2nd cruise with one child-how can we meet other families with kids his age?

[chelle1019]

Hello all
My husband and I went on our first Disney Cruise (Fantasy) last year... loved loved loved it. Our son was 4 at the time and although he had a great time he is a bit shy and takes a bit for him to come out of his shell. He did not want to go into the Oceaneer Club/Lab at all. We did get him to go in once and only because they were going to be making cupcakes (I have a gourmet cupcake business). And towards the end of our trip we met another family that had 2 boys close to his age so he went into the Club on our last night and Daddy and I got to enjoy an adult dinner at Palo (so delicious).
We have not decided on the date yet but it is between April 2nd or April 16th on the Fantasy. Our son will be 5 at the time. He is such a social butterfly but he will not initiate at all. I was hoping we could meet other families on this trip and he could make some buddies to play with. And it would be nice to have a group of adults to hang out with also.
I have not read up about FE yet. Can anyone give me more information about that? Or maybe once I book our cruise I should look into the meet-ups forums?
Thank you for any tips
Michelle

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hello all
My husband and I went on our first Disney Cruise (Fantasy) last year... loved loved loved it. Our son was 4 at the time and although he had a great time he is a bit shy and takes a bit for him to come out of his shell. He did not want to go into the Oceaneer Club/Lab at all. We did get him to go in once and only because they were going to be making cupcakes (I have a gourmet cupcake business). And towards the end of our trip we met another family that had 2 boys close to his age so he went into the Club on our last night and Daddy and I got to enjoy an adult dinner at Palo (so delicious).
We have not decided on the date yet but it is between April 2nd or April 16th on the Fantasy. Our son will be 5 at the time. He is such a social butterfly but he will not initiate at all. I was hoping we could meet other families on this trip and he could make some buddies to play with. And it would be nice to have a group of adults to hang out with also.
I have not read up about FE yet. Can anyone give me more information about that? Or maybe once I book our cruise I should look into the meet-ups forums?
Thank you for any tips
Michelle

The best place to start would be your Cruise Meet thread. At the top of the main page here, there's a link to that. Look for the "Find your (2016/2017) (SHIP NAME) Cruise Meet LINK here" thread that your cruise would be listed on. The first post there will have links to whatever cruise meet threads have been started. That's where you can chat with others on your cruise, find out what activities, interests they may have, also setting up meets with others, if you wish. That's where the Fish Extender exchange would be set up, if your group decides to do one.

WHAT IS A FISH EXTENDER? (FE)
Outside your room onboard is a message holder, in most cases it's shaped like a fish:

The fish is there for Disney to place important communications to you such as excursion tickets and notes from the Cruise staff. It is like a mailbox for your room. A Fish Extender (FE) it is something that you hang off the fish. By hanging the Fish Extender off of the fish, the Cast Members can still use it for its original purpose.THIS IS NOT A ONE ON ONE EXCHANGE, YOU ARE PART OF A GROUP. All the people in the exchange buy or make little items and place them in each other's fish extenders. It is great fun to come back and check the items you have received.

Once a cruise meet thread is up and running, someone in the group will (should?) step up and say "I'll maintain the Fish Extender exchange list". That person is the center point for all those who want to participate in the exchange. The list can be as simple as DISnames/room number/number of guests or as involved as full names/room number/ages of guests/like & dislikes/allergies/favorite characters/whatever is deemed necessary to know assemble the gifts.

Then each room on the FE list (note this will not be everyone on the Cruise Meet thread for your specific cruise), makes a Fish Extender holder. This is basically an organizer-type hanging bag with separate pockets for each person in the room:

The most common Fish Extenders are ones that have a pocket for each person in that stateroom. Some are very fancy, some are very plain. Some are store bought, some are homemade. Search "Disney fish extender" and you will get options that range in price. You should make sure your Fish Extender is between 8" & 12"" wide. Otherwise it starts to get in the way of your stateroom door. It should not exceed 5 feet; otherwise it will hit the floor. If you are creating your own it is suggested you make the pockets a little deeper than normal too. It will keep items from falling out and keep curious hands from reaching in (average depth is 5-6 inches)but 8-11 is a better way to go if you are making it yourself

They also make up gifts (either individual gifts or room gifts - whatever is decided by your group) to be delivered during the cruise).

One note about the gifts, some groups set up specific delivery dates, and specify "each person gets a gift" or "only one gift per room" or (even) maximum/minimum price ranges for gifts. Other groups just say "whatever", so people can choose what/how many gifts to give. Some give individual gifts, others only one gift per room, while others might do one for the adults and separate gifts for kids. Or only gift the kids.

 

[chelle1019]

Wow -- thank you so much for all the information you provided. I now understand the Fish Extenders and I would love to participate in that. Once I have the date of the cruise I will look in the Meet Thread as well. You are def. a cruise expert

 

[MPS516]

We have been very fortunate, DCL has always matched our tablemates to our daughter, there were nearly always someone her age at dinner. This gave her someone immediately she could plan on meeting in the club, as friends they made many additional friends there as well. The important piece is getting to the clubs on the first night, they is lots of effort to get the kids to interact and do things together in order to make some friends.

 

[jtba]

the people in our cruise group had the bright idea of setting up penpals, so DS8 and DD4 had a number of little friends they could communicate
with via letters for a few months before the cruise. my daughter, who didn't know how to write, drew pictures, as did the other little ones. my kids loved running to the mailbox everyday to see if anything came for them.

some of us sent photos as well. we spotted most of our penpals at the cruise terminal, and it was fun to say hello in person finally. then we met the rest at our group's meet-up right before the muster drill on day 1. the kids saw each other in the clubs and it was good to have familiar faces there.

now, more than half a year after the cruise, the penpals no longer write letters, but i'm still in touch with some of the moms on another social media site.

 

[Chrisey]

Definitely join your cruise group.
Also, maybe ask the CMs in the club/lab to introduce him to some other kids his age!

 

[chelle1019]

We have been very fortunate, DCL has always matched our tablemates to our daughter, there were nearly always someone her age at dinner. This gave her someone immediately she could plan on meeting in the club, as friends they made many additional friends there as well. The important piece is getting to the clubs on the first night, they is lots of effort to get the kids to interact and do things together in order to make some friends.

On our first cruise I think we had a couple with a young child but they ended up changing their dining time to the 1st seating and we ended up sitting alone the whole cruise which did kind of stink. We had a table near us that had 2 little girls and my son did talk to them a few nights but that was it.
I am hoping to set up a meet or even the idea of pen pals is great.

 

[michellekcm]

Also, make sure you talk to the counsellors at the club. Our second cruise our 4yo daughter had been so excited to go (first time old enough), but when she got there she was so overwhelmed and asked to be picked up about 15 minutes in.

After this happened a second time, the third time we went I spoke to a cousellor and let her know that my daughter really wanted to go but was feeling overwhelmed. Well, we couldn't keep her away for the rest of the cruise. They were awesome in finding her people to play with / activities to do with others, or even activities they would do with her if there was nothing else going on that she was interested in.

 

[MunFam]

There are also cruise meet up groups on other sites. Our family was very active on the cruise group on Mark Zuckerberg's famous site, but even saying the site's name is pretty much banned here.

 

[malbergotti]

Wow -- thank you so much for all the information you provided. I now understand the Fish Extenders and I would love to participate in that. Once I have the date of the cruise I will look in the Meet Thread as well. You are def. a cruise expert

Most of the FE's close 4 to 5 weeks out so that people have time to get their gifts together. So as soon as you have your date join the cruise meet board

 

[anricat]

Before our most recent cruise, we were able to meet up with other folks on our same cruise on a social media site. Regrettably the cruise meet thread here was pretty dead, but I did try to reach out there first. The group over at the other social media site was quite active and we were able to make friends in advance. So if your meet thread isn't as active here, unfortunately, you may need to seek out a group on another platform.

Basically I just looked out for another family with a DD our same age. We met two. The first day on board, we ran into both of them and ended up heading over to where the dining changes were made and were able to get moved to a table with that family. We exchanged our information in the Navigator chat app and when we sent DD to the club, we sent those families a message that she was headed there and they often sent their DD to meet up. It was really great for her to have a friend.

 

[Skiton]

Great suggestions, but I agree that the best scenario is to be paired up with a similar family at dinner. Out first cruise we ate with a family of two girls, who were the exact ages of my two boys, and they all LOVED each other. Dinner was a hoot every night and they were always wanting to go check out the clubs to see if their friends were there.

 

[lkcmac]

Before our most recent cruise, we were able to meet up with other folks on our same cruise on a social media site. Regrettably the cruise meet thread here was pretty dead, but I did try to reach out there first. The group over at the other social media site was quite active and we were able to make friends in advance. So if your meet thread isn't as active here, unfortunately, you may need to seek out a group on another platform.

Basically I just looked out for another family with a DD our same age. We met two. The first day on board, we ran into both of them and ended up heading over to where the dining changes were made and were able to get moved to a table with that family. We exchanged our information in the Navigator chat app and when we sent DD to the club, we sent those families a message that she was headed there and they often sent their DD to meet up. It was really great for her to have a friend.

Thank you so much for this info! Our cruise meet thread here is equally dead. I just headed over to another site to try that out...fingers crossed!! Enjoy your cruise!

 

[lkcmac]

We have been very fortunate, DCL has always matched our tablemates to our daughter, there were nearly always someone her age at dinner. This gave her someone immediately she could plan on meeting in the club, as friends they made many additional friends there as well. The important piece is getting to the clubs on the first night, they is lots of effort to get the kids to interact and do things together in order to make some friends.

Does Disney automatically try to match up families or do we need to ask in advance? Thanks!

 

[anricat]

Does Disney automatically try to match up families or do we need to ask in advance? Thanks!

They will try. Try not to make any other requests like specific rotations as it will limit who they can match you up with.

 

[Happy100]

Does Disney automatically try to match up families or do we need to ask in advance? Thanks!

They do. We are a family with one child and on one of our solo (no family or friends) cruises they matched us with a family of 3 and their son was our son's age. They both became fast friends.

 

[rosaciri]

Hello all
My husband and I went on our first Disney Cruise (Fantasy) last year... loved loved loved it. Our son was 4 at the time and although he had a great time he is a bit shy and takes a bit for him to come out of his shell. He did not want to go into the Oceaneer Club/Lab at all. We did get him to go in once and only because they were going to be making cupcakes (I have a gourmet cupcake business). And towards the end of our trip we met another family that had 2 boys close to his age so he went into the Club on our last night and Daddy and I got to enjoy an adult dinner at Palo (so delicious).
We have not decided on the date yet but it is between April 2nd or April 16th on the Fantasy. Our son will be 5 at the time. He is such a social butterfly but he will not initiate at all. I was hoping we could meet other families on this trip and he could make some buddies to play with. And it would be nice to have a group of adults to hang out with also.
I have not read up about FE yet. Can anyone give me more information about that? Or maybe once I book our cruise I should look into the meet-ups forums?
Thank you for any tips
Michelle

Hi Michelle - which trip are you looking at taking? We are looking at April 2017 for our second cruise and we are traveling all the way from Australia to do it. My DD will be 5 when we cruise next year and happy for her to say hello to your little one if we are on the same cruise. DCL do a wonderful job of matching up families with similar families for dinner. We met a beautiful family from Pennsylviannia who's girls are the same age as mine and they are pen friends now and write to each other all the time and facetime. Happy to have you part of our dinner table too. The little ones do get overwhelmed by the kids clubs but once they are there and try it for a few times they luv it. Mine kept asking for the kids club every day and my 5 year old sounds very similar to your little one. Good luck with your plans also - very exciting.

 

[chelle1019]

There are also cruise meet up groups on other sites. Our family was very active on the cruise group on Mark Zuckerberg's famous site, but even saying the site's name is pretty much banned here.

How can I find such a group on that social media site?

 

[MunFam]

How can I find such a group on that social media site?

Use the search feature and do something like "2015 WBPC Disney Cruise" or "May 12 Disney Wonder" and see what comes up...you should be able to find it, or if on the DISboards cruise meet thread, see if they are have a cute name for the group like "WONDERing the Canal 2015"

 

[chelle1019]

Use the search feature and do something like "2015 WBPC Disney Cruise" or "May 12 Disney Wonder" and see what comes up...you should be able to find it, or if on the DISboards cruise meet thread, see if they are have a cute name for the group like "WONDERing the Canal 2015"

Thank you so much I did find the group on that site. I am not positive but I think our travel date will be April 30th. I am waiting until we book before I jump in on the group on disboards.
Thank you all for your help