How much of a chance that kids won't want to do activities?

[schwoomp]

We've been talking about going on a cruise this coming summer. When I've heard my husband telling people about it, he says how the kids will be busy doing activities so he can have adult time. I know he has this impression from the specials on the Travel channel. But, I'm a little concerned that his expectations are too high. My kids will be 8, are fairly social, and have been in daycare since born, so they are not nervous about being dropped off. But I've also seen people say that their kids did not want to do anything. When I mentioned this to my husband, he said "then why would we pay so much for a vacation?". I'd love to hear other's experiences with this- do the majority of kids enjoy doing activities? And even if they do, is this just an hour a day? Thanks- nothing like having expectations out of alignment to ruin a vacation!!

 

[quadfather]

We've been talking about going on a cruise this coming summer. When I've heard my husband telling people about it, he says how the kids will be busy doing activities so he can have adult time. I know he has this impression from the specials on the Travel channel. But, I'm a little concerned that his expectations are too high. My kids will be 8, are fairly social, and have been in daycare since born, so they are not nervous about being dropped off. But I've also seen people say that their kids did not want to do anything. When I mentioned this to my husband, he said "then why would we pay so much for a vacation?". I'd love to hear other's experiences with this- do the majority of kids enjoy doing activities? And even if they do, is this just an hour a day? Thanks- nothing like having expectations out of alignment to ruin a vacation!!

I think you will stand a good chance of them being entertained. We went a few years ago, and my daughter (4 at the time) was disappointed when we came to pick her up. We leave next week and she will be 8. We'll also have 4 four year olds and a two year old with us. Kind of hoping they all like staying in there a few hours a day! We'll let you know how it goes...from an 8 year old perspective.

 

[pamrob]

It's really a toss up depending on your child. We have five. Four of them LOVED the kid clubs. One would not participate unless we practically forced her to and stayed in the club. She is 6. Based on what you said about your kids there is a good chance they will want to participate. Just be prepared if they don't. We played alot of ping pong and shuffleboard.

 

[mhsjax]

My kids were school are to separation wasn't an issue, however, they found the kids clubs to be lame and frankly really didn't care for a lot of the kids there, could be it was just that cruise, but hubby said there were some real brats in there, cutting in line, being bossy, that type of thing. Now we went again a year later with some friends and the kids said that the clubs were a lot nicer. One thing that did tick me off was when we were in port in Nassau, it was August. They had the kids up on the sports deck around 3:00 playing with no water breaks, we just happened to see the kids coming back in, and all of the kids were beat red, mine and our friends were dehydrated and literally sick from lack of water. Hubby complained, which is something he never does, they apologized and said that should have never happened, it was way to hot for no water. Anyway, just keep an eye on them. They were the same way on Castaway Key, when we went fro brunch, very little water and my kids were beat red and nauseated. I guess you can tell, I don't trust them very much.

 

[FreeTime]

Our kids enjoyed the Oceaneers Club but when moved up or forced to go to the Lab for "lab" hours they didn't enjoy it as much. Our DD 8 did enjoy the sports deck and they had portable water containers available for the kids to fix a cup of water. Maybe you can make arrangements with your kids in advance that for certain times of the day they go to the club, then they have family time. Our kids liked to go to the club after breakfast, we would pick them up and have lunch by the pool, then do an afternoon movie or activity together, always eat dinner together and then go to the show, then they liked to go back to the kids club and watch movies while mom and dad went out.

 

[Jodijo]

My kids did the kids club on our 1st cruise. After that, they would not go. However, we went through the daily Navigator and found plenty of activities for them to do. Most were family activities such as kite making, movies, sports on the sport deck, animation classes, etc. I took the kids most of the time and my husband did his own "guy" thing. He did however meet us at some activities when he was free. It worked out great and we all enjoyed our time.

Enjoy your cruise and don't worry about it. I think it will all work out.

 

[scrapjacks]

Mythen 4 yr old would not participate in any activities unless I was right with him, so no dropping off. Now at 9, I still don't expect him to on our upcoming cruise but I bet his younger siblings won't blink an eye.They don't miss mom & dad a bit.

It depends on the kid. If your kids are used to being at daycare I bet they will have no problem finding things to keep them occupied. My shy kid is just missing out on the fun.

 

[tvguy]

Our kids found nothing in the clubs they wanted to do. They spent the entire week with us, and it was wonderful. We got to be our kids friends for a week, not mom and dad. We might see them for 2 or 3 hours a day when they were in high school, now that they are in college, we might see our son every 2 or 3 weeks, and our daughter once every 6 or 7 weeks. Cruises are our time to be a family, together.

 

[lornak]

We have four kids and have experienced a huge range in reaction to the kids clubs. Our oldest (now 13 but has cruised since she was 6) wants to go as little as possible. She doesn't fight us on going if we ask her to, but given her choice she would never go.

Our next daughter (now 11--crusing since she was 4) literally will not leave the clubs unless we beg her! She spends every minute in there and loves it. We have to require her to eat with us once a day!

DD #3 (now 10--cruising since she was 3) likes the kids clubs and chooses several activites each day to attend. She goes through the navigator and picks what she wants to do and what she wants to skip. She is there about 50% of the time.

DS5 has cruised a few times and he likes the clubs more the older he gets.

One thing that has worked for us is to set the expectations of the kids. We tell them that there are going to be times that they will be in club each day so that mom and dad can do some things together. We work with them to create the schedule but they know that each day they will visit the club...

 

[Anj]

My daughters (4 and 6 - almost 7) were looking forward to the clubs. My 6 yr old spent one afternoon in the Lab and refused to ever go back, she made flubber and it was not fun for her at all. She joined her sister in the Oceaneers Club, but they only went there happily for the evening movies (played after the late dinner seating). They didn't like the limited hours allowed to climb on the pirate structure. Also, they found that the play wasn't very interactive between the kids (most play was CM directed - like sing and dance in a large circle), so they didn't get introduced to any other kids their age. I was surprised by that, as at home (my older one especially) meet and end up playing with kids at playgrounds and such. I had expected that I was going to have to drag them out of the kids clubs and ended up being the parent getting paged that my child wanted to leave.
The above said, DH and I felt we got alone time. We did Palo's for brunch, a martini tasting and we watched an evening movie alone together. We also went to St. Thomas without the girls (it was raining and they wisely chose the kids club over walking around the shopping district).

 

[es45]

We never planned for our children to spend much time in the clubs during our first cruise. However, my DD7 wanted to sleep there! My DD5 quickly tired of the clubs after 1-2 hours.

Both of them want to spend even more time in the clubs during our next cruise.

 

[poohs4me]

We found our DD did not want to go to the clubs when she thought we were having more fun without her. She wanted to be with us to have fun. You know the old belief that parents party once the kids are put to bed. Well, when we told her our plans for while she was at the club - you know sit on the deck or balcony and read or take a nap, go to the spa - she would bail on us faster then you could say boo.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Our kids found nothing in the clubs they wanted to do. They spent the entire week with us, and it was wonderful. We got to be our kids friends for a week, not mom and dad. We might see them for 2 or 3 hours a day when they were in high school, now that they are in college, we might see our son every 2 or 3 weeks, and our daughter once every 6 or 7 weeks. Cruises are our time to be a family, together.

This is what happened with us! Well except that DD is only 9. I loved it! Our table mates couldn't understand and the people from our cruise meet couldn't understand. Oh well. We had a fabulous time together swimming, meeting characters (never gets old), participating in other activities or just plain old hanging out together!! It was great!!

 

[KSandbergFL]

Our experience is that -- our son did not like the kids clubs group activities. However, we worked around the kids club schedules, and found times to drop him off at the clubs when they were having "free play". He was able to play computer games for an hour at a time, here and there. It worked for us. In the evenings, the kids clubs also take the kids to the movie theater for movies... perhaps your kids might want to see a movie with the other kids, and you can sneak away for 90 minutes.

Also -- when we had a verandah room, we were able to have some "alone time" by turning on the TV in the room... our son watched cartoons in the room, while we went out to the verandah, with some drinks, and closed the door. As a matter of fact, on our last cruise, the best dinner we had was eating sandwiches (the salmon panini from Goofy's Galley is delicious) out on the verandah, watching the sunset over the ocean - just the two of us. Our son was in the room eating his chicken nuggets and fries, happy as a clam.

I guess my point is -- even if your kids don't like the clubs, you still should be able to find an hour or two per day for "adult time".

 

[DLW8]

We just went out our first cruise earlier this month and our DD and DS (they were almost 8) didn't LOVE the kids club, but had fun when they went. We let them decide when they wanted to go. We only did a 3 night and 2 of the 3 ngiths they did go during dinner (we had late seating) so we did dine and play.

DD went to the learning to draw activity and loved it. Otherwise, they only went for maybe another hour or 2 during the cruise. It was a short cruise and tehre was too much else to do and we didn't push the clubs. if they wants to go, fine, if not, we'd do something else.


DS's favorite things do do were foosball, ping pong and shuffleboard. DH and DS played a lot of that while DD and I were hanging at the pool. DH did go do some 'adult' stuff (beer tasting for example) and I hung with the kids at the pool and also caught a movie.

Don't have expectations either way, just check out the recent navigators to go over them with your family and see what they may be interested in. Take a highlighter on the trip with you and highlight the navigator to mark what you all want to do each day and then figure it out.

If DH really wants to spend a cruise with JUST you, then I'd suggest taking a cruise with just the 2 of you!

 

[Shoog]

We went earlier this month and my kids loved the club - 7 day. But, every port we went and did something together as a family. After 5 hours of snorkeling or running around they were ready for a relaxing evening in the club. DD 7 and DS 5 were in the same group, but always doing different things. They found that if they didn't like an activity all they had to do was ask to do something else. My son was often playing trucks in a room with a friend or two and my daughter did a million crafts. If it wasn't craft time, she just asked. DD 11 could check herself in and out so her and her friends were all over the ship and used the club as a meeting place after dinner or at set times each day. The kids in the cabin next to us had been on 3 other cruises and never really enjoyed the kids clubs - DD 7 told them how great they were and invited to come along - needless to say they became frequent users of the club. We talked up the clubs a lot before we went and explained that things are as much fun as you make them. There were activities they wanted to repeat and would do them again with the older group which was never a problem. We had late dinner so the youngest were picked up every night to go to camp and we were able to finish dinner without the kids. There was a flurry of running every night when the "yellow shirts" showed up to take the kids. DS loved camp so much after 2 hours with us on Castaway he wanted to go to camp on the island. We did take each kid for an hour or so each day to do something on their own when the other kids were off. One thing that helped was meeting people from the board when we got on the ship with kids the same age so they knew at least one person the first time they went to camp. We were always running into the same people and they made several good friends. But as mentioned here - I think a lot of it has to do with the kids and if they are outgoing or not.

 

[calmpets]

I sailed with my stepkids when they were 9 and 12. Neither of them liked the clubs, but that had to do more with the type of kids they are. The older one is very shy of strangers, and the younger one always wants to be the center of everyone's attention, so it didn't work for either of them. However, they were both thrilled to do other activities around the ship. The 9 year old loved playing basketball on the sports deck, and getting a burger whenever he wanted it. The 12 year old spent time at the pool and eating tons of watermelon from Goofy's Galley. They both really enjoyed the taste of freedom that came with wandering the ship on their own (with frequent check ins, of course). Like others have said, it depends on your kids, but there is plenty for them to do beyond the clubs.

 

[kcashner]

It will vary with the kid. At Oceaneer's Club age, DD couldn't wait to get there. Lab age was hard...if she made a friend in the first day or so, she'd want to go, otherwise, it was hard. If the CMs were "trying too hard" to get the kids to play with a particular child, that could also be an issue--she didn't want to disobey the CM, but didn't want to be told who to play with. By Teen age, she couldn't wait to get there again.

We always had a rule that DD had to do 1 activity per day in the programming--she could choose the activity. She was welcome to do more, but the minimum was an hour per day because that gave ME a break.

 

[hgon76]

We always had a rule that DD had to do 1 activity per day in the programming--she could choose the activity. She was welcome to do more, but the minimum was an hour per day because that gave ME a break.

I think that's a great idea. We are going with another family this time and I don't think the kids are going to want to go to the clubs and I know they won't be made to. It's unfortunate because sometimes they don't think they'll have fun but they do. Last time we went with another family, their DS didn't want to go to the clubs, but when he was made to he ended up having fun. I think compromising on AT LEAST one activity a day is a great idea.

 

[RLP817]

Personally, we don't go on vacation with our daughter with the hopes that she wants to spend ALL her time in the kid's club. We are fine whether she wants to spend hours or just an hour a day there. She happened to love it last cruise when she was 7. We spent our days together and then after dinner she couldn't wait to go to the club. I just wouldn't EXPECT to go on the cruise and EXPECT to have TONS of free time. If that's what you truly want then take a vacation (if possible) alone. It's not fair to take them and make them spend unwanted hours away from you. Whatever you choose.. I hope you have a great vacation!