Children on Princess

Hi everyone, I have a quick question about princess. I love to cruise and have been on 3 princess cruises but not with my children (3 and 5). They have been with us on Disney fantasy twice,but no other line. As an adult, I love princess, but wasn't sure if my kids would enjoy it. Disney prices this winter are so crazy I don't think we can swing it again, so I was thinking of trying to Jan Regal Princess 7 day. Does anyone have experience with children on princess? Is the staff friendly? If we book a mini suite will there be enough room for 4 of us to fit comfortably in the cabin? How about the princess Pelicans program? Did your children enjoy it? My kids would be 4 and 6 when we sail. I loved regal this spring, but didn't check out the kids club at the time. Thanks so much!!

Caroline

Those are perfect ages for Princess. We sailed four times with Princess before my twins were 5, including a 15 day crossing to/from Hawaii that only had 11 sea days. My girls LOVED their cruises and couldn't wait to get to the kids club each day. The staff fawned over all the children and we never had an issue with other passengers (of course I always removed my girls if they were fussing at all in the dining room or at a show). Not just our waiters and cabin stewards, but shopworkers, bartenders, etc. etc. treated them like royalty.

Princess is wonderfully low-chaos, and fewer kids means more attention for mine. Now that my kids are older (10), they do prefer the ships with more bells & whistles (rock climbing wall, water play area), but at those younger ages, the kids club itself was magical. But they would have an amazing vacation on any ship.

Best,

Mia

Any of the mass market lines will be fine with kids...they ALL cater to families! Don't worry about the "bells and whistles"...what they don't see, they don't miss!

Princess does a nice job with the kids.

Keith

Hi everyone, I have a quick question about princess. I love to cruise and have been on 3 princess cruises but not with my children (3 and 5). They have been with us on Disney fantasy twice,but no other line. As an adult, I love princess, but wasn't sure if my kids would enjoy it. Disney prices this winter are so crazy I don't think we can swing it again, so I was thinking of trying to Jan Regal Princess 7 day. Does anyone have experience with children on princess? Is the staff friendly? If we book a mini suite will there be enough room for 4 of us to fit comfortably in the cabin? How about the princess Pelicans program? Did your children enjoy it? My kids would be 4 and 6 when we sail. I loved regal this spring, but didn't check out the kids club at the time. Thanks so much!!

 

Caroline

They will love it, My 3YO has been on the 5 day (Diamond Princess) and 15 day Sapphire Princess Cruise (and they were both not long enough for her). On the most recent cruise my 3yo daughter was so upset when told she should not go back as were getting of the ship - lets just say mum and dad were not her favourites for taking her off the ship

I would not worry at all, and the staff they were simply the best

I don't know if Princess has the best program at sea, but if my kids are happy them i'm happy

Princess children's clubs are excellent. Good organised activities programme. Port days they will look after children all day even if you go ashore. You have to pay for the last hour in the late evening if they stay that late but it's a bit late for youngest.

Mini suite typically has a pair of single beds which make a double when configured plus a couch which turns into a double bed. This is all done by the steward each day so no hard work. In a mini suite you can all sleep at ground level and totally avoid upper bunks. Upper bunks are not sensible at these ages.

Regards John

We have taken our daughter on Princess twice, and a third time coming up in a few weeks. She was 6mo, 10mo, and will be 21mo. The staff adored her and we liked the quieter crowd. Can't wait until she's old enough for the kids club!

Princess is an excellent choice for children! :)

After some cruises on Carnival (my daughter's first three), we switched to Princess. She was 5, 7, 8, 13 and 15 on her Princess cruises. The kids' program has plenty of activities, especially if you go when there's plenty of kids on aboard.

We have been on carnival twice and Princess 4 times with our 4 year old. One thing about princess there are less kids but the advantage of they get more attention and our son asked every night to go back so don't worry. I agree when they get older they will want all the bell and whistles but At this age it is all good

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds like everyone had a great experience on Princess, unfortunately ours was not the same. We cruised Disney with the kids once before. Last year we cruised the Crown Princess (Mexican Riviera) for Thanksgiving week with our 3 yr old and our 7 year old. They were not big fans of the kids club. Just wasn't very exciting for them. They went, but the certainly didn't look forward to it. The shows at night were not anything they were excited about either and the kids' club at night was just watching a movie. Since we have seen pretty much every kids' movie out there, they would go to the kids club, see what movie was playing and then decide if they wanted to stay or not. They stayed about 2 or 3 nights of the 7 day cruise, so it was kind of disappointing that it wasn't anything we could rely on. So we just had to play it by ear.

The biggest disappointment we had was the lack of a kids' pool. They had 2 pools (that were VERY cold!) that were about 5 feet deep with no shallow end. I am only 5'3" so I did not feel safe holding on to my little one the whole time when I was even struggling to stand. The jacuzzis were constantly packed with kids probably because there was really no safe way for little ones to swim and the water was so cold. My kids both know how to swim, but there was no way I was going to have them go in the pool without us right by their side. So, I think if you are booking on Princess, probably check out the pool options more closely. If they had a good kids' pool, I would consider going Princess again, but it is not my 1st option.

We also booked the mini-suite and I have to say that this was fantastic! Really glad we did that, so the stateroom was great. Plenty of room for a family of 4 and I loved all the closet space. Our 7 yr old slept on the top bunk that drops from the ceiling.

We just booked the NCL Escape primarily because of their amazing pool and outdoor activities. Even if our kids don't go to the kids club, at least there are things to do. Quite frankly, we just didn't feel like there were many kid activities on the Crown and the kids were bored on sea days by the end. This was a family booking with my parents & sister & brother in law, so we didn't research the "child activities" before going. It was fine because it was a family trip, but if we were planning on just the 4 of us, I would have been disappointed with my choice.

We have taken 4 Princess cruises, all with our 2 sons. The first time they were 8 and 9. They loved it! The Jr. Ranger Program in Alaska was amazing! We have also done the Caribbean and Mediterranean with them, and they always enjoyed the kids camps. There was a time when they would look at the water parks on the Carnival ship next to us and asked to go on that ship. We did go on a Carnival cruise this summer (by the way, my kids are now teenagers) and they had no desire to go to the waterpark. They are also looking forward to being back on Princess this summer.

Our daughter loved the Crown Princess kids club @ 3 years old. She asked to go every waking hour. Every day she came 'home' with crafts and other small 'treasures'. There were only 30 kids onboard in her age range for that cruise, so she got lots of attention from the kids staff. Hoping for a repeat in January. She will be almost 5, this time. On the Crown again.

My daughter LOVES going to her preschool, which is play based, so I assume the club must be a similar experience for her.

For the pools we bring puddle jumpers or wings. The kids menu in the MDR is the same each night, but has yummy choices.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

My sons love Princess! On our first cruise, my sons were 8 and 9. My older son was, at that time, pretty shy and didn't want to go to the kids camp. I convinced him to go the first morning and told him that he didn't have to go back after that if he didn't want to. Well, that was pretty much the last time we saw him while on the ship. In fact, both my sons enjoyed it so much we made a rule that they had to have most meals (exceptions for kids only dinners) and go into ports with us or we wouldn't have seen them at all.

We also did a mini-suite for our first cruise and it was fine. As they get older though, we started getting 2 cabins, 1 balcony and 1 inside. This cost about the same as the mini with 4 people and gave us an extra bathroom.

Our two year old son was very happy in the Princess kids clubs (he couldn't be dropped off, but could stay there under parental supervision). The staff was very friendly, and willing to bring him whatever arts and crafts he wanted and to help modify the activities for older kids so he could also make whatever they did. We were very impressed with their counselors.