Kids club age question

[Goodteam]

I have a 5 and 7 year old. Would my kids have any opportunity to be together in the kids club? My younger one would never want to be separated from her sister as she is used to that with DCL. Are they lenient or do I have to wait til next summer when they are 6 and 8?

 

Thanks

[sarahleebones]

My experience is that they are not lenient at all. I understand why but yes, it sucks. I'm in the same boat on another line. I have a 13yr old daughter who is 13 by days and her friend will be 12 so they would be separated.

 

I haven't heard of anyone getting around it, but who knows, someone on here may have more input....

[sarahleebones]

One thing I'd like to note is that it wouldn't hurt to register them both online during check in and to take them to the kids meet and greet the first night. Who knows, they may want to try it even though they will be separated.

[kicker]

We recently cruised Adventure OTS out of San Juan with our 6 yr old DGD. Very few kids onboard, so they grouped them by 3 to 5, 6 to 11, 12 & up. I was worried our DGD would be left out, being among the youngest, but most in the group were around her age, and the few older ones were helpful and well-behaved.

 

By all means plead your case to them. Hopefully if its a small group they might be willing to help. A cruise with more kids - might be tougher. Good luck!

[gerif]

I agree with taking them the first night and letting them make friends in their own group. Aren't they in different classes in school? I'm thinking the 9 year olds in the older group wouldn't be too happy having a 5 year old in their group.

[sarahleebones]

We recently cruised Adventure OTS out of San Juan with our 6 yr old DGD. Very few kids onboard, so they grouped them by 3 to 5, 6 to 11, 12 & up. I was worried our DGD would be left out, being among the youngest, but most in the group were around her age, and the few older ones were helpful and well-behaved.

 

By all means plead your case to them. Hopefully if its a small group they might be willing to help. A cruise with more kids - might be tougher. Good luck!

 

Thanks for this! Good to know! Sign em' up and see how it plays out. They aren't obligated so no harm.

[mollyeilis]

Aren't they in different classes in school? I'm thinking the 9 year olds in the older group wouldn't be too happy having a 5 year old in their group.

 

Exactly.

 

And if it's a lower-number-of-kids cruise, like what happened with a previous poster and the two Royal cruises we've done, the 6-8s are in with the 9-11s, so the 5 year old is in with an 11 year old.

 

There are people who do NOT like what DCL does, because you end up with 3 year olds and day-before-13th-birthday kids in the same space. That's a huge gap.

 

I'd talk to them about the difference, and how fun all these things will be, and then go the first night. See what happens. It's entirely possible they'll like what Royal has to offer (like counselors that get to know the kids, counselors that truly interact with the kids and create the games and play WITH them) and not mind that they aren't together.

[Goodteam]

They want to be together. The younger one is more comfortable w her sister

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

I have found Adventure Ocean to be very flexible. I have also found that after a couple of cruises kids above 8 are generally board in Adventure Ocean because they do the same things almost every cruise. The staff has always been great but if you cruise often the kids will soon become board in AO. My 11 year old daughter would want to stay all day and as late as possible at night in AO when she was 6 and 7. By 8 she was done with it.

[T.O.cruisers]

The Adventure Ocean staff wanted my almost 12 yr old granddaughter to at least try the 6-11 age group and my granddaughter was quick to say "that's not going to happen". When my daughter went to register all three kids she asked that the 11yr old be in the same group as her almost 14 yr old sister and there was no problem. I guess it depends on the staff person and ages of all the kids. My sailing had over 500 kids. All my kids had a great time.

[klfrodo]

They want to be together. The younger one is more comfortable w her sister

 

Aren't we all.

Then life happens

[Uncle Fester]

I agree with taking them the first night and letting them make friends in their own group. Aren't they in different classes in school? I'm thinking the 9 year olds in the older group wouldn't be too happy having a 5 year old in their group.

 

Unless they changed the age groups, I believe the 12 and 13 year olds will be together. The younger teen group runs from 12 to 14 and the older teens from 15 to 17.

[gpb]

Our daughters are 20 months apart, and we were always able to get the AO staff to place them together. Sometimes the staffer doing the registering was a little snippy about our request, but we persisted calmly and they acquiesced. Our girls always had a great time in AO, but finally opted out the year one girl was old enough for the teen activities, which she said were awkward.

[gerif]

Unless they changed the age groups, I believe the 12 and 13 year olds will be together. The younger teen group runs from 12 to 14 and the older teens from 15 to 17.

 

Yes, but the OP in the post to which I responded had a 5 and a 7 year old so I'm not sure what point you are making.

[JVilleGal]

Yes, but the OP in the post to which I responded had a 5 and a 7 year old so I'm not sure what point you are making.

 

 

She simply quoted the wrong post (yours) when she meant to quote post #10... Just a simple human mistake :)

[Goodteam]

Aren't we all.

 

Then life happens

 

 

Not sure what this means.

It's a family vacation. They want to go to the kids club and they want to go together. Plenty of other opportunities to learn the harsh realities of life and the real world.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies. Happy new year.

[spazzyjanet]

On Allure this week they let my almost-6-year-old into the 6-8 year age group, even though he is 3 months shy. We actually didn't even have to ask. The staff member in the 3-5 room took one look at him, asked his age, then suggested that he move up because the 3-5 age activities would probably bore him.

 

The 6-8 room staff member had no issues with him joining but told him that if he doesn't act mature and listen that he would have to move back down. So far so good.

[katpetal]

To add to the question, my daughter will be a week shy of 3, would they make her stick to the nursery? She's better at following directions than my 5yo lol

[dcgrumpy]

I think it depends. We were on Indy in August/September. There weren't many kids on board so they did allow some siblings to be put together in the same group. My daughter daughter was in the 9-11 yo group and she met a friend whose 8yo brother was allowed in their group.

[gerif]

To add to the question, my daughter will be a week shy of 3, would they make her stick to the nursery? She's better at following directions than my 5yo lol

 

My guess would be no - not based on maturity of the child but rather liability/insurance reasons.