MomOTwins
The Mommy Fairy
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2018
- Messages
- 8,698
Hi everyone, sorry for the delay. We got home Tuesday but I have been slammed catching up at work so just getting a breather now to report back.
We were able to modify our time for the kids club on Nassau day, but that was only because they screwed up our Remy brunch time somehow, and moved it 40 minutes earlier than what we had booked and couldn't move it back--I think they must have overbooked our original time slot though they wouldn't admit it--which meant we had to get our kids in the club earlier in order to do the brunch. When I explained the situation to the kids club staff they got a manager to override and put all three kids in an earlier session that only had one opening. But if it hadn't been their mistake I'm not sure they would have been so accommodating.
Oddly, we had no trouble at all with Scuttle's Cove--we just walked up and they said no appointments needed and no time limit. However, the Cove was only open until 12:30pm, so if you want to take advantage, do it before lunch! We didn't even think to check the hours until 11 so had to scurry over there all the way from the Pelican Plunge beach.
I will say, I chatted up the crew about occupancy and I think our cruise was a bit of an anomaly in terms of the kid club situation due to school fall breaks that weekend. Our cruise had 2100 guests, and 700 of them--fully one third of all guests--were kids. On the cruise just before ours, only 200 of the guests were children. So I'm not sure how much this will hold for other cruises where there is a school break, but if you are planning to go during Veteran's day weekend, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or other school holiday periods, I think it's fair to assume that your three pre-booked sessions are all you are going to get.
On the bright side, we found we didn't mind the limited kids club time one bit. We did the open house on the first day so that gave them a chance to play a bit extra at the club. There was so much fun stuff to do on the ship as a family--game shows, mini golf, aquaduck over and over with very short lines, and characters all over. We spent a lot more time together as a family than we usually do (my kids normally spend half the cruise in the club--they love it), which was a nice change, and the kids surprisingly didn't seem to mind.
Alas, bad news. We tried every day in person and stalked the app multiple times and completely and struck out on booking an extra session for our three kids after their pre-booked ended. There were several openings for one kid, but we were trying for all three, so if you have a single Oceaneer's club aged kid you may have better luck.
We were able to modify our time for the kids club on Nassau day, but that was only because they screwed up our Remy brunch time somehow, and moved it 40 minutes earlier than what we had booked and couldn't move it back--I think they must have overbooked our original time slot though they wouldn't admit it--which meant we had to get our kids in the club earlier in order to do the brunch. When I explained the situation to the kids club staff they got a manager to override and put all three kids in an earlier session that only had one opening. But if it hadn't been their mistake I'm not sure they would have been so accommodating.
Oddly, we had no trouble at all with Scuttle's Cove--we just walked up and they said no appointments needed and no time limit. However, the Cove was only open until 12:30pm, so if you want to take advantage, do it before lunch! We didn't even think to check the hours until 11 so had to scurry over there all the way from the Pelican Plunge beach.
I will say, I chatted up the crew about occupancy and I think our cruise was a bit of an anomaly in terms of the kid club situation due to school fall breaks that weekend. Our cruise had 2100 guests, and 700 of them--fully one third of all guests--were kids. On the cruise just before ours, only 200 of the guests were children. So I'm not sure how much this will hold for other cruises where there is a school break, but if you are planning to go during Veteran's day weekend, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or other school holiday periods, I think it's fair to assume that your three pre-booked sessions are all you are going to get.
On the bright side, we found we didn't mind the limited kids club time one bit. We did the open house on the first day so that gave them a chance to play a bit extra at the club. There was so much fun stuff to do on the ship as a family--game shows, mini golf, aquaduck over and over with very short lines, and characters all over. We spent a lot more time together as a family than we usually do (my kids normally spend half the cruise in the club--they love it), which was a nice change, and the kids surprisingly didn't seem to mind.
So as promised, I showed up to absolutely nothing early, arriving within 5 minutes of the start time at every activity including one movie and we were NEVER turned away for capacity despite being a family of 5. The Beauty and the Beast show the first night was the only thing that did fill up, but I was literally the second-to-last guest seated on the ground level and it was just a couple minutes before showtime--and they directed other guests upstairs so the must have been seating right up until showtime. I noticed they pulled up some extra chairs in certain areas of the theater to fit extra people in while still leaving space between parties.
They had pins for the "prince" set of toys but not the "princess" one that come with the kids' admission (nothing for the adults). Most of the pins were associated with the three princesses at the event: Tiana, Rapunzel, Belle, and at least one said "royal tea" on it so I assume that one at least is exclusive to the party. I looked for the princess ones in the gift shop and did not see them.
This was my biggest complaint of the cruise, and others we talked to said the same thing. It was VERY confusing when you were supposed to dress up. They did the "Mouskerade" deck show the 1st and 3rd nights and the fireworks and "sing and scream" movie sing along the 2nd night. I'd say very few guests dressed up the first night, half dressed up the second night, and half dressed up the third night. I asked my server and they said second night, so that's when we dressed up, but guest participation was all over the map and everyone was confused. It was probably about 50-50 pirates and 50-50 halloween of those that dressed up.
Okay, I dropped the ball on this a bit because I phrased it as asking for a friend back home and they said no, but I wonder if I had just asked outright for one for myself if they would have just brought it. The staff were super accommodating. For example, my picky eater was given several off menu options each night at dinner. Sorry I don't have a clearer answer.
