Hi, just thought I'd pop in and answer a few questions. I think KT2038 your fellow disboarders have done a marvelous job answering each other though, and all it takes is a little bit of reading!
Re: Non-Potty trained 3 year old
If the child has already reached Club & Lab age - which is 3 years old, we must let her in. The issue is the pull-ups, however. Some Counselors and Managers might go with the "pool-rule" which is to say that since your child cannot (and shouldn't) enter any of our pools with pull-ups on, we will caution against wearing them in the youth spaces. It's a USPH requirement; you will see that as soon as any accidents occur the area is VERY swiftly cordoned off and rendered unusable by the kids or the staff until a sanitization team has come.
To prevent this, counselors MAY SUGGEST the Nursery, especially if a parent doesn't sound confident about the level of potty training the child has attained. But in the end, once you're within the age range, we must accept them into the space. Sometimes, depending on the ship and who the manager is at the time - they might instruct counselors to suggest the nursery first and might want to talk to the parents themselves to ensure they're willing to come and check often just in case, and won't leave the ship without the child. From the sounds of it, you should have no trouble
If a Counselor seems hesitant, ask to speak to the manager.
(We have had parents believe it or not, leave children in pull-ups in our care who've ignored their Wave phones and not come to aid their child who's had an accident for hours. And counselors are not allowed to change pull-ups on children outside of the Nursery!)
Re: Mickey Bars
I asked a merchandise staff CM and apparently they operate on a completely different system to Youth Activities. Because we're a space where food IS allowed to be consumed (as per USPH regulations), we can accept food as presents and have a space to store them. Unfortunately in the case of merch, since their spaces are not USPH cleared for food consumption, anything would have to be pre-packaged and sealed - so yes for candy, but Mickey Bars have nowhere to be stored! But they are
never allowed to accept anything from guests on the floor/while working, especially as they are in a retail environment.
The best thing to do in any case of giving
anything is speak to the CM directly and ask how to do it so they will not risk any trouble.
Re: Disembarkation day
The CMs take a completely different shuttle to the guests. In fact, due to the many different international CMs employed by the company, it is in strict policy that our movements are monitored when leaving the ship and heading to the airport so that we do not attempt to illegally migrate to the US. If you've read new reports over the past few years, this is attempted quite a bit on many lines.
There normally isn't someone to Wave goodbye; some ships may continue the practice and it's normally dumped on one member of Youth Staff to wake up at 6 am and do this all morning (believe it or not, it's not an enjoyable task to be stood there waving a character glove while encountered by impatient guests wondering why the Port Authorities haven't allowed anyone off the ship yet and they're going to miss their flight
).
Youth Staff also traditionally were the ones to swipe/scan Key to the World cards as guests disembarked, though no longer (depending on the ship). Now this tends to be Merch staff and/or Guest Services.
