HAL kids club

[kitkat343]

Can anyone provide me with information about HAL's kid club programs for a 3 year old? Does HAL provide parents of young children with a beeper in case of an emergency? I don't know how my son will handle being separated from me in the kids club (he loved Princess' kids club last year, but I attended it with him at all times).

 

Also, my son is potty trained, but it is a new environment and I'm worried he might have an accident. Should I just call the kids club every hour or will they they have some way of contacting me?

[Scrapnana]

You might want to post this on the HAL forum, too.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=171

[Heartfruit]

We did a 14 day cruise with HAL last summer. DD is 9 so it may work a little different at her age group but we were not given beepers. When we signed her in we were expected to let them know where on the ship we expected to be (the show, or room etc). I imagine that was so they could track us down if there was an issue. Club HAL is smaller then some other cruise lines kids clubs so even though we were there at the beginning of summer holidays, the councilors knew all the kids by name by the second day of the cruise. If we'd been worried about her we could have called them to check on her. As it was most days we had to drag her out of there for bed.

[alj1208]

We are considering a HAL Baltic cruise next summer with our son, who will be nearly 8, and we, too would love to hear more about the kids club on HAL.

[kitkat343]

ajl, we are sailing this January so we will let you know what our experience was like. I was told today by a HAL telephone representative that the kids club would have some way of communicating with parents, but she said she didn't know what that was. I emailed HAL a week ago to ask, and hopefully they will get back to me soon.

[Heartfruit]

If your son has specific concerns I can try and answer them. What does he want to know?

[ElsieToo]

We sailed with HAL on one of their Canada/New England routes when DS was 5. He LOVED Club HAL (still talks about it, in fact), and the ladies running the programs were fabulous. There were no beepers handed out on our ship, but as a previous poster said we were expected to let them know (roughly) where we would be, and what time we were expected to return. Even though DS was 5 when we went, he was still having difficulty with staying dry throughout the day (mostly he didn't want to stop whatever fun activity he was doing to have to go off to the bathroom!), so we made sure to stop at the restroom before and after each trip to Club HAL - we had no problems while we were onboard. :)

[rebeccalouiseagain]

My son and I have sailed Holland America twice and they do some things really well.

 

We did Maasdam Canada/ New England and my son liked the little youth program just fine. It is most handheld videogames for the older kids and he likes this and had a good report with the youth staff. He did not enjoy the remainder of the ship all that well and neither did I. There were very few activities and I don't bore easily but found the ship lacking.

 

We did a great port intensive cruise on the Zuiderdam to Greece and Turkey out of Venice prior to that and had a wonderful time. Highlights were the poolside dessert buffets, the fantastic Deluxe Verandah Suites and the Explorers lounge. There were lots of kids and teens on this cruise but the youth staff on that particular cruise was not overly friendly and I remember overhearing one girl talk about being hungover. Not very professional. It may have been an isolated thing but my son was not thrilled with the youth program and he really loves going normally on the ships.

 

All and all- I think you will have a nice cruise but don't expect much of a Wow factor- apart from the staterooms, which I think are great. I found the ship interiors to be dark for the most part (other than the Explorers Lounge and Pinnacle Grill)and on Zuiderdam there were plumbing issue on deck 3 and I was so glad we were up on a high deck! I stunk there for just about the entire cruise.

 

I thought the Pinnacle Grill was fantastic on Holland.

Edited January 30, 2014 by rebeccalouiseagain

[kitkat343]

I've returned from my trip, so I can answer my own question! No, Hal does not provide a beeper or have a direct means of communication with parents of toddlers. They ask where you will be on the ship so they can find you in case of an emergency. My son was only 3, so I called the kids club about an hour after I dropped him off to make sure he was happy. The staff was very patient and confirmed that he was fine. My son seemed to enjoy spending the mornings there (his nap schedule conflicted with their afternoons session). In particular, my son really liked a cooking class - he said the chef made better pancakes than he did!

 

The staff in Club HAL was very nice, but my only concern is that there were only two counselors assigned to CLUB HAL (it was a cruise during the school year with only 15 kids) I am concerned about this staffing level, since the two counselors both have to work the following hours:

 

Kids and Tweens

Sea Days: 9:00am – 11:30am, 1:00pm – 4:00pm and 7:00am – 10:00pm

Port Days: 8:00am – 4:00pm and 7:00pm – 10:00pm

 

Teens

Sea Days: 10:00am – 12:00pm, 2:00pm – 6:00pm and 8:00am – 12:00am

Port Days: 8:00am – 8:00pm (non-hosted) and 8:00pm – 12:00am

 

On a port day, that means they would have to work for 11 hours if there are toddlers and tweens, and 13 if there are teenagers who require care from 10 pm-12 am. We had three port days in a row on our cruise, and they work six days a week. Fortunately, there were no teens on my cruise so the counselors didn't have to work from 10 pm - 12 am, but I still felt that these were too many hours for two employees to work while taking care of children. And I don't quite understand what happens if one of the two youth counselors gets sick and can't work. When we sailed last year on Princess, four counselors was the minimal staffing level (there were only 11 children on that cruise) although Princess' KidZone is open for more hours than Club HAL so the Princess employees seemed to get more breaks (there were usually only two counselors of the four working during each of our visits).

Edited February 4, 2014 by kitkat343

[The Investigators 2014]

Hi everyone, just hoping someone could give me some advice regarding HAL for teenagers. We are thinking of going on a HAL cruise 30th March 2015 from singapore to Hong Kong. The time of year coincides with the Australian school holidays. We have recently been on an RCCL cruise last summer to the Meditteranean and despite lots of advice there were NO other teenagers on the cruise and it was RCCL!!!! It wasn't a disaster as we primarily chose the cruise for the ports, however it would be nice to know if there were some teenagers on board for times between ports. Any advice greatly appreciated:)

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Holland America tends to be an older crowd to begin with. Mostly it is older couples that invite family members to come along for Christmas and Summer cruises. I have done Holland twice in recent years and in summer the Med. is popular with young families, Canada and New England- not so much. I doubt many families will chose Holland from Singapore- HongKong over say- Royal Caribbean.

 

I wouldn't bank on children on a cruise of that nature. I am really surprised that there weren't teens on your Med. cruise though. On large ships- sometimes you don't notice them and many teens don't want to do the youth program because it is "babyish"- in the words of my now 13 year old.

[The Investigators 2014]

Thanks for your reply Rebecca Louise. However, I can absolutely assure you there was hardly a kids on board that cruise. We went to guest relations and they confirmed there were only 5 kids including my two booked in as passengers. There was only a handful younger as well. They did comment this was unusual but definitely possible. We had a lovely cruise because we were there for the ports, however if you were going for kids this was not the cruise to choose.