Aventure Ocean question about 4 year olds

[Bfamilycruisers]

Hello everyone. My name is Ray and my husbands name is Eric. We are going on Voyager in December and taking our 4 year old daughter. This will be our third cruise but the first time we will use Adventure Ocean for our daughter. I'm wondering how safe it is and about how many people watch these kids. I mean I'm sure there will be hundreds for children so I'm wondering how many adults are assigned to so many kids. Wondering how it all works as far as security and locating your child when you want to sign them out of the place how they go about locating where your child is within that area.

 

I'm a stay at home mom and my daughter hasn't been to daycare although she is very socialized and potty trained. Just not sure how it all works and I'm nervous about leaving her without knowing how they manage to keep it all safe. Thanks in advance for any answers you could give us.

 

Thanks:)

[byefairwind]

When in December are you going? If it is not over the holiday's then I don't think there will be that many kids. We just took the 11 night Panama on Brilliance in April and there were 20 kids between 6-11 and 5 of them were from our family and the family we were traveling with. On the 10 night prior to that there were over 200 kids. Not sure if they took staff off for our cruise but I think there were at least 10 and they seemed quite happy! I guess what I'm getting at is that you can't really be sure how many kids will be on board but holiday's and summer definitely increase the load.

 

Your child will need to be signed in and out of Adventure Ocean. It is secure and they'll ask for your sea pass if they don't recognize you. A few years back our son was 5 and even though he was not in the group with his older brothers he had a ball. On sea days we usually let the kids go in the morning - 9-12 - get them for lunch and then decide if they want to go back in the afternoon or in the evening. Sometimes we could talk them out of the afternoon session but they always wanted to go back at night. We usually take them with us when visiting a port but we have also left them for a few hours if we were doing somthing boring like shopping. There are also nights when they will take the kids to dinner. We would use some of those nights to go to Chops or Portifino. They keep the kids in a seperate area in the Windjammer. We sort of spied on them when we first allowed them to go to dinner and they keep a very close watch on the kids.

 

Anyway hope this helps. You can always stop in and see what she is doing without her knowing you are there. There will also be a kid's compass to let you know of the activities for the day.

[Dawniepoo]

You will also get a pager in case your child needs you. I always feel better knowing they can page me anywhere onboard. The AO staff is great and I felt that my DS was very safe with them. They get to know them well within a short amount of time and try to make them feel good about being there.

[aka_sally]

Ray - your daughter is going to have a blast! Our 6 year old has been on three cruises now (we go every January) and adores the kid club.

 

The staff all have degrees in early child development or other related fields and are great. There is a different "theme" for each session (the day is divided into three sessions, morning, afternoon, and evening - with child having meals with you), from "Rainbow Fish" to "Spongebob".

 

Sign up for the early dinner so she can eat with you (ours LOVES going to the dinning room every evening - we dress every night - not just "formal" night.. and staff is very attentive to kids)... after dinner you can take her up to the kid camp while your husband gets seats in the theater for the show. Show ends at perfect time to go back up and pick her up, head back to your room and order bedtime cookies from room service.

[KarinaGW]

I have the activity guides for the kids programs from Voyager a couple years back here: http://cafekarina.org/cruise/scans.html#ca

 

Note that some of the browsers resize oversized graphics, so you can either save it to look at or tell the browser to restore the graphic to its rightful size.

 

Obviously things will be slightly different, but it should give you an idea what to expect.

[Bfamilycruisers]

I feel so much better now. We are going on Voyager on the sailing of 12/9/06 through 12/16/06 eastern carribean.

 

I'm sure she will have fun.

[KelJ]

I feel so much better now. We are going on Voyager on the sailing of 12/9/06 through 12/16/06 eastern carribean.

 

I'm sure she will have fun.

 

We took this exact same cruise in 2006. My kids were 10 and 13, and there were NOT a lot of kids on the ship. I don't think a lot of schools are on Christmas break that early in the month.

We loved the Voyager and the eastern itinerary. This year we will be boarding the day that you disembark. We are leaving on the Voyager on the 16th for the western itinerary this time, and I expect there will be many more kids that week.

Have a great cruise!

[shirleygr]

I feel so much better now. We are going on Voyager on the sailing of 12/9/06 through 12/16/06 eastern carribean.

 

I'm sure she will have fun.

I don't think there will be a ton of kids on this sailing, but the kids who are there are more likely to be in your daughter's age group--no school issues when they're under 5.

We took the April 20th sailing of the Enchantment which was during the April vacation for many schools. There were quite a few kids on our sailing (not sure how many), but my girls were in the 3 - 5 group. Jess is 4 and Brigid was 5 (now 6). Adults (including parents) are not allowed past the desk where you sign in and out. You need to list who is allowed to get your child and be ready to produce id if the counselor doesn't recognize you. My girls had so much fun they didn't want to leave to spend time with us. LOL I felt completely safe and secure leaving my girls in AO. The counselors were all very nice and my girls loved them. They had all kinds of activities and played lots of games. And not once did I find them parked in front of a video when it was time to pick up. :D

[2boxers]

I have seen countless little ones so upset because they had to leave Adventure Ocean each night. I think the whole program is fantastic. Mine children first used it in when

they were 10 and 13 and they had a great time. My son begged me to let him stay late each night, of course after a certain time, 10:00, I believe, it was $5 hour to stay. The last cruise we were on (Oct 05) there were not a lot of teens, my son was 12 and there were a few in his group but not many in the 15-17 yo group and we were on the Empress, which is the smallest ship. Both of my children talk to kids that they met 3 years ago on the ship. We are going in late August this year so I am hoping there will be a little more of a crowd for them.

 

The pirate parade and the kids singing at the farwell show is so adorable.

 

Have a great time, your daughter will too!

[karessamom]

I have seen countless little ones so upset because they had to leave Adventure Ocean each night. I think the whole program is fantastic. Mine children first used it in when

they were 10 and 13 and they had a great time. My son begged me to let him stay late each night, of course after a certain time, 10:00, I believe, it was $5 hour to stay. The last cruise we were on (Oct 05) there were not a lot of teens, my son was 12 and there were a few in his group but not many in the 15-17 yo group and we were on the Empress, which is the smallest ship. Both of my children talk to kids that they met 3 years ago on the ship. We are going in late August this year so I am hoping there will be a little more of a crowd for them.

 

The pirate parade and the kids singing at the farwell show is so adorable.

 

Have a great time, your daughter will too!

 

Does it cost for the teens to use the teen centers--Fuel and the Living room? after 10??

[cb at sea]

Between now and December, you may want to take your daughter to some "playgroups"--somewhere where you leave her for awhile, just to get her used to your not being there! It would be awful to get on the ship and have her not used to being left!

[Bfamilycruisers]

Our daughter goes to a preschool setting 3 times a week for 4 hours on those days. She's use to socializing with other kids she just doesn't go to daycare. I put her in the preschool a year ago to get her use to being away from me. The school we use for her is very secure and all the classes are surveillanced. You can watch your child while they have no idea your looking at them.After day one I just went home because she was having a ball. I couldn't leave my baby girl if she had never been away from me before. That would just seem cruel to do that to her.

 

When I read about adventure ocean on the site I got the impression it was like daycare and around where we live I here parents complaining that there children aren't watched properly and have many gripes about daycare. My daughters school isn't a daycare per say. So since I have no experience with daycare I was curious. Thanks for all the replies. It has helped me a lot.

[karessamom]

Our daughter goes to a preschool setting 3 times a week for 4 hours on those days. She's use to socializing with other kids she just doesn't go to daycare. I put her in the preschool a year ago to get her use to being away from me. The school we use for her is very secure and all the classes are surveillanced. You can watch your child while they have no idea your looking at them.After day one I just went home because she was having a ball. I couldn't leave my baby girl if she had never been away from me before. That would just seem cruel to do that to her.

 

When I read about adventure ocean on the site I got the impression it was like daycare and around where we live I here parents complaining that there children aren't watched properly and have many gripes about daycare. My daughters school isn't a daycare per say. So since I have no experience with daycare I was curious. Thanks for all the replies. It has helped me a lot.

 

From all i've heard, you may have a bigger problem when it comes time to leave:D (she may not want to leave!LOL)

Actually we look forward to bringing our 5yo to Ocean Adventure for the first time (his first cruise)

Everyday now he says something about the "big boat" like when are we going or do we board today.......etc. it's so cute and he's so excited!

[CaptData]

Thanks all. I'm taking my granddaughters ages 5, and 9, on their first cruise. We are going on Freedom of the Seas.

[Kaytroy97]

We are taking our kids 3 and 6 in January. Do they ever cancel kids camp because of lack of kids? Thanks

[noah10]

We went on the Rhapsody last week, smaller ship but still the groups were small in Adventure Ocean. 6-8 year olds had about 8-14 kids in the group at a time and I usually saw 2-3 adults with them. The 9-11 group had 4-16 kids in their group with 2-4 adults at a time. My kids usually stayed with us until after lunch and then went some afternoons and ALWAYS wanted to go in the evenings....shows usually end right when you have to pick them up...just before 10...gave us a chance to gamble too. Very safe and secure, well run...always doing activites...I never saw the kids unguided.

 

I think it was an awesome program!

[kittyg]

Does it cost for the teens to use the teen centers--Fuel and the Living room? after 10??

 

The teens were free at all hours. Mine stayed down there until 2am. There were several bbq's hosted just for teens with no charge of course.

 

I think there were some frozen drinks they could order that were charged to their seapass.

[masonpips]

You probably will have very few kids on ship due to school being in session and pre-holiday - therefore the ratio to counselors to kids will be low. She should LOVE it.

 

We did a cruise last Oct and there were only 50-75 kids on board that "could" have been in my kids age group (6-8). Since only about half ever came to any activity, it was never packed and my kids LOVED the program. About mid-way through our cruise, my son got up, we had some breakfast and at 9:00 a.m. he said "ok, I need to go to the kid's club". OH My! Obviously it was a success because in the past we'd really only used it at night while we did shows and/or if we had a port they didn't want to go with us on an excursion.

 

The fact that he insisted on going at 9 a.m. made me know he LOVED it! And then they would both beg to stay late (Late Night Party Zone, $5/hour, well worth it) because of "ga-ga ball" (I think it's like dodge-ball). Nothing like getting yelled at because you pick them up before the party!

[masonpips]

Double post, sorry

[BPWJR]

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/pdf/Adventure_Ocean_Fact_Sheet.pdf

 

Some additional basic info if not seen

 

My to DD's (3 & 6) love Advt Ocean. Are also early risers, 7:00am, get them out to breakfast in Windjammer, after let them swim abit (no one in pool that early) and then into club as it opens at 9:00am.

 

Also, the nights they do have the kids dinner the AO staff is there in Johnny Rockets (on Voyager class ships) as you drop off.

[shirleygr]

We are taking our kids 3 and 6 in January. Do they ever cancel kids camp because of lack of kids? Thanks

I've never heard of them canceling, but I have heard they will sometimes combine the age groups if the numbers are really low. So your two kids may end up together instead of going to seperate groups. It depends on when in January you are going and which itinerary you are doing. If it is the first week or around MLK Day (16th, I think), there may be a good number of kids on your sailing. Also, the shorter cruises (3-5 days) will generally have more kids. Have a great time. :)

[shirleygr]

Oops, double post. Sorry!

[HHFamily]

I had the same concerns on our first cruise but we definately didn't need to worry. My son was 10, and a home schooler, so he wasn't used to being supervised by other adults. We took him to AO and spent time watching, making sure he was ok. Within 5 minutes he no longer knew we were there. We left him for an hour, came back to check on him and found him engaged in a staff led activity. Returned again in another hour to find him playing, well supervised, with other children. Tried to talk to him and ask him if he wanted to stay but he didn't have time to talk to us, he was too busy playing. The staff was so fantastic I can't even begin to describe. By the end of day one we were completely comfortable leaving him with them. We had to pry him out of there every time we wanted to spend time with him! The staff, even though there were quite a few kids there at that time, knew our son, and us by name before the end of the first day, and the other children and parents as well. The thing that impressed us the most was: Our son was injured while playing in AO. Being the clumsy creature that he is (ok, so he got that from me) he ran headlong into the corner of a television while playing Ga Ga Ball (Dodge ball) and cut his head. It was a minor cut, but did need medical attention. Being in the older age group, we did not have a pager, but we were contacted very quickly. The staff immediately contacted the AO director, who was off duty and in his shower, and he had ALL the other sound systems in the ship turned off...didn't even know they could DO that...and paged us to the guest relations desk. We were singing karaoke at the time, and it stopped the music right in the middle for the page, so we took off in a panic, knowing it had to be something concerning our son. At guest relations they informed us that he had a minor accident and they needed us in AO so we raced there to find him asking if he could get up and go play, while several staff members were fussing over him. The cut on his head could have used a couple of stitches, but, with his dad and I both being trained in emergency medicine, and knowing he was ok, and the fact that I know his phobia of needles, I didn't want to ruin his trip by having his head stitched. I told the staff no worries, I can butterfly bandage his cut and he will be ok....well...the AO director wouldn't hear of it. He was sooooo sweet and so concerned that we took our son, escorted by the AO director, to the infirmary. They pulled the Dr out of her cabin to come see to him and I relayed my concerns about my son's phobia of stitches to her as she examined him. She surprised me by saying she wouldn't have to stitch it....they had liquid stitches aboard! I was so relieved to find a well stocked, well staffed infirmary aboard! She closed his wound with minimal fuss and he was so happy not to have stitches. I just can't convey how wonderful and impressive the entire AO staff was, before, during and after his accident. When we return to the Sovereign next year we definately will not hesitate to put our son into their very capable hands.

[Rala]

We were on Majesty this past Nov. and there were very few children on board. Our 5 yr. old grandson was the only child at AO the day we were at Coco Cay (They have the program right on the island). He was like the "Little Prince of the Day" with all the counselors all to himself!!! He had a wonderful time. We checked several times to see if he wanted to come and be with us if he was lonely or bored, but such was not the case. He wanted to stay right where he was! So, in this case, they did not cancel due to lack of children.