Reflection Fun Factory Review

[canudigit]

My family got off the Reflection yesterday and I wanted to share our experience with the Fun Factory.

 

When I was researching cruise lines and ships prior to booking our vacation, I was a little concerned that my kids would be bored on a Celebrity ship. My son is almost 8 and my daughter is 4. We went on a 7 day cruise during Spring Break, so the timing was ideal for families. I believe there were about 480 kids on board.

 

Our kids went to Fun Factory nightly after dinner and they loved it. Our daughter attended for a few hours during the day on sea days, but that was her choice.

 

The facilities are clean, comfortable, and well staffed. The security process for the 3-5 year and 6-8 year age groups required a parent to sign in and out, and parents are not allowed past the security desk. There were usually between 5-20 kids in each age group and I saw no less than 4 staff at any time.

 

Other cruise lines may have cartoon character decorations and play structures, but Celebrity entertained our kids with a quality staff and a fun agenda. There were 2-3 themes every day (aliens, super heroes, animals, pirates/mermaids, "Survivor" competition, etc). The kids would do crafts, team activities, games related to the theme. My son isn't really into crafts, so he had choices to play X-Box or other activities if he wanted more freedom. My daughter loved getting her face painted.

 

I was worried that my wife and I wouldn't have time to enjoy an after dinner drink or listen to the DJs if our kids didn't like the Fun Factory, but that was not an issue. In fact, there were a couple nights where our kids wanted to "party" at Fun Factory, so my wife and I stayed out later than we had planned to give the kids time to hang out.

 

I spoke with multiple parents on board whose kids were just as engaged with the Fun Factory.

 

The Fun Factory and X-club (teens area) are located near each other on deck 15, which is a great design, because the kids can come and go without roaming through the adult areas of the ship at night.

 

I would not hesitate to book Celebrity again and bring our children. Let me know if anyone has any questions.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

Thank you for sharing your experience. My son has been sailing Celebrity for a long time and it is his favorite cruise line.

[scubamommy!]

Great review! We had the same wonderful experience on The Constellation a few weeks ago! We also stayed out later than planned after they begged us to stay in the FF one night! :)

[georgiaguy]

I used to work in the Fun Factory and Celebrity has some amazing youth staff and youth program managers!

[kfrey68]

Thank you for sharing your experience. My son has been sailing Celebrity for a long time and it is his favorite cruise line.

 

Agree, this June will be my DS (12), 4th Celebrity cruise and he loves it just as much as we do. This will be his first trip in the teen group so we are interested to see how that goes as in the past that group seems smaller and unless it is a holiday not sure how the activities are.

[Queen of Oakville]

Awesome!

 

Thanks for the review.

 

My kids will be 7 and 8 when we sail in November. Thinking of booking March Break, but my daughter will be 9 then. I'm a little concerned that the 9 years olds can sign themselves in/out. The last thing I want is my 9 year old walking around the ship by herself. Are you able to set restrictions on that preventing kids from being able to sign themselves out in the next age group?

[kfrey68]

Awesome!

 

Thanks for the review.

 

My kids will be 7 and 8 when we sail in November. Thinking of booking March Break, but my daughter will be 9 then. I'm a little concerned that the 9 years olds can sign themselves in/out. The last thing I want is my 9 year old walking around the ship by herself. Are you able to set restrictions on that preventing kids from being able to sign themselves out in the next age group?

 

When you register for the fun factory on board you can designate whether they have sign in /out price ledges or if someone must claim them. It is up to you but since my DS had been on other cruises and new the expected behavior we did grant the price ledge for him with him knowing it would be revoked if we heard of any unacceptable behavior. Our rule was if you sign yourself out (especially at the end of the program -10pm) you go directly to the cabin and that was the only acceptable place, not strolling around the ship. He was well behaved and we got many compliments because he did not want to loose the freedom.

[1313steve]

We went on a 7 day cruise during Spring Break, so the timing was ideal for families. I believe there were about 480 kids on board.

.

 

WOW! What a difference a week makes. We were on the Reflection the week before (4/5) and I bet there weren't 50 kids on board! Our kids are basically grown and gone, and we were very glad to not have a lot of kids to contend with ! We're past those days, but certainly glad you had a great cruise and your kids enjoyed it!

[croozen]

Thank you for this helpful review. We are booked for seven days on the Sihouette with our five year old son - Christmas 2014.

 

By way of comparison, our son has done kids club on both Disney and HAL and liked them both for different reasons. We found Disney (Magic) at Christmas was a well oiled machine in terms of how they operated, but were a bit more impersonal, due to the sheer volume of kids that they were dealing with. There were so many counsellors working there, it felt like we never saw the same one twice. When we picked him up at the end of the evening, there always seemed to be various choices for what he wanted to be doing:, crafts, a movie, meeting a character. A couple of times it felt like maybe he was getting lost in the shuffle. But he still very much enjoyed it, and always wanted to go back.

 

HAL was much more one on one with smaller groups of kids, which still allowed for playmates for him, but lots more interaction with the counsellors. sometimes they combined the age groups for a movie but he was most often with kids his own age. Again, he asked to go back morning afternoon and evening on sea days, so we took that as a good sign.

 

We have not tried Celebrity yet with him along, but your report is encouraging. Given it is Christmas, we anticipatea relatively high volumes of kids but I get the impression the one on one interaction he has been getting from HAL might still be there.

[Queen of Oakville]

When you register for the fun factory on board you can designate whether they have sign in /out price ledges or if someone must claim them. It is up to you but since my DS had been on other cruises and new the expected behavior we did grant the price ledge for him with him knowing it would be revoked if we heard of any unacceptable behavior. Our rule was if you sign yourself out (especially at the end of the program -10pm) you go directly to the cabin and that was the only acceptable place, not strolling around the ship. He was well behaved and we got many compliments because he did not want to loose the freedom.

 

That is really good news! I'm totally not concerned about my daughter's behaviour if being able to sign herself out. My concern would be her safety and security walking around the ship unattended.

 

Thank you for this helpful review. We are booked for seven days on the Sihouette with our five year old son - Christmas 2014.

 

By way of comparison, our son has done kids club on both Disney and HAL and liked them both for different reasons. We found Disney (Magic) at Christmas was a well oiled machine in terms of how they operated, but were a bit more impersonal, due to the sheer volume of kids that they were dealing with. There were so many counsellors working there, it felt like we never saw the same one twice. When we picked him up at the end of the evening, there always seemed to be various choices for what he wanted to be doing:, crafts, a movie, meeting a character. A couple of times it felt like maybe he was getting lost in the shuffle. But he still very much enjoyed it, and always wanted to go back.

 

HAL was much more one on one with smaller groups of kids, which still allowed for playmates for him, but lots more interaction with the counsellors. sometimes they combined the age groups for a movie but he was most often with kids his own age. Again, he asked to go back morning afternoon and evening on sea days, so we took that as a good sign.

 

We have not tried Celebrity yet with him along, but your report is encouraging. Given it is Christmas, we anticipatea relatively high volumes of kids but I get the impression the one on one interaction he has been getting from HAL might still be there.

 

I think that is what my problem is with DCL and even Royal DreamWorks - too many things for kids to do. We end up being their travel planner and rushing from one event to another ... I prefer a slower pace. We spend family time together, they have a few events to choose from and we still get to enjoy our holiday :)

[Stede Bonnet]

Do you remember the cost per child for the VIP Pass?

[canudigit]

I think the cost per child for VIP was $86.

 

The goodie bag included a water bottle, fold up frisbee, lanyard, stuffed starfish, silly bands, beach ball. We used the goodie backpack on one of our excursions to hold sunscreen, wallets, etc.

 

It covered all of our slumber party hours between 10pm-1am. The kids went on the backstage tour of the theater, but couldn't make the bridge tour b/c it was the morning we stopped in St. Martin and we had an all day excursion.

[Stede Bonnet]

Thank you. The goodie bag sounds nice but the tours are the main attraction

[JLSPOOL]

Great review! We had the same wonderful experience on The Constellation a few weeks ago! We also stayed out later than planned after they begged us to stay in the FF one night! :)

 

This is good news. Thanks for letting us know you and the children had a wonderful time.

 

jls

[drarill]

thanks for your review!! my teenage children also love Celebrity and are counting the days to our Med cruise on the Reflection in July!! Made final payment this week!!:):)