Club HAL hours

[mommybunny21]

Has anyone used club HAL recently? What are their hours-specifically from 5:00 on? Thanks..all these little details are making me crazy!!

[danabanana612]

Has anyone used club HAL recently? What are their hours-specifically from 5:00 on? Thanks..all these little details are making me crazy!!

We were on the 12/16/06 Oosterdam and Clu Hal hours were 9-12, 2-5, 8-10.

From 10pm -12am you could pay 5.00 an hour per child.

[mommybunny21]

thank you..were you happy with the Club?

[MartyC]

Club Hal was one of the best kids programs we have experienced. My 12 year old really enjoyed it and the younger kids looked like they were having lots of fun. Do'nt worry about this program. It's a good one.

[crabcruiser]

My grandkids ( 8 and 11 years) loved the kids club but their mother was not happy that evening session didn't start until 800PM She said most other cruise lines start evening hours at 700PM.

[whogo]

The hours and activities vary daily. Each child should have a daily program delivered by their steward. Club Hal probably will not be open while in port. For 13-17 year olds the last activity of the evening started as late as 11:30 pm. For that age group hours were 2-6 and 9-? on the Volendam holiday cruise.

[mommybunny21]

Do they EVER open between the hours of 5 to 8? I was hoping for two romantic dinners at the Pinnacle with my husband around 7:00...will it ever happen?

[cprofits]

a general idea of the activities for the 3-7 age group. I've searched and cannot find anything here or on the family board.

[mommybunny21]

I did see an activity sheet a while ago and I was impressed.The activities were creative and fun. I actually was surprised by it because this board makes HAL seem like its not meant for children,yet the activities I saw were well thought out and inticing for a child. There is a woman who posts by the name MiddleAgedMom(I think) who is very knowledgeable and helpful-maybe look up her posts-if you can do that???

[Old As Dirt Mom]

I did see an activity sheet a while ago and I was impressed.The activities were creative and fun. I actually was surprised by it because this board makes HAL seem like its not meant for children,yet the activities I saw were well thought out and inticing for a child. There is a woman who posts by the name MiddleAgedMom(I think) who is very knowledgeable and helpful-maybe look up her posts-if you can do that???

 

MommyBunny:

 

Thanks for the kind comments. I'm not that knowledgeable; I just have a child who has been in the Club HAL program, on both the Zaandam and Amsterdam, in the 3-7 age group. My family and I are off to watch the Seattle SeaHawks vs the Chicago Bears on my brother's BIG SCREEN TV just now, so I can't post more. But I promise to check in here this afternoon, and give more details.

 

Bottom line: Our own personal experience with Club HAL was great, but we only had 140 kids on our first cruise, and 80 on our second. The program is very well structured, and Club HAL was open on all our port days. BIG THUMBS UP!

 

Karin

[mom2m&a]

Our experience with Club HAL was not as good as others have posted here, but we had other cruiseline programs to compare it to and we were also on a Thangsgiving cruise with over 400 kids aboard. During our cruise the regular facilities were not large enough to hold all the kids, so our group (8 - 13) were put in an empty conference room with no facilities and no private bathroom. My 9-year-old was sent down the hall, by himself, to a public men's bathroom. Not my idea of security. My other objection was that they forced us to let our kids sign themselves out. I have great, responsible, trustworthy kids but I didn't like that I was told it's either this way or they have to be put with the 3 - 7 year olds. They want them to be able to go on the scavenger hunts throughout the ship in groups of 3 or 4. The activities like that were great, the time spent in the conference room not so great, the counselors were nice and did their best.

 

In our experience, Club HAL doesn't even come close to comparing with the kids programs on RCCL or Celebrity (very similar programs) which also offer longer hours and the opportunity to have the counselors take your kids to dinner so you can have some couple time at dinner.

[whogo]

The teen program had a 7 PM dinner together in the Lido on New Year's Eve on the Volendam. My teen was old enough to eat on her own if we wanted to be away from her. We didn't.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Our experience with Club HAL was not as good as others have posted here, but we had other cruiseline programs to compare it to and we were also on a Thangsgiving cruise with over 400 kids aboard. During our cruise the regular facilities were not large enough to hold all the kids, so our group (8 - 13) were put in an empty conference room with no facilities and no private bathroom. My 9-year-old was sent down the hall, by himself, to a public men's bathroom. Not my idea of security. My other objection was that they forced us to let our kids sign themselves out. I have great, responsible, trustworthy kids but I didn't like that I was told it's either this way or they have to be put with the 3 - 7 year olds. They want them to be able to go on the scavenger hunts throughout the ship in groups of 3 or 4. The activities like that were great, the time spent in the conference room not so great, the counselors were nice and did their best.

 

In our experience, Club HAL doesn't even come close to comparing with the kids programs on RCCL or Celebrity (very similar programs) which also offer longer hours and the opportunity to have the counselors take your kids to dinner so you can have some couple time at dinner.

 

My apologies, this is a long post, but several questions have been raised.

 

I agree with many points here. Mom2m&a didn't have a good experience, because in my opinion, Holland America doesn't have the experience and facilities to handle 400 children on a cruise. The Club HAL program, with its special onboard space and staff dedicated specifically for the junior cruiser, is a relatively new program for Holland America. Previously, the children's and teens' programs used whatever public meeting room space was available, and had much more limited hours. That all changed some three or four years ago.

 

I've only sailed on HAL's R-class ships, so my observations are limited to those vessels (R-class comprise the Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Volendam, and Zaandam). I've never seen the Vista class Club HAL.

 

The dedicated Club HAL space is not designed to accommodate large numbers of children. Nontheless, it is well laid out, with separate areas for teens, tweens, and the younger set. There are restroom facilities incorporated into Club HAL, so the youngsters don't have to leave that area in order to use the facilities, nor do they have to share any public bathrooms with the rest of the passengers. There is a video arcade which is open most of the time, even during the hours when Club HAL is closed, so modern kids do have access to their favorite activity;) .

 

On our summer cruise, Club HAL was open from 9-12 noon, 2-5 pm, and 8-10 pm whenever we were not in port. There is additional child care available from 10 pm to 12 midnight, but there's a charge of $5 per child per hour. On our recent holiday cruise, Club HAL was open from 9-12, 2-5, and 7:30-10 pm, with the additional child care available from 10 pm to midnight. So with the 7:30 pm start in the evening, the kids on our holiday cruise got an extra half hour.

 

On both our cruises, Club HAL was available to us on port days, but we had to sign up the evening before, in order for the the Club HAL director to know how many staff she needed to provide supervision. The program is more loosely structured on port days than on sea days. On the Alaska cruise, we didn't use the Club HAL port program, but on the Caribbean cruise our daughter attended Club HAL on virtually every port day. She actually preferred Club HAL to any shore excursions!

 

Here is a sample program for the age 3-7 group on our holiday sailing on Amsterdam:

 

9 am Early morning free play

9:30 am Hullabaloo (a game)

10 am Tag and Simon Says on the Sports Deck

10:30 am Dora the Explorer Bingo

11 am The Great Puzzle Hunt

11:30 am Changing Rooms (game) and Storytime

 

2 pm Raid the Arcade Free Play in the video arcade

2:30 pm In-room Scavenger Hunt

3 pm Don't Eat Tommy! (game)

3:30 pm Ghost Tag in the Oasis

4 pm ice cream party in the Lido

4:30 pm Model Magic Mania

 

Every evening had a theme, whether it was "camping out", "pirates", "space explorers", "country and western night", etc. Some nights the kids watched movies, like "Chicken Little", "Polar Express", "Barnyard", or "Incredibles".

 

The Tweens had a structured program with similar themes. They had designated games, arts and crafts, or they might don their bathing suits and go up to the "Oasis", which has its own shallow pool and waterfall.

 

On our 14-day cruise there was a kids' talent show, a really fun family craft night (to which parents and other family members were invited), a family scavenger hunt with fun prizes, and a visit with Santa complete with presents for every child onboard. On the 7-day Alaska cruise, a park ranger from Glacier Bay gave a special presentation for Club HAL, there was a native Hoonah interpreter who also gave a special kids' program, and there were projects that incorporated learning about Alaska's natural environment and wildlife.

 

As I mentioned earlier, at the present time I don't believe that the Club HAL space can handle large numbers of children/teens. We only had 80 kids total on our last cruise, and 140 on the cruise last summer, which worked fine. (I've noticed that not every family has children that attend Club HAL, or who attend every program every day). Parents with children in the 3-7-year-old group are allowed to check out pagers for their children, and they must sign their own children in and out (or a specially designated friend or family member may do so). You have to give the counselors a special "pass word", in order for them to release your children to you. Children ages 8-12 may check themselves in and out of the program. The teen group comprises ages 13-17.

 

We decided to put our 8-year-old daughter in the 3-7 group, due to her small size, and the fact that we don't think she's old enough to handle signing herself in and out. She also prefers to be with younger children rather than the tweens, most of whom were several years older than she. It worked very well for her, and she had a wonderful time throughout the cruise.

 

The Club HAL director on the Amsterdam did a particularly good job. She has eight years experience, five of which were on Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines prior to HAL. I would like to see Club HAL divide into four separate age groups instead of the current three. I know that would involve more organization, but it would be a better distribution of ages.

 

I also think that Holland America is marketing quite aggressively to families, and they need to take that into consideration when designing the Club HAL program. Holland America doesn't have a tradition of catering to large numbers of children/teens. They do extremely well, from my observation, when the numbers are not overwhelming. Several hundred kids on a HAL ship is overwhelming, frankly.

 

I think I've now probably exhausted everyone's patience, so I will end here, and I hope I've addressed any questions or concerns other parents may have.

 

Karin

[mommybunny21]

middleagedMom--I knew you would have the answers..thanks so much..I'm anticipating a less than perfect experience since my sailing is winter break here in NYC and there will be many children 3-7..thanks for the heads up..fortunately I only use the kids services for my son to socialize a bit on sea days and a couple of nights for after dinner dancing and champagne..i'll hope for the best..

[Old As Dirt Mom]

middleagedMom--I knew you would have the answers..thanks so much..I'm anticipating a less than perfect experience since my sailing is winter break here in NYC and there will be many children 3-7..thanks for the heads up..fortunately I only use the kids services for my son to socialize a bit on sea days and a couple of nights for after dinner dancing and champagne..i'll hope for the best..

 

Mommybunny:

 

I hope I've been helpful, and I also hope you and your family have a wonderful cruise on HAL. If you have the time to do a short review upon your return, I would actually be very interested to read about your experience on the Noordam. I think that the HAL management who follow Cruise Critics would also be interested in your observations about Club HAL, and Hollan America in general.

 

Karin

[danabanana612]

thank you..were you happy with the Club?

My son is 8. He was very happy with Club Hal as was I. I was a little leery about him checking himself in and out but by the 2nd day he was going to and from by himself with no problems. He is not into crafts so if they were doing a craft he'd come back to the cabin watch TV or play his PSP then go back when they were playing a game or doing a sport. I feed him in the Lido each night then came back to the room and enjoyed a nice leisurely dinner at 8:00pm while he was in club Hal, then he would order room service at 10:00 PM if he was hungry and usually got a club sandwich and cheesecake. The Club Hal staff in my opinion did a great job with the 8-12 year olds.

[iceman93]

Also be aware that if you're in the opposite situation that mom2m&a found herself in, as on my most recent cruise when there were two teenagers on board and two toddlers (one of them mine), that Club HAL will only operate on request. While this makes perfect sense in that they don't need to tie up one or two cruise activities folks doing absolutely nothing, it is a bit inconvenient if you want to do something up in the Club HAL area since they have to rustle up a person to go unlock the craft supplies, games, etc.