Kid's Club with kids near border ages

[Marauder40]

My family will be going on their first cruise in August on the Carnival Magic.  Does anyone have any experience with kids that are near the border ages and the kid's clubs?  My son is 11 and is worried he will be to old.  We realize there is a group for 9-11 but how many are in that group on a typical cruise?  Do the 11 year old kids usually have fun or feel everything is to babyish?

 

The reason I am asking is that a couple years ago we went to an all-inclusive in the Dominican Republic with my then 12 year old daughter (now 15.)   We tried to take both of them to the Kid's club there and she felt she was to old for that group and she was to young for the teen's club.  We looked at the activities and the age groups at the Kid's Club and we could see what she was talking about.  It turned out there were only two other 12 year old kids in the entire resort and both of them were also avoiding the Kid's Club.  Since my son didn't want to be in the Kid's Club either since his sister didn't have to, we ended up having to have the kids with us the entire time.  Luckily we had extended family on that trip so we could get some breaks, but on this cruise we won't have any extended family.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Marauder40

[teknoge3k]

I know a lot of kids enjoy the kids club. When my oldest was about 12, he felt he was too old for the kids club and never went. He preferred to just go off on the ship on his own, and do his own thing. He had fun doing that. He's met random kids here and there since. 

[Elaine5715]

2 minutes ago, Marauder40 said:

My family will be going on their first cruise in August on the Carnival Magic.  Does anyone have any experience with kids that are near the border ages and the kid's clubs?  My son is 11 and is worried he will be to old.  We realize there is a group for 9-11 but how many are in that group on a typical cruise?  Do the 11 year old kids usually have fun or feel everything is to babyish?

 

The reason I am asking is that a couple years ago we went to an all-inclusive in the Dominican Republic with my then 12 year old daughter (now 14.)   We tried to take both of them to the Kid's club there and she felt she was to old for that group and she was to young for the teen's club.  We looked at the activities and the age groups at the Kid's Club and we could see what she was talking about.  It turned out there were only two other 12 year old kids in the entire resort and both of them were also avoiding the Kid's Club.  Since my son didn't want to be in the Kid's Club either since his sister didn't have to be, we ended up having to have the Kids with us the entire time.  Luckily we had extended family on that trip so we could get some breaks, but on this cruise we won't have any extended family.

Well, that all depends.  You see a number of people post here about having younger kids age up and older kids age down so it will just depends on the Kid Club crew

[Julienatul]

It is different each sailing. There are usually kids of all the ages in each group. The 9-11 age group is alot of sports games, contests, relays, video game competitions etc. He will have fun.

 

As far as moving up or down age groups, if there are tons of kids, they most likely wont let you move. It depends on numbers and staff. I've had them refuse before and I've had them honor it before. We usually sail with the kids cousins who are different ages so we have done this before. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. There are some combines times when all the ages are grouped together for a bit and then split off to do other things. The Magic is a great ship. My kids loved it. Lots to do even outside the kids clubs.