Kids activities, but not kids clubs?

Are there things for kids to do that are not associated with the kids clubs on ships? When we've stayed at other land resorts, there might be a hoola-hoop or dance contest, or a painting activity, etc. This was open to all kids, and no one had to be signed in to anything.

Any of the cruises I'm looking at have at least one full sea day. I don't think my kids would be into the kids clubs (I'm totally fine either way if they decide to or not) But it'd be nice for some diversion for them.

"Activities" will all be managed by the kid's club whether they occur within the club or about the ship. Most kid's clubs will have the kids out and about throughout the day, whether it's a trek for ice cream or to play basketball or some other activity.

Depending on the ship you sail, there will be different things.

Celebrity does not have much to do other the kid's club. My children enjoy the shows and the pool. So during the day when they are not at the club - they are enjoying the pool.

HAL has minigolf and the pools.

Royal (ship dependant) has minigolf, ziplinging, rockclimbing, flowrider, iceskating, merry-go-rounds, face painting, balloon animals, pools, splashpad , basketball, etc.

Carnival has water slides and minigolf and pools.

Disney has watercoaster, small waterslides, pools, basketball, minigolf.

I'm sure I've missed some activities. I have no experience with NCL so I cant comment on their offerings. If your kids need to be active and entertained, you may want to choose a line that offers more in the way of activities in addition to the kid's club.

Are there things for kids to do that are not associated with the kids clubs on ships? When we've stayed at other land resorts, there might be a hoola-hoop or dance contest, or a painting activity, etc. This was open to all kids, and no one had to be signed in to anything.

Any of the cruises I'm looking at have at least one full sea day. I don't think my kids would be into the kids clubs (I'm totally fine either way if they decide to or not) But it'd be nice for some diversion for them.

which ship/line? Disney is the most family friendly we've found.

Disney had toddler time and wake up with disney jr in the am on sea days. Plus charactor meet and greets, dance parties, crafts.

NONE of that was in the kid's club, though they did have open house hours and things to do with parents/kids.

RCI, there was NOTHING, but minigolf and pool. It was way too windy for minigolf and that's not really fun.

Mostly, it seems the ships are designed for parents to drop kids off, not play with kids.

Idealy, they'd have a room with toys/play stuff/books for parents to play with kids.

I know carnival had a gameroom/library, that had board games. but that was a long time ago.

which ship/line? Disney is the most family friendly we've found.

Disney had toddler time and wake up with disney jr in the am on sea days. Plus charactor meet and greets, dance parties, crafts.

 

NONE of that was in the kid's club, though they did have open house hours and things to do with parents/kids.

 

RCI, there was NOTHING, but minigolf and pool. It was way too windy for minigolf and that's not really fun.

 

Mostly, it seems the ships are designed for parents to drop kids off, not play with kids.

 

 

Idealy, they'd have a room with toys/play stuff/books for parents to play with kids.

 

I know carnival had a gameroom/library, that had board games. but that was a long time ago.

The answer will vary by ship. Each ship has a different option. You can't compare a sailing on Royal Sovereign of the Seas with Oasis of the Seas. Two completely different experiences for children.

Also, if you take a Royal ship with the DreamWorks experience, there are character breakfasts and character meets (an experience of its own and NOT to be compared to Disney - who does it way better).

The answer will vary by ship. Each ship has a different option. You can't compare a sailing on Royal Sovereign of the Seas with Oasis of the Seas. Two completely different experiences for children.

 

Also, if you take a Royal ship with the DreamWorks experience, there are character breakfasts and character meets (an experience of its own and NOT to be compared to Disney - who does it way better).

True, since my sig states the ships/dates I didn't feel the need to list them in my reply. Our RCL didn't have dreamworks, it was an old ship with mostly old people on the sailing. IT did have toy leanding and open hours in the nursary, so that was a huge plus, and the pool was way cooler than disney because it had slides.

Some of carnival ships now have the dr suess characters and breakfast, complete with a parade and story telling.

I would (we did) research each ship and what they offer based on which port you're leaving from or want to go to.

(we don't care where we go, we only know we we're leaving from NO, during nov/early dec. THEN we figure out which ship/date.)

lol.

I had not read your signature. Like the humourous notations.

How old are your kids?

This is actually a tough question to answer since the ships seem to have some limited activities outside of the kids club that are scheduled at various times during the cruise, but it is hard to know ahead of time when/what the specific ship will be doing unless you get lucky and someone posts the daily schedules from a recent sailing. Our first HAL cruise drove me nuts since I really wanted to take their adult cooking classes, but they scheduled all of them for port days while I was on excursions.

We've seen family cooking programs on NCL (although this was held during the time the kids club was open) and NCL has a small room with toys for children under 3. The NCL star had a small area with kids pools, and a small arcade (which I think you had to pay). If your kids are teens, some kids clubs have WII or other video games that they might be interested in part of the time.

Also, do you think your kids would attend a kids club if they were doing a specific activity they are really interested in? People sometimes post the kids club daily schedule on cruise critic, and your children can see if there are any specific activities they are interested in (my son loves to cook, so on HAL we made sure to send him on the day they made pancakes in the kids club).

I didn't offer this information earlier, because you had not specifically asked this question.

In my opinion, HAL leads the pack on "Family" activities. Family wii, family charaoke, family scavenger hunt, family dance party. we had fun at all the family events. They were all posed in the kid's club daily.

Like the PP said, HAL offers cooking for kids too. On our sailing, the kid's made chocolate chip cookies, and then ate them while watching a movie in the same theatre.

I didn't offer this information earlier, because you had not specifically asked this question.

 

In my opinion, HAL leads the pack on "Family" activities. Family wii, family charaoke, family scavenger hunt, family dance party. we had fun at all the family events. They were all posed in the kid's club daily.

 

Like the PP said, HAL offers cooking for kids too. On our sailing, the kid's made chocolate chip cookies, and then ate them while watching a movie in the same theatre.

I keep hearing wonderful things about HAL. sigh. Maybe one day. We're limited to the port of New Orleans. We're willing to go to Gal, TX for Disney.

KItKAT, which NCL ships offer the room with toys?

I keep hearing wonderful things about HAL. sigh. Maybe one day. We're limited to the port of New Orleans. We're willing to go to Gal, TX for Disney.

 

 

 

KItKAT, which NCL ships offer the room with toys?

I think all of the NCL ships have a room with toys for kids under 3 called the Guppies room. The size and quality seems to vary quite a bit by ship. We used it on Epic in January. They also have libraries with some books (not sure about kids books?) and games available and some family activities. Don't know the specifics on those since DS was too young for them.

I am pretty sure Princess also has some family activities.

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Our last five cruises have been on Princess and our girl was 5 on the first of those and 15 on the last (she's also been on three Carnival cruises before that).

As with probably every mass market cruise line, there is no charge to sign up your kids for the program so there's no down side. You go the first night to sign off on the required form (indicating allergies, etc.) and at the same time, your kids are meeting those in their age group. You should get a day-by-day schedule of the activities for the specific age groups for your kid (Princess will put the appropriate one in your cabin when you first board). After that, you drop off your child (unless they're older, say a pre-teen or teen, and then they might want to go there without your help) anytime the place is open. There's no requirement they spend all their time there. Some programs may even have post-10pm kidsitting and maybe even port day kidsitting.

If there's some cruise lines you're looking at, check out their website for info on the kids' programs. Age minimums will be listed (some start at age 2 and others at age 3) as well as age groupings.

For activities that kids can take part in outside of what the programs provide, those will include swimming (usually this is something the parents supervise -- I don't think any kids' staff will take the kids to the pool themselves), trivia, and many other "adult" activities, excluding casino and bingo, of course. On my Hawaiian cruises on Princess, many kids will take part in lei making classes, hula classes, uke classes, Pop Choir. The kids' program had their own talent show. Kids can go to the shows (aside from adult-oriented comedy shows) and listen to music in the lounges (there's no cover charges to do this).

Carnival and Princess will also have kids' dinners. You drop the kids off at the buffet where they have a "private party." Afterwards, the kids' staff will take the kids to the kids' program for evening activities.

We were on the Norwegian Star, which had a small guppy room with toys for children under the age of 3 (older children happily played in that room while waiting for the kids club to reopen after a 2 hour closure for lunch and dinner). I also believe all NCL ships have this room, but you should check either with Norwegian or post on their forum.

We sailed HAL with a 3 year old, and felt that the kids club programs were the least strong of the 3 lines we have sailed with children (NCL and Princess are the other two). They were adequate programs that kept my son happy, but there were only 2 counselors assigned to the kids club, and therefore the counselors had what I would consider to be a bit too heavy a workload since they both needed to work all of the hours the kids club was open. Activities were of the gluing things to paper plates variety, while Princess and NCL both had more engaging and quite impressive craft projects. The fellow passengers on HAL were much more hostile to children than any other ship we've sailed. Overall, we did enjoy our cruise very much, but we chose and enjoyed that cruise primarily for the itineraries. I would recommend that other families sail on HAL if they find an itinerary they enjoy, but otherwise I would recommend starting your search with a more child oriented line.

My experience is also less relevant to the OP, since it seems as though you would be much less reliant on the kids club than my family, and therefore if HAL's strengths are in different areas it might be a much better fit for your family. Since our son enjoys being in kids clubs, we didn't participate in any of the family activities on HAL, as they were generally scheduled during kids club hours. I don't remember that many family activities being scheduled (perhaps one a day) but we sailed on the Ryndam, which is one of the oldest and smallest ships in HAL's fleet and things may be different on a larger or newer ship. If you find some ships/itineraries you are interested in, either the family forum or the cruise line forum may have people who can give you more specific and helpful answers as to which trip out of NO will let you spend the most time doing enjoyable family activities together.

We were on the Norwegian Star, which had a small guppy room with toys for children under the age of 3 (older children happily played in that room while waiting for the kids club to reopen after a 2 hour closure for lunch and dinner). I also believe all NCL ships have this room, but you should check either with Norwegian or post on their forum.

 

We sailed HAL with a 3 year old, and felt that the kids club programs were the least strong of the 3 lines we have sailed with children (NCL and Princess are the other two). They were adequate programs that kept my son happy, but there were only 2 counselors assigned to the kids club, and therefore the counselors had what I would consider to be a bit too heavy a workload since they both needed to work all of the hours the kids club was open. Activities were of the gluing things to paper plates variety, while Princess and NCL both had more engaging and quite impressive craft projects. The fellow passengers on HAL were much more hostile to children than any other ship we've sailed. Overall, we did enjoy our cruise very much, but we chose and enjoyed that cruise primarily for the itineraries. I would recommend that other families sail on HAL if they find an itinerary they enjoy, but otherwise I would recommend starting your search with a more child oriented line.

 

My experience is also less relevant to the OP, since it seems as though you would be much less reliant on the kids club than my family, and therefore if HAL's strengths are in different areas it might be a much better fit for your family. Since our son enjoys being in kids clubs, we didn't participate in any of the family activities on HAL, as they were generally scheduled during kids club hours. I don't remember that many family activities being scheduled (perhaps one a day) but we sailed on the Ryndam, which is one of the oldest and smallest ships in HAL's fleet and things may be different on a larger or newer ship. If you find some ships/itineraries you are interested in, either the family forum or the cruise line forum may have people who can give you more specific and helpful answers as to which trip out of NO will let you spend the most time doing enjoyable family activities together.

I would greatly disagree with your comments on HAL (as it pertains to my experience).

HAL was the first kid's club that my two really enjoyed, no loved. For years, it was their measure of a good kid's club. Now they say X is their favourite, but I suspect if we sailed HAL again, it would rise to the top as their favourite. Our experience was on Eurodam. I think my kids were 4/5 at the time. They begged, literally begged each day to go to the kid's club (which was a new experience for us). They sobbed and pleaded to not leave that cruise.

I recall several counsellors all of which knew and greeted our kids by name from the very first night, after having met them the first afternoon. Each day had unique themes and activities; pirate night, spy night, ... and of all the lines we've done - HAL really catered to the family. At least on two nights, we took over the night club for a family dance party. I recall being dressed up so it must have been the two formal nights. I have the best memories of our HAL cruise.

We still favour X because of the stricter smoking policies, and I think X better caters to allergies. Even though it's been a few years, I would still rate HAL as having one of the best kid's clubs at sea.