Currently on Arvia, issue with kids club

[jrphotog]

Hi All

 

We’re on the 3rd day of our Arvia cruise, sailing towards Valencia.

 

As first time cruisers we’re pretty happy with everything on the ship except for one thing - Splashers kids club.

 

We have an engaging and gregarious 4 year old who can be a little shy until he’s over that initial ‘hump’. We’ve tried putting him into Splashers club a few times, and stayed with him every time for the maximum allowed 20 mins, to try and settle him as he wouldn’t let us go. We’ve tried playing games with him, introducing him to other kids in there ourselves, tried playing with him/them etc. Despite the staff being nice and friendly they make zero effort during that time to come and engage with us and help us settle him . So when it comes time to,leave him, unsurprisingly he’s still attached to us.

 

The other kids are generally just running around, also seemingly with very little engagement or interaction from the staff.

 

Its marketed as a kids club, but from our observation seems more like a hands-off crèche.

 

Unfortunately it’s  putting a bit of a downer on our holiday - we were really hoping he’d enjoy it there, and make friends, and also allow us to have some much needed R&R too.

 

Any advice would be appreciated on how to handle this. Do we have unrealistic expectations of the staff? Or should they be helping more, and if so how do we broach the subject, and with whom?

 

Thanks all 🙏

 

P.s. please don’t bother with any  “just leave him, he’ll be fine in the end” comments. We don’t think it’s fair to dump and run and leave a crying child - on him or the other kids/staff

Edited August 23, 2023 by jrphotog

[molecrochip]

Have you spoken to the staff? They don’t tend to interfere but will usually assist if you ask them too.

 

The club mixes activities which are group focused together with individual play. Usually the first 30 mins or so is individual play whilst everyone arrives.

 

Officially it’s a kids club and certainly not an individual child minding service but there are many variance points in between. I think the staff are approachable enough to keep an eye .

 

I take your point about not leaving in an upset state however if you do get someone to keep an eye, get a pager - they can always call if that does get too much or still doesn’t settle.

[Thejuggler]

Not all children are from the same mould.  My daughter was never one for the kids clubs, but thinking back I can think of a reason why.

 

With us both working full time my daughter was in nursery/school from 7.30am until 5pm every day so she barely saw us.  We think she saw kids club as a continuation of her usual routine so hardly a holiday for her and maybe just wanted to be with her mum and dad for a change, so we sacked it and enjoyed time with her.

 

She's well into her late teens now, independent, part time job, good mates, but long days at school and we hardly see her.  We had a week in Scotland last week and she came along,  It was great doing stuff together, walking, fishing, picnics by quiet lochs, even simple card and board games around the kitchen table was something we never do at home

 

I wouldn't force it, enjoy the family time and in ten years you'll be thankful of the memories.

[Cloudyrain]

My son has complex needs and is autistic and kids club on P&O cruises have been moderately successful (if we get an hour we are elated).

 

Before we travel we look at YouTube videos of the ships and kids clubs facilities, and also the deck plan to see where it is in relation to where we are going to be waiting. Then we take him on the registration session so he can meet the staff and show him around. On the first session he attends (we avoid the actual first session as it’s usually chaos) we drop him off about an hour after it starts when the children have settled and there are fewer adults about. We do not stay and settle him - we have tried that in the past and it just means we can’t leave. We instead take him in and hand him over to a staff member who immediately engages him in an activity we have pre-agreed (e.g. something involving dinosaurs) and we agree a collection time with him: just 45 minutes to start with and build from there. We also have a pager so they can call us if they need to call. He also has a teddy/toy with him of his own, so he has some familiarity.

 

I don’t advocate dropping and leaving them crying, but I also don’t advocate staying for 20 minutes. You need to drop her, but have it planned and prepared so she isn’t crying: being a little upset is fine as long as there is a person in there looking after her. 
 

speak to the staff, speak to your daughter, and see how you feel. Having said that, we have been on previous cruises where despite all our efforts our son just didn’t want to go and trying was more upsetting than just accepting it wasn’t going to happen.

[kalos]

39 minutes ago, Thejuggler said:

I wouldn't force it, enjoy the family time and in ten years you'll be thankful of the memories.

 

Yep I think kids will  let you know when they are ready and pushing it could make them never want to go as they would remember it as a bad experience .

Maybe next cruise ?