Celebrity Kids Programs

[QueenZaphod]

Just wondering if anyone has ever used the kids prorgrams on Celebrity and what you thought. Our daughter LOVED the program on Cunard. She is 5 now and was 3 at the time of our Queen Mary 2 cruise.

 

We are traveling March 26th of the Mercury through the Mexican Rivera.

Thank you,

Shera

[newtocc]

I don’t know, I got a little perturbed over the program, I only put some crayon on the wall one time and they kicked me out, and they call them adults, I’m sorry, they have no sense of humor!

[Boo's Mom]

Hi Shera....

My children have sailed on Celebrity three times with us. As young as six.

Celebrity has a very well managed Children's Program. The Staff is wonderful and the whole program is run very professionally.

 

My standards in this area are very high....and Celebrity exceeded them.

[Texed]

Our 7 YO has been going to the kid's club since he was 3. He loves it. We have to drag him out every night. Of course, he enjoyed playing with Newtocc, until Newt got kicked out.:D

[TexasMommy]

Hey Boo's mom, I'm mommy to a Boo as well. We are having our DD 6 in the Zenith program next month. Int in any details u want to share...how much time spent in playroom vs rest of ship, sample activities. How full of kids, etc. Our Boo will be too young for the program although hope to use the in room sitting some.

[trcori]

if you have a 6-year-old you may want to consider this -- we did, on our first X cruise, when our son was 6 1/2:

--Does your child enjoy little-kid movies & little-kid activities (lots of crafts, etc.)? Our son never did (even when he was VERY little), so when he was 6 1/2, we got them to bump him to the Cadets level (generally 7-9).

 

The 3-6 y-o's (Ship Mates) spend a lot more time in the Fun Factory, generally. The other groups spend more time around the ship. They usually have a couple theme nights based on classic movies like "Shrek" (something else that didn't click with our son but I know he's in the minority). The C- and M-class ships, except for Century (at least when we cruised it twice), have ball pits, which are fun. They all have video games too (usually pretty tame ones, which makes us happy as we do not permit violent games -- beware, however, there is a video ARCADE on some of the ships, requiring coins, and that one DOES have some of the rougher stuff; I think the teens are allowed to spend time there, but not the younger kids, at least during official kid-program time).

 

Overall, our son has been on six X cruises and has a great time in the program. Looking forward to his first cruise as an Ensign (10-12) in April on Galaxy ... TR

[Honbun]

My Mom, myself and my then 6 yo daughter sailed on the Millie for Spring break a couple of years ago. She absolutely loved the kids club. I had to beg her to spend time with us!

 

One of the things they did then (and I see other cruises are picking up on) was giving each child a bracelet with our cabin's muster station. That way, in case of emergency and we were seperated, the staff would know where to bring her. In fact, they instruct you to NOT go find your child, he/she will be brought to you. When they gave her the bracelet, it let me know that they had thought about most aspects of travel with children.

[Boo's Mom]

Hey Boo's mom, I'm mommy to a Boo as well. We are having our DD 6 in the Zenith program next month. Int in any details u want to share...how much time spent in playroom vs rest of ship, sample activities. How full of kids, etc. Our Boo will be too young for the program although hope to use the in room sitting some.

 

Hey, TexasMommy...... On the first night of the cruise, they will hold a Childrens Program Orientation. It's pretty important to go to this meeting...as it will give you (and your child) a really good feel for how the week will go.

 

They will have a talent show...for the kids. If you need anything from home (ie: dance costume, piano music, etc..), be sure to bring it along.

[my3kids]

Hi -

 

We just returned from the Zenith on Thursday - 2-2, and I can fill you in on the Kids Club on Zenith.

 

I can tell you I was VERY skeptical about leaving my children with people I have never met, and I can assure you - the Kids CLub was GREAT!

 

There were many activities for our kids age group - 3-6 yo. pirate party, dance party, t-shirt colorings, spongebob party, hide n seek games, ship tour, slumber parties every nite (a fee for this), snacks, jewelry making, etc etc etc....... I still have the activity sheets for some of the days if you are interested I can mail them to you......I have no scanner!

 

The crew were Dave - the manager of the Kids Clubs, Hebby, Kata and I cannot remember the other 2 crew's names, they had the older children....they were fantastic. I cannot say enough about them - really superb people - lots of energy but not obnoxious. I would have gladly taken them home with me!

 

Our children are 4 & 6, and they loved the kids club - my daughter took a couple of days to warm up - but then she was fine and had a great time with them.

 

Any ??? please ask, I'll try my best!

[F5Loar]

Our 9 year old daughter aboard her 22 cruise on the Infinity declared their kid's club the best ever. She's a pretty good judge on how they keep her entertained. She looked so forward to going at 7PM each night we had to get the waiter to put her on the fast track at early dinner so one of us could quickly run her up to the kids room (luckly on this ship it is on the same end of the ship just up on deck 10). We have found X does a great job. The only disappointment if you can call it that was lack of a pajama party last night. I guess that may be a Carnival thing. These counslors know how to adjust their programs based on the amount of chidren coming on that week.

While they get the total number they don't ever know if all or only a few will actually go to the kid's club. Our week in Feb. only had 65 and about 2/3 did go. Other weeks could have as many as 600.

[CruiseQueen13]

My daughter, now 12, loves the X kid's program. She's been sailing since she was 4. Here are her favorites - in order! Note; NCL didn't even make the cut!

 

Celebrity/Princess

RCCL

[TexasMommy]

This is very helpful. My Daughter (6) has sailed 3 times on Disney Cruise Line when she was 3,4 & 5 but this is our first Celebrity. We found a great value on Zenith so are sailing on an older, smaller ship but sounds like the kids club is still good, just the facilities not as nice.

 

DD is very social so should enjoy the club. Wish I could see sample activities but wouldn't want anyone to mail them or anything. Has anyone ever used the in room sitting. Our one year old may use that some I expect so we can have some couple time. This is his 2nd cruise. He sailed DCL when he was 5 months old.

 

I'm so excited! We're sailing in about a month....11th while my kindergartener is out on Spring Break. Glad to find this post!

[asmitty]

my3kids and Boo's mom...We are sailing on the 20th (one week from tomorrow!!!!) on Zenith. My soon to be 7 yr old DD is hyped up about a possible talent show. Is this a for sure thing on Zenith? She is just excited in general about the kid's program. We sailed on HAL last Christmas and she had a good time.

I read about X having pagers for parents to use - is this true? Also, what about the science program I've read about. Does this happen on the smaller ships?

Thanks for your help!

[Boo's Mom]

There has been a Talent Show for the kids....on all three Celebrity ships I have been on.

 

I would say that it is a part of their "children's program"..... and that they will more than likely have it on the Zenith.

[on my way]

We just returned from a cruise on the constellation with our 3 1/2 yr old and our 17 mo. old.

 

The facilities and resources for kids on the constellation were fabulous. The fun factory was fantastic, with a ball pit, slides, climbing structures etc. There were lots of toys, puzzles, craft supplies, whatever you could think of, they had. They also had a small room for toddlers (you have to stay with your child) that had a good selection of appropriate toys for them. As well, they had "treasure chests" of toddler toys that you could sign out and take to your room. Keep an eye on the toys though, if you lose one small plastic toy they'll charge you $15 an item, and if the flimsy chest gets damaged there's a $50 replacement fee. I took one out one night and was a little nervous, since losing and damaging toys are often my kids specialty :). You can also sign out children's books from the library.

 

We went often to the fun factory. My 3 yr old did not want to be left alone so I would take my novel and stay with him (I didn't mind, it was no big deal). It did give me a chance to see what was happening most of the time at the fun factory. I was disappointed with the lack of structured programming for the kids. There was ALOT of time where the kids were just left on their own to play, and they were watching ALOT of TV. The kids often seemed bored, and bored children tend to get restless and tend to get into trouble. I suppose it just depends what your expectations are. If you are looking for free babysitting, it's great. If you're looking for your kid to be part of a program, it's not so good. I felt particularly bad for one kid who seemed to always be there.

 

Anyways, just my thoughts. My kids really enjoyed the fun factory, but they were mostly using the facilities and not the programming / staff services.

[TexasMommy]

Thanks for the reply. That is disappointing that that stick them in front of the tv a lot. I guess we'll play it by ear how much we leave our daughter in there. She does better with structure.

 

Good advice about childrens book checkout and charge for losing kids toys.

[snowmouse]

Do the kids' programs remain open while in port? What are the open hours generally?

[Texed]

Yes, they are open while in port. The hours are usually 9:00 AM until 1:00 AM. Some hours have a $6.00 an hour charge. Very reasonable.

[mahdnc]

Do the kids' programs remain open while in port? What are the open hours generally?

 

The free portion of the children's program is done in 3 hour blocks every day: 9am-noon, 2-5pm, and 7-10pm.

 

The fee based portion of the children's programs takes care of some of the gaps in the free program. This includes a 10pm-1am slumber party in the Fun Factory Playroom every night. On port days there is a noon-2pm lunch party available. Finally there is a 5pm-7pm dinner pizza party on each formal night. The fee based program was $6/hr/child although it is waived for the slumber party and dinner party on the first formal night as a nice gesture to the parents.

[Texed]

Finally there is a 5pm-7pm dinner pizza party on each formal night. The fee based program was $6/hr/child although it is waived for the slumber party and dinner party on the first formal night as a nice gesture to the parents.

 

On our last two cruises, this was not offered.

[mahdnc]

On our last two cruises, this was not offered.

 

Interesting. We have seen and used it for both of our kids on our cruises since Celebrity installed this back in 1998 including our last cruise last March.

[BrooklynGirl2]

This was offered on our Zenith cruise in September 2005. It was free on the first formal night.

[ChoirMom]

We will take our second cruise on Celebrity this summer, on Zenith to Bermuda. I'm glad to read the reviews in this thread about the children's program on Zenith.

 

Our last cruise was on Summit from Alaska last May. My two, a DD then age 10 and DS then age 13 enjoyed the children's programs on Zenith, although there were only a few children and even fewer teens aboard because of the time of year (our school year ended May 20th and we cruised shortly thereafter). The Kids program crew were very professional - my daughter enjoyed meeting and talking with them about their home countries. They all knew her name and even sought her out to invite her to activities, since there were few girls in the program that week.

 

We didn't use the Kids program much on port days since there is so much to see and do in each Alaskan port city, but on sea days there were very well planned activities for the kids. Each evening each child received a listing of the next day's events. My son had a mixed reaction to the activities for his age group; he wasn't interested in the disco parties, but did enjoy the games during the day, pool and foosball tables in the Teen area on Summit. We also had to restructure our plans in Juneau a little to get back to the ship in time for "free arcade time," which both children loved!

[TexasMommy]

My daughter is very excited. Does anyone know on the Zenith where else on the ship they take the kids other than the playroom?

 

Also, do they have a kids pool area?

[mahdnc]

When we were on Horizon, the kids programs often started up in the cafe area. But their activities took them to all places aboard the ship including a bridge tour to meet the ship's master. Photos of Horizon Kids Program

 

There was no kids pool on the ship and I don't believe there is one aboard Zenith either.