10 year old and kids' club

[RysMomma]

Can you guys tell me your experience with your 10 year olds and the kid's club? We went on the Dream last year and my son was 8. He liked the club but was more into other things, which is was fine because we were a party of 11 so he had plenty of people to keep him occupied. When we go next year, it'll just be the four of us and he'll be 10. Did your ten(ish) year old go to the club at that age? Was there enough to keep him/her occupied? My daughter will be 8 and I'm sure she'll want to go still and that may help entice him more, but I'm just curious about other kids the same age. THANKS!

 

[elvispursley]

When I cruised last Oct (2016), my youngest DS was 10 but he really didn't like the Oceaneer's club at all! He wanted to try going to Edge with his 12 year-old brother. We were able to get him waived and signed into Edge without any issues. Unfortunately, my oldest DS was a giant pill and refused to go to the club, therefore my youngest wouldn't go, even though he really wanted to try it out. I think they both would have a had a really good time in the Edge club since the activities seemed more geared towards his maturity level. The Oceaneer's club, in my opinion, has too big an age range combined together, which really turned my kids off, "there's too many little kids in there and not enough stuff for me to do", is what my then-11 yr-old said. I think it depends on how independent and mature your son is; if he can get along without his younger sibling, and you don't mind him checking himself out of Edge, you might let him try Edge if you can get a waiver from the Edge club (he can still go to Oceaneer's club as well).

 

[Luckymommatoo]

Wish I had better news for you, but when we went on the Dream my DS was ten and he only stayed in the Club once, and only because we made him. (He was with his sister, two years younger, and two girl cousins ages 9 and 10.) I couldn't blame him -- there really wasn't much there for him.

 

[anricat]

My DD is nearly 9 and has declared that it's boring and she doesn't want to go. On our first cruise she was just shy of 6 and then 7 years on our second cruise and I couldn't pry her out of there. On our last two cruises, she pretty much flatly refused to go. I talked her into one activity on our most recent cruise and she was there for an hour. On our next cruise (next year) she will be a couple weeks shy of 10 and I'm not even going to bother registering her. It's Mediterranean and it's so port intensive, I doubt she'd even have the opportunity to go anyway. We only have one sea day and we'll probably just spend time together as a family. It's fine with me. If we want to do Palo brunch or something, I'm fine letting her stay in the room or maybe find some other crafts or activities in Promenade or D Lounge. She's very responsible and I don't have any issues with her being alone on the ship.

I was speaking with a CM and they said ages 8-10 are really the hardest. At age 10 they can go do the tween club. That won't be an option for us because she'll be just a couple of weeks shy.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

My DD is nearly 9 and has declared that it's boring and she doesn't want to go. On our first cruise she was just shy of 6 and then 7 years on our second cruise and I couldn't pry her out of there. On our last two cruises, she pretty much flatly refused to go. I talked her into one activity on our most recent cruise and she was there for an hour. On our next cruise (next year) she will be a couple weeks shy of 10 and I'm not even going to bother registering her. It's Mediterranean and it's so port intensive, I doubt she'd even have the opportunity to go anyway. We only have one sea day and we'll probably just spend time together as a family. It's fine with me. If we want to do Palo brunch or something, I'm fine letting her stay in the room or maybe find some other crafts or activities in Promenade or D Lounge. She's very responsible and I don't have any issues with her being alone on the ship.

I was speaking with a CM and they said ages 8-10 are really the hardest. At age 10 they can go do the tween club. That won't be an option for us because she'll be just a couple of weeks shy.

Well, at age 10, most of the time, they can go to either. But the actual overlap ages are 11 & 12. Depends on how full Edge is whether they allow 10 year olds.

 

[kkayluvsdis]

When I cruised last Oct (2016), my youngest DS was 10 but he really didn't like the Oceaneer's club at all! He wanted to try going to Edge with his 12 year-old brother. We were able to get him waived and signed into Edge without any issues. Unfortunately, my oldest DS was a giant pill and refused to go to the club, therefore my youngest wouldn't go, even though he really wanted to try it out. I think they both would have a had a really good time in the Edge club since the activities seemed more geared towards his maturity level. The Oceaneer's club, in my opinion, has too big an age range combined together, which really turned my kids off, "there's too many little kids in there and not enough stuff for me to do", is what my then-11 yr-old said. I think it depends on how independent and mature your son is; if he can get along without his younger sibling, and you don't mind him checking himself out of Edge, you might let him try Edge if you can get a waiver from the Edge club (he can still go to Oceaneer's club as well).

My DD is nearly 9 and has declared that it's boring and she doesn't want to go. On our first cruise she was just shy of 6 and then 7 years on our second cruise and I couldn't pry her out of there. On our last two cruises, she pretty much flatly refused to go. I talked her into one activity on our most recent cruise and she was there for an hour. On our next cruise (next year) she will be a couple weeks shy of 10 and I'm not even going to bother registering her. It's Mediterranean and it's so port intensive, I doubt she'd even have the opportunity to go anyway. We only have one sea day and we'll probably just spend time together as a family. It's fine with me. If we want to do Palo brunch or something, I'm fine letting her stay in the room or maybe find some other crafts or activities in Promenade or D Lounge. She's very responsible and I don't have any issues with her being alone on the ship.

I was speaking with a CM and they said ages 8-10 are really the hardest. At age 10 they can go do the tween club. That won't be an option for us because she'll be just a couple of weeks shy.

Well, at age 10, most of the time, they can go to either. But the actual overlap ages are 11 & 12. Depends on how full Edge is whether they allow 10 year olds.

This is interesting...I had no idea it would have been possible to get our 10-year-old into Edge. We cruised for the first time in February and she was not thrilled with the Lab/Club. I was disappointed because we had talked about doing DCL for years and finally decided to spend the money to do it and she had already "aged-out" of what I thought would be a great, fun experience for her. She's really looking forward to trying Edge on our next trip!

 

[bbel]

If I'm honest, for a lot of kids, I don't think that its the clubs that are boring, it's more that the older kids, especially travelling on their own or the only ones that age are more self-aware and don't want to be there 'alone', but they're not quite into going up to complete strangers and making friends.
The lab especially is very much aimed at the older end with so many iPads, the animation room, craft areas, even the games available (uno, spot it, game of life, monopoly...), and when there's no planned activity there's usually large group ball games aimed more at the older kids than 3 year olds: gaga ball, 4 square, capture the flag...
It makes me laugh a little when kids say they want to go to Edge for the activities (I get that the environment is different), but the majority of the activities actually come from the lab: fourth pigs pasta, science, anyone can cook, gaga ball, animation cells...

 

[elvispursley]

This is interesting...I had no idea it would have been possible to get our 10-year-old into Edge. We cruised for the first time in February and she was not thrilled with the Lab/Club. I was disappointed because we had talked about doing DCL for years and finally decided to spend the money to do it and she had already "aged-out" of what I thought would be a great, fun experience for her. She's really looking forward to trying Edge on our next trip!

I only learned about the potential of going up to Edge from reading others experiences here prior to our cruise. I was so hopeful that with our youngest being able to go to Edge with his older brother that both boys would enjoy the club this go around. But my oldest, who has some anxiety around anything new (and because he disliked his experiences perviously), refused to even try it! I certainly wasn't going to force him to go, but I felt bad for youngest DS who did want to go but felt a little uneasy going without his older brother the first time. *Sigh* when I talk about it now, my oldest continues to say, "I just want to hang out with the family." Well, I'm certainly not going to say "no" to that!

 

[bbel]

Well, at age 10, most of the time, they can go to either. But the actual overlap ages are 11 & 12. Depends on how full Edge is whether they allow 10 year olds.

Sometimes it's not even how full Edge is. Edge can be quite low on numbers, but if its a cruise with a high percentage of 10 year olds then its likely they'll say no as they want to try and keep it to the 11-14 as much as possible.

 

[JWG]

Our DD 10 hated the Kids Club. We tried to get her to do Oceaneer Lab and she did do Anyone Can Cook, but that was it. She came back saying it was boring and that there were too many 5-7 year olds that made Anyone Can Cook boring. So, while the activities may be the same from the Club to Edge, it's the age group and surroundings that do matter.

We did (too late) get our daughter registered for Edge late in the cruise and she seemed to like it. Always important to have them go to the ice breaker activities no matter which club it is. That's when the bonds are made and trying to break into circles after that is hard.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Sometimes it's not even how full Edge is. Edge can be quite low on numbers, but if its a cruise with a high percentage of 10 year olds then its likely they'll say no as they want to try and keep it to the 11-14 as much as possible.

Good to know, thanks.

 

[bbel]

Our DD 10 hated the Kids Club. We tried to get her to do Oceaneer Lab and she did do Anyone Can Cook, but that was it. She came back saying it was boring and that there were too many 5-7 year olds that made Anyone Can Cook boring. So, while the activities may be the same from the Club to Edge, it's the age group and surroundings that do matter.

We did (too late) get our daughter registered for Edge late in the cruise and she seemed to like it. Always important to have them go to the ice breaker activities no matter which club it is. That's when the bonds are made and trying to break into circles after that is hard.

Which is why I said the environments are different.
However, from first hand experience, when there is a group of kids the same age doing the activity together, they tend not to notice the other age groups doing the same activity. But, there aren't many kids at the older end because they all go up to Edge...
Im sure a 13 year old could also say that the Edge activities were boring because there were so many 10 year olds...

If Im honest, with a lot of the 'big' programmes like ACC and the sciences and even Pluto's, I don't think it really has anything to do with the ages of kids that make it boring, but the sheer volume of kids that turn up for them

BTW, Im in no way arguing (maybe playing devils advocate a little), I just totally see if from both sides and agree with most arguments that Ive heard about ages throughout all the clubs.

 

[bbel]

Good to know, thanks.

Its quite rare, but I remember one cruise that the number of 10 year olds was almost equal to the number of 11-14 year olds, and we were told to avoid even talking to 10yo about Edge in case they got any ideas lol.

 

[JWG]

A lot of people have said the wide age in Club/Lab cause some of the problems. I see why they do it given siblings, but as a 10-12 year old, I can see if there is an over abundance of 3-8 year olds why you'd feel "too old". My niece (6) loved it.

 

[darnheather]

My youngest was 10 on our cruise last year. I set firm expectations about when she had to be in the club so that I could have my vacation too. It worked very well for us and some days she wanted to be in the club more time but she never asked to stay back when she was expected to go. I would say overall that she liked it very much especially the messy things and games.

 

[bumbershoot]

Last DCL experience was late 2014, DS would have been 10. He had a ball at the Lab, apart from when we accidentally let him go there when they had food out (they seem to have changed now, but they have been extremely WEIRD with food when he's there and we try to avoid that time). He's a joiner, he's social (unlike his hermit mom), he's willing to try any game or activity... So he had a great time. And he dances, so he's always got something to do on Dream with that funky floor they have. The cruise before that one, he was on the dance floor with about 6 girls, and when DH went in to get him to go, the GIRLS begged DH to let DS stay. So DH came back out and we sat outside club/lab, waiting until it closed and DS would be "allowed" to go LOL.

 

[msmama]

You know your kid best. Is he ok with "playing" meaning imaginative play, not directed play or video games and such? I know some of my son's friends think they're too old for that but my son (9 today) still loves to play so he thinks the club and lab are the greatest places ever. And he will happily play with younger kids (he's an only child so no sibling experience).

If your kid is more one of those "I'm too cool for playing" kids (don't mean to sound disparaging though I realize it comes off that way but I can't think of another way to say it) then it probably won't go as well.

I think it has more to do with the child than anything the lab/club does or doesn't do.

My kid could (and did) spend hours playing dinosaurs in Andy's room.

 

[KalamityJane]

You know your kid best. Is he ok with "playing" meaning imaginative play, not directed play or video games and such? I know some of my son's friends think they're too old for that but my son (9 today) still loves to play so he thinks the club and lab are the greatest places ever. And he will happily play with younger kids (he's an only child so no sibling experience).

If your kid is more one of those "I'm too cool for playing" kids (don't mean to sound disparaging though I realize it comes off that way but I can't think of another way to say it) then it probably won't go as well.

I think it has more to do with the child than anything the lab/club does or doesn't do.

My kid could (and did) spend hours playing dinosaurs in Andy's room.

This makes me feel better <3 we will be on the EBTA and my oldest is almost 9. Thankfully, she loves to play and is one of the oldest in our neighborhood, so I'm sure it will work out well.

 

[bbel]

This makes me feel better <3 we will be on the EBTA and my oldest is almost 9. Thankfully, she loves to play and is one of the oldest in our neighborhood, so I'm sure it will work out well.

I think older kids enjoy the club lab more on the longer cruises. (I only worked the classics, but it meant I saw so many different itineraries).
The crossings and longer european cruises especially, they really get to know the CMs and each other. For CM its easier to get kids engaged, because they get to know them by name and so much quicker. A lot of the activities are repeated, but because the CM are aware of that they can change them around to suit the kids, because they know the kids.
I feel the short itineraries (3/4 days, and especially the 'weekend getaway') are crazy (everywhere but especially) in the clubs, so it feels like theres a lot of 'little kids running around' because everyone is trying to do everything in a short amount of time. Longer cruises are chilled. Theres often longer gaps between scheduled activities and because the kids know the CM they'll ask for certain activities. There was one crossing and i think we all spent the majority of the time playing 4 square and just dance - because that's what the kids would ask for all day every day.

 

[mischief32]

My daughter did not like the Club/lab at all last year when she was 9. She thought it was boring. She did give it a try but it was not for her. I am so hoping that she can go to Edge this year she will be 1 week from being 11 and we are celebrating a week early. If not it is okay she can just hang with us. There is only the 3 of us anyway so we do most everything together. As she says it is a "family" vacation.