kid's club and age restrictions

[smnornes]

We're sailing on the Caribbean Princess with our two kids, ages will be 7 and 8 when we go. Princess splits their kid's clubs into 3 categories...Princess Pelicans (ages 3 to 7), Shockwaves (ages 8-12), and Remix (ages 13-17).

 

My kids are best friends and my 7 year old will not be happy at all being stuck with the "babies" while her brother goes off with the older kids. Will they let her go with the older group and brother? Do they check ages? Do they care?

 

Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks!

[beckcab]

They are very strict with the ages in the kids clubs. They have your kids ages on the onboard documents. My kids are older but they do have plenty of age appropriate things. Sorry your two will be split up but they don't budge.

[merela]

We're sailing on the Caribbean Princess with our two kids, ages will be 7 and 8 when we go. Princess splits their kid's clubs into 3 categories...Princess Pelicans (ages 3 to 7), Shockwaves (ages 8-12), and Remix (ages 13-17).

 

My kids are best friends and my 7 year old will not be happy at all being stuck with the "babies" while her brother goes off with the older kids. Will they let her go with the older group and brother? Do they check ages? Do they care?

 

Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks!

 

Depending on the number of kids on the ship, they may split up the kids into 4 groups:

 

Ages 3-5, Ages 6-8, Ages 9-12, and Ages 13-17.

 

All my previous Princess sailings had this age groupings.

 

So you may want to call Princess and find out how many kids are on your sailing. My guess is if it's a sailing of more than 150 kids, they will split them up into 4 groups.

 

BTW, they are very strict with age groups. I think it has something to do insurance. They will not younger kids into older groups, but they will let an older kid to come down to the younger group if he/she has a sibling in the younger group.

 

2 years ago, my daughter turned 6 the 2nd day of our 7-day cruise. She was assigned the 3-5 age group when we boarded the ship, but she thought she was 6 now and didn't want to spend time with the "babies", so I asked the Kids' Club counsellors to put her into the 6-8 age group. Because she did turn 6 on the cruise, they let her into the 6-8 age group. But she didn't really enjoy that group because everyone was older than her. All the group activities in the 6-8 age group involved a lot of reading. My daughter couldn't read then, so she couldn't really participate. She ended up spending a lot of time with us instead.

 

I have always thought the Princess' kids club activities are designed for each age group's median age.

 

Anyways, just be aware that Princess is very strict with the age groupings. But you can always talk to the counsellors about your situation, but don't get upset if they won't let your younger child into the older group (since that's their policy). But I have a feeling, if you are taking your children on this cruise during school breaks/holidays, your sailing may have 4 age groupings and your children will be in the same age group.

 

Call Princess and find out how many kids are in your sailing.

[karatemom2]

Princess is very strict about this. My daughter was just a few weeks shy of her 8th birthday on our Alaska cruise this last summer and they absolutely would not let her move up. She was upset at first because she thought she would be stuck with babies as well, but she quickly made friends with several of the other 6 and 7 year olds and she ended up having a great time in the club. They gear activities to their age level so that eveyone is entertained. The groups on the Dawn Princess were 3-7, 8-12 and 13-17. They did allow an 8 year old girl to move down since she was so uncomfortable with the older kids in the 8-12 group. They seemed more willing to let them move down a group as opposed to moving up. Maybe they would let your 8 year old move down so the two kids could stay together.

[dforeigner]

Time to work on those social skills :D

[genevieve7000]

We were just on the Caribbean Princess a few weeks ago and we had similar concerns. They won't let your younger one move up.....NO WAY, but they will let your older one move down. However, our kids were split up and both had a great time! Our son met friends from England who were really into soccer, as he is and our daughter made a couple really good friends, too. It ended up working out well for both our kids socially. They do group the older Pelican kids together, so it's not like your 7 year old will be forced to hang with the three year olds, which was a concern for us. They did some cute crafts and I thought the activities for both Shockwaves and Pelican were great and age appropriate. Both our kids had a great time!

[TwinCruiserMom]

When we were on the CB in July, the age group my sons were in was 10 - 13, and I do not remember the age group below it.

 

It just goes to show that the grouping is definitely dependent on how many kids are onboard. Go in the off season and there will be a wider range of ages in the group, while in the summer or school breaks, they will have a smaller age range and more groups.

[smnornes]

Depending on the number of kids on the ship, they may split up the kids into 4 groups:

 

Ages 3-5, Ages 6-8, Ages 9-12, and Ages 13-17.

 

All my previous Princess sailings had this age groupings.

 

So you may want to call Princess and find out how many kids are on your sailing. My guess is if it's a sailing of more than 150 kids, they will split them up into 4 groups.

 

Call Princess and find out how many kids are in your sailing.

 

Ok, I called Princess and there are 230 kids booked so far. 130 kids in the 2-13 range, and 100 kids in the 13-17 range. This looks good for us. Thanks!

[genevieve7000]

We had 157 kids on our 10-14 siling and there were plenty of kids in both age groups for our 6 and 9 year olds to hang out with. We met several nice families through friends our kids met in the kids club that we hung out with around the pool, met for drinks at night, etc.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Just remember that these counselors probably get many parents each sailing insisting that their kids are more "mature" than other kids. With the strict groupings, they are off the hook and can say "sorry, we can't move your child to the older group." And just think, if you're a 13-yr-old, thinking you'll be hanging with other teens, and all of a sudden there's pre-teens mixed in with your group, you may not be too happy.

 

On our last cruise, there were 250 kids onboard (during winter break). Our girl was 8 and in the 8 to 12 age group. Seemed like there were a high percentage of girls in that group. Whenever we came to pick her up, she was often playing video games with one of the 12-yr-olds.