8-year olds in Oceaneer Club?

[DCLover]

I have a 5-year old and a child who turns 8 two weeks prior to our cruise. The 8-year old wants to be with his brother in the Oceaneer Club, and although he will be of age for the Lab, other kids who are in the same grade will be in the Oceaneer Club and he would feel comfortable there.

I see that I can register online for the kids, but should I hold off until I get to the check-in for cruise to see if I can sign him up for the Club instead of the Lab? I don't want to register online, then find out I can't move him. I don't know if they have a limit on kids who register or something.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I have a 5-year old and a child who turns 8 two weeks prior to our cruise. The 8-year old wants to be with his brother in the Oceaneer Club, and although he will be of age for the Lab, other kids who are in the same grade will be in the Oceaneer Club and he would feel comfortable there.

I see that I can register online for the kids, but should I hold off until I get to the check-in for cruise to see if I can sign him up for the Club instead of the Lab? I don't want to register online, then find out I can't move him. I don't know if they have a limit on kids who register or something.

Any thoughts on this?

HI,
registering online won't change anything. I mean if you register it won't affect whether or not you can put your 8yr old in the club, and if you don't register it won't help you to be able to do that. KWIM?

I can tell you that on our cruise we did the normal register online- and then when checking in/getting wristbands at the port- I asked if our 8yr old could go on the club (she was barely 8, although your child's birthday turning 8 is even closer than our daughter's was!) and they said okay. I'm sure they can't guarantee that all the time, it depends on how many kids they have and the limit. I think they had no problem with my daughter because after the cruise I heard they had the most kids in the LAB than they ever had or atleast close to it. So maybe they were fine with one less kid in the lab- in the club instead? LOL

I have also heard that it's supposed to be harder to try to bump UP a child to an older age group than to move them DOWN- but then again I've also heard that within a month of that age makes it usually easier to do. Since your child is only 2wks turning 8, you probably won't have any problems with putting them in the club as long as the club isn't at maximum numbers already?

Anyway you can register online and then just talk to them about it when checking in the kids- and see if they can do this then.

 

[tink too]

On our cruise, DD6 met a new friend who was 8 and should have been in the Lab, but they let her move down to the Club to be with my DD. They were inseparable all cruise long.

 

[Magic3forme]

My daughter moved down a club a few years ago. ( they just told us she cant keep switching back and forth to the different age groups.) she didnt care and had more fun in the 3-5 age group at the time. ( she was 6).

 

[justhat]

We sailed last week with my niece, 7yo, and nephew who turned 5yo on the cruise. My daughter is 4yo. They often wanted to be together in the clubs. My daughter was in 3-4s all week (her choice), the 5yo was registered for 3-4s, but also went to 5-7s when he wanted an activity there, and the 7yo was in 5-7s, but spent most of her time with my daughter in the 3-4s.

They let the kids change age groups everytime we signed them into the Club. Not sure if that was the norm, but that was our experience on the 5 night sailing last week.

My niece's wristband said 5-7, but they just checked her in as a visitor with the 3-4s when she wanted to be with them. Nephew's wristband started out 3-4s, then changed to 5-7s when he declared he liked the Lab better. However, that was short lived and he wanted back in the Club, so they just signed him in as a visitor too.

They were very accomodating in letting my daughter and her cousins stay together in whichever club they preferred at the moment.

 

[DCLover]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences! These boards are SO helpful!

 

[clj1410]

I am hoping that my 8 year old can also move down to be with her 5 year brother. She just turned 8 last week and we sail on Oct 12th. When i registered on line i made a note in both of their comments, stating that i wanted my daughter to be with my son. Fingers crossed!

 

[DCLover]

I am hoping that my 8 year old can also move down to be with her 5 year brother. She just turned 8 last week and we sail on Oct 12th. When i registered on line i made a note in both of their comments, stating that i wanted my daughter to be with my son. Fingers crossed!

For both of us!!!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I believe that the kids can switch between activities and age groups within the "Club", 3-4, 5-7 or the "Lab" , 8-9, 10-12, but they can't switch back and forth between the Club and the Lab. KWIM?

 

[NewportCat]

I have a 5-year old and a child who turns 8 two weeks prior to our cruise. The 8-year old wants to be with his brother in the Oceaneer Club, and although he will be of age for the Lab, other kids who are in the same grade will be in the Oceaneer Club and he would feel comfortable there.

I see that I can register online for the kids, but should I hold off until I get to the check-in for cruise to see if I can sign him up for the Club instead of the Lab? I don't want to register online, then find out I can't move him. I don't know if they have a limit on kids who register or something.

Any thoughts on this?

My DD turned 8 1-week before we left for the EB repo. I registered her online for the Lab, although she was apprehensive because her 6-yr old brother would be in the Club. We asked to her to try out the Lab for a day and if she didn't like it, then she could go to the Club with her brother. Before offering this, I did check with the counselors to be sure it was ok if she switched.

Well, she loved the Lab immediately and never looked back! She was not interested in all the princess activities in the Club, and really liked the craft projects in the Lab.

 

[stephent2008]

I believe that the kids can switch between activities and age groups within the "Club", 3-4, 5-7 or the "Lab" , 8-9, 10-12, but they can't switch back and forth between the Club and the Lab. KWIM?

They will not allow this unless there is good reason. the reason behind this is with 1000 kids onboard, it is hard to keep track of who is meant to be with who. When children change age groups frequently the confusion can be... well, not good. Ive seen occurances where a child who changed frequently taken to an activity with the wrong group... because the counselor recognised her, and checked the wristband and thought that the wristband was the error (the child said she thought she was in the other group too). Not a huge deal realy, but confusion is not a good thing!

 

[flexsmom]

Please keep in mind that even if your 8-year old stays in the Club, he will be in the 5-7 year old group and the younger one will be in the 3-4 group, so they will be separated quite a bit. There will be some common "together" time late in the day, but very little during the early and middle part of the day.

 

[atinkerbellmom]

Go ahead and do your paperwork on line. It does not matter that it comes up he is registered in the lab. They will let him move down if you want. It is the moving up that SOMETIMES causes the problem. They will not let him flip flop between the two though. Once on the ship just inform the CM you want him in the club. Now I will be honest, even without his brother, once he exsperiences the Lab there is NO WAY you will get him to go back to the club, brother or no brother. The activities are really set up like school. Unless you have an 8 year old who would like activities for 1st graders, he will like the lab more. Just to give you an idea, the younger clubers 3/4s have preschool like activities. The older clubers have more like 1st grade activities. The younger labers have 3rd grade like activities and the older labers have a little older activities. SO if your 8 year old is more like a 1st grader than a 3rd grader in maturity, than the club would be better. Just MOST 8 year olds LOVE the lab once they get there. My suggestion is hook up with DISers and have the kids talk and exchange pictures prior to the trip. They then enter with a FRIEND.

 

[atinkerbellmom]

I believe that the kids can switch between activities and age groups within the "Club", 3-4, 5-7 or the "Lab" , 8-9, 10-12, but they can't switch back and forth between the Club and the Lab. KWIM?

Not true... they are seperate activities.

 

[atinkerbellmom]

Please keep in mind that even if your 8-year old stays in the Club, he will be in the 5-7 year old group and the younger one will be in the 3-4 group, so they will be separated quite a bit. There will be some common "together" time late in the day, but very little during the early and middle part of the day.

No, the OPs youngest is 5 years old...

 

[DCLover]

Please keep in mind that even if your 8-year old stays in the Club, he will be in the 5-7 year old group and the younger one will be in the 3-4 group, so they will be separated quite a bit. There will be some common "together" time late in the day, but very little during the early and middle part of the day.

Actually, my younger one is 5, so they would be in the same activities.

To be honest, it is mostly my 5-year old who balks at going unless his 8-yr old brother is with him (although my 8-year old (Jack) really wants to be with my 5-yr old (AJ) too). AJ says he does not want to go to the club without his bro. So we'll probably give it a shot to get them to go to the club this time (so we can go to the spa!!!)! Next time maybe he can try the Lab!

 

[Ariel1966]

I called Disney twice about this same thing for my son (he just turned 13 and wants to be with his 11 year old cousin) and they told me if his birthday was within one month of the sail date, he would be able to stay down. Well, he will be 13 and 2 months but they said to still give it a try when we get onboard that it will depend on how many kids are registered for that group.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I called Disney twice about this same thing for my son (he just turned 13 and wants to be with his 11 year old cousin) and they told me if his birthday was within one month of the sail date, he would be able to stay down. Well, he will be 13 and 2 months but they said to still give it a try when we get onboard that it will depend on how many kids are registered for that group.

Are you cruising magic or wonder? I don't know if they are the same now- but if you are on magic and UNLESS something has changed again... now the age groups are 11-13 in the Ocean Quest and then 14-17 is in the stack. So you might have no problems at all having them together.

 

[Ariel1966]

Oooo! That would be great! We will be on the Wonder. I will call once more and see if the ages have changed for the Wonder as well. Thank you!