Any positive kid club experiences on RCL?

[tinkandpan]

The post below comparing CCL and RCL is making me a bit nervous about our decision to take RCL. Nobody really seemed to have great things to say about it. I have a daughter who will be 3 and a son who is 7.

[gvi]

My boys (4 and 10) loved their time in Adventure Ocean on the Radiance of the Seas in February. They didn't spend a lot of time there as we were cruising with family, but they want to go back on our next cruise in July. The desire to go back says a lot for me. The staff was very helpful and courteous, the rooms were clean and there were lots of age appropriate activities.

 

I think they will have a great time.

 

Enjoy your cruise.:)

[MNfamilycruiser]

The post below comparing CCL and RCL is making me a bit nervous about our decision to take RCL. Nobody really seemed to have great things to say about it. I have a daughter who will be 3 and a son who is 7.

 

My dds have been on NCL, Princess and RCI - of those three they preferred RC. They were 5 and 7 on our RC cruise and really just loved going to the "kids club". They had some great activities for them in the evenings - they quickly finished dinner every night to get up there as soon as the club opened for the evening.

 

Looking at the CC reviews, I am excited to be on a bigger ship with them that have activities for us to do together - rock climbing, roller blading, golf, ice skating :D

 

I think the number of kids on board, and the departing port do make a difference. Our Princess cruise left from San Juan and very few of the kids on board spoke English - in their age group, only my 2 and 2 others did. But even with that - they still had a good time. We try to go "off season" - so they know there will never be a ton of kids on board - but they have NEVER had a bad time. It's VACATION after all :D :D :D

[danem]

We cruised RCI when my kids were 4 and 7. They LOVED Adventure Ocean. They never wanted to leave. We were recently on an NCL cruise and while they enjoyed the kids club there, they preferred their RCI experience.

Emily

[crusinmama06]

You misunderstood our responses on the "Carnival verses RCCL" thread. The specific question of that person was if you had children from 18 months - 12, would you sail Carnival Inspiration or RCCL Sovereign?

 

So it really wasn't a Carnival verses RCCL question it was an Inspiration verses Sovereign question. Does that make sense?

 

Inspiration was JUST refurbished and they added a WaterWorks area for kids.

 

I have personally been on Sovereign twice and LOVED it, but that was pre-kids. Now with kids, I am sure they would love the water works area.

 

With that being said, what ship are you sailing on?

 

There are ships in the RCCL fleet that beat anything Carnvial has, hands down, no comparison. ;)

 

RCCL Adventure Ocean is truly an awesome program. My 8 year old prefers it to any other program. You should have no regrets for choosing to sail on RCCL.

[RadFamily]

My DS took part in the AO activities last summer at the age of 5. He LOVED IT!! We were on a Med sailing on RCCL Splendour, so the majority of the kids on board were European...many of the younger ones only spoke their mother tongue...However the universal language of "play" was all they needed. The counselors were wonderful! The space for the younger kids was small, but they made great use of the space. My son couldn't eat his dinner fast enough, and often begged us to take him to the AO club before dessert was served (well, after HIS dessert, but way before ours!;) ) And on our days at sea, he wanted to be in the kds club rather than at the pool. I couldn't believe it! Have no fears, I'm sure your children will love it!

 

What surprised me though was that their was no official tip program for the staff in the AO club. Those counselors work very hard and ALWAYS have a smile on. DH and I gave the staff of the AO 100Euro at the end of the cruise and asked them to split it among themselves. They more than deserved it.

[bbenson]

My family has been on 1 carnival 2 RCCL and 1 Princess, in that order one each year. Overall you can NOT beat a Voyager Class or Freedom Class ships for children (except for maybe a disney cruise if they are under 10 yrs old).

[tinkandpan]

Oh good- this all makes me feel so much better. We are sailing the Monarch of the Seas out of Port Canaveral FL. It's the kids first time cruising and we decided a 4 night one was sufficient.

[crusinmama06]

Oh good- this all makes me feel so much better. We are sailing the Monarch of the Seas out of Port Canaveral FL. It's the kids first time cruising and we decided a 4 night one was sufficient.

 

If you haven't taken a look at the activities yet for Adventure Ocean, then click the link on my signature. Then click on RCCL

[Benjismum]

Same as Radfamily, we had to drag our son out of kids club on Voyager to have meals with us, he then wolfed everything down so he could get back to the kids club as soon as possible.

 

We hardly saw him at all, he had such a great time he's done nothing but pester to go back again :rolleyes:

[wsue22]

My daughter has cruised on RCCL twice. Last year, when she had just turned 3 and was recently potty-trained, she and I cruised with my parents. This year, when she was 4, we cruised with friends.

 

She loved Adventure Ocean. In fact, at one point on a sea day during our most recent cruise I said - would you like to stay out of AO and hang out with Mommy? She said "Mom, I can play with you at home anytime I want. Take me to Adventure Ocean, please".

 

Our next cruise will be Celebrity and I hope she enjoys it as much.

[blueladybug]

We got back this month from our recent cruise and my kids loved the Adventure Ocean Kid's club. They are 6 and 10 years old. In fact, my DD (6 year old) did not eat dinner with us the last 2 nights as she begged to go to the kid's club. My kid's are still singing the songs that they did on Pirate night. They are asking when we are sailing again with RCCL:) .

[GoofingOff]

Apparently, it depends on the ship. We've taken our kids on Celebrity, NCL, and most recently, RCCL. The RCCL's program was the weakest among the three. This was on Mariner of the Seas for the 3 to 5 age group. The program for 3 to 5 year olds was more like babysitting whereas on our previous cruises on Celebrity Infinity and NCL Pearl, they really took a much more proactive role with the children (more face painting, parades through the ship and two songs for the children's talent show).

[kitty9]

I gotta tell you, whenever I've seen the kids involved in the activities on RCI, I've only seen kids having a great time, laughing and smiling all over the place. They do a great job and they work very hard to provide a super experience for your kids.