Celebrity Fun Factory (Summit)

Well, it's been a few years since our last attempt and I said I wouldn't take my son on a cruise until he was old enough to go to the kids' club. He'll be four in October and we're cruising with Nana and Papa, so we decided to give it another shot. We're aware it still won't be our idea of a cruise (romantic and staying up to all hours), but we're going to look at it as a family vacation and see how it goes. And, we have an adults only vacation coming up in January :)

Can anyone give us some more info on the Fun Factory, specifically on Summit? We know the ship since we honeymooned on it and I think he'll enjoy it, but his only experience with the kids' club was on Equinox in the room where parents accompanied the children.

He loves going to preschool and is already asking to go to the kids' club on the "big boat".

Also, I know there won't be a lot of kids onboard since it's during the school year, but will there be at least a few his age? I don't want to get into the great debate about pulling children out of school for vacation but I'm an ECE and perfectly fine with my son missing two weeks of junior kindergarten and will clear it with his school. He'll play with nearly anyone so I hope he'll have a few friends to have fun with.

We did back to back cruises on the Summit when DD was 3. She wasn't thrilled with it. I don't think they keep them as busy as Camp Carnival or Adventure Ocean. We didn't have any problems though she just didn't take to it the way I thought she would. If you look at my signature, I wrote reviews of the kid's club. I will say this, we went on the Millennium about a year or so later and some of the staff remembered her from our cruise on the Summit. Given how many children they encounter, I was impressed with that. If you have any specific questions, I'll try to answer them.

What kinds of activities did they have?

My son is not the kind of child who needs to be constantly entertained so I would imagine he'll be okay without a packed schedule. He would even just enjoy free play with toys and other children, as long as there are dinky cars or Duplo!

I'll look at your review, thanks.

They do a talent show, family scavenger hunts, games, art projects, family disco nights, family bingo, etc. I love the Fun Factory and my son does to. I had the same experience. We sailed Millenium in 2005 and the following year they remembered us on Constellation 2006 and then we did Infinity in Alaska in 2012 and they remembered my son from our cruise on Equinox in 2009. That is really impressive.

The other poster has it correct. Those are the typical offerings on the cruises. The highlights for my daughter were the T-shirt coloring and the indoor jungle gym/ball pit. If I recall they had a sliding board there too, but I never saw anyone using it. They had a lot of TV/movie viewing (which I didn't like). I would also suggest you search for the Kid's club daily activity sheets. I may have even posted them way back when. Although I'm sure somebody has more recent copies. That way you can see all the activities. They don't change much from week to week.

There is no ball pit anymore on Celebrity. They moved the Fun Factory on Millenium class ships and did not put in a ball pit. Same with the newer ships- no more ball pits.

You asked if there will be kids on board. What are your sailing dates?

Keith

We're sailing Oct 19 and Oct 26 B2B.

I see the groups are divided into 6-8 year olds and 8-10 year olds...can an 8 year old boy join in the same group as his 9 year old sister?