Princess Pelicans - Does it ever get full?

[CruisingMom2010]

Just curious if you need to make reservations if you plan to leave your child at that play area? DH and I are considering an excursion during one of our stops on our Alaskan cruise, but I worry that there won't be availability for my 3 year old to be watched in the Pelican Princess room.

 

Do they accommodate all kids who want to enter, or do they have a limit?

[Coral]

I don't think they have a limit (especially in Alaska where there are not many kids) but don't know about port hours. Hopefully by bumping this to the top, someone who knows can answer.

[dread_pirate]

I would be concerned about leaving a child in the program and leaving the ship; what if something happens? Many ships (like NCL) won't allow it.

 

In the Princess policy handbook, it says:

Pagers

Parents may be required to carry a pager to facilitate communication with Youth Staff. Parents may be paged for the following reasons: diaper change needed, continuous crying, unruly conduct, child not picked up when Center closes, and emergencies. Parents are to return to the Youth Center when paged. Pagers must be returned at the end of each session. A charge of $50 USD will be applied to your stateroom account for lost/unreturned pagers.

(emphasis added) If you're paged you couldn't return to the ship.

[CruisingMom2010]

Ah okay... I'm just starting to read up on all the Princess policies. :) We just got off a Disney cruise, and they had babysitting services, we were able to do a couple of excursions on our own. Perhaps the Pelican room doesn't accommodate that. No biggie... we are planning on bringing her with us most of the time, just thought it would be nice to have one day by ourselves.

 

I am very curious how the Pelican room works though... the website doesn't seem to have much information about it, unless I'm missing something.

 

If she's comfortable, it sounds like we can just drop her off during the day (at sea days) and we carry a pager... I think she's really going to love this, she loves to play with other kids. It will be a good break for her during the at sea days...

[miss.jackie]

Ah okay... I'm just starting to read up on all the Princess policies. :) We just got off a Disney cruise, and they had babysitting services, we were able to do a couple of excursions on our own. Perhaps the Pelican room doesn't accommodate that. No biggie... we are planning on bringing her with us most of the time, just thought it would be nice to have one day by ourselves.

 

I am very curious how the Pelican room works though... the website doesn't seem to have much information about it, unless I'm missing something.

 

If she's comfortable, it sounds like we can just drop her off during the day (at sea days) and we carry a pager... I think she's really going to love this, she loves to play with other kids. It will be a good break for her during the at sea days...

 

The Pelican room will be open during port days, called Port Day Supervision. The hours of operation would just depend how long the ship is in port. On my last Alaska cruise, it was usually open from 9-5 and then opened again at 6 pm to resume regular evening care. It'll probably be different though so I would say check the Pelican Patters when you first get on because it will say what time the centre is open for port day supervision. If you're planning an excursion & want to drop your child in Pelican room, you'll have to make a reservation by telling the youth staff at least a day in advance. This is their protocol so they know how many children are going to be in their care & it helps them for staffing reasons. They'll probably want an estimated time for drop off & pick up too.

 

You're correct in that pagers are only given to you on sea days when you drop her off in the Pelican room but not for port day supervision. I hope this helps!

[CruisingMom2010]

Oh thank you! This does help me! I wasn't sure if we were going to try to do an "adult" excursion one day, but it sounds like we should be able to! I hear there usually aren't a lot of kids on the Alaskan cruises so there'll probably be space for her... And I believe I can cancel an excursion within 24 hours to avoid a fee, so I should know once we're on board if it'll be possible.

 

Thanks so much!

 

*and I hate to sound like a parent who is trying to get rid of her kid the whole trip, lol... Just hoping for a little alone time with DH, most likely just one of the port days. :)

[tmitchell82]

One thing you can do is shortly before your cruise, you can call Princess and they will give you the numbers of kids sailing on the ship, well at least the numbers in the Pelican's and Shockwaves groups. Think they broke it down by gender as well. Have never seen the kids club anywhere close to full, but we have never sailed when school was out.

 

Tim

[beg3yrs]

I hear there usually aren't a lot of kids on the Alaskan cruises so there'll probably be space for her...

 

Don't count on that. Alaska is a great itinerary on which to take the kids. You might not get as many kids as on Thanksgiving or Christmas, but you'll still have plenty around.

 

We took the grandkids to Alaska in late June - the kids clubs were packed but .. not overflowing.