Kid's club open house/registration

[TwinCruiserMom]

Is it possible to register your kids at the Kid's club open house in the afternoon on embarkation day or do you have to also attend one of the registration meetings that night?

 

We would rather register in the afternoon if that is possible because there are many more evening activities we want to attend. Our twin sons only want to attend a couple activities (like dissecting squids!!) so I am hoping for a form to complete and that's it instead of a long registration meeting.

 

Also, can they sign themselves in and out of the club if I give my consent? They are extremely mature for their age and they will have a family radio/walkie talkie with them to contact us and get our location on the ship.

 

Thanks!

[meemeec]

We've sailed twice with our grandchildren and found that we could register the kids in the afternoon. There should be information on the kids club in your cabin when you board. The evening "meeting" was suggested but not mandatory.

As far as signing themselves out of the kids club, that depends on their ages. It seems to me that they have to be at least 10 years old. My 11 year old grandson was granted this privilege though his 8 year old sister was not.

[2theship]

As the last poster said, the sign-out privileges are based on age. You'll probably have the opportunity to sign up as you board the ship but from experience, I strongly suggest that they go check it out on the first night. That's when they'll meet the most kids. Plus, there are more "get acquainted" activities on the first night. It can be hard to feel like one of the gang later on. Plus, they may make some friends that they'll like spending time with outside of the kids' activities. If you're smart, you'll get to know some other kids' families and you can trade off times to hang out together with adult supervision.

[A&JsMom]

Are these "get aquainted" activities with or without parents? I'm just wondering how to work in dinner that first night.

[TwinCruiserMom]

Thanks for the info! I am so glad that we can sign up during the open house in the afternoon. Also, they will be able to see the facilities and get an idea on how much they want to participate during the week. I was not looking forward to the evening meeting so I am glad it is not mandatory.

 

I doubt if my boys will spend much time in the club as they are right on the borderline agewise (12). They are looking forward to a few different activities they saw listed but they are not into video games and parties and such. They would much rather hang with us and their older sister who is 17.

[Shelly97060]

you can sign them up in the afternoon and set it up so they can sign in and out by themselves. :)

[helenb]

Our experience on Princess is that on Embarcation afternoon they have an 'open house' where you can register and (if necessary) pick up a pager. Then, that evening from 7-10 pm they have their first 'drop off' hours where kids have a bunch of get-acquainted activities. Parents CAN stick around, but don't have to. From what I've seen, parents usually leave, although with the youngest age group (3-6 y.o.) they sometimes stick around for 30 minutes or so to make sure everything is okay.

 

Young kids cannot sign themselves out of the kids club UNLESS the parent signs a permission form to let them do so. Kids under 7 are NEVER allowed to sign themselves out. I'm not sure at what age the kids are automatically allowed to come and go as they please, but I know for sure the teens (13+) can do this. The 13+ age group is also where they start to have SOME activities that are 'unsupervised', such as scavenger hunts around the ship.

 

FWIW, registration on Princess is pretty simple and painless, IME. On RCCL it was MUCH more of a pain.

[Cruisin' Chick]

On our three Princess cruises, we couldn't just sign up in the afternoon. Our last cruise was in December 2005 and the info packet left in our cabin stated that the fun zone was open for "open house and registration", but when we stopped by, we were told we needed to return for one of the meetings. As we had second seating at dinner, which started at 8, we showed up for the 7pm meeting (the earliest one) and had to make a mad dash for dinner (fortunately we knew the first night at dinner starts late as each party gets escorted to their table).

 

The staff will introduced themselves and then go through the rules. I imagine that they don't want to go through that whole spiel each time someone stops by to individually register.

 

The minimum age (unless it's gone up since then) for kids signing in and out themselves is 8. Our girl was 8 on her last cruise but we didn't give her this priviledge.