January 5th 2015 Panama Canal with Kids

[travelnut1]

We'll be on the Star LA to Miami with our then 10 & 13 year old boys. It is our first cruise and a long one during a time when most kids are in school. I don't expect many other children onboard. Am I wrong? How does the kids staff handle activities when there are not many children on board? After reading through Dalies I know our 10 yr old would love to participate in many of the activities. And the 13yr old is going to want to be around other teens. Anyone who has done this cruise like this during the school year, I'd love to know how it went.

 

Thank you!

 

 

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[roger001]

We've done two PC cruises. And I don't remember many kids on board. Our cruises were on the Pearl for her re-positioning cruises, spring and fall. The cruise is a long cruise and during the school year. I'm assuming both issues could be the reason for not many kids. I don't know if an early Jan cruise would change that or not.

[Epic_Bear]

I crewed a Panama Canal cruise in 2001, as a Youth Coordinator, on the NCL Dream. There were 25-ish kids board, everyone was lumped together. This was after the Transatlantic cruise we had before it, when we had a whopping four kids!

[psbtrvlr]

We'll be on the Star LA to Miami with our then 10 & 13 year old boys. It is our first cruise and a long one during a time when most kids are in school. I don't expect many other children onboard. Am I wrong? How does the kids staff handle activities when there are not many children on board? After reading through Dalies I know our 10 yr old would love to participate in many of the activities. And the 13yr old is going to want to be around other teens. Anyone who has done this cruise like this during the school year, I'd love to know how it went.

 

Thank you!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

In December, prior to Christmas break, there were some children on board. I saw maybe a couple dozen. Never asked how many were really on board.

[cjcruises]

We just did the PC on Star (Dec 8-22). There were about 2 dozen kids onboard between the ages of 10 & 12. I'd say about half that many kids did kids club, at any given point, given that the combined the 7-12 yr olds and there were typically about 12-15 kids there on any given night. 2/3 of my kids loved the kids club, while the other one was pretty neutral.

My kids had a great time - they "made friends" with several adults on board, as they participated in just about every basketball, ping pong, and shuffleboard tournament.

I'm sure your kids will have a blast. The kids club staff is excellent.

[travelnut1]

Thank you everyone who has answered! I really appreciate the info. :)

 

 

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[roger001]

Thank you everyone who has answered! I really appreciate the info. :)

 

 

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And I might add, and I always do......do read The Path Between the Seas before you take the PC cruise. It's a long book, but super well written, easy to read, and will add sooo much more to your seeing the canal.

[travelnut1]

And I might add, and I always do......do read The Path Between the Seas before you take the PC cruise. It's a long book, but super well written, easy to read, and will add sooo much more to your seeing the canal.

 

Researching is half ok maybe a quarter of the fun for me, thanks!

 

 

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[ohiotek]

I hope you will join the Roll Call for this cruise and get involved in the discussions. We look forward to seeing you there.

[garycarla]

I crewed a Panama Canal cruise in 2001, as a Youth Coordinator, on the NCL Dream. There were 25-ish kids board, everyone was lumped together. This was after the Transatlantic cruise we had before it, when we had a whopping four kids!

 

And?

 

Original Question: "How does the kids staff handle activities when there are not many children on board?"

[kingclick]

We'll be on the Star LA to Miami with our then 10 & 13 year old boys. It is our first cruise and a long one during a time when most kids are in school. I don't expect many other children onboard. Am I wrong? How does the kids staff handle activities when there are not many children on board? After reading through Dalies I know our 10 yr old would love to participate in many of the activities. And the 13yr old is going to want to be around other teens. Anyone who has done this cruise like this during the school year, I'd love to know how it went.

 

Thank you!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

I'm booked on this same cruise but instead of in 2015 it's this Sunday! Our daughter is 10 and I was worried about the same thing. The good news is... For the 10 year old age group (10-12 years old) there are roughly 150 passengers in this age group. I didn't need to ask about the 13 year old age group.

 

I asked my agent to check into this. And this late in the game they can give you breakdowns of the different age groups. My son is also going and he is 18. 18-20 year olds only have about 50-60 passengers on the ship. And about the same for the 20-24 group.

 

Don't quote me for sure on those numbers...I didn't write them down and it was 3 days ago that my agent told me.

 

But I would just do this about maybe a month out from your cruise to get an idea of who will be cruising with you.

Edited January 2, 2014 by kingclick
Mistakes in dates

[djmess]

And?

 

Original Question: "How does the kids staff handle activities when there are not many children on board?"

 

I homeschool my son and we travel often at "off" school times.

In General the kids staff are wonderful and really get to know the small amounts of kids in the programs. They are super personable and always willing to do fun things with the kids

 

We've traveled with many kids at Thanksgiving. It's crazy then. But love when we travel when much smaller numbers. We've experienced very few (5-6) kids in his age group. He generally likes it when there are fewer kids. He usually gets to know a couple kids and they really play well and they "plan" when they want to go to the club and what will happen.

 

I remember one cruise on the Sun when my son and a buddy were the only kids that used the club on a regular basis. They both loved one particular counselor named "Tissel" He generally let the boys pick the activities they wanted to do. The boys were 8 & 9 at the time

 

My son has loved when they are more flexible (note: not all staff are flexible). Most recently, we were on the Pearl. Also, they had no Male counselors. This may have contributed to some of my son's not as positive experience. My son is now 10 and there were very few boys in the program, but he didn't care for the club as much. They were not as flexible and they also did not do a number of the activities as were posted. The activities that were not done, were all his favorites. In over 15+ cruises he has been on, he had not experienced this before. We were also cruising with friends and their son, so our boys hung out together and my son had a fabulous cruise. It was just this particular sailing where the kids club was not up to par with the past, but it was still OK.

 

We are doing the Panama Canal cruise in April, again on the Pearl. Hoping they have some new kids crew counselors.

 

But, all that being said. My son has ALWAYS loved the kids club and he can't wait to return to the Pearl.

[laniriveira]

We were on the jewel April 2013 for 17 nights NYC to LA and there were approximately 18 kids on board and two of them belonged to me! DS (6 at the time) and DD (3 at the time) enjoyed themselves tremendously!! They merged all the age groups together minus the newborn/toddlers (if there were any onboard). They had Nickelodeon activities as well as free play and scheduled activities. DS and DD enjoyed the one-on-one attention they received from the kids staff :)

[travelnut1]

More great info! I am feeling much more confident that our boys will have a good time. Thank you!

 

 

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[kingclick]

My daughter got nothing out of the kids club on the same cruise that you are planning to go on. She just connected with a handful of Australian girls instead because all the counselor a just wanted to play rummickube or some game like that. Never did the scheduled stuff for te dolphin age group of 10-12.

 

 

The adventure is in the planning.

Edited January 21, 2014 by kingclick