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Author: Luisa Frey Gaynor Youth Program: Policies and Details
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Alex at
Miniature Golf | Not only did the ship wow us all, but Alex got hooked on the Adventure Ocean youth program. On a few days, we literally had to tear her away from the youth program to spend time ashore with us, to enjoy the ship's other facilities, or to go to bed at night! Since we also have an infant who takes a long afternoon nap, requiring one of us to stay in the cabin during that time, it was helpful that Alex enjoyed spending so much time in Adventure Ocean.
It also helped that children over six years old can sign themselves in and out of Adventure Ocean with parental permission. Despite the huge size of the ship (138,000 tons, 15 decks, and a passenger capacity of over 3,100), Alex is great with directions and enjoyed the responsibility of getting herself to and from the youth room.
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Luisa and Alex | Unlike most cruise ships that have one youth room--usually reserved for the youngest group of children--Adventure of the Seas and sister ships Voyager and Explorer of the Seas all have dedicated youth rooms for each age group: Aquanauts, age three to five years; Explorers, six to eight; Voyagers, nine to 11; Navigators, 12 to 14; and Teens, 15 to 17.
Although the youth program starts for those over age three, children must be fully potty-trained to participate in Adventure Ocean activities. Royal Caribbean won't allow those who are not potty trained to come to the youth facilities even if accompanied by a parent. Nor are non-toilet-trained tots allowed to use the great Adventure Beach pool and slide facilities. Royal Caribbean is one of the few lines that still offer private baby-sitting, but tots must be at least one year old to use the service.
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Alex Rock
Climbing or
Swinging? | Parents of children five and under are given a beeper for the duration of the cruise so they can be reached in case their little one needs them. Although my daughter is eight, we were given a beeper because she has food allergies. (All kids with food allergies have their picture taken on their first day in the youth program. The counselors post the photo to make sure they all know of the child's sensitivities. This was the first time I've seen this in a cruise line youth program.)
For youngsters under 12, there are activities from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. with an hour break for dinner. On port days, counselors are available half an hour prior to the first shore excursion in case parents want to go ashore solo. Counselors will take children to lunch on most days too. On three of the seven nights, counselors take the kids to the buffet dinner or Johnny Rockets hamburger restaurant as a group at 6 p.m. Make sure you sign up for this free option by noon on the day of the dinner. Generally the counselors take the kids to eat on the two formal nights as well as an additional evening.
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Alex on the
Sports Deck | After 10 p.m. there is an hourly charge for kids under 12 years old to stay in the program until 1 a.m. While many ships refer to this as group baby-sitting, Royal Caribbean puts an interesting twist on it and calls it "Late Night Party Zone." With a name like that, my daughter was itching to take part, but since her baby brother was waking us up at 5:30 each morning, we never let her stay up later than 10 p.m. According to Michael Clarke, the Adventure's youth program manager, the Late Night Party Zone offers lots of activities during the first part of the night; then mats are pulled out later in the evening so kids can curl up and watch a good movie or sleep.
While the Navigators (age 12-14) and Teens share the Optix Teen Club, they do split for many Teens-only options. The Navigators program lasts until about midnight or 12:30 a.m. nightly, while the Teens program goes until about 2 or 3 a.m. and often includes a Teens-only disco.
Youth Program: Oceans of Fun
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Family Rock
Climbing | Most cruise lines offer a youth program on sea days as well as port days. However, most lines offer fewer activities on the port days, and kids often have lots of free play time on port days with no specific activities scheduled. What my daughter really liked is that Adventure Ocean had a full roster of fun things to do even on port days.
We could tell that it would be a lively cruise since the first-night informational meeting for kids and parents was held in the ice rink as some of the counselors skated. They also tossed to the audience some of the logo items kids can earn by attending the Adventure Ocean program. Each time a youngster attends an Adventure Ocean session, he receives a coupon. On the last day of the cruise, they can be cashed in for prizes like visors, CD cases, t-shirts, and more. While Alex enjoyed attending the kids' program, we found the coupons were a great incentive for her to participate.
Royal Caribbean has a number of successful trademark activities in its fleet-wide Adventure Ocean program. Most impressive are the Adventure Science activities--fun yet educational sessions where kids really get their hands wet (literally). Some of them include making space mud, learning about the stars, and talking about outer space as well as talking like aliens from outer space!
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Talent Show | Royal Caribbean's newest ships, including the Adventure, have an Adventure Ocean Family Computer Camp during sea days; you must sign up for it, since participation is limited to the number of computers in the youth rooms. When Alex and I participated, we got to alter digital photos of ourselves that the counselors took. Then they printed the pictures out on special paper that we ironed onto t-shirts once we got home.
Some lines place more emphasis on crafts than on active games, but not Royal Caribbean. A few Adventure Art projects were offered, such as making a metal Mexican hanging trinket. Although Alex is generally very into making crafts and artwork, she did not seem to miss them on this cruise.
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Mini Rock
Climbing Wall | All Royal Caribbean youth programs feature a talent show on the last day, performed by children under nine years old. My daughter plays the piano, and the counselors held the show in a lounge where Alex had access to a piano and played one of her original compositions. All kids who participated got a hearty round of applause from the parents and a medal from the counselors.
On the last formal night, we enjoyed the Pirate Parade, which was also presented by the two youngest age groups. The kids had their faces painted, put on bandannas and fake hooks (a la Captain Hook), and paraded around the ship with the counselors. The counselors would yell out funny lines such as, "The Captain wants it quiet," and the kids would reply "Let's start a riot!" The children even paraded into the three-level dining room to entertain the second-seating adults. At the end, the ship's photographer took a great picture of the dozens of little pirates.
The line's activities wouldn't be half as fun for the kids if not for the enthusiastic counselors. I found them to be entertaining, yet firm and personal with the kids--a perfect combination for bonding with the youngsters yet remaining in control. All the counselors had nicknames that the children loved and were easy to remember, ranging from Ketchup to Ice Cream, and even Monkey Breath!
The line has a "three strikes you're out" behavior policy for unruly kids and teens. According to Clarke, if youngsters are warned three times about disruptive behavior, they cannot return to the youth program.
Sample of Activities
The room for three to five year olds is furnished with a small slide, a ball pit, and lots of Lego building blocks. Activities offered during our cruise for this age group included design your own surfboard; paw-print art; story time; freeze dancing; balloon volleyball; and much more.
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Pirate Night | To my daughter's delight, the room for the six to eight year olds featured the line's only indoor, kid-sized rock climbing wall, as well as a number of computers, a movie corner with a couch, and a crafts area. Some of her favorite activities were Adventure Science activities including making space mud, finding "prehistoric" eggs, and making rockets; coloring pillowcases; hula hoop challenge; alien talk; and more.
The nine to 12 year olds had a large room for group activities and a smaller room filled with 14 Game Boys, called the "Virtual Sub Station". Activities for this age group included Adventure Science forensics and H2O thunder races; Survivor night; soak your youth staff; and Name that Tune.
The Navigators (12-14) and Teens (15-17) shared the Optix teen room, which had state of the art lighting and a dance floor for teen discos. Other activities for Navigators are: late night karaoke; Playstation 2 time; DJ training; late night skate; and The Weakest Link game show. Some of the teen activities are Fuel disco parties; man hunt; pool parties; arcade challenge; and Battle of the Sexes.
Family Friendly Facilities
The Adventure of the Seas and her sister ships Voyager and Explorer are very family friendly for children over three who are potty trained. Actually, I think these ships are best suited for kids five and up, who are old enough to try some of the ship's more unique activities such as the rock climbing wall, nine-hole miniature golf course, ice skating rink, and Adventure Beach's spiral slide and three splash pools. Children must be 46 inches tall to ride the slide.
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Porthole
Peek-A-Boo | At eight years old, my daughter was the perfect age to enjoy all this ship has to offer. She and my husband climbed the rock wall a few times and found it to be challenging and a good bonding experience. We really enjoyed the ice show that was put on a few times during the cruise. The music appealed to a wide range of ages and the skaters' stunts were breathtaking. Unfortunately, we did not take advantage of the family skate sessions because we ran out of time--and because we didn't bring any long pants, which are required for ice skating.
Many facilities appeal to more of a pre-teen and teenager audience, including the in-line skating track and the basketball/volleyball court. Obviously the game and video arcade is a big hit with this age group too, offering more than 50 gaming options. Make sure you discuss monetary limits on games with your children, because they could really do damage to your final bill!
The Royal Promenade is a large, indoor pedestrian mall area with shops, a cafe, pubs, and sidewalk entertainers. The Krooze Komics entertained a number of times there after dinner, and families enjoyed some impromptu dancing with their little ones to the bands featured in the Royal Promenade.
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Pirate Night | There are a number of eating options offering food round the clock in the French-styled Cafe; Promenade. Families enjoy Johnny Rockets '50's-style hamburger eatery, where the servers dance to oldies music periodically. My daughter loved the Windjammer Caf‚, which always had kid favorites at lunch, including hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries, pizza, and large cookies. The waiters in the main three-level dining room were very friendly and helpful with special orders for Alex as well as the baby.
The ship has a number of family staterooms that can accommodate five or more. These go quickly, though, so book early if you are traveling with more than four people in your stateroom. Luckily, the average stateroom on these ships is larger than on the older Royal Caribbean ships such as the Sovereign, Monarch and Majesty of the Seas.
For those with strollers, there is plenty of deck space to walk with your little one. I enjoyed taking Ethan out for a morning stroll on Deck 12's jogging track.
If your children do partake in the youth program and you find some free time to yourself, grab a chair at the solarium--my favorite spot on the ship. This tranquil pool and lounge area is attractively decorated in tiles to resemble a Venetian spa and the pool is "adults only."
The bigger the ship, the more extensive the options are. The main drawback with a ship of this size is that embarkation in San Juan was the slowest I ever experienced. Luckily, baby Ethan is a trooper, since it took us almost two hours to board the ship from the time we got off the bus at the port. There are some chairs in the terminal, but we waited about an hour outside in the heat before even getting into the terminal. Hopefully Royal Caribbean will work on this so that those with little ones are not put off by the long, hot wait.
Once we explored this huge, action-packed ship, all thoughts of long embarkation lines were quickly forgotten. They were quickly replaced with unique memories of our fun-filled, family "Adventure."
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