Expierence-holiday crusing-kids programs

HI!

Yay! Leave sunday for our first family cruise on Princess! My kids are 3 and 6. THere are over 600 kids on the sailing. What has been your expierence with overcrowding in the kids club-namely Princess Pelicans?

Has any one ever been turned away? I know there are limits...

but what should I expect? Crowds? Lines? Next to impossible to get in?

No...it will be fine...they are used to tons of kids over the holidays.

I sailed on January 3rd on the Coral Princess. The previous cruise had been the holiday cruise, and I spent quite a bit of time with the kids club staff since our son was only 2 at the time and needed to be under parental supervision in the kids club. The Princess Kid Zone staff told me that during the holidays, they add a lot of extra counselors to handle all the kids. During holiday cruises, the activities are very structured (on our sailing there were only 11 kids on board for our cruise, so they led one structured activity but if a kid wanted to do something else they would be happy to set it up for them. They told me the week before they could never do that - children couldn't have a lot of choices besides the provided activity since the counselors didn't have time to bring any other art supplies or other toys out to the kids). There are some toys permanently stationed there, and I assume the kids could always play with those.

Only one parent per child under the age of 3 is allowed in the kids club to supervise their child when the kids clubs are approaching capacity, which seems totally reasonable, especially considering how many lines won't even allow a child under 3 into the kids club.

The other nice thing about Princess is that the kids clubs (assuming the hours haven't changed) only close for an hour at lunch and dinner. For my family it would be easy to bring a kid back a little while after the kids club open, to avoid lines. On NCL, since the kids clubs closed for two hours at lunch and dinner on sea days my kid would be begging to go back for at least a half hour before they reopened and I needed to be on line to get him in earlier.

HI!

Yay! Leave sunday for our first family cruise on Princess! My kids are 3 and 6. THere are over 600 kids on the sailing. What has been your expierence with overcrowding in the kids club-namely Princess Pelicans?

Has any one ever been turned away? I know there are limits...

but what should I expect? Crowds? Lines? Next to impossible to get in?

Just wondering how you made out with the kids' club? We have always had excellent experiences with Princess, but this year two of our cruises had waitlists for kids' club and we weren't able to get in without lining up for half hour before they opened. I wasn't very happy and am thinking of maybe trying other lines next cruise.

HI!

Yay! Leave sunday for our first family cruise on Princess! My kids are 3 and 6. THere are over 600 kids on the sailing. What has been your expierence with overcrowding in the kids club-namely Princess Pelicans?

Has any one ever been turned away? I know there are limits...

but what should I expect? Crowds? Lines? Next to impossible to get in?

You can also sign up in advance using your personalizer.

You can also sign up in advance using your personalizer.

Signing up in advance doesn't guarantee a spot, it just means you don't have to do it onboard the first day. I always do it in advance through my personalizer, but it doesn't give you any advantage over those that don't do so!

Signing up in advance doesn't guarantee a spot, it just means you don't have to do it onboard the first day. I always do it in advance through my personalizer, but it doesn't give you any advantage over those that don't do so!

Good to know. We are also doing the BVE with my DD and SIL so we will still be the first people on board.

Good to know. We are also doing the BVE with my DD and SIL so we will still be the first people on board.

If you want to make sure your child gets in during a crowded time, you will want to make sure to line up early each time the program opens.

If you want to make sure your child gets in during a crowded time, you will want to make sure to line up early each time the program opens.

Good to know. I'll send DH he's always awake early.

If you want to make sure your child gets in during a crowded time, you will want to make sure to line up early each time the program opens.

This was what we just experienced and it sucked! I had to be in line at 8:30am for the 9am opening; back in line at 1:30pm for the 2pm opening; back in line at 6:30pm for the 7pm opening....plus, the kids are used to coming and going as they please (if an activity doesn't interest them they will leave and go back later) - they couldn't do that this time as they couldn't have got back in if they left! :(

That's awful, and I'm so sorry. What was your departure date?

That's awful, and I'm so sorry. What was your departure date?

December 15th - wasn't even officially school vacation yet and not a holiday cruise really as we didn't sail over Christmas. There were 500 kids onboard. I have never had this issue with Princess before, other than earlier this year on our 15 day Hawaii cruise (though that was definitely more due to staffing issues than number of kids sailing) and I am now wondering if this is the new "normal"...if so, I guess I will be trying out other cruise lines!