HAL Kids Program

[SUSIEK]

We are considering a Spring Break cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam next year. We have never sailed on Holland. Our son will be 8yrs old. He has been on 10 cruises and is familiar with the kids programs.... Princess is his favorite. Has anyone experienced Club Hal on Holland?

Do they get ALOT of kids on Spring Break. I am sure it would not be as large as Royal or Carnival.

Any advice or comments greatly appreciated!

 

p.s. I did post this on the Family Cruising Forum but have not received any feedback.

[indokiwi]

We are considering a Spring Break cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam next year. We have never sailed on Holland. Our son will be 8yrs old. He has been on 10 cruises and is familiar with the kids programs.... Princess is his favorite. Has anyone experienced Club Hal on Holland?

Do they get ALOT of kids on Spring Break. I am sure it would not be as large as Royal or Carnival.

Any advice or comments greatly appreciated!

 

p.s. I did post this on the Family Cruising Forum but have not received any feedback.

 

We have cruised on HAL for spring break with the kiddos so hopefully I can answer some questions for you (I also referenced back through their programs):

1. Your child at 8 years old will be in the “Tweens” program. It’s for 8-12 year olds. It’s very structured with lots of great activities both in Club HAL and also around the ship. You should receive a special “daily program” the night before (and sometimes 2-3 days earlier) that will be delivered to your room. In case you don’t get it, it’s always posted at the entrance to Club HAL and the Front Office has extras.

2. You will have a choice to allow your child to sign themselves out or to be picked up/dropped off from Club HAL. The registration form will walk you through it.

3. There is a Wii/Xbox room that is part of Club HAL and has age-appropriate games, but NOT part of programming. If your child would like to use it, they have to sign themselves out of the programming and then they are free to use the room. Also, Club HAL is not allowed to take children to the pool. If your child would like to swim, it must be with mom or dad or on your own. Ask the counselor which pool is designated for adults (usually the aft) and try to keep them in the family pool instead (usually mid-ship)

4. Registration on the first day will run the first day from 12nn through usually the lifeboat drill – there are no activities during this time, but they can use the Wii/Xbox room. Then it will reopen for full evening activities at 7pm.

5. Hours for the Tweens on sea days are: 9am-11:30am, 1pm-4pm and 7pm-10pm. There is afterhours in Club HAL through 12mn for a fee (I think that it’s $10 per hour). On port days, there is Port Day programming – you will need to drop your child off and let them know roughly where you are going (you can leave the ship without them, but they like to have an idea of where you are). That programming runs through the entire stay in port and they will make sure that your child eats lunch. Normal evening programming resumes at 7pm, regardless of whether the ship has left port yet (i.e. it’s a later sailing at 11pm).

6. There will most likely be a lot of kids for HAL but not a lot compared to Princess. When we were on the Eurodam over spring break (similar cruise) there were just over 100 tweens on board and there were 4 counselors for their age group. The largest group on board was teens – there were about 175 or so.

7. My kids love Club HAL. Make sure that you let them know if your child has any allergies/food intolerances, as they do order snacks each night from the kitchen.

Hope that this helps and have fun!

[SUSIEK]

Thank you so much for the information!!! Definately does help with our planning :-)

[LTCSZ]

We have cruised on HAL for spring break with the kiddos so hopefully I can answer some questions for you (I also referenced back through their programs):

1. Your child at 8 years old will be in the “Tweens” program. It’s for 8-12 year olds. It’s very structured with lots of great activities both in Club HAL and also around the ship. You should receive a special “daily program” the night before (and sometimes 2-3 days earlier) that will be delivered to your room. In case you don’t get it, it’s always posted at the entrance to Club HAL and the Front Office has extras.

2. You will have a choice to allow your child to sign themselves out or to be picked up/dropped off from Club HAL. The registration form will walk you through it.

3. There is a Wii/Xbox room that is part of Club HAL and has age-appropriate games, but NOT part of programming. If your child would like to use it, they have to sign themselves out of the programming and then they are free to use the room. Also, Club HAL is not allowed to take children to the pool. If your child would like to swim, it must be with mom or dad or on your own. Ask the counselor which pool is designated for adults (usually the aft) and try to keep them in the family pool instead (usually mid-ship)

4. Registration on the first day will run the first day from 12nn through usually the lifeboat drill – there are no activities during this time, but they can use the Wii/Xbox room. Then it will reopen for full evening activities at 7pm.

5. Hours for the Tweens on sea days are: 9am-11:30am, 1pm-4pm and 7pm-10pm. There is afterhours in Club HAL through 12mn for a fee (I think that it’s $10 per hour). On port days, there is Port Day programming – you will need to drop your child off and let them know roughly where you are going (you can leave the ship without them, but they like to have an idea of where you are). That programming runs through the entire stay in port and they will make sure that your child eats lunch. Normal evening programming resumes at 7pm, regardless of whether the ship has left port yet (i.e. it’s a later sailing at 11pm).

6. There will most likely be a lot of kids for HAL but not a lot compared to Princess. When we were on the Eurodam over spring break (similar cruise) there were just over 100 tweens on board and there were 4 counselors for their age group. The largest group on board was teens – there were about 175 or so.

7. My kids love Club HAL. Make sure that you let them know if your child has any allergies/food intolerances, as they do order snacks each night from the kitchen.

Hope that this helps and have fun!

 

Great info...My two grandsons will be with us on our cruise...Do you have any detailed information for the younger children? (The younger grandson is 6 years old) Thanks a lot...

 

Steve

[Heartfruit]

That is useful information. I'd been waffling as to whether or not to let my daughter sign herself out. But she'd be so mad if Club HAL was doing something she wasn't interested in and the games were right there and she couldn't use them. I'm now thinking we'll let her sign herself out and make rules and when and where she can use those privileges.