Fun Factory / Traveling With Kids Review -Solstice Alaska

[morolica]

This post has gotten super long, so I am going to break it into 5 posts, including this one. The fifth post will have shots of the Fun Factory daily activities so you can get a better idea of what they do.

 

PART I - Child Related Non-Fun Factory Stuff

 

First, although this review is based on our experiences on the Solstice 5/29 sailing to Alaska much of it should be generally true on the other S (and maybe even M) class ships.

 

Being our first cruise on Celebrity, my first cruise ever, and my wife's first cruise since before marriage/children we weren't sure what to expect and couldn't seem to find a ton of information about the FF other than the generalities. So I thought I would try to put as much info about the Fun Factory up as I could for other parents to see.

 

CABIN

Our boys are 6 and 9. We travelled with my in-laws and had adjoining rooms. Instead of a door between them they had two doors that sealed off the entry alcove from the hallway, allowing the standard entry doors to our cabins to be left open or closed at our discretion. Much nicer than having a door opening between our rooms, which would have been much less private and taken up a good bit of valuable space as well.

 

We had an upper birth which the steward would lower from the ceiling each night and set up with railing and ladder. She would also pull the mattress out from the big drawer under the couch and turn the couch into another bed (albeit a not very comfortable one but my sons didn't seem to mind).

 

FOOD

There were a lot of choices in the buffet for breakfast and lunch. Even our youngest, who can be picky, found a lot to eat. We did not buy them drink packages so they stuck to water, lemonade, orange juice, fruit punch and (my personal favorite) orange passion fruit guava juice. It is quite tasty. It can also be a bit on the too sweet side so try cutting it by adding a little lemonade to let the bitterness cut the sweet. I drank gallons of it.

 

They have a kids menu in the MDR or they can order off the main menu. Our youngest used the kids menu exclusively. Our oldest mixed it up more.

 

Celebrity was also very easy to deal with when it came to dietary needs/restrictions. For one thing, each item on the menu denotes if it is dairy or gluten free. You can also contact Celebrity before your sailing - I would suggest more than a week or two ahead - and arrange to have special items on board.

 

Our oldest and dairy don't get along so well so we arranged ahead of time for them to have almond milk in the MDR for him. Every night our waiters had a cold glass waiting for him when we got there.

 

They also had a sorbet or two to choose from from the dessert menu every night as well as in the Ice Cream Bar.

 

We also asked them for sweet potato fries and they had them on hand and prepared them a couple of nights for the boys (although I am not sure if we asked ahead of time or they just happened to have some).

 

Our waiters, Baliram and Michael, were super attentive to the boys and pointed out any dish that contained a trace of dairy to my wife before our oldest ordered.

[morolica]

PART II - Fun Factory Basics

 

AGES/GROUPS/NUMBERS/LAYOUT

Children are grouped by age: 3-5 (Shipmates), 6-8 (Cadets), and 9-12 (Ensigns) and each group has separate areas on the starboard side of the ship while the 13-17 crowd has the port side for the X Club (although the 9-12 group sometimes used the XClub when it was vacant for table tennis or other things.)

 

We were told that there were 100 kids from 3-17 on our cruise. The week before had 70, with diminishing numbers each week back to the first cruise of the season. By the end of July the numbers of children were expected to surpass 300 to 400 children. August will start to see a steep decline in children as schools started back up again.

 

I don't think we ever saw more than 8 kids in any one age group at a time, and usually more like 4 or 5, except for maybe at the Talent Show.

 

The 3-5 year old group has their area to one side of the check-in desk, completely separated from the others. Other than sitting in there when we filled out the paperwork I never paid any attention to it since our boys weren't in there. It did seem nice, though. We never got any fliers with what they were doing and I don't believe I ever saw them leave their area.

 

The 9-12 area is at the end of the hallway past the 6-8 area, which is partitioned off so they can't wander away. Starting at age 9, children can sign themselves in and out of the Fun Factory if their parents allow it. Below 9 they must be signed out by their parents or another adult designated by the parent who knows the secret code word selected by the parents during the sign in process.

 

The sport court/Sport Deck is located between the FF and XClub, and the arcade (which has "pay to play" games that are different from the free to use PS3 or XBOX games located in the Fun Factory and XClub) is on the same hallway as the entries to the FF and XClub. I would post pictures but they have a "No Pictures in the Fun Factory" sign on the door so I didn't take any.

 

The kids area is located on deck 15 forward. You can reach it from the forward stairs or the center two of the forward elevators. The outer two stop at 14. You can also reach it via exterior stairs on the port side of the ship from The Mast Grill/Deck 14. Using those stairs you pass through the arcade before reaching the kids area.

 

GENERAL INFO

They have an open house the afternoon of departure day where you can visit and ask any questions.

 

When you first bring your child(ren) to the Fun Factory you will meet with one of the staff who will go over the rules and get you to fill out some paperwork. Just the basic stuff. Allergies, meds, your info, who can pick up, secret password, can they sign themselves in/out (only for 9 and up) and can they go with chaperoned groups to other parts of the ship.

 

They will also get a colored wrist band to wear for the duration of the trip that has their muster station on it. In case of a muster station emergency the ship's staff will deliver the children to their assigned muster stations to meet their families.

 

The kids are required to wash their hands as soon as the enter their area in the FF. Ours (and all the others there that we saw) did it automatically every time after being asked the first time. We, however, had to spend the entire trip reminding them to wash their hands.

 

If you have children in different age groups they may not spend a lot of time together. Sometimes our boys did some of the same things together, like snacks and going to the hot glass show, but other times the activities are done by a specific age group only.

 

HOURS/FEES

The Fun Factory is open every day free of charge from 9am-noon, 2pm-5pm, and 7pm-10pm. On sea days it is also open from 12-2 for the "chill zone" - no organized activities just reading or watching a movie.

 

For a fee of $6/hr per child on port days they will watch your children and take them to the buffet for lunch (12-2 -"Lunch Party) and dinner (5-7 -"Dinner Party) and then return them to the FF. They spend the rest of that time watching a movie, reading or playing a game.

 

On sea days and port days where the ship leaves at 5pm or earlier, the Dinner Party is free. We used the Dinner Party twice, for the Formal Night dinner parties.

 

The Dinner Party has a preset menu so they don't have the run of the whole buffet, although if only one or two kids are there I think they just help them choose from the buffet. I believe the menu features hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, pizza, cookies, ice cream. Probably some sort of vegetable but my boys didn't opt for it if there was.

 

At night, from 10pm-1am they have a Slumber Party, were they again charge you $6/hr per child to watch them while you go out and enjoy yourselves. We never did this, but don't be late. There is a $20 late fee that increases to $25/hr. From what I understand the kids can slumber or party, probably depending on age and parent's desires.

 

The first night (leaving Seattle) the Slumber Party was free on our cruise. It was not free any other night.

 

We didn't use it, but there is a complimentary Early Morning Party option for those parents booked on a Celebrity excursion that departs before 9am. I guess if you booked your own excursion you could ask about paying for the early morning party.

 

VIP PASS

On our cruise I believe it was $99 per child and included free access to all of the paid lunch, dinner and slumber parties, plus a goodie bag full of Celebrity swag. There is also a bridge tour (but my son was signed up for it so maybe they aren't too strict on this?) and theatre tour where they get to meet the stars that are included.

 

To us it wasn't worth it. The boys got a decent bit of Celebrity souvenirs from various game giveaways anyway and we wouldn't use the paid time nearly enough to make it worth it. I believe that we met only one child that was signed up for it.

 

Of course we were traveling with my in-laws so there was no need for the slumber party. If it were to be just the four of us on a future cruise then would we might think more about it.

[morolica]

PART III - What They Do In The Fun Factory

 

ACTIVITIES

During the standard operating times they hold a number of age appropriate activities, usually with a theme for each three hour block of time (Pirates, Super Heroes, Design Your Own Cruise Ship). The themes and/or theme related activities are not always the same across the different groups, with the older children doing more complex activities. Each block usually includes some arts and craft time, game time and relax/reading time. There is also a good bit of video game time included. One day they get to meet the captain and have pictures taken with him.

 

The kids get a big flat white paper bag/envelope to put their arts and crafts creations in each day and it makes a handy carrier to take them all with them on the last day. They even made their own paper super hero costumes and wore them around the ship on the scavenger hunt.

 

They do take the children from the Fun Factory to other parts of the ship, if you allow it. They will go for a snack to the Oceanview Cafe, on a scavenger hunt, galley and bridge tours (I thought the bridge tour was just for the VIP kids, but my youngest was signed up for it and he wasn't a VIP), the hot glass show, and a couple of other things that escape me. One time the 9-12 group went swimming in the solarium and got an hour of free game play in the arcade. Sometimes they all go together and sometimes only a certain age group goes.

 

They also start practicing for a Talent Show, held on the last full day, a day or two before it happens. It is held in Celebrity Central, where they show the movies. About 30 kids participated in total, which is I think pretty much the number of kids who showed up more than once during the week.

 

Each night with the Celebrity daily you will get a separate daily listing tomorrow’s activities for the group your children are in. While they seemed to stick to this pretty much, I think there is some room for variance if none of the kids want to do something.

 

FAMILY EVENTS

They also have Family Activities pretty much each day, like Family Movie Night, Family Dance Party, Family Photo Scavenger Hunt, Family Bingo and Family Dodgeball. (No head shots allowed, they were very adamant about that.)

 

Loved the dodgeball. Kids vs Parents in a no holds barred, in your face, last man standing kind of family love fest. The parents in our group, while outnumbered, held their own and won the first several games. Then the FF staff made us switch to throwing with our non-dominant hands and we got our tails handed to us.

 

The Bingo prizes were pretty much Celebrity branded swag, although one kid did walk out with a drink package (the non-alcoholic kind, I'm sure). My wife won a nifty Celebrity back pack kind of thing. I forget what my youngest won, I think maybe a lanyard for his SeaPass that featured some cartoon character that quickly replaced the Celebrity one that he won at some other game earlier in the week.

 

We didn't do the Family Movie because we were not super happy with the appropriateness of it for our youngest, but maybe we are on the over protective side. The Book of Life just felt a little dark for him. I'm sure others won't have a problem with it.

 

SWIMMING

On our cruise, the solarium pool was open for family use from 10 am to noon and again from 4-5 pm every day of the cruise. I'm not sure if the hours open are affected by the number of children because the dailies posted from the first Solstice trip in the beginning of May, which had a good bit fewer children, only allowed one hour in the morning and the same hour in the afternoon.

 

We did see several children using the main pool and the splash pad, and a few in the hot tub, but the hot tub is supposed to be off limits so a pool butler could ask them to get out. Of course we had perfect sunny weather all week.

[morolica]

PART IV - Staff and Our Take

 

STAFF

The staff were great. Friendly and responsible. I believe that there were eight of them. They knew all of the kids by name the first time they showed up and all of them had prior experience working with children. A couple had been teachers and the rest had child care backgrounds. The head of the Fun Factory, Ella, was a lot of fun and a pleasure to interact with (technically I think she is the Youth Program Manager). Whenever we would see her around the ship she always made sure to stop and talk with the boys and us.

 

I asked at the Customer Relations desk and the FF staff isn't included in the daily gratuities so we did tip them at the end. Ben, the Cruise Director, suggested something like $5/day when I asked him about it so we put the money in an envelope and wrote a thank you note and gave it to a counselor on our final day.

 

OUR TAKE

The boys loved it and we did too. That was pretty much all our youngest wanted to do, other than swim. While they didn't use it all day ever, they certainly did use it at least for a little while every day, which is way more than we thought they would pre cruise. Celebrity doesn't make it seem too appetizing with the way they portray it on their website.

 

We would hang the next days activities up in the cabin next to the daily and the boys would make note of the things they wanted to do on both and then decided what had priority if there was a conflict between the FF and the regular ships activities.

 

Pretty much all the ship activities they did was Tracy Arm Fjord, several of Brent Nixon's presentations, and the show on the final formal night. The rest of the time they were more interested in the FF.

 

We had 6pm fixed dining and I would usually take them up after dinner or before dessert if there was something they really wanted to do going on. My wife and I would hit a show and then just have enough time to get them before it hit 10.

 

On Alaska port days that was about all they got. On sea days and Victoria day they spent a good bit of the day there.

 

I think the small size and more individualized attention the staff were able to give the children made it very welcoming and more fun than a large group would have been. Our oldest made a friend and they have been keeping in touch since we got home.

 

We also got to know some of the other parents a bit through interacting with them at the FF or FF events.

 

 

That's about all I can think of. I will dig up the daily activities and post them below tonight or tomorrow so that you can get a better idea of what they will be doing.

 

If you have any questions just ask and I will try to answer them.

[Glammy Grammy]

Thanks so much for such an in depth review. I'm taking my daughter and granddaughter who is 7 on their first cruise in August on Eclipse, I've been wondering about the children's facilities having never used them before. It sounds great, and I'm sure she will have a fab time. Glad you all enjoyed your cruise.

[JulesAS]

Thank you!

[CanadianDee]

Brilliant review! Thanks so much.

[Keith1010]

Excellent review.

 

Keith

[fuinseog]

Incredibly helpful. Thank you!

[flacs1028]

Was the Fun Factory open the first day onboard? If so, did it open at 7:00pm?