3 year old question

[jimilla]

This is a question from my cousin who is coming on our July cruise.

She has a 3 year old boy , who looked like he was going to be potty trained by our cruise.

It appears now he has taken a step back, and is only "sort of" potty trained.

Her question - she was going to put him in the Oceaneers Club for a while while we did Para sailing and some other things.

The information that came with a doc's said all children must be completely potty trained to go into the club.

Any ideas?

 

[Rence]

I believe that a non-potty trained 3 year old can go to Flounders which may be an alternative.

In December my just barely 3 year old niece was just barely potty trained. The week before the cruise we were at WDW and with the excitement and ever changing schedule she took a step back.

My sister still put her daugher in the club, but set the alarm on her watch to go off once an hour. My sister then would check on her daughter in the club and make sure that she went potty etc. With the regular check in from mom we had not problems.

 

[dletz]

We were on a 4 day cruise when my daughter was 3 years old. She was pretty much there, but still had an accident every once in a while. Anyway, she had 2 minor accidents on the cruise. Once she was standing in front of the potty and didn't make it, the second time was more like insufficient wiping. Both times we were paged and told that we could bring her back when she was cleaned up.

I think one or two accidents won't be a huge problem, especially if they can tell he is trying, but they will page her if he has an accident to come get him. Also my understanding is that they really do remind the kids (especially the younger ones) often about going to the bathroom.

I really liked their policy on this. They did not try to make the child feel bad (although mine was upset she had an accident, and that she had to leave). They do however have them sit off to the side (with a counselor) on a mat with a sheet on it. Once you pick up the child, they remove the sheet, and wipe down the mat.

 

[dletz]

I meant to add that we used the cruise as an incentive for her to potty train. I really wanted to go on the cruise, but felt she'd have a much better time in the clubs than flouders. Not that there is anything wrong with Flounders, but I felt if I was going to spend the money it would be for her to get full use out of the clubs, especially if I had to pay for her and then flounders on top of that (whereas for under 3 you pay less for the kids, and they pay for flounders if used).

We planned the trip more than a year in advance, and decided that if we didn't feel she'd be potty trained enough by the date final payment was due we would cancel the cruise.

In the course of looking up information she would see pictures of the ship. She kept telling me she wanted to go on the Mickey boat. We told her all about it and showed her as many pictures as we could find of the kids clubs. Told her that in order to participate she couldn't wear diapers and couldn't have lots of accidents. Whenever we had a hard time or a step back we would remind her about the cruise, and things would get better.

Maybe having something to look forward to will help him.

 

[mickeyboat]

I think Rence's sister had the right idea. Checking on the child will help keep accidents from happening, especially in newly-trained children who are having the time of their lives. We spent a lot of time in the club with our kids who didn't want us to leave them alone. The club does have frequent bathroom breaks.

Maybe participating club will be the incentive your cousin's son needs to completely train.

Then there is always Flounders.

A larger problem for your family may be the pools. Non-potty trained children are not allowed in the pools, neither are swim diapers. I doubt a three year old would be happy playing in Mickey's ear!

Good luck!

Denae

 

[kcashner]

I'd strongly suggest an adult family member checking in at the club every hour or so and escorting him to the potty. That way, you eliminate any accidents. The staff will tolerate a couple accidents, but there is a magic number (about 4) where they declare the kid to be not potty trained and then he can only go to the club with a parent. It's easier to check in on him on a regular basis than to have accidents.

 

[DutchsMommy]

This information has been really helpful to me. DS will be just 3 when we are cruising and I am really hoping he is able to participate in the Club. He loves daycare and I think would love this experience. We are trying to use Mickey as an incentive to use the potty. I don't have a problem checking on him frequently when he is at the Club and I think that may be the ticket for us. Thanks everyone for all the great ideas.

 

[Pammy jo]

Would staff notice a pull up? I'm hoping my DS is trained by Sept for school so hopefully by Oct for our cruise he's got it down. Just wondering about pullups in case.

 

[jimilla]

Thanks all. As always very helpfull information.

Jim

 

[CM_Mom]

Sorry but they don't allow pull ups. I would agree with kcashner that your child will have the best experience if an adult family member checks on them regularly. You can understand that with a 15 to 1 kid to counselor ratio, it's not fair to the other kids if the counselors have to focus on a kid who's not potty trained.

FYI, the "completely potty trained" includes being able to wipe themselves.

As for the parasailing, you might want to check out the schedule and see if you can break your activities into one hour intervals so someone can check on him.

Have fun regardless of what ends up happening.

 

[Bopperdoodle]

One of the questions, that I was asked when I signed up my
2 year old (close to 3 but is completly potty trained) was whether or not she could go all by herself with no assistance. They are not allowed to go in and help them. So keep this in mind. The toilets are child size, so that helps.

 

[Bopperdoodle]

One of the questions I was asked when I was signing up my 2 year old (she is close to 3 and is completely potty trained) was if she could take care of herself. They are not allowed to go in and help them. The potties are child size, so that helps. My daughter didn't have any problems at all and was able to stay as long as I wanted her to.