance.

[dorito6778]

i know that it cant hurt to ask if he can participate. on our last cruise on RCI, there was a girl who was def 2 in AO and on paper it says they have to be 3. but i'm guessing she was PTed (which is the post important factor) and they bent the rules. there were also less than 10 kids in this whole age group on our sailing, so i'm sure that had something to do with it as well.

[Onessa]

One of my co-workers used to work for the insurance company that covered liability for one of the major cruise lines. And while this was a while ago, she was involved in several instances (even where no incident happened and no claim resulted) where staff was fired for "bending" the rules. The company I work for once dropped a mid-sized hotel chain (after multiple violations) for not bothering to enforce libaility-related rules -- try getting insured after you've been dropped.

[Prinycesa07]

Just curious, is is 2 years old at the start of the cruise? Looking at booking one next year and if we took that one DS would turn 2 during the cruise. Would he be allowed in the club?

[Onessa]

Typically, age is age as of the beginning of the cruise

[bplazo]

Just the fact that people ask this question shows you why they don't rely on the "honor" system.

 

Agree, zero chance.

 

Good One!

[chipmaster]

Check in = birthcertificate or passport = equal cruise card with exact age.

 

Score yourself a fake passport and / or birthcertificat and you'll be golden :D

[Cruisin' Chick]

Our girl was 23 months of age on her first cruise, just one month short of the minimum age for Camp Carnival. We didn't both to ask if they would make an exception as we figured there's probably liability reasons and that they had the eligible names. All the kids did get invited to a first night party (no matter the age, as long as a parent was there) so she got to take part in that. The rest of the time, she was with the two of us, but that was okay as we got to see her enjoy running around the ship, well as much as a toddler can run around.

[B_Mc]

Yep - beach chick is right. There is no "sneaking" when you are dealing with a cruise line who has the exact ages and birth dates of everyone onboard.

 

When we travel - we plan accordingly and have moved cruises to make an "almost 3 child" by 2 days to a child who was EXACTLY 3 in order to allow for the best activities onboard.

 

We did exactly that for our upcoming trip! DS will turn 3 only 3 short days before we board!

[crusinmama06]

i know that it cant hurt to ask if he can participate. on our last cruise on RCI, there was a girl who was def 2 in AO and on paper it says they have to be 3. but i'm guessing she was PTed (which is the post important factor) and they bent the rules. there were also less than 10 kids in this whole age group on our sailing, so i'm sure that had something to do with it as well.

 

Yes but this is NCL and not RCI. ;) I have a little bit of experience with NCL. And this is what they tell me. When a child is turning 2 ON A SHIP - then that is the day that the child can attend the camp. Even if it's the last day onboard. Carnival has the same policy.

 

So until that child is officially 2 - they cannot attend the program.

 

And I am actually surprised that RCI even entertained the thought. They *usually* have the same guidelines but maybe since the child was potty trained and they have the new nursery onboard - their insurance liability might be different.