small suggestion

[jennifert]

I loved the cruise and hope to attend again one day. I have one small suggestion. In the promotional material it suggested that the kid care would allow parents to have dinner and attend a show. This was actually not possible. Enrolling children in the kid's club at 7:00 p.m. took a while. The shows started at 7:30 or 7: 45. It would be difficult to eat dinner in one of the restaurants after the show and be back at the kids club before 10:00 kid club closing even if you wanted to eat that late. It would indeed be nice to have the opportunity to dine without the kids and take in the show once or twice! In any event, you may want to clarify a bit or re-arrange timing for future cruises. Loved it all, just some feedback!

[TraverseCityFamily]

We had a different experience on the Feb '07 Carribean cruise. Kids club worked great for our family and we had dinner out without the kids and saw a show almost every night without any problems. We have a 9yo and a 3yo.

Here's how we worked it:

Took the kids to the kid's buffet about 6:30 or 7:00. They ate with their friends who were also going to kid's club. Signed 'em in to the Kid's Club between 7 and 7:30. Then we enjoyed dinner with our adult friends and then went to the late show or went to the early show and did a late dinner. This worked extremely well for us. Sometimes it was a late night for the kiddos (p/u between 10p-12a). Kids didn't mind. Kids club was open after 10pm but you had to pay a small fee for the extra time after 10p.

Our kids enjoyed kids club. Great place to meet other kids. Good programming. We used it almost every night and a few times during the day. Kids club staff was absolutely fantastic on NCL! The staff was totally non-stressed and welcoming of all the kids all the time. And, they were busy busy!

We did also take our 9yo to a couple of the evening shows---Cirque and Grease performance. Kids club actually took the kids to some special performances also. Our final night we all went to din din together as a family.

Dave
Traverse City, MI

[Kim73]

Kids Club was all a HUGE hit with our kids (4 & 6). We did the same thing with the kids buffet ahead of time, except we took turns taking them to dinner so the other one could have some time to them selves and get ready for the night at a more liesurely pace :)
The first night when we dropped them off our 4 year old son wasn't happy to be seperated from his big sister and I thought, oh no, we'll never get to see a show all week!! :( But, when we went to pick them up after the early show he wanted to stay longer. As soon as he woke up he asked if he could go back. Our daughter found out from a friend about the "late nights" they offer and informed us we needed to stay out late. She put it best when she said, "Mommy, this works out great, we get to have family time all day and then you and Momma get to go out and do adult stuff at night while we get to stay up late and play with our new friends!" We couldn't have asked for anything more from the Kids Crew staff...they made the cruise for our kids!!!

[jennifert]

Wow, I guess I felt like after 10:00 was pretty late to keep the kids up. My 3 year old was pretty happy to see us when we picked him up early. I am sure my 8 year old would have played all night, but not sure that would have led to a happy day tomorrow! All kids/families are different! I would have liked kids club to open at 6:00 p.m. That way we could have fed them first, then dined together, seen a show, and still get kids to bed before it is too far past their bed time (normally 8-8:30 p.m.) Just a suggestion. We loved the cruise. Maybe some of the 12-16 year olds could offer evening baby sitting services to make some extra arcade money??? I guess we are longing for a little kid-free time!

[neuromri]

We have a toddler who will be 14 months on the July cruise.

Do they have any evening sitting for toddlers?

Michael

[stay-at-home-dad]

I have not been on any of the cruises. Our son has issues that will not allow us to leave him in a kid center without me or my husband. Are there any shows that are not too late and kid friendly on this cruise?

[greendads]

I have not been on any of the cruises. Our son has issues that will not allow us to leave him in a kid center without me or my husband. Are there any shows that are not too late and kid friendly on this cruise?

We took our 3 year old son to almost all the early evening shows (7:30pm), on the February Cruise. He only did good in the kids club for very short periods of time. He loves music, loved Gloria Estefan and drummed in our hands through the whole show. He also liked the magic show and the Cirque show. He was kinda bored with the "Grease" show, but so were we.
All the early shows were ok for kids, and there was some entertainment specifically for kids as well.