Oceaneers lab and dinner

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brookew

Earning My Ears

Joined

Sep 20, 2016

• Sep 25, 2016

• #1

Our first cruise will be will 4 children (ages 4-6).
We have booked the early dinner. Can we send them to the club after they quickly eat and then grab them before the show? Whats the best way to do this? Are there entertaining things they will miss at dinner if they leave?
It's only a 3 nightimes cruise. We want this to be a family vacation, so I feel a little guilty about sending them away during the day. Thoughts?

 

jne7043

Mouseketeer

Joined

Nov 27, 2009

• Sep 25, 2016

• #2

If they are going to leave dinner early (we did this one night) tell your server at the beginning of the meal. Some of the servers do magic tricks and our server was so disappointed that ours left early before his tricks. But, there is time between dinner and the show for the kids club. I want to say there was a little over an hour in between for us. The night we took them early they decided to skip dessert so I ran them up to the club and was able to make it back to my table in time for dessert.

 

bumbershoot

DIS Veteran

Joined

Mar 5, 2007

• Sep 25, 2016

• #3

Yes you can take them up there if you wish. There might be a line, though, to check them in. And if they are adventurous eaters and might order from the adult menu, it's not going to be as fast for dining as you would like.

I've never found dinner to be entertaining, LOL. Oh yes there were magic tricks with one server, but ours didn't do those at the end of the evening, FWIW. And you might not get a server who does that, anyway.

Don't feel guilty; it's their vacation too, and if they like the clubs, then that's awesome! And if they DO like the clubs, you'll have to force them out to go to the shows.

 

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KT2038

Mouseketeer

Joined

Jan 3, 2014

• Sep 26, 2016

• #4

Hi! Just so you know, we also do dinner in the Lab during that time so most activities are shut down to encourage the children to eat so there isn't much happening in the Lab. The Club will be in Open House during dinner time

 

PrincessShmoo

DIS veteran

Joined

Feb 12, 2009

• Sep 26, 2016

• #5

KT2038 said:

Hi! Just so you know, we also do dinner in the Lab during that time so most activities are shut down to encourage the children to eat so there isn't much happening in the Lab. The Club will be in Open House during dinner time

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So the Club is in Open House (no kids without an attending adult) at the same time that "there isn't much happening" in the Lab because of dinner? Doesn't seem like that's too much fun for kids and/or families.

 

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5Texans

Mouseketeer

Joined

Mar 12, 2016

• Sep 26, 2016

• #6

PrincessShmoo said:

So the Club is in Open House (no kids without an attending adult) at the same time that "there isn't much happening" in the Lab because of dinner? Doesn't seem like that's too much fun for kids and/or families.

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looking at past navigators it looks like dinner in the Lab is from 5:30- 615 at which time there are scheduled activities in the lab. So, it seems like if the kids ate quickly from 545- 615, which seems really fast, the lab should be back to scheduled programming by the time the kids get there. Does that seem right? ? I was thinking I'd do the same thing, but I want them to have fun.

 

TestingH2O

DIS Veteran

Joined

Jun 10, 2014

• Sep 26, 2016

• #7

PrincessShmoo said:

So the Club is in Open House (no kids without an attending adult) at the same time that "there isn't much happening" in the Lab because of dinner? Doesn't seem like that's too much fun for kids and/or families.

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Well said. When does the early show start? Is there even time to drop a kid off for programming and make the show? My guess is no, so you'd have to rely on a rule breaking seat saver.

 

jne7043

Mouseketeer

Joined

Nov 27, 2009

• Sep 26, 2016

• #8

The club is open house during that time, but the lab is open only for kids who are checked in. The late show doesn't start until 8:30.

 

puffkin

DVC Owner- SSR & AKV

Joined

Apr 30, 2001

• Sep 26, 2016

• #9

We just got off the Dream. We took my 4 year old to the Club/Lab (I can't keep them straight) 2 nights for dinner and wish we would have the last night as well. He was not into the dining rooms at all and his behavior was stressful to say the least. They do dinner at 5:30 or so. We enjoyed our dinner with my 10 year old who liked trying things off the menu and then picked up the little one for the evening show.

 

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CathyCU03

Mouseketeer

Joined

Jun 17, 2015

• Sep 26, 2016

• #10

We would have the waiters bring my daughters dinner with our appetizers/salad. Then one of us would take her to the club while we waited for the entrees. It worked pretty well and meant we still ate together. Whenever we left her in the club during meal times she never ate. I guess she was just to busy playing. I wish they would do the club pick-up for the early dinner like they do for the late dinner.

 

bumbershoot

DIS Veteran

Joined

Mar 5, 2007

• Sep 26, 2016

• #11

CathyCU03 said:

We would have the waiters bring my daughters dinner with our appetizers/salad. Then one of us would take her to the club while we waited for the entrees. It worked pretty well and meant we still ate together. Whenever we left her in the club during meal times she never ate. I guess she was just to busy playing. I wish they would do the club pick-up for the early dinner like they do for the late dinner.

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The only thing you don't have to do with it is bring the child up. You still have them eat early and quickly, you have to be in hem outside the restaurant to the CM. of course dropping them off can take some time but I'd rather do that anyway.


DS hates being in the club when they are serving food.

The one time he wanted to eat they wouldn't let him have the cheese sandwich and called us (which of course we didn't get because we weren't in the room and they didn't call the wave phones) to make sure he's vegetarian? Mystifying. You make a cheese sandwich; let the kid have a cheese sandwich. He finally gave up and didn't eat. Thanks CMs.

After that we made sure he was recently fed when we dropped him there. Which he tells the CMs but there's nothing to do and they won't believe the kids who say they just ate. So they don't believe that a cheese sandwich is fine and they let him be hungry, and they won't believe a just-fed kid that he's not hungry. It's ridiculous.

It's no wonder he prefers Royal's kid club!