Which kids clubs are least structured?

[WillowHaven]

Hi everyone! This is my first post here, though I've been reading a ton for the last couple weeks. :cool:

 

I remember reading that the kids club for at least one line won't allow kids to do anything other than the planned activity for that time. My 7yo son will be fine with that. He's super social and wants to join in any fun. But, my younger son (4.5yo), often wants more space and to do his own thing. He's usually pretty happy with some Duplos or a train set.

DCL is out for us this trip. I will consider it for the future, though. The other main ones I am looking into are Royal, Norwegian, and Carnival.

 

Thanks for any help! :)

[kitkat343]

I can't advise as to the specific cruise lines you are considering, but would advise you to consider what we were told by the kids club staff on Princess. They told us it was really good that we had sailed on our cruise date (Jan 7th) instead of the previous cruise (over New Years). They had 150 children on the previous cruise, and 11 on ours. Our son was 2 at the time, and they were able to help him do whatever he wanted. When he wanted to paint, they brought him art supplies. But on the cruises with a lot of children they said that they needed to be more regimented because otherwise there would be chaos. So I would advise you to consider sailing outside of school holidays if possible for your younger child (although that might not be best for your oldest). Hopefully, others will have good advice on specific cruise lines.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Princess starts at 3 for the Pelicans. So I am confused about the above post.

[WillowHaven]

Yes, we will be going during school times. We homeschool, so there's a lot more flexibility with dates. I also like the idea of fewer kids.

[cb at sea]

Disney (surprisingly) is the least structured! But, you don't have to put your child into the "club" if he's happier on his own!

Edited June 27, 2014 by cb at sea

[kitkat343]

Rebeccalouise, you are correct that the drop off program for Princess starts at the age of three. For children younger than three or children who are not yet potty trained, parents can bring them to the KidZone and remain there to supervise their children. The KidZone staff gave my son the same arts and craft activities that the older toddlers did during arts and craft time and brought him supplies when he asked to draw and paint. The staff let us into the small toddler room, and my son got to play with balloons in a foam shape area. Watching him was much easier in the kid zone than elsewhere on the ship, and the staff was excellent.

[RSLeesburg]

I can't advise as to the specific cruise lines you are considering, but would advise you to consider what we were told by the kids club staff on Princess. They told us it was really good that we had sailed on our cruise date (Jan 7th) instead of the previous cruise (over New Years). They had 150 children on the previous cruise, and 11 on ours. Our son was 2 at the time, and they were able to help him do whatever he wanted. When he wanted to paint, they brought him art supplies. But on the cruises with a lot of children they said that they needed to be more regimented because otherwise there would be chaos. So I would advise you to consider sailing outside of school holidays if possible for your younger child (although that might not be best for your oldest). Hopefully, others will have good advice on specific cruise lines.

 

 

^ this...

 

We took our 3 y/o son on his first cruise, and we purposely selected a cruise outside of school holidays (end of Sept), and on a smaller ship with less bells and whistles (as they attract fewer families). We also were fortunate to be able to sail out of a port we could drive to, which made things very convenient (but not an option for everyone). Our cruise had about 20-30 kids, which was perfect. He goes to day care, but it's a very small program, so he would not be overwhelmed. We are trying a Thanksgiving cruise this year, as we think he might be better prepared for more kids...(fingers crossed).

 

We sailed on RCI, and although they had a schedule of activities for each day, I think they were more flexible with so few kids. We would recommend the RCI program, but have read good things about almost all the kids clubs. It does seem that some kids who cruise a lot will prefer one program over another, so there is no telling which program will be best for your children, but I would be comfortable putting our son in any of the common cruise lines.

 

 

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[ProfTW]

We have only taken one cruise with our son (8 years old at the time) and it was on Disney. As mentioned above, and much to our surprise as well, it was as unstructured or structured as the kids wanted. Disney offers choice. If your child wants to do the activity, they can do so. If not, there is lots of other activities for them to do on their own or with new found friends.

We don't have anything else to compare with at the moment but will be taking our son (now 10) on Princess shortly.

All the best in your research!

[Lerin]

We've found the clubs vary based on who is in charge and the numbers(and behaviors) of the other kids on board.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Rebeccalouise, you are correct that the drop off program for Princess starts at the age of three. For children younger than three or children who are not yet potty trained, parents can bring them to the KidZone and remain there to supervise their children. The KidZone staff gave my son the same arts and craft activities that the older toddlers did during arts and craft time and brought him supplies when he asked to draw and paint. The staff let us into the small toddler room, and my son got to play with balloons in a foam shape area. Watching him was much easier in the kid zone than elsewhere on the ship, and the staff was excellent.

 

Thanks for clarifying.

[xcell]

Disney +1 - it's a free for all...

 

some kids are watching experiments, other kids are doing arts and crafts and most are glued to the computer screens...

 

NCL and RCCL had nice programs...especially on the mega ships like Oasis/Allure as they have a separate room for arts, science experiments and even a mini theatre

[rarasnake]

With Carnival, it really depends on the number of children during kids time... My 5 year olds where in the younger Camp Carnival (which is age range 2-5). There were alot of younger kids in there during the day. While they tried to remain on a schedule, it did get knocked off because of the sheer amount of kids (there was around 35-40 kids that age range).

 

I can say, my boys did get a "run of activities" of what they wanted to play. When the younger ones went to grab up "baby activities," my older boys got to go play on the computers and video game systems.

 

Also, during the activities times, they asked me about if the boys didn't want to do the activity what I wanted to do. I told them, if they had another activity for them to do or if they had something they wanted to do, within camp (like play a game), if the counselors were okay with it, could they just do that activity instead. So, there was sometimes that I picked them up and one may have participated in the activity but the other boy didn't and had something else to do. We never were called, just out of a "your child is bored" or "your child doesn't want to participate in ___ activity" the whole cruise.

 

They never left the Camp area, so everything was contained with that room, while they were in Camp, which was the only draw back because they wanted to go explore the ship a lot (which we could only do as a family with them)...

Edited July 6, 2014 by rarasnake