Sapphire Princess to Alaska

I have only cruised on Royal Caribbean, but am considering the Sapphire Princess for Alaska this June. I am wondering how Princess to Alaska will be for children ages 6 & 8. Some specific questions are:

- Are the pools open (in a solarium, I'm guessing?), and are there any kid's pools?

- Aside from the kid's club, what kinds of activities are there for children on the ship? What is there for them to do when at sea?

- It looks like Princess groups kids 3-7 together (where as Royal does 3-5, then 6-8). On Royal, they don't usually let you change groups. What about Princess? Just wondering if the 6 year old could go in the older group with his brother, or vice versa.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

We sailed the Sapphire princess to Alaska last August, when my kiddos were 6 and 3.

The pools were open. They have one out in the open, and one under cover. We stuck with the one under cover as it was warmer. A word of caution though- on the days when you are on the ocean and not in the inside passage, the water in the pools can be rough. It was sloshing around so badly that there was easily a 2 foot difference in height of the water from minute to minute. Granted, my kids loved it and had a blast, they were just not the independent swimmers as they usually are.

I don't feel that there were a lot of (if any) activities for the kids outside of the kids clubs. Granted, I don't think I paid close attention because my children begged to go to the clubs every minute they were open. I was worried because 6 months prior to Alaska, we had cruised on Disney, and I didn't think the Princess kids club could stand up to the high standards Disney had set, but my kids said they had just as much fun in the Princess Pelicans as they did in the Disney clubs. I don't know about moving up to the next age group, since my two were both in the younger club.