For discussion…

[devonuk]

In the past few days I booked 2 balcony cabins on the Arvia departing Southampton on the 17th August 2025. Both of these cabins contain children and for the first time recently, especially since Covid, the P&O customer service employee had to check that there was enough room left available onboard to allow ‘my’ children to be able to travel. 
Certainly pre Covid this was the norm but having recently travelled on the Iona on 2 occasions with circa 1000 children I’m wondering whether the large number of children not being able to get into the kids club when expecting to etc. has caused a rethink 🤷‍♂️

Anyone have any thoughts on this please?

Thanks. 

[terrierjohn]

54 minutes ago, devonuk said:

In the past few days I booked 2 balcony cabins on the Arvia departing Southampton on the 17th August 2025. Both of these cabins contain children and for the first time recently, especially since Covid, the P&O customer service employee had to check that there was enough room left available onboard to allow ‘my’ children to be able to travel. 
Certainly pre Covid this was the norm but having recently travelled on the Iona on 2 occasions with circa 1000 children I’m wondering whether the large number of children not being able to get into the kids club when expecting to etc. has caused a rethink 🤷‍♂️

Anyone have any thoughts on this please?

Thanks. 

I doubt it, there was always a limit on the number of children permitted on each cruise. I don't imagine that P&O are turning away anyone just to make a cruise less crowded with less frustration for passengers, profit is king.

[devonuk]

26 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I doubt it, there was always a limit on the number of children permitted on each cruise. I don't imagine that P&O are turning away anyone just to make a cruise less crowded with less frustration for passengers, profit is king.

Noted, but this is a first for me in many years 🤷‍♂️

[Megabear2]

My friend tried a couple of months ago to book on to Arvia on an early August cruise with her husband and 10 year old daughter and was informed there was insufficient capacity for her child so they were unable to book.  I took this to mean either there were no cabins left available with the extra berths or the reduced price child's places had all been filled and in the same way they shut down sales of solo cabins at a certain number they were doing the same for children.  

 

They are now booked for August 2024.

[DamianG]

My wife says that Iona and Arvia both have a maximum of 1000 children onboard for any cruise. 
 

We know from experience that places go fast for the main school holidays hence we are already booked for 2025. 
 

There is still plenty of availability for adults on our forthcoming Arvia cruise this August but when I tried a dummy booking including our son recently (just to compare prices) no cabins were bookable.

[CaptainPedantic]

The age of your children could be a factor - each of the age groups typically has its own separate capacity, or at least this was the case when our kids were younger (and the ships were smaller). We were once unable to book one summer cruise when our kids were in the 5-8 years old group, even though there was plenty of availability in all the other age groups.

It's sad to hear that there have been kids unable to get into the clubs when it has been so busy - our kids had so many amazing times...

[Cathygh]

We have just got back from Iona, a half term cruise. Our grandchildren got into the kids club for every session. I don't know if the maximum quota for children had been reached but there were a lot of extra staff for the clubs on board.

[FamilyCruiserUK]

12 hours ago, devonuk said:

In the past few days I booked 2 balcony cabins on the Arvia departing Southampton on the 17th August 2025. Both of these cabins contain children and for the first time recently, especially since Covid, the P&O customer service employee had to check that there was enough room left available onboard to allow ‘my’ children to be able to travel. 
Certainly pre Covid this was the norm but having recently travelled on the Iona on 2 occasions with circa 1000 children I’m wondering whether the large number of children not being able to get into the kids club when expecting to etc. has caused a rethink 🤷‍♂️

Anyone have any thoughts on this please?

Thanks. 

From our understanding there is a limit to the number of children onboard. We tried to book Azura for Aug 24 from Malta for a two week cruise. We could add a child for each individual week but not for the whole two week period.....go figure that one 🤷. We spoke to our TA who got onto the phone with P&O and explained that we could book the same two weeks  individually but not together. P&O rep came back and said they limit the number of children onboard for kids club etc etc. However as we could book each week individually they opened up the two week option. Said its the way the computer program works or other technical mojo. We are booked onto the cruise we wanted so all good in the end but a stange glitch. 

Edited June 6, 2023 by FamilyCruiserUK

[FangedRose]

Just like nurseries on land there is a ratio of adults to children required. No matter of cabins or berths if they can't get the staff qualified to deal with a particular age group they won't accept the booking. They need to have the capacity for all possible children in that age group even though a certain number will not go to the clubs.

Edited June 6, 2023 by FangedRose

[Thejuggler]

We cruised regularly from about 2010 with our daughter.

 

At all ages (pre school to teen) we came up against 'no children spaces left' on a regular basis.  It worked in our favour as we moved to choosing cruises which were less family focussed.

 

 

[Cloudyrain]

There have always been limits on the numbers in each age group allowed on board: not related to kids club spaces. I have also found that kids club places are usually easily gained in peak holiday times as they have extra staff on for those dates, but off peak every space is “booked” by 8.32am as they have such a reduced club capacity.

[CaptainPedantic]

29 minutes ago, Cloudyrain said:

There have always been limits on the numbers in each age group allowed on board: not related to kids club spaces. I have also found that kids club places are usually easily gained in peak holiday times as they have extra staff on for those dates, but off peak every space is “booked” by 8.32am as they have such a reduced club capacity.

That's not how I remember it, but then my kids are 21 and 19 now so it was some time ago! There was always sufficient space in the kids clubs, capacity for each age group was managed at the time of booking, and I was never aware of any child being denied access due to being full.

[daiB]

14 hours ago, devonuk said:

In the past few days I booked 2 balcony cabins on the Arvia departing Southampton on the 17th August 2025. Both of these cabins contain children and for the first time recently, especially since Covid, the P&O customer service employee had to check that there was enough room left available onboard to allow ‘my’ children to be able to travel. 
Certainly pre Covid this was the norm but having recently travelled on the Iona on 2 occasions with circa 1000 children I’m wondering whether the large number of children not being able to get into the kids club when expecting to etc. has caused a rethink 🤷‍♂️

Anyone have any thoughts on this please?

Thanks. 

My understanding is that if the limit for children has been reached, they will not sccept a booking. so if you are booked you are OK. 

[Cloudyrain]

22 minutes ago, CaptainPedantic said:

That's not how I remember it, but then my kids are 21 and 19 now so it was some time ago! There was always sufficient space in the kids clubs, capacity for each age group was managed at the time of booking, and I was never aware of any child being denied access due to being full.

Not these days, not on an out of school holidays cruise. By 8.32am the other day all slots for the following day were booked: you have to book the day before for the following day now. Occasionally slots appear later in the day if people have cancelled etc, but only rarely.

 

As I said, we haven’t had these issues on school holiday cruises, just out of term time when staff numbers seem to be drastically reduced.

[CaptainPedantic]

4 minutes ago, Cloudyrain said:

Not these days, not on an out of school holidays cruise. By 8.32am the other day all slots for the following day were booked: you have to book the day before for the following day now. Occasionally slots appear later in the day if people have cancelled etc, but only rarely.

 

As I said, we haven’t had these issues on school holiday cruises, just out of term time when staff numbers seem to be drastically reduced.

Oh wow! I must admit I'm surprised by this and I'd have been really disappointed if this had ever been an issue for us - but I suppose like with everything else, times change!

[Son of Bare]

I sat next to a lady on a connecting flight to Valleta for a 2 week Med cruise in April who had paid adult price for one of her granddaughters, in order for her to join the rest of her party, a group of 8.

 

[devonuk]

Thanks for all of your replies guys 👏🏻

It would appear there are ‘caps’ on the number of children permitted on each cruise still 🤷‍♂️