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Children on board in January


kaj1436

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Contemplating taking the children(4 and 6) on the Ruby in January. Was wondering if anyone had any insight on apporoximately how many children are on board that time of year. I dont want to be one of the only familes with small chldren. I want my children to have others to play with and want to go to the kids club because there will be others there.

I know most will suggest another cruise line with more children but we have been invited by my inlaws and they prefer princess. So now it's just a matter of finding out how well the children will enjoy it before we accept the invitation.

Thanks for the help and any information will be greatly appreciated.

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As far as I know, closing down the kids clubs only happens on the smaller ships such as the Pacific or Ocean Princess (which there aren't any designated kids areas to begin with on the smaller ships) . The larger ships will have activities for the kids no matter how many they have onboard.

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You can call Princess periodically to get the number of kids booked on your sailing. Just ask them and they'll even give you an age break-down.

 

I'm sure there will be enough kids onboard for your kids to still have a great time. I think they close down the kids program if there are less than 20 onboard, but that's for the smaller ships. I've never heard the bigger ships like the Ruby closing down a kids' program due to lack of participation.

 

There are SO many kids that are home-schooled now and so many school districts that have unusual school calendars that I'm sure there will be plenty of kids onboard. May not be around 80, but I'm sure it'll be more than 15.

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we have sailed in January for many many years... there will be a few kids, but not a lot. the kids program is always open, but there may not be a lot of other kids.

 

However with a 7 day cruise you will find more kids than normally would be on a longer voyage like 10 days.

 

they will have fun and the staff will love them too

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We sailed on the Sapphire Princess last January with our DD who was 6. The kids club was open and there was about 30 kids in her age group (3-7), but definitely not a lot of kids. We liked the smaller number of kids since they seem to get more attention at the kids club. Definitely call Princess a few weeks before you sail and ask for the breakdown in terms of how many kids in each age group.

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This year many Canadian kids don't go back to school until January 9th. If you are cruising the Caribbean the first week of 2012, there will probably be some Canucks kids trying to warm up!

 

The Los Angeles school district (the second biggest in the country) is also on winter break until the 9th. So west coast cruises would have a significant number of kids the first week of January. Don't know how many from this area would be on a Caribbean cruise unless it's over by that Sunday.

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  • 2 months later...
thanks everyone...greatly appreciated...I guess I will call princess and see what the attendance is like and maybe they can tell me historically how many they get on that cruise.

If Princess tells you that they don't give out this info, let them know why you are asking. I called a couple of weeks ago to find out the same thing and initially I was told that they don't give out this information, but when I told them why I was calling they looked it up for me. The rep told me that they have been asked not to give this out frequently because of people complaining about there being kids onboard.

I have sailed in January several times during weeks when most kids are in school. There has always been a handful of kids onboard and more in the younger age ranges. It actuallly should be really nice because there will be other kids, but not so many that your child doesn't get attention from the staff.

Enjoy your cruise.

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We will be among those Canadians bringing our kids (10, 6, 1) in January to escape the winter! I'm actually hoping that there won't be too many kids onboard...like someone else said about the more individual attention, and if I wanted a ship with more kids I probably would have picked a different cruise line, ;)

 

We are also sailing on the Ruby on the January 22 sailing, so if this is your sailing date then you can count at least my kids!

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When we were on the Sapphire (a big ship!) the kids club had limited hours and activities as there were only 20 kids or so.

 

Which would be pretty strange for July (going by your cruise list). We were on the Sapphire in August 2004 and though I don't know how many kids there was on that sailing, I'm sure there was a lot more than 20. There was a significant number of activities for my daughter who was 7 on that cruise.

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We are sailing the Ruby on Jan 15 with our teenage boys. We looked at Spring Break, but it was over $1K higher.

 

The boys have 2 1/2 days of school, MLK week, and those are finals for our High schooler (which can be made up, we checked,) and not much loss for our 6th grader. They don't do much learning in a 2 1/2 day week, judging on past experience.

 

So, we're expecting low kid turnout, but not zero kid turnout. It means the times they want the PS3 in the center, it will be most likely available for them. :)

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Which would be pretty strange for July (going by your cruise list). We were on the Sapphire in August 2004 and though I don't know how many kids there was on that sailing' date=' I'm sure there was a lot more than 20. There was a significant number of activities for my daughter who was 7 on that cruise.[/quote']

 

Yes, we were surprised also…there may have been a few more, but in the younger or teen age groups, rather than the pre-teen.

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You can call Princess periodically to get the number of kids booked on your sailing. Just ask them and they'll even give you an age break-down.

 

I'm sure there will be enough kids onboard for your kids to still have a great time. I think they close down the kids program if there are less than 20 onboard, but that's for the smaller ships. I've never heard the bigger ships like the Ruby closing down a kids' program due to lack of participation.

 

There are SO many kids that are home-schooled now and so many school districts that have unusual school calendars that I'm sure there will be plenty of kids onboard. May not be around 80, but I'm sure it'll be more than 15.

Just wondering..if they will give an age breakdown for the kids...will they give an age breakdown for the entire ship? It would seem that they should do that as well......it is only fair......If others have the right to know how many kids are on board...then others have the right to know if there are large numbers of say...honeymoon couples....senior citizens...retirees.....singles.... I would think the number of singles on a cruise....would be of interest to many considering a cruise.

 

If the number of kids on a cruise relates to how crowded the Kid's club will be........then the other demgraphic groups will relate to how crowded say the Lido deck will be...and the ease in which deck chairs by the pool will be available.

 

so...if they are going to give out the info regarding the number of kids on a cruise...which should never be done in this day and age..period....then they should give out all of the demographic of the pax on the particular cruise. Just sayin':mad:

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Just wondering..if they will give an age breakdown for the kids...will they give an age breakdown for the entire ship? It would seem that they should do that as well......it is only fair......If others have the right to know how many kids are on board...then others have the right to know if there are large numbers of say...honeymoon couples....senior citizens...retirees.....singles.... I would think the number of singles on a cruise....would be of interest to many considering a cruise.

 

If the number of kids on a cruise relates to how crowded the Kid's club will be........then the other demgraphic groups will relate to how crowded say the Lido deck will be...and the ease in which deck chairs by the pool will be available.

 

so...if they are going to give out the info regarding the number of kids on a cruise...which should never be done in this day and age..period....then they should give out all of the demographic of the pax on the particular cruise. Just sayin':mad:

 

Good Point!

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