Topic: P&O The 'Reef' for 18month old and 3 year old...confused

Just had a look about on the Ventura and the Reef's facilities, and had a look at the kids entertainment leaflet kindly posted on here.

Now my eldest daughter will have just turned 3, so she wll be in the Splashers group in the Toybox, so I presume I wont see much off her, looking at the kind of stuff on offer.

Now my concern is what wil happen to my 18 month old daughter, it looks like she cant use any clubs unless we accompany her, which kind of defeats the object getting rid of one and not the other lol.
It says she will be in the Tumblers but doesn't seem to be anyhting for them, unless parents are present? Is this correct?

Also the night nursery, what age is this upto? From what I can gather....

It looks like my youngest can use the facilities but not my 3 year old?
I also noticed on the programme there is something called the toybox slumber sign in - is this a night time club? I am confused.

I may have to email P&O

Basically, hubby and I want 'some' us time in the day when not in port, and one or two evenings 'us time' and hoped we could get rid of the kids on these days in the day to he kids club, and then put them in the night nursery on the evenings we want to dine alone.

Also how does the night nursery work, it doesn't look very big, so it is first come first serve?

Quite honestly your child of 18 months is far too young to go on a Cruise Ship,and your other child at 3 is a bordeline case also.I am sure others on here will point out the reasons for this statement.

QUOTE:

Quite honestly your child of 18 months is far too young to go on a Cruise Ship,and your other child at 3 is a bordeline case also.I am sure others on here will point out the reasons for this statement.

What a load of nonsense (im my opinon). How have you reached this conclusion; safety issues? (not seen any research on to suggest this); you don't like children sharing your holiday? (well that's your opinion!). Please do share your reasoning with us. If you hadn't posted so frequently I would assume you are a troll -but perhaps you are

My son has been cruising since 2 and half years old, and my daughter went on her first cruise in April aged 11 months. Cruising has become our favourite type pf holiday by some distance because the set up on cruise lines like P&O is good for children, that it makes for the perfect relaxing holiday. My only note of caution to parents taking children on board is to think about their child's personality etc. if you are relying on the children's club and night nursery. We would never have got my son to settle in night nursery and before the age of 2 and half (or the kids club) I don't think cruising would have been that much fun with him. In contrast my daughter was born easy going and has had no problems adapting to life at sea from an early age.

To the OP. The Toybox is open until 10pm at which point you need to transfer them to the night nursery if you want them looked after (up until 2am). The night nursery is open from 6pm and you drop the baby in sleeping/close to sleep and are given a pager in case they wake up. The night nursery is set up for babies in the day but with parental supervision and I think that is right.

Our children didn't use the clubs/nursery in the day much, but in the evening they did and we had a few hours of child-free time each evening which was wonderful and something which is a rarity at home.

I'm with Royston on this ~ our youngest was 2 when we did her first cruise ~ so day times she was with us but she went to the clubs to play. They have a soft play area stickle bricks and other young childrens stuff and it got her out of the sun for a while. Of an evening we would take her back and settle her down after dinner with the odd night where she went earlier because we'd manged to keep her awake all day! (I usually tried to arrange this on Formal nights)

For the slightly older ones they have a video from about 9pm with the lights off so that they are relaxing and either asleep or on their way when you collect them.

Enjoy, my children have x

QUOTE:

Quite honestly your child of 18 months is far too young to go on a Cruise Ship,and your other child at 3 is a bordeline case also.I am sure others on here will point out the reasons for this statement.

I never asked for your opinion on whether children should be cruising or not and what ages warrants whether they should be allowed to

Thank you Shelledpea and Royston1...luckily both of our children settle quite easily, maybe the first time will be a bit of a new scenario for them, but fingers crossed they will be okay.

I dont plan on getting rid of them all the time, just maybe on one of the formal evenings, and maybe a couple of hours while at sea, this is a family holiday and I am really looking forward to our first family holiday abroad with them on this ship...she looks wonderful and much better than the ships I have been on

Em,
You can take your 18 month old to the playroom for play sessions but you must stay and play too. You will have no problem with the night nursery, they take babies from 6 months old, providing they are settled when you leave them. You will be given an pager and be asked to give the staff a rough idea of your whereabouts, what dining table you are at etc. If they need you they will page you or come and find you. The night nursery is a great facility, my 1st child was just 2 yrs old when we took him cruising, the second was just turned 6months. We did travel as a large family group which made it easier, but I am sure you will not have any problems.

QUOTE:

Thank you Shelledpea and Royston1...luckily both of our children settle quite easily, maybe the first time will be a bit of a new scenario for them, but fingers crossed they will be okay.

I dont plan on getting rid of them all the time, just maybe on one of the formal evenings, and maybe a couple of hours while at sea, this is a family holiday and I am really looking forward to our first family holiday abroad with them on this ship...she looks wonderful and much better than the ships I have been on

You'll have a great time. Our first cruise was Ocean Village 2, and we found that Ventura had many the same positive aspects (really friendly youth team, reasonably priced drinks, friendly staff and good food), but with a bit more finesse.

Your time for the two of you will need to be just in the evening as your youngest can't go in the clubs on her own, but with the night nursery P&O are streets ahead of the opposition for young children. I'm sure you will all have a great time. Just in case your oldest doesn't like the club though (the great majority don't seem to want to leave it!), do be prepared with some toys etc just in case.

Thanks everyone for clarifying it all for me. We can take all the toys in the world with us travelling to southampton in the car...may need to use the roof rack lol.

That saying, Alex loves nursery and childrens clubs, so hopefully she will be the same by then...I am so excited, pity its next year!!

The night time works out great for us to have some couple time, I have read some have taken the LO's to some of the shows, as they are so mesmerised by all te lights etc, not sure I could - but who knows?