How strict is Royal Caribbean on age minimums for kids?

[unknown00]

Going on my first cruise ever. A lot of kids club, Aquanauts, excursions, require a minimum age of 3. My son will be 2 weeks shy of turning 3 when we go to our cruise (cruise is his bday celebration). He has been fully potty trained for a year now even before age 2. How strict are they?

[Merion_Mom]

Strict.  If he isn't 3, he can't be dropped at Adventure Ocean.

[unknown00]

8 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

Strict.  If he isn't 3, he can't be dropped at Adventure Ocean.

how do they know how old you are?

[LeeW]

Cruise card.  When you registered your son you entered his birthday which is confirmed when you check in at the terminal either with birth certificate or passport.  I suppose you could put a different date when you fill out the information, but if it doesn't agree with ID could cause a problem getting back into the US.

[Tee & Chilli]

I think some ships have a nursery for younger kids.

[Ashland]

1 hour ago, Tee & Chilli said:

I think some ships have a nursery for younger kids.

Yes...knowing which ship the OP will be on would help to answer this...but agree RCI is strict with the under age 3 policy.

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, unknown00 said:

how do they know how old you are?

Welcome to CC.

 

Birthdate is one of the things you declare when you book a cruise.

[MommaBear55]

15 hours ago, unknown00 said:

Going on my first cruise ever. A lot of kids club, Aquanauts, excursions, require a minimum age of 3. My son will be 2 weeks shy of turning 3 when we go to our cruise (cruise is his bday celebration). He has been fully potty trained for a year now even before age 2. How strict are they?

If it is important to you to be able to have child care, you might want to change the dates of your cruise. Great to hear he is potty trained, that will open up the swimming areas to him 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

Wouldn’t it be illegal to lie about a birthdate? Just wondering.

[ReneeFLL]

26 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Wouldn’t it be illegal to lie about a birthdate? Just wondering.

I would think so and wouldn’t want to mess around with that.

[ReneeFLL]

On 8/10/2022 at 11:07 PM, unknown00 said:

Going on my first cruise ever. A lot of kids club, Aquanauts, excursions, require a minimum age of 3. My son will be 2 weeks shy of turning 3 when we go to our cruise (cruise is his bday celebration). He has been fully potty trained for a year now even before age 2. How strict are they?

Is it to late to change the cruise date? Be sure you aren’t past final payment and you booked refundable rate.

[topnole]

On 8/11/2022 at 2:59 PM, MommaBear55 said:

If it is important to you to be able to have child care, you might want to change the dates of your cruise. Great to hear he is potty trained, that will open up the swimming areas to him 

Not really.  On my last cruise there were kids in swim diapers all over.  Including in adult hot tubs.   The workers didn’t seem to care one bit.  Pretty disgusting.  

[topnole]

On 8/10/2022 at 11:07 PM, unknown00 said:

Going on my first cruise ever. A lot of kids club, Aquanauts, excursions, require a minimum age of 3. My son will be 2 weeks shy of turning 3 when we go to our cruise (cruise is his bday celebration). He has been fully potty trained for a year now even before age 2. How strict are they?

Seriously doubt they will let a 2 year old in.   Remember, this group ranges up to 5 (could be a just short of 6).   Under 3 is just too young to mix In with near 6 year olds.   But they do have a nursery on several of the ships.  He can go there for a reasonable price per hour and there will likely be other 2 year olds there too.  

[kitkat343]

Unfortunately, their insurance will not cover a two year old child, so there is absolutely no flexibility in this instance no matter how close in age your child may be.  If a two year old child got hurt in  a kids club insured for children age 3 +, the cruise line would be completely liable.  Two year olds are eligible for free, drop off care (at least prior to covid) on Carnival and Cunard.  There are fee based nurseries on newer/refurbished RC ships, Disney, and the NCL escape (at least prior to covid).  Princess also used to allow under 3s to attend the kids club with parental supervision.

 

We literally chose our cruise to Norway based upon the fact that my son turned 2 two days prior to the only sailing on Cunard that season that went to both Geiranger and Flam.  Alas, the road to the highest points in Norway is seasonal, and unfortunately did not open in time.   In my family in the OPs shoes, we'd need to cancel that cruise and reschedule, but you may be more capable of taking care of your own children on vacation.

 

Also, as a note I am currently sailing on Adventure of the Seas, and they've been flexible for other children about moving down age groups so siblings/cousins can stay together.  They've told people they will move the kids back into their own age groups if the child isn't happy, but (at least on this sailing) they are willing to start kids in younger groups.  But please out of courtesy to other families, if you need an exception to the age policies, please complete registration during open house hours in the afternoon of embarkation day to discuss this with the staff.  The first night drop off was a mess with the drop off line stopping so a manager could be called over to evaluate these families' situations and families that had preregistered their kids during the open house couldn't drop off their kids without waiting for families who wanted to move their children around to finish discussing these issues with a manager. The open house sign up was very calm, so that would be an ideal time to request moving if your family needs to do so.