Adventure Ocean Age Breakdowns?

[pinma]

We'll be on the Enchantment next week. The website says the breakdown is 9-11 and 12-14. Our children are 10 and 12. Is there anyway to move our son down a category or our daughter up a category? They are both refusing to go if they are separated which is causing a fair amount of parental stress. Also, can we 'lock them in' (remove permission for them to leave the program except with us or a staff member) if they end up in the 12-14 age group?

[Cya@Sea]

We have never been able to do what your asking, even though we have tried. Our kids were put into the appropriate age group for them. Sometimes they would go to AO, other times they didn't.

[pinma]

I really do understand why. Once let someone in 3 months 'too old' someone else will want 6 and sooner or later the age break downs are meaningless. I was just wondering how closely they adhere to the ages (and also if the website breakdown is accurate - last time we cruised the website breakdowns for Celebrity *weren't* and my two actually were in the same program).

 

Assuming they will be separated, what is the 12-14 age group like in terms of supervision and freedom? My son has life threatening food allergies and we really don't like him to be unsupervised or without an allergy-aware buddy.

[Babyberger]

My advice is to request a meeting with the Adventure Ocean manager as soon as you get on board. From what I remember the 12-14 group has much more freedom as they can sign themselves in and out. I would ask the manager that your son be "aged down" due to the severity of the allergies and the NEED for supervision. We worked directly with the AO manager on our last Oasis cruise and she actually suggested aging my son down so he would be more comfortable and there would be more supervision (he is very high functioning but on the autism spectrum). But you need to deal directly with the manager as they have the final say and the staff changes daily in each of the age groups. Good luck and have a great time!

[pinma]

Thank you! I'll check into that.

[pdsocialworker]

They let us do it on Carnival, though my daughter was literally weeks away from the next age group. They did say once she's in that group, they wouldn't let her go back down. She actually chose to stay with the younger group, as she is fairly shy and I think intimidated by some of the older kids.

 

We are travelling on Royal Caribbean next week, and I'm going to ask again, as she will be 9, two days after the cruise is over. My oldest is 11, so we will see. But I already told her to be prepared to be with the 6-8 year olds....just in case. They always make friends, and you might be surprised how well they will do apart, after one or two visits to the "club"

 

Enjoy

[pinma]

I think they just don't want to be in childcare at all. They went once on Celebrity 2 years ago (same age grouping due to how the cruise fell relative to birthdays) and would not go back. They can watch TV, color, and play video games in much more relaxing surroundings at home. If their first trip into the Royal Caribbean children's programs is boring we will be out of luck.... whether or not they end up in the same age group.

[sayok]

Yes, I agree with the suggestion to meet with the manager ASAP. My understanding was that, upon request, they would "age down" but not "age up". My kids are the same ages and we'll be dealing with this next week on the Allure. The 9-11 group can get self-sign out privileges IF you approve it; for the 12-14 group they don't have any signing in/out, they just come & go as they want, but there are staff members there who run activities. The website descirbes it this way:

 

"The best thing about our Teen program is that it's not structured. Our 12- to 14-year-old guests can come join activities and games when they want to, or just chill with friends in our teen-only lounge. And parents don't have to worry about you hanging out there, because every member of our teen staff holds a college degree in education, recreation or a related field and has experience working with youth ages 3-17."

[sayok]

By the way, my kids -- particularly my son, who was 11 on our last cruise and is pretty active/athletic -- love Adventure Ocean *except* for what they called the "classroom" time. They loved the after-hours parties, gagaball tournaments, etc. They met kids they clicked with right away, so when there wasn't something going on that they wanted to participate in, they would sign-out with their buddies and go to the sports court, arcade, boardwalk, mini-golf, Sorento's, etc. They loved that little bit of independence (we required them to check in with us or leave a message on our cabin phone saying where they were, and we did not allow them to use the pools without us). Good luck :)

[pdsocialworker]

My daughter was almost 9, but was still 8 at the time of the cruise, and RC Lilberty let her bump up to the next age group. Even said if she goes and doesn't like it she can go back down. They were flexible.

[gerif]

It's quite likely that they will let your son go down a group but since your daughter is only 10 and not even close to the next age group, I seriously doubt they would permit her to go up. Would you really want her in with 14 year olds anyway?

[jcl410]

When we went on my girls 1st cruise last year, one was 11 and one was 12. Each attended their own group .... but they also spent A LOT of time together outside of any of the clubs....

 

On RCI, the 12 and older kids an come and go as they please. Is you son with the allergies 10 or 12? Some of the teen activities take place around the ship (near food.) If he's in the teen group make sure to let the staff know about the allergies (As an aside, have you informed RCI what his dietary restrictions are for the dining room?)

 

 

We added our 12yo as a person who could sign out the 11yo from AO. That way the two of them could go to the pool together; We didn't want the younger one out by herself because it was their first cruise.

 

Aloha,

 

John

[earn]

our experience is that Adventure Ocean staff are very flexible. We have had situations where one of our sons had moved up and another when one moved down. This year they are 10 and 12. (the youngest will be 10 on the second day of the cruise). At the moment the 12 year old is saying he is not sure whether to saty in his group or move down. I think a lot will depend on the mix of folks and ages. They always have sign out so he will still be able to be in control of when he attends.

 

On another note they are both very active and go to a school where they have games four afternoons a week (longer days & lessons on Saturday morning to make up). They have never been bored at Adventure Ocean, but were very very bored on our one Carnival cruise. Too many art type activities. Not sure if this was the reason, buyt there were no male club staff. The boys hated it and only did the treasure hunts etc.

[SpartyOn813]

We are sailing on Liberty on Saturday with our 13 yr old son and 11 yr old daughter. Our only experience with kids clubs in the past has been with Disney at they were fantastic. Kids could sign in/out with parental permission. My daughter won't go in if she can't sign herself out (always with a page to parents that she is signing out). Do they offer pagers for parents and allow an 11 yr old to sign themselves out?

 

Also does anyone have any experience with walkie talkies on the ship? We let the kids have some freedom as long as they stay together and use the walkie talkies to tell us where they are. It worked out great on Disney. Wondering about RCI...