Caroline M Posted March 31, 2022 Report Share Posted March 31, 2022 Hi all. I'm a single mom taking my kids (aged 11, 11 and 8 ) on a cruise for the first time. What are the benefits to the kids club thing? Would they be missing out on a lot if I keep them with me? Is it basically just daycare? ANy help appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted March 31, 2022 Report Share Posted March 31, 2022 Welcome to the message boards! Adventure Ocean is supervised day care for kids. Think of it like camp more than anything. The benefit for your kids going is they can play with other kids and do things kids want to do. That frees you up to do adult things. It's complimentary up until 10pm. This might provide helpful information: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/01/09/cruising-kids-royal-caribbean KristiZ and Kirsten 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonR Posted March 31, 2022 Report Share Posted March 31, 2022 We have had our boy with us on several cruises. He really likes time spent in Adventure ocean as well as spending family time in the pools, waterslides, and other onboard events. He was 6 on his first cruise and is 9 now. It is great for the wife and I to have our vacation down time as well both together and on our own out and about the ship. With sea days and evenings on port days there is plenty of time for both scenarios. Kirsten 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffmw Posted March 31, 2022 Report Share Posted March 31, 2022 I have some relatively strong thoughts on this: I realize others feel differently, but for the sake of your kids and your memories and the limited time you have with your kids being young: Don't just drop them off there every day and go about your day doing adult stuff. There are so many fun things to do with your kids on the boat. Depending on what your kid likes, they may enjoy the shows; it may be fun playing sports or rock climbing with them; bingo is fun with kids; just exploring the ship. So many great memories I have with my kids just doing stuff on the ship. I think it's a huge missed opportunity for the parents who treat AO like daycare. That said, your kid may enjoy it and want to go, which provides fun for them and gives you a chance to get some 'me' time. So, I'd recommend dropping your kids off one of the first evenings (maybe not the first, as that tends to be a lot of boring orientation the kids don't need), leave them there for a couple hours, come back and see how they're doing. If your kids are outgoing, they'll likely make friends and enjoy it. Based on how they do the first time they go, they may want to go back or they may hate it and never want to go back. Either way, as far as I'm concerned, I think it's best to do what the kid wants. Don't force them to go if they don't like it. It's not for every kid. But if they enjoy it, let them have fun and enjoy some solo time. Colombia20102018 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirsten Posted March 31, 2022 Report Share Posted March 31, 2022 We have done two cruises on RC with our kids. AO is fun for them, and we had them in for parts of each day, but we didn't have them go every single session. I would say that we had a nice balance of doing many activities with our kids and also having some time without them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colombia20102018 Posted April 1, 2022 Report Share Posted April 1, 2022 8 hours ago, Caroline M said: Hi all. I'm a single mom taking my kids (aged 11, 11 and 8 ) on a cruise for the first time. What are the benefits to the kids club thing? Would they be missing out on a lot if I keep them with me? Is it basically just daycare? ANy help appreciated. I believe this depends greatly in a couple things. 1. The ship class and if the ship has been amplified. Larger ships have more things to do for kids. More shows. More activities. So there is a cost of opportunity for every minute they spend at AO instead of enjoying the fun. On the other hand, if the ship is smaller and not amplified it might not have that many things to do and taking them to AO might entertain them. 2. The kids’ personality. If they like making friends, doing little crafts and playing some games it might be worth. I have also three kids and they like to be very active. Swimming, playing arcade interactive games, the skypad, the slides, the hot tubs, and all the shows and of course an unlimited supply of ice cream . They have been to AO but never for more than an hour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony C Posted April 1, 2022 Report Share Posted April 1, 2022 Our Kids love it (age 10 and 6). If we let them they would spend all day in AO. We find that we spend most of the day with our kids taking advantage of the slides, pools and other activates on board (or venturing off on an excursion) during the day. After dinner most nights, we let them stay at AO while we watch a show, grab a drink or make a non-tax-deductible donation in the casino, which is great for us. But for them, I think they benefit from interreacting with other children their age. Especially ones that aren't siblings they have been confined to a stateroom with all week. Kirsten 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline M Posted April 12, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2022 Thank you all for your feedback!! I can't wait to get them on the ship! Going to be so fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
u401226 Posted April 20, 2022 Report Share Posted April 20, 2022 Hello dear fellow cruisers, this might be the correct thread to ask about this Since our last cruise two children have been born to our family (now aged 6 monts and 25 months), and because of Covid i haven't kept myself up-to-date with kids facilities onboard. I cant find any exact information, if there is a possibility on all for babies/toddlers aged 6-36 months to just play somewhere together with the parents, as we do not need any babysitting services or other planned activities for them I found the following information on the page https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-activities/babies-and-tots-programs BABIES AND TOTS PROGRAMS Included AGE RANGE 6-36 months NOTE Nursery drop off not available on: Jewel, Adventure, Explorer or Voyager of the Seas®. It is stated that nursery drop off is not available on those four ships Voyager. According to the deck plan those ship do still have a nursery, so if i understand correctly there is just no babycare available on these ships? But are there toys/a playground in the nursery too. Furthermore, does anyone happen to know if the nursery is open and free to use anytime in times of covid restrictions? Thank you all for helping me out here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizzyBee23 Posted April 20, 2022 Report Share Posted April 20, 2022 There are family play sessions scheduled on those ships where they'll bring out the toys for the littles to play with. I'm not sure where or what time it will be on Voyager, but an old cruise planner may be helpful. u401226 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdw531 Posted May 19, 2022 Report Share Posted May 19, 2022 Voyager does now have nursery drop-off, despite what the website says. We dropped off our baby a few times on our early May cruise. We did not see any family play sessions, just drop-off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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