Kids Camps Age groups question

[deadhead30]

Hi1 Thinking of booking an Alaskan cruise on Norwegian. Our kids want to use the kids club, but they are 8 and 10. This will put them into two different "age categories" and they REFUSE to be split up! Does anyone know how militant they are about enforcing these age groupings? I mean, if my 10 yr old wants to hang out in the 6-9 yr old group, would they allow that? If not, I think I'll have to wait until they fall within the same group, which means postponing our cruise a couple years!

[crusinmama06]

Yes I am pretty sure NCL is "militant" about it. ;) Someone with more NCL experience, feel free to correct me if I am wrong. But I thought NCL was one that kept the kids to their age groups.

 

You mean your kids would rather NOT cruise than to be split up? That's sweet and all but my kids would be staying home if they did that to me...lol

 

Sorry, my kids are always in separate kid clubs groups. They are happy to be able to do their own thing and get their own friends. :)

[deadhead30]

Thanks for replying, even if it's not the answer I wanted!

 

Yes, the kids would rather NOT cruise than be split up. They're very close and just would not have a good time separated. (Not that I was planning to put them in the kids area 24/7, of course, but they want to go sometimes) But I won't leave them at home, I guess we'll wait...

 

DH and I get to go on plenty of trips without the kids, (kids stay with Grandma!) But, the cruise to Alaska is something the kids REALLY want to do, so we do want it to be a family trip.

[ugen512]

My experience was it depends on how many kids onboard. On our Spirit cruise only about 15 kids so they all co-mingled. On the Sky cruise about 10-15 kids in each age group and they went by the book.

[kitty9]

If the cruise is in the summer, they will have loads of kids on board and in the club, so they are very, very strict on ages. But, why postpone the cruise? They aren't required to join the club. They can just hang together and not be bothered with being split up. Have they been on cruises before? If not, you, and they, might be surprised that they can handle things quite well on their own, without being together. How do they handle going to school? Unless they're home schooled, they're in different classrooms, so perhaps telling them this is like being in school would calm their nerves and allow them to be separate in the kids club.

[mactrio]

Hi1 Thinking of booking an Alaskan cruise on Norwegian. Our kids want to use the kids club, but they are 8 and 10. This will put them into two different "age categories" and they REFUSE to be split up! Does anyone know how militant they are about enforcing these age groupings? I mean, if my 10 yr old wants to hang out in the 6-9 yr old group, would they allow that? If not, I think I'll have to wait until they fall within the same group, which means postponing our cruise a couple years!

 

We were on the NCL Spirit in Feb and a child turned 10 on day 2 of our cruise and the child was moved into the next age group. They do not make exceptions, your children will either have to adapt to being apart or miss out on a lot of fun. My 9 yr old loved it.

 

Imagine if they made exceptions for everyone then you would have 15 yr old kids mixed in with 7 yr old kids and/or a 9 yr old with the 3 yr old children. Rules are there for a reason and if 200 parents wanted their 200 kids to move groups it would be chaos.

I bet they would have a lot of fun even if they don't go to the kids crew.

[syzygy33]

I have been told on several of Norwegians ships that they will not make exceptions.

[2Cruise4Ever]

NCL is very strict with their age groups. The only exception is when there aren't many kids on board (say 15 to 20). Then, they will all be in the same room together.

[lamolesky]

Yes, when there aren't many kids on board they will put them together for some activities. They probably won't tell you that if you ask they did it a few times when I was there.

[xcomet]

Hi1 Thinking of booking an Alaskan cruise on Norwegian. Our kids want to use the kids club, but they are 8 and 10. This will put them into two different "age categories" and they REFUSE to be split up! Does anyone know how militant they are about enforcing these age groupings? I mean, if my 10 yr old wants to hang out in the 6-9 yr old group, would they allow that? If not, I think I'll have to wait until they fall within the same group, which means postponing our cruise a couple years!

 

 

we just returned from the RCCL Liberty, we had cousins on the ship with my three kids. My youngest is 12, but cousins 11, my middle is 15 but cousins were 14. so we explained the situation . The allowed the kids to be together . They have a one strike policy, which means if you break the rules, one time, you have to go back to your own age group. Everyone was well behaved and it worked out fine.

[crusinmama06]

we just returned from the RCCL Liberty, we had cousins on the ship with my three kids. My youngest is 12, but cousins 11, my middle is 15 but cousins were 14. so we explained the situation . The allowed the kids to be together . They have a one strike policy, which means if you break the rules, one time, you have to go back to your own age group. Everyone was well behaved and it worked out fine.

 

Yeah but that was Royal Caribbean. I have been with friends who had kids moved on both RCCL and Carnival - the OP is going on NCL and they are suppose to be more strict about this.