HELP-kids don't want to go to the kids Club!?

[HIHO...HIHO]

Anyone have any good ways of persuading my kids DD-5, DS-7 that going to the kids club will be great! This will be our first cruise and I have been telling them about the kids club (wanting some much needed time to ourselves) and they say they don't want to go. HELP ME CONVINCE THEM IT WILL BE AWESOME!!! :thewave:
Thanks!

 

[alexandrew]

Tell them that everything in life worthwhile is worth trying......

I'm sure if you get them to try the club for one hour, they will be hooked....

 

[lbgraves]

Have you gone over the navigators for their age groups with them? That will show them exactly what to expect.

 

[Asil65]

Hi Ho, We just got back from 3 days on the Wonder. I too have a 5 yr old daughter and a 7 yr old son. My 5 yr old loved the club couldn't get her out. My 7 yr old lasted about 1.5 hours and we got paged. He didn't like it and felt like he was too big for the activities. He never went back. I mentioned this to the staff at the kids club and they told me that I could have him bumped up to the next age range. Found this out too late. I think if you have a mature 7 yr old who likes computers bump him up. Ifound the 5-7yr old group to be more geared towards the 5 yr old age group. We just loved the cruise. It was awesome.

 

[mommasita]

Our friends had this problem last September with their DS4. They finally just sat him down (mature guy) and read everything, and explained that he should pick 1 thing per night, and stay there for it. They explained that Mom and Dad would love just a little bit of time, since the whole day was dedicated to the kids....This worked out OK. He picked one thing nightly, and they got some adult time....Now he keeps talking about how he LOVED the clubs...

 

[PPFQP]

JMHO, but maybe you should just drop the subject for a while. Wait until you get on the ship and let them see it for themselves. If you push it too much and build it up beforehand, they might close their minds to it.

 

[burma]

I agree with the above post once you get on the ship during the reg hours take them up to the club meet the counslers with them spend a few minutes there letting them run around and see what its about and all the other kids that are there... also go over the navigators with them ... enjoy the quiet time ....

 

[Rence]

A year ago I went with my two sisters and five nieces. Two of the nieces had announced that they were not going to the clubs at all.

I posted and got some advice. It had mixed resulsts, it did win over one niece but not the other. Here are some suggestions that I got.

Get down on the dance floor in the middle of the crowd at the sail away party. Do not watch from the sidelines. The kids club counselors are there working with the kids and the characters and trying to get everyone dancing. Be there dancing with your kids and give them a chance to see the counselors up close. Then at the clubs the counselors will look familiar and the kids will identify them with the fun they had at the sailaway.

Register them for the club right away anyway. Stretch the truth and tell them that all children have to be registered (that's almost the truth, all children who go to the club need to be registered).

Go with your children to 'check it out' together and do it the first night. That is when the kids are meeting each other and friendships are bonding. You can go and stay with your kids and do this the first night. They won't feel that they are being dumped. If nothing else, tell them you're going because you want to see the clubs and that you can't go without them. Let them play and get involved. Maybe coax a little to get them to meet other kids. The best thing is if they make a friend or two in the clubs.

Play it by ear, if they have really jumped into things, you can leave, but let them know you are going and remind them about the pagers. If they were hesitant you may find yourself being paged a couple of times right away as they convince themselves that it really works, that they can get you back when they want.

Request a to be seated at a larger table for dinner. Put this request in ahead of time. Disney tries to match families with similar aged children. Perhaps specifically request that you be matched with a family with kids. Hopefully the kids will hit it off and then have friends to go to the club with.

Any other method of getting your kids to link up with other kids. Start up a conversation at the pool with the parents of similar aged children and get the kids introduced. What will make them want to go to the club more than anything is having a friend there.

 

[MrsMork]

Get hooked up with the cruise meet for your cruise on this site. Meet others with kids of the same age and let your kids "talk" to theirs via email before you leave home. They will have friends waiting for them at the club.

 

[CM_Mom]

Don't know if kcashner will chime in on this one but I read that their family policy was that the kids had to choose ONE activity per day to participate in at the Club/Lab and stay through it so the adults could have some alone time. They had been on multiple cruises and this was the family rule. They reviewed the navigators each night and the kids chose when they would go (all kids at the same time slot).

This sounds totally reasonable to me and is similar to what mommasita's friends did. It's your vacation too and it won't ruin their vacation to stay in the club/lab for a couple of hours a day.

When our kids were little and we had an evening out planned, we didn't give them the choice of whether or not they wanted to stay with a babysitter. I think the club/lab for a couple of hours a day falls into that category.

 

[scrapperjill]

Get hooked up with the cruise meet for your cruise on this site. Meet others with kids of the same age and let your kids "talk" to theirs via email before you leave home. They will have friends waiting for them at the club.

We did just that. A few month prior to our cruise my girls (DD6 & DD11) started chatting with other girls their age that were going to be on our cruise also (via e-mail). We even exchanged photos prior to cruising. I can't say enough good things about how well it worked out.

I was very worried about my youngest not wanting to be in the club much at all...she is very attached to us and just likes being with us no matter what were doing...But she was soooo excited to go on the ship and get to meet her "NEW" friend in person.

Matter of fact the whole way to the terminal she kept asking...is she going to be there...when will I see her (refering to her new friend). I kept trying to explain to her that we would probley see her later that day (at the dis meet)...but she didn't give up...and before I knew it my DD6 spoted her "NEW" friend in the DCL terminal as were standing in line to check in ...she was so excited and sooo happy to finally meet her... From then on the two younger girls loved going to the club together and doing what ever they could -- together. And now today both my dd's have wonderful friends that they still keep in touch with...and it all started with the dis boards and e-mail.

 

[Mianc]

Wow! You guys have some great ideas. I am going to see if I can find any children close in age to my dd5 for our cruise. She loves to make new friends. My only problem might be my ds3, he is "all" boy and likes to play rough. I told them too that I was determined to enjoy my dinners this cruise and if they couldn't sit still during dinner and behave then their other choice was to go to the clubs for dinner. I agree with above - my kids will know that they have to go to the clubs for a little while each day - so I can relax a little - BUT the rest of the time the sky is the limit and it's ALL about them and whatever they want to do. I think a choice between dinner/play in clubs or nap/play in clubs - they will pick the clubs.

 

[logan1_2000]

I think you have several good pieces of advice, not the least of which is drop it for now,and convince them that all kids have to sign in (I love that one!), and get into the teeth of it at the sail away party perhaps.

However, some will like it and some wont. You know your kids best. Do they join in? Do they socialize easily? Are they shy? My son never did take to the club, and after his second DCL cruise at age 6 proclaimed the activities boring--and 6 year olds are not going to get bumped up to the Lab, I don't think. As an 8 year old he wasn't interested in much except the PS2 at night in the lab on the Wonder, and on the Magic as a 9 yr old they didnt even use the PS2 much, so he bagged the Lab, made friends at the ping pong tables and basketball court, and hung around with these new friends the rest of the cruise.

We tried hooking him up in advance through the board, and thought we had a good match, from our same state, but then the other boy blew him off on board. I'm not too worried about it being something my son lacks, he is very popular in his school, an all star athlete in two sports youth leagues and a straight A student in a gifted program--doesn't seek to be the center of attention, but he was a full time day care child from a young age so the group setting is natural to him--it was just a case of the programming being too sedentary and story telling for his more active tastes.

So we had 3 DCL cruises with my beloved son being frankly a pain in the tush hanging on mom & dad, and finally broke through on #4 and got time to actually relax.

Oh, and on cruise #4, before he met his buddies and proclaimed on our Sunday day at sea that he was bored,I told him all the options available to him, none of which involved nagging me,and that if he couldn't get with the program then when we docked at st. martin I would take him in a cab straight to the airport, get on the next plane with him to the states at a cost of perhaps thousands of dollars of walk-up fare, go straight home, and there would never be another vacation for the rest of his childhood. And I meant it. I think he and Joey got hooked up at the ping pong table an hour later.

 

[crisi]

They have a sail away party the first night in the kids club - my kids thought that was a lot of fun.

If they like to "stay up late" you can tell them they can stay up late in the club, but if they are out of the club you'll take them to bed. The little ones watch Disney movies on the floor.

I like the "pick one thing a day" rule. Chances aren't bad they'll enjoy it enough to go to more than one thing.

The other thing is that meals in the dining room are REALLY LONG for little kids. Let them know that if they want, they can eat quick and you'll take them to the clubs to play. Playing might be more attractive than sitting through a two hour meal.

 

[mamalle]

Just take them there and hang out with them. Mine didnt care for it too much either and did two hours at a time. They wanted to spend time with us more than being in the club.

 

[KKB]

Are they afraid they will never spend time w/ you?
Are they afraid they won't get pool time?
Are they uncomfortable meeting new people or in new situations?
If they are in daycare, do they just think it is an extention of this?
Talk w/ them about their concerns.
Now my kids are the type to beg to go to the drop-off daycare center just because it is different...they are a lot like us and just like to do a lot of different things. Plus they will be onboard w/ 8 other cousins, so frankly I think they could care less if we are even there!!!
I downloaded their Navigators (and ours), and we watched both the DCL CD and the Travel Channel program. They already have their days planned, even encouraging DH and I to spend on port day w/o them! Giving them control over their choices for the day, as well as seeing the ship, the lab, etc. has really fired them up.
Additionally, you could do the same...create a list of activities that you "plan" to do on the cruise--reading a book on a quiet deck, long naps, other BORING adult activities. Maybe they will be inclined to create their own itinerary that involves far more exciting activities in the club!
Now we don't cruise until Dec.--I'll let you know how it goes!
Happy cruising!
Kristin

 

[aprilgail2]

I think anyone that is going on the cruise should be prepared for their kids not wanting to go or stay in the clubs....first cruise my daughter wanted nothing to do with the club and stayed with me the whole time..the next cruise she loved the club. I am hoping this year she will go in there again but if she doesn't then I will have to deal with it. I already told her that if she doesn't want to stay in for a long time she doesn't have to but I would like to do Palo for brunch and she would have to stay in there at least for that. I dont think anyone should go thinking that their kids will love it and when they dont their whole vacation for them would be "ruined"....just might not work out the way you hoped. I was SHOCKED last cruise when she stayed in tehre all day long, I didn't know what to do with myself LOL.... but the first cruise I went thinking that she would stay in the club and I would have time to myself to do things and it didn't work out like that, but it was ok, I really enjoyed the time with her but I would have liked to have done Palo but it didn't work out that way. When she was 2 1/2 and I tried to put her into FLounders Reef she would have nothing to do with that, she stayed awhile but all the toys were geared for 1 year olds and she didn't like sitting there in front of the TV so I never got her back there!

 

[jrabbit]

So far everyone has fogotten the bigest motivator to move your kids to the clubs. You know on embarkation day at 4pm there is the manditory "safety" drill. It's not really about safety it's about how darn uncomfortable those life jackets are - and most of the kids just hate them. So later in the cruise the question to the little ones are: "Do you want to spend two hours in the club/lab or two hours in the lifejacket in the stateroom without TV!!??" The clubs never looked so good!

 

[bhoffman]

Where can I find some Navigators to show my kids the type of activities they will participate in?

 

[mommasita]

Where can I find some Navigators to show my kids the type of activities they will participate in?

dcltribute.com has some listed, as well as a link to barb's site castawayclub, cause we can't post the link here. This should help..