Adventure Ocean question

[star*skecher]

This Monday will be my first cruise with my 8 year old daughter and my 1st RCL cruise. She has been on a Disney cruise with my mother in law before and went to the Oceaneer Club for 3 hours and loved it! She actually asked if she could go to the club on this upcoming cruise.

 

My question is, how does the whole thing work on RCL? Do I drop her off in the morning and pick her up later? If I dropped her off and we're in a port, can I leave the ship and do an excursion (another family member will still be on board in case of emergency) or do I need to be on the ship?

 

Thanks in advance!

[casinostreer]

Hopefully someone will answer this question soon. I am bringing my 3.5 year old on her 3rd cruise and she's finally able to join Adventure Ocean. Apparently, you can leave the ship. Hopefully we'll get more info.

[ctrinco]

On seas days you have to pick up for meal times - kids club is open from like 9am-12pm, then 2pm-5pm, then 7-10pm for free. They have late night club from 10pm-2am for $7 an hour per kid. On port days you can check them in and leave the ship, they will feed them lunch.

[ctrinco]

My experience is with ages 6+, not sure what the rules are on the preschool and younger clubs.

[casinostreer]

My experience is with ages 6+, not sure what the rules are on the preschool and younger clubs.

 

That's what I've read so far. I think it's the same for all of the age groups.

[Cel_cruise]

You can leave her at AO and when you sign her in, you need to list all of the names of the people allowed to sign her out. My 8 year old And my 4.5 year old LOVED it and wanted to be there EVERY minute! They even traded in their arcade $$ to stay at late night with their friends!

[Cel_cruise]

That's what I've read so far. I think it's the same for all of the age groups.

 

 

It is the same for Aquanauts (3-5s)!

[amiller2850]

Good luck! Your kid will want to be there all the time!!

 

 

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[casinostreer]

Good luck! Your kid will want to be there all the time!!

 

 

 

That's great. Thanks for the info. Did you have a good experience with the staff? Not that I'm worried - my daughter has always been well behaved - just wondering.

[borcherk]

My kids have been cruising since they were babies and we've always heard nothing but rave reviews from them. We've even used in stateroom childcare but it's hard to get and really can add up.

 

Remember to take advantage of the kids club picking your kids up from the dining room so that you can finish your meal in a leisurely manner without impatient little ones. It's a great service and everyone young and old loves it!

[Cel_cruise]

That's great. Thanks for the info. Did you have a good experience with the staff? Not that I'm worried - my daughter has always been well behaved - just wondering.

 

 

I'm not the poster you asked but wanted to offer our thoughts..

 

We had an AMAZING experience with the staff - they were the first ones we praises in our survey. The staff all goes by silly names - and my children still talk about their camp councilors from Feb! Monkey, Freckles, Jellyfish, Yoyo, Ariel, Rocket, and Grinch were with them most. If we would see the staff around the ship they always recognized them and said hello. They remembered us after the 2nd day which really helped with feeling comfortable about it. They are certified teachers and did a great job wrangling kids. Especially liked that they maintained order very well, but still maintained the level of fun.

 

We did the dining room pickup several times. We had MTD and we would make a 5:45 reservation. We would order by 5:55 or so, and Andre (Our awesome assisted water) would have the kids fed and ready to go! Usually it worked out that their desert would arrive with our main course at 6:30. It would take 3-4 minutes for one of us to hand them over to the AO staff at 6:40. On Sports night when they leave to go to the sports deck with councilors, we let our 8.5 year old run back to the room to change at 6:30 and return to outside the dining room for pickup so he was in shorts. Our room was very close by.

 

Enjoy!

[Apexgal]

I have an 8 and 4 yr old and they both love it. You can drop them off for the whole 3 hour session or for 30 minutes. You don't have to be there at 9 am. Sometimes the kids would get bored (and too hot at the pools) in the afternoon and they would go for an hour before we got ready for dinner to burn off energy.

 

Lots of games and silly relay races, art projects, face painting, drop ins by dreamworks characters, and general running around and goofy kid stuff.

[bubba83]

From what I gather on the first day, the day you board, Adventure Ocean will be closed, kiddos cant stay there that day, but you need to go and register them for Adventure ocean if you are going to use it. They will get a special wrist band to wear during the cruise so that in the event of an emergency, AO staff know which muster station to take them to. You can also sign them up for family time dinning during this registration which if you have early seating, your dinning staff will make sure your kiddos are all fed and ready to go in like 45 min or so when AO staff come to the dinning room to pick them up and take them back to AO.

 

I have heard nothing but great things from other parents who have used AO and how their kids have loved it. Our upcoming cruise will be the first time for us to use it as well. Im looking forward to it.

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

My now 11 year old has been cruising since she was 4 months old. She loved Adventure Ocean until she was 7 then it was boring. By the time she was 8 she wanted nothing to do with it. I think they do a great job and have nothing but good things to say about AO, my daughter just likes hanging at the pool and going trivia more than AO and she would die if we left her on the boat on a shore day.

[casinostreer]

Thanks everyone! It sounds great and something that I think my DD will LOVE. I'm not the OP - but I jumped on the bandwagon with my own questions.

[star*skecher]

Thanks everyone for your posts! It sounds like she will be fine there. She has high functioning autism and since the ship is certified autism friendly I feel confident that the staff will be great with her. She's very social and likes meeting new friends.

 

The cruise is going to be a 4 generation cruise:me, my mom, my grandma, and my daughter. My grandmother wants me & my mom to go cross something off our bucket list (parasailing). Since they offer it on Coco Cay we looked into it, but my daughter is too young to go, so we had kinda put it on the back burner till someone mentioned the Adventure Ocean club. My grandma will be staying on board while we are in Coco Cay so if my daughter needs someone she will be there for emergency.

 

Now I gotta go pack!!:D

[reallyitsmema]

Thanks everyone for your posts! It sounds like she will be fine there. She has high functioning autism and since the ship is certified autism friendly I feel confident that the staff will be great with her. She's very social and likes meeting new friends.

 

The cruise is going to be a 4 generation cruise:me, my mom, my grandma, and my daughter. My grandmother wants me & my mom to go cross something off our bucket list (parasailing). Since they offer it on Coco Cay we looked into it, but my daughter is too young to go, so we had kinda put it on the back burner till someone mentioned the Adventure Ocean club. My grandma will be staying on board while we are in Coco Cay so if my daughter needs someone she will be there for emergency.

 

Now I gotta go pack!!:D

 

Sounds like you might have already found this link but wanted to post it just in case.

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/experiencetypes/product.do?pagename=onboard_prod_autism_friendly_ships

 

You can contact the special needs department if you need to arrange priority check in or an alternate muster drill if she is sensitive to noise.

[Apexgal]

Also when you register her for the kids club, give lots of details about her. Also ask that a note be placed on your file that you get a cell phone. They can call you in an emergency and you can call them. Otherwise it's very difficult to track you down on a big ship.

[star*skecher]

Sounds like you might have already found this link but wanted to post it just in case.

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/experiencetypes/product.do?pagename=onboard_prod_autism_friendly_ships

 

You can contact the special needs department if you need to arrange priority check in or an alternate muster drill if she is sensitive to noise.

 

Thank you! My travel agent (who is my aunt) set us up for special needs check- in and I am definitely going to the desk to talk about an alternate muster drill. My MIL who took her on the Disney Cruise last month made her go to the muster drill:mad: (I was not there otherwise I would have changed that) She was mortified and for the rest of the cruise she kept watching the drill on the cabin TV and kept checking the map to make sure she knew where to go "if the ship started sinking"... not what a little one should be worried about at all! Plus the blaring alarm scared her to death.

 

APexgal, thank you. I will ask about the phone :)

[amiller2850]

Thank you! My travel agent (who is my aunt) set us up for special needs check- in and I am definitely going to the desk to talk about an alternate muster drill. My MIL who took her on the Disney Cruise last month made her go to the muster drill:mad: (I was not there otherwise I would have changed that) She was mortified and for the rest of the cruise she kept watching the drill on the cabin TV and kept checking the map to make sure she knew where to go "if the ship started sinking"... not what a little one should be worried about at all! Plus the blaring alarm scared her to death.

 

 

 

APexgal, thank you. I will ask about the phone :)

 

 

Good luck, not sure there is an alternative muster drill. They cross off everyone's names and require all guests to participate. It's a sea law.

 

 

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[emory2001]

Thank you! My travel agent (who is my aunt) set us up for special needs check- in and I am definitely going to the desk to talk about an alternate muster drill. My MIL who took her on the Disney Cruise last month made her go to the muster drill:mad: (I was not there otherwise I would have changed that) She was mortified and for the rest of the cruise she kept watching the drill on the cabin TV and kept checking the map to make sure she knew where to go "if the ship started sinking"... not what a little one should be worried about at all! Plus the blaring alarm scared her to death.

 

APexgal, thank you. I will ask about the phone :)

 

For anyone reading this later, muster drill is not optional. It is mandatory under maritime law for every passenger. If you skip it, they will find you and make you sit through an alternate safety program. On my last Royal cruise, our muster crew assured us the alternate safety program takes longer than the muster drill, interfering with more of your vacation. While Royal Caribbean has reportedly said they wouldn't force a passenger to disembark for skipping muster, Holland America has done it: http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4734

[bxl121]

Sorry to piggyback on the OP but how does the dining room pickup work on formal nights? Did you get your children to change before pickup? Thank you:)

[spazzyjanet]

Yeah, I didn't know about the "my family time" dining option either and scheduled most of our family meals to start between 6 and 7:30 depending on the day. I'm pondering whether to come up with a new plan. The thing is that if we do early seating many days that means worrying about either getting back from port to get dressed early for dinner, or missing a scheduled dinner if I do well on a sea day afternoon poker tournament. So.. everything is a trade off, I guess.

[conandrob240]

A special needs muster drill can ALWAYS be arranged by contacting the special needs department. While the safety information is mandatory, every cruise line has options for completing it in an alternate fashion if unable to attend muster drill due to special needs circumstances. For people like the child in question, who has autism, the crowding and loud noises could be a huge issue.

 

You may absolutely leave the ship while your daughter is open adventure ocean. your grandmother being present on the ship would not even be necessary ( although a great extra comfort measure)

 

I did not know that RCI did a dining room pick up. This is excellent news. Is this on every ship? And the timing is always around 6:45?

Edited October 10, 2015 by conandrob240

[Cel_cruise]

Sorry to piggyback on the OP but how does the dining room pickup work on formal nights? Did you get your children to change before pickup? Thank you:)

 

 

There was no change to the dining room pickup on formal nights, but on one of them it was PJ night on Nav. My kids (4,8) brought a small bag with PJs in it and changed when they got to AO that night. The other night we brought up their change of clothes after we finished dinner for them - they stayed until closing each night - couldn't drag them out even if we wanted to!!