10-year Old and Kids' Club on the Escape

[Nator72]

Hi. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what there is to do for a 10-year old in the Kids' Club? Our son isn't a big joiner of things, but I'm hoping if there are video games, he may want to go. My husband and I will definitely want some alone time as well as gambling time, so it would be nice if he had a place where he liked to go.

Edited March 5, 2016 by Nator72
Escape

[travelinmoma]

I'm so glad you posted this. I'm in the same boat. Mine is shy and not much of a joiner, but would be happy to play Minecraft if that's a possibility.

[LrgPizza]

My son was in that age range (Dolphins, ages 10-12) on his last 2 cruises. He is mostly a loner and video game geek. He LOVED the kids club, and wanted to be there every single minute they were open. They have organized activities every minute they are open, and they were all things that interested him. They don't force kids to do these activities but they have a way of making them fun for everyone. Keep in mind that this staff are professional and trained to try to appeal to and include all kids regardless of personalities, and they do a great job of it. They do have some video game stuff, but that can vary on different ships. I hope someone here can post the Freestyle activity guide for this age group so you guys can show your kids and check it out.

Edited March 6, 2016 by LrgPizza

[psmom227]

Last June on the Getaway, which was our first cruise, we basically had to pry my then 8-year old son from the kids club! He loved it to the point of wanting to go line up before they opened! The employees there really knew how to interact with the kids to make all of them feel welcome and to make sure they all have fun. :)

[ncklhaus]

The Splash Academy dailies for the 10-12 year olds (Breakaway 14 day Southern Caribbean). Hopefully this will give your son a good idea of what to expect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page 3 is pretty blurry, so I added page 3 from the 6-9 year old group. They are pretty similar

 

[CdnArtyWife]

Thank you for those pictures, they are very helpful!

 

My daughter is 12 (only a month shy of 13 at time of sailing) she is already disappointed that she won't be able to go to the Entourage Teen Zone like her brother (he is quite happy, however). Will she still need a parent to sign her out of Splash Academy? If so, I might have to just surprise her with that info, and hope that she has too much fun to complain about not having her independence.

[NCLfamily]

She will be able to sign herself out if you sign a waiver at the start.

[Mirrasi]

It depends on the kid. Mine is 10 and not a huge fan of the kids clubs.

 

That being said I do request some adult time and so he knows ahead of time he will have to go. When he does go, he has a good time. He just prefers the pool and outside deck. It's mostly joined activities but the staff are very good at getting the kids involved. They also have some really cool events. My son was sad he missed the show where they went on stage.

 

 

Even if your child is apprehensive, they never have a bad time in there. Just plan on it ahead of time.

[packer99]

We just got off the Escape yesterday. My son is 11. He attended only one of the kid clubs actvity. He wasn't thrilled with the schedule. We let him bring his phone so we downloaded the I concierage app so when he went off on his own, we could communicate. He is pretty independent so we let him go to the ropes course and video arcade by himself. We set a limit on the arcade and he knew we could track so he never cheated. Lol. He knew the ship better than anyone else in our group and he was the only kid. We also let him go to the water park alone but we typically were hanging out on that level anyways.

[Always Cruising]

To CdnArtyWife - in the age 10-12 group, my understanding is if you give permission to Splash Academy, your daughter can sign herself out once she has been in the club for 2 hours.

[asdjl]

We had a similar experience to packer99, none of my 3; 8, 10, 13, liked the clubs but found plenty to do on the ship. They participated in ship activities and would go to the sports deck, ping pong, ropes course, mini golf, etc. He would meet other kids doing that stuff on his own time, I was not concerned about adult time, etc so it wasn't a big deal to me we all had a great time

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[renata102]

This will be my 10 year old sons 4 cruise and and my 14 year old daughter 5 th cruise. My daughter and son can be shy but once I got them in some programs I had to beg to get them out so we can spend family time. I gave them non negotiable. When they were younger in regards to these kids clubs. I told them they don't have to go if they don't want to throughout the day BUT if mommy or daddy wanted a date they had no choice but go to the club. Usually our foods stayed with us throughout the day down to dinner and an aftershow. Then they would go for a few hours to kids clubs. Sometimes they would go on sea days. S

[jdmerck]

We just got off the Escape yesterday. My son is 11. He attended only one of the kid clubs actvity. He wasn't thrilled with the schedule. We let him bring his phone so we downloaded the I concierage app so when he went off on his own, we could communicate. He is pretty independent so we let him go to the ropes course and video arcade by himself. We set a limit on the arcade and he knew we could track so he never cheated. Lol. He knew the ship better than anyone else in our group and he was the only kid. We also let him go to the water park alone but we typically were hanging out on that level anyways.

 

What is this app you are talking about??? and how did yall communicate on the ship??? I am worried about the communication with my 13yr old this Oct, we allowed him to check out of the kids club on Royal this past Xmas and we bought walkie talkies which did not work, and with the Escape being so big I worry about him, I want to be able to communicate threw the day and or night when we are not together

[LrgPizza]

What is this app you are talking about??? and how did yall communicate on the ship??? I am worried about the communication with my 13yr old this Oct, we allowed him to check out of the kids club on Royal this past Xmas and we bought walkie talkies which did not work, and with the Escape being so big I worry about him, I want to be able to communicate threw the day and or night when we are not together

 

If he has an iPhone or Android you can all download an app called iConcierge. Once on the ship, you can pay a fee of $7.95 per device for the entire cruise that allows you to text or call each other through the app.

 

We gave our son (then 11) privileges to sign himself out of the club. BUT he was not allowed to do so unless he had contacted us through iConcierge first and gotten permission, so that we knew he wasn't just wandering the ship. The club requires them to stay a minimum of 2 hours before they are allowed to sign themselves out.

 

Also, when he wasn't using the club, we always gave each other 2 places that we would be. That way if we looked for each other at one spot, and weren't there, then we'd go to the other spot. If we were going to be anywhere other than one of those 2 spots, then we had to find the others in our party to let them know. Basic communication works wonders.

Edited March 6, 2016 by LrgPizza

[mjkacmom]

If he has an iPhone or Android you can all download an app called iConcierge. Once on the ship, you can pay a fee of $7.95 per device for the entire cruise that allows you to text or call each other through the app.

 

We gave our son (then 11) privileges to sign himself out of the club. BUT he was not allowed to do so unless he had contacted us through iConcierge first and gotten permission, so that we knew he wasn't just wandering the ship. The club requires them to stay a minimum of 2 hours before they are allowed to sign themselves out.

 

Also, when he wasn't using the club, we always gave each other 2 places that we would be. That way if we looked for each other at one spot, and weren't there, then we'd go to the other spot. If we were going to be anywhere other than one of those 2 spots, then we had to find the others in our party to let them know. Basic communication works wonders.

 

That poster's ds will be in the teen club, no signing in or out.

[LrgPizza]

That poster's ds will be in the teen club, no signing in or out.

 

Thanks! That's correct. I skipped right over that 13 part, since the rest of the thread had been about Dolphins age kids. Sorry for the confusion. Others can benefit from that info, and the quoted poster can benefit from the rest of my post.

[Mirrasi]

The app was very spotty last year. Are they working better now?

[LrgPizza]

The app was very spotty last year. Are they working better now?

 

It worked fine for us on Getaway and Epic in 2014, and on Escape in 2015, so I don't know if it's working better now. If you remember that sometimes you need to refresh the app to see messages, then no problems. It isn't always as flawless and instantaneous as regular text messaging, but one wouldn't expect it to be. We always got all of our messages, but we always remembered to check for them.

[jdmerck]

so $7.95 for the week or a day?? that's awesome if its the week, would make me feel a bit better then the non working walkie talkies we bought

[packer99]

It's for the whole trip. Not per day. It worked decently for us. It was hard to hear if you tried calling but the text feature worked well.

[LrgPizza]

so $7.95 for the week or a day??

 

I posted above, "$7.95 per device for the entire cruise" because it's for the entire cruise.