Is DCL the only line to offer Kids Clubs that don't separate kids ages 3-12 within the Club?

[lilsonicfan]

And another note on that, Holland America has a reputation for having an older demographic of passengers. I hear on Alaska it's different, but for the most part there are less children and more 50+ adults. They do have kids clubs though, but not a whole lot of general family entertainment and activities. I'm not saying don't choose this option, but maybe do a little more research into it if you are leaning that way to make sure the entire family would be happy.

We had heard this as well but there were LOTS of kids on our HAL August 2022 cruise to Alaska. Probably in part due to the fairly low pricing last year, making it an excellent vacation choice for people like us, i.e. live close to the port in Vancouver. My kids even saw some school friends on board.

 

[Dailymeel]

If you’re concerned about this then look at when they have specific planned events which are more structured for your daughter to participate in. For example, when we were on The Wish my girls participated in a cake decorating class and a dance party in the kids club. They post the kid club events on the app. Even though all the ages were together on The Wish, some areas are more appealing to younger kids so my 6 and 7 year old girls were usually on the opposite end of the club from my 9 yr old son. My girls didn’t use screens in the club. They did arts and crafts and make believe, and really liked using the little kid climbing area when it was open to them. My son did play video games in the Marvel and Star Wars areas but he’s older and I really didn’t mind for a few hours. He did zero arts and crafts LOL. Now when we sailed on the Fantasy in 2019 (may be different now) they did let the kids watch / play on tablets and I did not like that. They even sat my 2 year old in front of a TV when I took her to the nursery for a nap! However, my kids were also younger (2, 4, 6) and none of them really liked spending much time in the Club / Nursery so we didn’t use them much on that cruise.

Sounds like the video game interest really depends on their personality I didn’t realise they had so many planned activities. My child will only be 4 when I go, and I was not planning to use the kids club but if it’s something she would enjoy I wouldn’t mind letting her go off on her own for a bit. Even though I prefer if we were all together on a family vacation. I think in the end I would let her choose what she would like to do especially on sea days. Do characters come out as well for the kids?

 

[Anna131517]

Sounds like the video game interest really depends on their personality I didn’t realise they had so many planned activities. My child will only be 4 when I go, and I was not planning to use the kids club but if it’s something she would enjoy I wouldn’t mind letting her go off on her own for a bit. Even though I prefer if we were all together on a family vacation. I think in the end I would let her choose what she would like to do especially on sea days. Do characters come out as well for the kids?

I know there were characters at one of the dance parties in the kids club but we usually met characters at the meet and greets in the atrium. I also signed my girls up for the Royal Gathering once we were onboard (couldn’t get it online either time). They also have a separate meet and greet for Anna and Elsa you can sign up for.

 

[sponica]

Sounds like the video game interest really depends on their personality I didn’t realise they had so many planned activities. My child will only be 4 when I go, and I was not planning to use the kids club but if it’s something she would enjoy I wouldn’t mind letting her go off on her own for a bit. Even though I prefer if we were all together on a family vacation. I think in the end I would let her choose what she would like to do especially on sea days. Do characters come out as well for the kids?

My oldest will be 7.5 when we go next year, and she's basically said when we get on board, she's going to the kid's club and we'll never see her again, my hope is that her younger sister (who will be 3.5) will be comfortable enough to just follow the older one everywhere

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

The extended hours on DCL (and the fact that my kids like being there together) is the primary reason we cruise Disney. I love that I can go to the champagne bar with my husband while my kids are getting a bedtime story read by a Disney Princess (evidently this does not happen on all sailings but it happened in the Wish and was an amazing first impression)— then we can pick them up between 10PM and midnight, and they happily tell us about their adventures with Disney characters and club activities. On our last (3 day!) sailing, they came home with about 20 sketches they’d drawn/traced in the art room.

We prefer the premium lines (Seabourn, Oceania, Regent, and Celebrity suites), but as long as our kids prefer kids club to reading quietly, we’ll be forking over our money to DCL.