Princess Kids Club = Very So-So (review of four different kids clubs)

[croozen]

Princess Kids Club = Very So-So (review of four different kids clubs)

 

In reviewing our recent experience with kids club on Princess, I feel like I am now in a position to do a comparison of kids clubs for four different lines: HAL, Celebrity, Princess and Disney.

 

By way of background, I should say our son, now 7, is an only child and also a very outgoing happy sociable type. He has been in kids clubs since he was 4 and has liked all of them. He always wants to go, and we didn’t notice a big difference in his level of enthusiasm b/w the four lines. (not as discriminating as his mother!) Celebrity might have come out marginally ahead for him but I think that is due in part to fact he met an awesome friend Lego-Brother that week, that he still talks about. B/c he likes to interact with other kids, we tend to use kids club frequently, usually mornings, and then again in the evenings. Afternoons we often spend time with him in port, around the ship, or at the pool, as the case may be.

 

The winner of the four, for us, was Celebrity. We have had two sailings with Celebrity, but only one with our son in tow. It was Christmas time, there were many kids on board but the counsellors were super engaged. He came home every day and sometimes every night with a craft item and it was clear that more than a bit of time effort and money had been invested in coordinating these projects – i.e. it wasn’t just a drawing on paper. The week culminated in a talent show put on in one of the theatres. You could tell there was a lot of practicing involved, you could also tell the staff members knew each of the kids quite well as they were announcing each “act”. There was a generally upbeat and family atmosphere among the staff and they genuinely seemed to be happy to be with the kids and with each other. There was very much a feeling by the end that the kids had been at a fun camp all week. Not sitting in front of a video screen. (more on that below) Very positive experience.

 

Very close behind and second in line would be HAL. There have been varying numbers of kids onboard our different HAL cruises, which can sometimes make for a challenge for the counsellors but they adapted really well. The staff members on HAL seem engaged and into it, just like Celebrity. They genuinely appeared to enjoy children and that really showed. Similar to the talent show noted above, the kids had a lip sync contest in one of the lounges one night. Let’s just say there was excellent attendance and a long line up for the microphone. Again, it was near the end of the week and you could tell by the way the counsellors were interacting with the kids that 1. They knew them well as individuals 2. They liked them. One afternoon we wanted some adult time and our son was essentially babysat by a counsellor. When numbers were small the programming did not suffer one bit. The staff were very adaptable to a lot or a few kids. They made a conscious effort (as did Celebrity) to get the kids out and about on the ship, marching around as pirates, going for ice cream, outside for 30 minutes per day playing games , running races on the tennis court etc.

 

Third; Disney; They rest on their laurels a lot. The feeling/vibe they were giving out was: your’re on a Disney Cruise, so of course you are having fun and we don’t need to personally do much to help that along. They tended to put kids in front of a screen for a movie or depend on visits from characters to fill up time. Actual one on one time with a counsellor, which we were accustomed to seeing, seemed to be rare. We once saw a counsellor sitting at a table with a group of girls colouring. That was about the extent of it. The facilities are amazing, clean etc but the care or attention your child is getting seems to be minimal. They are safe and not breaking any rules but that’s about it. I would add that the play facility on the Disney private island is out of this world. Our son did not want to leave. But it was more about the play place than anything any staff member was doing. To me, that is where Disney misses the boat. (bad pun)

 

Last place: Princess. Hard to put a finger on it but the staff here did not appear happy. All their interactions with the kids seemed rote. Parents were not permitted inside the play area you were just dropping off or picking up outside a gate. Counsellors appeared tired, distant, and not that engaged with the children. I inquired about a talent show and lip sync b/c our son is definitely at that exhibitionist stage in his young life, and was told there would be nothing like that rather a “family fun fair” which was not at all similar. Just some face painting and events at a particular location onboard, where you were explicitly told you were responsible for your own child and kids club supervision hours were not applicable during that time blah blah blah. Similarly, on port days the kids club shut down at for 1 or 1.5 hours so staff could take a certain group of kids on deck for supper. This meant no scheduled activities for the late afternoon for children who would eat dinner with their parents later. Struck us as very odd. It really felt the whole week like there was an effort to minimize time they would have to do anything much with your child. Staffing issue? Also our son, who just turned 7 came back very often talking about Mario – first time ever he had this level of exposure to video games while on a cruise. I realize part of that is his age, but I was left with the distinct impression there was very little effort to do anything but that during free play. Not once during the week were the kids taken outside to burn off steam, nor did they even leave the designated play area. Having said all that, he still liked going.

Edited April 1, 2016 by croozen

[Keith1010]

Very interesting review. Sort of a surprise to me but you have made excellent points.

 

I hope that others will read this review.

 

Well done.

 

Keith

[Queen of Oakville]

Our sailing histories our similar and I agree with you on your assessments.

 

My kids have not sailed Princess. We did one sailing as a Couple ... maybe we'll go back to Princess when we are 80 :rolleyes:

 

 

Celebrity and HAL are quite close in my opinion. Due to smoking policy, Celebrity wins out (i.e a stricter policy). Celebrity is also AWESOME at taking care of guests with allergies. My son has peanut allergies.

 

I think you are correct in your assessment about Disney. My kids LOVED the characters and the Aquaduck ... they were NEVER in a rush to go to the kid's club. They loved the open house on our first cruise - Andy's Room, Monsters Inc., Pixie Hollow .. what's not to love? But when it is packed with hundreds of kids they lost interest.

 

We've also sailed Carnival and Royal.

 

My kids (now 8 and 10) would give the following rank:

 

Celebrity

HAL

Royal/Disney

Carnival

 

 

Ship-to-ship - they prefer Disney, but kids club to kids club, they would prefer Royal (but they don't "love" the kid's club on Royal either).

[jhsocal]

Glad that overall, you were pleased. Was a bit surprised to see HAL a close second. They have the reputation of having the oldest passenger demographic.Of course staff and passengers are two entirely different issues.

[croozen]

Though they have an older demographic HAL still often has many families on, particularly at March break. I think it is in fact b/c of that reputation that they try harder and go the extra mile. For parents that are checking out day cares or schools, you will know what I mean: just that spidey sense feeling you get about the staff/employees when you first visit - whether they are engaged and truly like children, or if this is just a job for them. HAL and Celebrity passed with flying colours in that department, in our view, and for us everything else positive just flowed from that.

Edited April 1, 2016 by croozen

[c-cruise]

Never taken our kids on X, but was really interested to read your positive review. My DW and I did one very mediocre X cruse before children and would have never thought to do X again now with kids.

 

I agree with your assessment of HAL. We've done probably 10 HAL cruises with our kids and they do a great job with their kids clubs. The facilities are nothing to write home about, but the staff actually interact with the kids rather than just being there to supervise play. The real downside of HAL is that there are generally very few kids onboard and they can end up lumping the age groups together. Also have more limited hours.

 

Disney is by far our kids favorite, but I do understand why some people don't like their kids clubs. They are very busy, unstructured, and chaotic and some kids don't do well with that. On our first Disney cruise our youngest was three and she was really intimidated by the size of the space and all the older kids. Wouldn't go without her older sister with her. Their smaller ships seemed less crazy and crowded to us though.

 

Have to agree with you on Princess. We have only done 2 Princess cruises with our kids, but have never really been wowed by their kids program. We went this past summer and the staff seemed particularly disinterested. Probably didn't help that we got upset with them on the first night about not letting our kids participate until day 2 because we missed some parent orientation or something. ;) Thought their hours sucked and like you mentioned they had these lame special events several evenings where the club was not open for drop-off.

[phxbne]

Thanks for your review. One reason we cruise is for the kids clubs, and I have been curious about Princess.

My 11 year old has been on 6 cruises on 4 lines, and her least favorite kids club by far was Disney. I think your explanation captures well what she cannot really express.

On Celebrity she had one great experience (spring break) and one OK experience (Christmas).

By far her favorite kids club is Crystal - primarily because of the personalized attention she gets.

[bobbie0253]

Thanks for the review. I can't wait to try Celebrity someday. We agree with your assessment of Disney. My guy hated the kids club there :/

[TysonsTraveler8]

Found the above reviews thought provoking. Have to disagree on one point-- at least from my limited experience with the Princess kids club. We took my daughter on her first cruise last December (early in the month) when she was 4.5 on a Princess cruise out of LA. The Pelican Club on that cruise was fantastic-- my daughter loved it so much that she couldn't wait to go there every day-- even when we were at port (she didn't want to get off the ship, she had such a good time there). She definitely had personal attention there-- I thought there was decent structure-- plenty of activities -- "pirate night". There was definitely no boundaries for parents to drop off their kids --I could (if I wanted) could walk back there anywhere in the kids club (as a parent). It was great.

 

It was such a fantastic experience we just booked our second Princess cruise with my daughter in tow over Thanksgiving week in November (she is out of kindergarten Wed-Fri that week so we thought we may was take off the whole week). Pelican club, here we come!

 

Curious if we will find a mediocre Pelican Club on this next cruise (per above) if we do a holiday cruise.

 

Well, time will tell.

 

Thanks,

 

Rebecca

[LemonNeko]

Thanks for the review. We are booked on Celebrity this Aug and had some doubts because I've read it's not for kids. My son is 4 and has only been one one cruise which was Royal. The reason I chose a cruise for vacation instead of a land based vacation is because how much he loved the kids clubs.(Plus I get to go to islands I wouldn't normally be able to afford to stay on)

 

I think a Disney World vacation is a lot better value than a Disney cruise.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

My son enjoyed Celebrity's "Fun Factory" more than any of the others.

[Queen of Oakville]

Glad that overall, you were pleased. Was a bit surprised to see HAL a close second. They have the reputation of having the oldest passenger demographic.Of course staff and passengers are two entirely different issues.

 

Yes, the passengers on HAL are older. And the passengers are not 100% welcoming of kids. {For example, my children and I went to the Indonesian high tee ~ my daughter was enthralled with the pretty pastries. They tried to seat us with two older woman, who refused to let us sit at their table!}

 

But the kid's club is awesome. They do thinks like take over the area where they teach cooking classes, and they made chocolate chip cookies. Or they made their own popcorn and then took over the main theatre to watch a movie. my kids had a blast. I also found that HAL had more family activities (family scavenger hunt, family trivia, family wii ....} than any other line.

[mandream]

Very interesting - thanks for posting.

 

We have a 4 and 5 year old (both boys) who will be going on their 6th cruise next month - all on Celebrity. So, while I don't have much to add with respect to your comments on the other lines - I completely agree with what you said about the Celebrity kids club.

 

Of course all kids are different - my 4 year old wanted to spend morning noon and night there. Always upset when he had to leave. My 5 year old would go begrudgingly and not as often. That's just his personality - not a comment on the Fun Factory. Whenever he did go - he had lots of fun and would talk about it afterward - getting him there was the challenge.

 

Mike