P&O Cruises Expert Insight #2

Despite what many people believe, cruising offers a fantastic and unique holiday experience for the entire family. As winners of “Best Family Cruise Line” at this year’s British Travel Awards, P&O Cruises are the best in the business when it comes to providing the holiday of a lifetime, every time for your family.

Just in case you’re not familiar - The Reef is our free on board programme for 2-17 year olds. Split into four age groups, there is a huge range of fun activities and games organised daily by our fantastic Youth Staff to ensure your children not only stay entertained, but also make friends of their own age.

For the next article in our "Expert Insight" series, we spoke with Phil Courtney, Youth Director on board Aurora for an inside look at the work that goes on behind-the-scenes in The Reef. It’s his job to ensure children of all ages enjoy their cruise as much as their parents do. Read what he had to say about his role on board below...

I have worked in The Reef from June 2011 to November 2012.

Working with the older children the day usually begins by taking them for breakfast at 10am. After breakfast, I usually send the children off on some kind of hunt or challenge around the ship. Whilst they complete this I will prepare any afternoon or evening activities. After lunch, we usually do an hour up in the sports net’s or a sporting competition (table tennis/table football etc). Other afternoon activities include food making, card games and more general activities. At 5, we will take the children up to children’s tea. After this, I will do any last set up for the evening activity. In the evening, I will host a number of larger activities that involve all of the children. This entails more game show activities which I will host using the microphone in a more structured manner. These activities will usually last from 8-11pm. At 11pm we will take the children for hot chocolate, play cards or just relax. The room then typically closes at midnight.

The most satisfying part of the job for me is working to ensure those children who may not be as popular at school or have as many friends at home, feel included. I try to use my personality to make them feel comfortable about themselves and be confident to make new friends and have an amazing holiday. Contrastingly, I like to make those children who may be more confident to help, befriend and appreciate those children different from them. The most rewarding cruise is one where the room is diverse yet all children are happy together. Obviously waking up in Barbados to go swimming with turtles is a pretty amazing part too

On the world cruise I had a few Australian kids that were very fun. Because there were very few children, we had some spare time so we watched Mrs Doubtfire. Afterwards, one of the 15 year old boys decided it would be a good idea to come back later that evening wearing a dress, heels and another of the girl’s hair extensions. I was rather surprised to say the least!

For me, working with the older children, the best activities are always the big game shows held at night that includes them all and allow them to be both creative and competitive. Such game shows as “Shipwrecked” and “Battle of the Sexes” always go down well on every cruise. Taking them to the sports nets always goes down well too.

Only working with 9-17 year olds, the best way of making games relevant is by both pitching the games at a level they understand and enjoy but also by ensuring the programme is constantly being developed and updated. Making new games based on popular TV shows and games at home at the time improves the children willingness to participate and enjoy the activity. For example, during a quieter cruise, I started making a number of game shows interactive such as “The 1 Million Pound Drop”, “The Cube” and “Family Fortunes”. These interactive games are far more appealing and The Reef should continue to develop a lot of new games in this manner.

I think parents vary widely in their expectations. The vast majority just want to see their children making friends and having fun through organised activities.  Most like to use the club for the children at night so they can enjoy an evening together. Others drop their children of first thing in the morning and don’t see them until the end of the night. I think they see our role is to just make the children feel safe and comfortable and be themselves so they can make new friends and have an enjoyable holiday. Which, 99% of the time, seems to be the case.

I am not actually onboard for Christmas, but know through helping in preparation and being onboard last year that the club goes the extra mile. We are already organising a children’s pantomime, Santa’s grotto, Christmas party and advent calendar for the children.

From the feedback we get from children, they always say P&O Cruises children’s clubs are the best for the variety and scale of the activities provided. The full programmes provided across all age ranges shows the importance of the children as part of the cruise and I think the parents really appreciate the effort that goes in to provide them with the best holiday possible.

I often escort tours and try and see and do as much as possible on my time off. I am usually off before 9am to ensure I can fit in as much possible in ports I have not visited or in the more exotic locations. I will have the occasional lie in too to treat myself in a port I have visited before.

If you'd like to learn more about family holidays with P&O Cruises, click here