We just got back from a 4 night cruise on the Disney Wonder and have to say what would have otherwise been an excellent cruise was completely soured by our experience with the Oceaneer's club on the ship.
While we understand that individual experiences will vary from cruise to cruise based on the particular counselors that are working and the demeanor of your child, we observed numerous issues with the structure of the club and how the counselors conducted themselves that came as a shock to us as we had not seen any complaints on these forums regarding this before our cruise.
In my opinion, the Oceaneer's club is simply not designed to care for children 5 and under or children who are somewhat shy. The ratio of children to counselors is much too high for children of this age. This problem is magnified by the fact that most of the counselors who are on duty are almost always clustered in the same areas (either watching the main activity or at the front desk), effectively increasing the child-to-counselor ratio even more.
In addition, we got the feeling that many of the counselors were there just because the kid's club was the only DCL job opening they could get. While there were a few counselors that seemed to have genuine interest and experience in working with kids, most seemed completely unqualified to be there and more interested in talking with each other or watching the main activity than interacting with the kids.
The counselors' handling of children who did not engage themselves in the main activity of the hour was also completely unacceptable. There seemed to be two methods of dealing with these children: either completely ignore them and leave them to sulk or cry in the corners by themselves (we saw 1-2 cases of this just about every time we visited) OR forcibly pick them up and drop them near the other children.
The counselors also fail to intervene and prevent the more rowdy children (and bullies) from knocking down the younger/smaller kids. We saw multiple cases of children getting pushed down or forced down the slide when they didn't want to go. No counselors were in sight to handle, let alone prevent, such situations. In fact, visiting parents were more likely to catch and stop these situations than the counselors.
The counselors' handling of such problems is also unacceptable. When a child got hurt or had a problem, the most common response we observed was for the counselor to say "oh, I'm sorry" and turn around and walk away. I would not be surprised to learn that DCL has settled several lawsuits out of court due to this behavior.
There is also a frightening lack of accountability and professionalism from most of the counselors as well. The prevailing attitude seems to be that it is a privilege for your child to attend the kid's club and it is the child's responsibility to notify a counselor of any problems (so don't blame the counselors for your child's lack of assertiveness!). But since there is an ever-changing stream of new counselors coming and going throughout the day and since most of them fail to adequately respond to a child's problems when the child does speak up, the children quickly learn not to trust them and keep their problems to themselves. Older children who have several years of school under their belt and are comfortable in these situations will probably do ok, but for kids 5 and under, this simply does not work.
What is sad is that children really do seem to have a lot a fun at the club when they're not being ignored or getting pushed down. If DCL simply assigned some supervisors to oversee the club and ensure all children were being watched and all counselors were actually serving a useful purpose while they were there, a lot of these problems could be solved.
However, based on the quality of counselors employed by DCL for the kid's club and the extremely limited space on the comment card dedicated to the kids club, I get the distinct impression that the kid's clubs are pretty far down the priority list for DCL so these needed changes are unlikely to occur.
What we found even more depressing though was the attitude of a lot of the parents who dumped their kids at the club. We saw several cases of parents checking in their crying children who did want to go and even more crying kids being checked out complaining that they had been pushed down or that nobody would play with them. If the parents don't care enough to demand better care from the kid's club, then DCL really has no motivation to make any changes.
For us, the quality of the kids club was the primary reason we booked DCL instead of another cruise line. Any cruise line can offer a "kid's club" that simply acts as a place for parents to dump their kids while they go get a drink, but we thought Disney offered something better than this. Unfortunately, once you remove the glossy Disney wrapping and character appearances from the Oceaneer's club, what you're left with is exactly that. Based on our experience, we will probably never cruise with DCL again. The price premium you have to pay simply isn't worth it.
I'm curious to hear from other parents who had 4 or 5 year olds attend the Oceaneer's club. Did you not observe any of these problems?
While we understand that individual experiences will vary from cruise to cruise based on the particular counselors that are working and the demeanor of your child, we observed numerous issues with the structure of the club and how the counselors conducted themselves that came as a shock to us as we had not seen any complaints on these forums regarding this before our cruise.
In my opinion, the Oceaneer's club is simply not designed to care for children 5 and under or children who are somewhat shy. The ratio of children to counselors is much too high for children of this age. This problem is magnified by the fact that most of the counselors who are on duty are almost always clustered in the same areas (either watching the main activity or at the front desk), effectively increasing the child-to-counselor ratio even more.
In addition, we got the feeling that many of the counselors were there just because the kid's club was the only DCL job opening they could get. While there were a few counselors that seemed to have genuine interest and experience in working with kids, most seemed completely unqualified to be there and more interested in talking with each other or watching the main activity than interacting with the kids.
The counselors' handling of children who did not engage themselves in the main activity of the hour was also completely unacceptable. There seemed to be two methods of dealing with these children: either completely ignore them and leave them to sulk or cry in the corners by themselves (we saw 1-2 cases of this just about every time we visited) OR forcibly pick them up and drop them near the other children.
The counselors also fail to intervene and prevent the more rowdy children (and bullies) from knocking down the younger/smaller kids. We saw multiple cases of children getting pushed down or forced down the slide when they didn't want to go. No counselors were in sight to handle, let alone prevent, such situations. In fact, visiting parents were more likely to catch and stop these situations than the counselors.
The counselors' handling of such problems is also unacceptable. When a child got hurt or had a problem, the most common response we observed was for the counselor to say "oh, I'm sorry" and turn around and walk away. I would not be surprised to learn that DCL has settled several lawsuits out of court due to this behavior.
There is also a frightening lack of accountability and professionalism from most of the counselors as well. The prevailing attitude seems to be that it is a privilege for your child to attend the kid's club and it is the child's responsibility to notify a counselor of any problems (so don't blame the counselors for your child's lack of assertiveness!). But since there is an ever-changing stream of new counselors coming and going throughout the day and since most of them fail to adequately respond to a child's problems when the child does speak up, the children quickly learn not to trust them and keep their problems to themselves. Older children who have several years of school under their belt and are comfortable in these situations will probably do ok, but for kids 5 and under, this simply does not work.
What is sad is that children really do seem to have a lot a fun at the club when they're not being ignored or getting pushed down. If DCL simply assigned some supervisors to oversee the club and ensure all children were being watched and all counselors were actually serving a useful purpose while they were there, a lot of these problems could be solved.
However, based on the quality of counselors employed by DCL for the kid's club and the extremely limited space on the comment card dedicated to the kids club, I get the distinct impression that the kid's clubs are pretty far down the priority list for DCL so these needed changes are unlikely to occur.
What we found even more depressing though was the attitude of a lot of the parents who dumped their kids at the club. We saw several cases of parents checking in their crying children who did want to go and even more crying kids being checked out complaining that they had been pushed down or that nobody would play with them. If the parents don't care enough to demand better care from the kid's club, then DCL really has no motivation to make any changes.
For us, the quality of the kids club was the primary reason we booked DCL instead of another cruise line. Any cruise line can offer a "kid's club" that simply acts as a place for parents to dump their kids while they go get a drink, but we thought Disney offered something better than this. Unfortunately, once you remove the glossy Disney wrapping and character appearances from the Oceaneer's club, what you're left with is exactly that. Based on our experience, we will probably never cruise with DCL again. The price premium you have to pay simply isn't worth it.
I'm curious to hear from other parents who had 4 or 5 year olds attend the Oceaneer's club. Did you not observe any of these problems?
I'm sorry some of you had such a bad experience, I hope we don't have any problems with the kids clubs when we go. I thought a 
