Kids Club Age Down?

[tirsabel]

We want to do an alaskan cruise on Princess in summer 2025 with a family friend. At that time our boys will be 12yo and hers will be 10yo and 13yo.  Our boys are going to want to hang with each other in the kids club, but my understanding is the cut off is 13yo go to the teen club.  Does anyone have experience with having their kid age down to stay with a sibling or friends? i.e. with the 13yo be able to go to "the Lodge" which si the 8-12yo?  The 12 year olds and the 13yo would be in the same grade.  

 

If they won't we'll need to wait at least 2 years to do this cruise to allow the kids to all hang in the teen club together

Thanks!

[cr8tiv1]

Will the kids still be friends that want to hang out together in 2 years?  There will be a lot of time for the three of them to hang out together on the ship.  As a teacher, there are huge differences between 11, 12, and 13 year olds.  

 

Look on the brighter side.  The "break" may do them good.  They will be able to meet a bunch of other geologically orphaned kids they would normally not get a chance to hang out together.

[tirsabel]

Definitely they currently want to hang together, which is why I am asking. to vacation intentionally with friends and then not hang out together while on vacation will seem pointless to them. And we are good enough friends at this time that we will postpone our trip together for 2 years if that's the better decision. will they still be friends in 2 years? who knows. I guess then we'll take separate itineraries. 🤷‍♀️

[Potstech]

Kids do not have to go to the various clubs while on the cruise.  They can participate in many of the other activities through out the ship. Please be sure they have supervision as they move about the ship. They can then be together as much as they want.

[karatemom2]

No one is likely to be able to give you a definitive answer to this question. It may be something you will only be able to determine for certain onboard depending on how strictly the club on your specific ship is run. The teen cut off is generally really firm. 
 

I will tell you, in our experience Princess is very strict with the age restrictions - not allowing movement up or down. There are potential liability issues for Princess in allowing teens into a younger group and other parents who may take issue with a teen mixing with children as young as 8. It’s not as simple as just letting the older child join the younger group and most likely the answer will be no because they generally really enforce the age requirements. 
 

There are a lot of activities outside of the clubs where the kids can hang out together so I wouldn’t let it be a make or break in your decision making. 

[jennybenny]

Typically Princess says you cannot change the age groups, I’ve never heard of anyone successfully getting their kids moved up or down to be with a sibling, but it never hurts to ask. We have been on cruises where there are so many children that Princess changes the age group ranges but that didn’t group our children together and we didn’t know that until we were on board that it would happen. When the kids were younger, we found it was good for them to go to the kids club the first day, meet some kids then schedule time back there to hang out. If they didn’t go early in the cruise it was harder to meet kids 

[1025cruise]

It will be up to the manager when you get on the ship. Most likely depending on how many are in each group. No one can tell you ahead of time.

[tirsabel]

Thanks all! we're mentally prepared for the uncertainty now and we'll figure it out.  We'd have to wait until 2028 for them to be in the same club it turns out because of birthday timings, so we'll just wing it with other activities if need be

[cr8tiv1]

Does this mean you will be planning this cruise for 2025?  Why not cruise 2024 when all kids will be 9, 11, and 12?  Wouldn’t that place them in the same club age?  I did not take into account that Princess “could” possibly regroup ages depending on how many kids are in the ship (surprise factor).  
 

Good advice to check in on the first day.

 

Regardless, you/they will have a wonderful time on the ship.  

 

[tirsabel]

we already have travel plans set for this summer and can't fit in the cruise in based on vacation days 🙂 alas if we had looked more closely last year....shoulda, woulda, coulda 🙂

[whataboutport]

They are pretty strict, and the child will stay in their age group even if they have a birthday and age into a new group during the sailing. Also keep in mind the kids clubs are only open for three hours at a time with usually 2 hr breaks (I'm speaking mainly on sea days, port days have different hours). They won't be apart all day, and depending on your schedules, most likely will only go to kids club once per day; there's three sessions per day.

 

We just came back from Discovery. My child and his cousin were in the treehouse (age 3-8) and the other cousin was in the next age group up. We all thought it was good they were able to spend some time apart for a bit and tell each other about what they did in their club that day.

 

Btw princess does a great job with the kids club. The crafts and toys they give out are really nice and good quality.