Kids clubs during restart

[dominicr]

Has anyone done a cruise yet with kids and had their kids go to the kids club?  I am curious how that is working.  

[smokeybandit]

You'll get a bank of hours to reserve slots, then it's drop in only after that.  The programs follow overly strict distancing and sanitization rules so it's definitely not close to the same as before. But it is open

[matthewkaufman46]

Anyone have any particular experience from Adventure?

[dominicr]

43 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

You'll get a bank of hours to reserve slots, then it's drop in only after that.  The programs follow overly strict distancing and sanitization rules so it's definitely not close to the same as before. But it is open

well the bank of hours and then first come/first serve is same as before.  
 

by overly strict social distancing are they not allowing kids to play together?  Are they making 2 yr olds and 5 yr olds wear masks in the kids club?  

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, dominicr said:

well the bank of hours and then first come/first serve is same as before.  
 

by overly strict social distancing are they not allowing kids to play together?  Are they making 2 yr olds and 5 yr olds wear masks in the kids club?  

I've never had to reserve adventure ocean time before covid.

 

Yes, masking and social distancing is enforced 

[dominicr]

17 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

I've never had to reserve adventure ocean time before covid.

 

Yes, masking and social distancing is enforced 

thanks for the responses

[slmncsu]

If you don't mind answering a couple more questions: How many kids were on the ship when you sailed? I imagine there weren't very many kids, were they keeping the age groups separated or were they all together? 

[davidofsc]

13 hours ago, matthewkaufman46 said:

Anyone have any particular experience from Adventure?

yes. 

[matthewkaufman46]

6 hours ago, davidofsc said:

yes. 

Can you give some details. Are they splitting age groups?  How busy was it. Do they were mask at all times?  Are activities similar to what they used to be pre-COVID? How limited are hours?

[davidofsc]

On 7/31/2021 at 7:22 AM, matthewkaufman46 said:

Can you give some details. Are they splitting age groups?  How busy was it. Do they were mask at all times?  Are activities similar to what they used to be pre-COVID? How limited are hours?

For our cruise last week. We had I think 76 kids in the 4-12 group. We were allowed to schedule 10 hours total for the week. The max kids allowed at one time was 15. We could come more often but was first come first serve. We never got turned away when taking kids outside our hours but we did not use that much other than at night from 7 till 10. Very limited activities for kids. Social distancing very limited interaction between kids. Face masks at all times. 

[spooky981]

Oh man that could be a dealbreaker for me. I have a week-long cruise out of Florida in late November and it was going to be our first family vacation with the kids. At ages 3 and 5 they would be in Aquanauts together.

 

But with activities being pared down, the kids not really being allowed to interact, and being limited to a couple hours of daycare per day, this no longer sounds like a good idea.

[smokeybandit]

2 hours ago, davidofsc said:

Very limited activities for kids. Social distancing very limited interaction between kids. Face masks at all times. 

 

I concur. They aren't even allowed to share any toys or supplies.

 

Which makes declaring kids in Adventure Ocean as "close contacts" on last week's Adventure cruise seem a bit questionable.

[dominicr]

I have a cruise in 60 days and bringing my 2 and 5 year olds.  My 5 year old is 50/50 on wearing a mask but I wish them the best of luck in making a child who just turned 2 wear one.  I’m not even saying in adventure ocean or the tot room because that’s avoidable by not bringing them there….I’m just talking about in general.  

[BirdTravels]

On 7/30/2021 at 10:31 AM, matthewkaufman46 said:

Anyone have any particular experience from Adventure?

General information starting on post #923 on the link below 

 

[spooky981]

It's the X number of hours per trip limitation that has me reconsidering.

[smokeybandit]

14 minutes ago, spooky981 said:

It's the X number of hours per trip limitation that has me reconsidering.

I wouldn't worry about that. I don't think anyone has had an issue doing drop-ins after using up their hours. On my cruise they were capping at 15 kids for the age group, but our son said it never was more than 10 in a session after the first night.

Edited August 3, 2021 by smokeybandit

[spooky981]

Just resurrecting this thread in case anyone has fresh experiences with the kids club. I know things change rapidly, and back in June the kids club was flying by the seat of their pants. What is the situation like in the kids club right now?

[katmmoore]

We sailed on the Ovation of the Seas the week of September 3rd with our 6 year old. 

 

1) We were initially given 4 3 hour blocks so 12 total hours. We booked those 4 blocks for the 1st night and 1st sea day (7PM-10PM on day 1 and day 2 she did 9AM-noon, 2PM-5PM and 7PM-10PM plus late night 10PM-midnight which didn't require a reservation as it's paid). When we picked her up on the second night we simply told them she'd be there the next day and they put her into the system. We did this everyday. She was there anytime we were on board and not on a shore excursion. No problems at all! 

2) They do have to wear masks but at least for our daughter she has to wear a mask at school anyways (California) so it wasn't a big deal for her. 

3) The staff was amazing. They had tons of activies, lots of arts and crafts, little science experiments making putty and stuff like that. They also played tons of games in the room. She had a blast and wanted to be there as much as possible!

4) The other cool this is the kids all get to know each other and because we had to be on ship sponsored shop excursions to get off of the ship with her every single time there were other families from kids that she knew and they would all hang out mask free outside together.

5) The one thing that we didn't love is the buffet closing early because we aren't a fan of the MDR. It takes too long with her. They bring her food out early and then she's ready to go before we have anything lol So a lot of pizza and room service for dinner time with her!

 

It was fantastic and other than masks she felt like it was just like any other cruise! The kids were allowed to be together and play like normal, they just needed masks!