Holland's Kids Club

[Suebee]

Hello, we are considering an Alaska Crusie on Holland. When we sail, our kids will be 5 and 7.

Can anyone give me a good idea of Holland for kids? Their web page is sketchy at best about the club, activities, hours, and quality. I dont much care about kiddie foods since my kids dont really care for that sort of food anyway.

I am really interested in the kids club since our kids loved being in that atmosphere on our last cruise.

We sailed NCL and loved the freestyle. Will we feel confined by the set dinner times and having to dine with our kids at long meals? Or is there a place we can get a meal with the kids, put them in the kids club and then go dine by ourselves like we did with NCL?

Anything you can tell me is great.....thanks!

[lindacat]

My 7 year old niece was just on the Maasdam. There were about 130 children on the ship. I spoke with one of the counselors, when there are a lot of children on the ship there is a fully staffed club. At those times when there are not a lot of children, there may only be one counselor and one supervisor. The activities were broken down by age. My niece was in the group for 5-8. The activities varied throughout the day from arts & crafts, sports and games, ice cream & movies. Generally the last activity ended about 4:30 in the afternoon. Each evening at 7:30 there was an activity that lasted until 10:00 p.m. Examples were Movie night, pool party, pajama party etc... My niece loved Club Hal especially the evening activities.

They were very strict about the age limit. There was one boy who was not yet 5 and he could only participate with adult supervision. Also, the night of the pool party any non swimmer had to have an adult in the pool with them.

As far as the meals, I can't really help you. My niece at with us in the dining room each night.

If you have any other questions I will try to answer them.

Linda

p.s.
The 5-8 age group was not allowed to sign themselves out. The older children were allowed to sign themselves out of the club.

I would be wary to book a HAL ship during a period where there are not traditionally a lot of kids on board. The staffing of Club Hal is definately seasonal.

[Jacqueline]

If you are really interested in the kids club, I would look more closely at celebritie's M class ships. The kids facility is beautiful and well equipt, but more importantly the clubs hours are almost continous whether you are port or at sea. There is a dinner time for the kids in the Seaview cafe so that they do not need to go to dinner.
WHile HAL has upgraded their programs from what I gather it still seems spotty in terms of hours. For example, there is no club HAL in port. On Celebrity they open early so that if you are going on an excursion you can drop your child off.
A would also say look at Princess. They have no set dinner times (personal choice) as an option- it works well. Also have good kids programs.
If you go early or late in the season there will not be many kids.

[lindacat]

On the recent Maasdam cruise Club HAL was open while the ship was in port. However, I agree that the hours and activities will vary by ship and sailing date. How to staff the club appears to be made on a case by case basis.

[F5Loar]

Our 7 year old daughter just finished her 21st cruise on board the Maasdam.
She loved the program. Small group with only one instructor and a helper and they kept them busy. It would be difficult for you to speculate how it will be your week. You might have poor counslors, or a few unruly kids in your group. Those two things you can't control so you just go and make the best of it. As far as eating if you choose the late seating you can feed your child on the Lido, take them to the club and they eat on your own. I think you would need the early late seating to do that not the later late seating. We've done that before on other lines and it works fine. If your child adapts to strange settings with kids they don't know the program works fine.

[Suebee]

Thanks for the input....we do not have a choice of line if we go with a package that we are qualified for...but I wanted to get all the info I could on HAL before we started saving.
Since we would be going to Alaska in July, we are probably there during peak times for kids too. At least it shouldnt be as crowded as maybe a Christmas cruise...eek.
Thanks again and if anyone else has more to add, great!