Anniversary fun, 10yo at Oceaneers and Palo brunch tip questions

[MinnieMizzy]

We have our 3rd Disney cruise (SWDAS cruise) coming up in 9 weeks! DH and I will be celebrating our 20 year anniversary (!!!) while on the cruise. DD turns 10 a month prior.
Here are my questions:
1. Any fun recommendations for celebrating an anniversary on the ships? We have Palo brunch (our first Palo experience ever) scheduled on our actual anniversary. I think our TA noted that it's our anniversary on our cruise reservations.
2. Palo brunch - do we tip at a brunch? if so, how much?
3. DD has never spent much time in the kids club prior (an hour or so). Does your 10yo's enjoy the activities in the club/lab? Was there some initial meetup to find kids near their own age? I'm worried that she is on the verge of edge (edge of edge?) and that she'll have a hard time finding activities she's interested in and friends her own age.

Thank you! Happy new year!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We have our 3rd Disney cruise (SWDAS cruise) coming up in 9 weeks! DH and I will be celebrating our 20 year anniversary (!!!) while on the cruise. DD turns 10 a month prior.
Here are my questions:
1. Any fun recommendations for celebrating an anniversary on the ships? We have Palo brunch (our first Palo experience ever) scheduled on our actual anniversary. I think our TA noted that it's our anniversary on our cruise reservations.
2. Palo brunch - do we tip at a brunch? if so, how much?
3. DD has never spent much time in the kids club prior (an hour or so). Does your 10yo's enjoy the activities in the club/lab? Was there some initial meetup to find kids near their own age? I'm worried that she is on the verge of edge (edge of edge?) and that she'll have a hard time finding activities she's interested in and friends her own age.

Thank you! Happy new year!

2. Tip if you want to. It's entirely up to you whether you feel the service is worth a tip.
3. There is a "get acquainted" open house in all kid's clubs the first day onboard. Check the Navigator for time. Edge is for ages 11-14. Oceaneer's is ages 3-12.

 

[Aby]

Our recent cruise was a celebration of our 10th anniversary....we did both Palo Brunch and Dinner, and we treated each other to the couples pass to the Rainforest Room for the entire cruise.

For Palo brunch and dinner, we tipped 25$ on top of the 30$pp uncharge, for a total of 85$ for each meal. Tipping is totally an individual thing - that's what we felt comfortable with.

Aby

 

[KT2038]

We have our 3rd Disney cruise (SWDAS cruise) coming up in 9 weeks! DH and I will be celebrating our 20 year anniversary (!!!) while on the cruise. DD turns 10 a month prior.
Here are my questions:
1. Any fun recommendations for celebrating an anniversary on the ships? We have Palo brunch (our first Palo experience ever) scheduled on our actual anniversary. I think our TA noted that it's our anniversary on our cruise reservations.
2. Palo brunch - do we tip at a brunch? if so, how much?
3. DD has never spent much time in the kids club prior (an hour or so). Does your 10yo's enjoy the activities in the club/lab? Was there some initial meetup to find kids near their own age? I'm worried that she is on the verge of edge (edge of edge?) and that she'll have a hard time finding activities she's interested in and friends her own age.

Thank you! Happy new year!

Hi I am a youth activities Counselor and it is very important for children to attend the club or lab on the first night. This is when childen meet each other and get acquainted with the Counselors. We have a welcome party in both club and lab where programs are introduced and rules explained. while your 10 year old is nearly at edge age we do have 11 and 12 year old repeat cruisers who still love Oceaneers and don't move to edge until they have to rather than moving her to edge at 10, remind her that if she is lonely or bored to come and talk to one of us and together we can come up with an activity to do.

 

[MinnieMizzy]

Hi I am a youth activities Counselor and it is very important for children to attend the club or lab on the first night. This is when childen meet each other and get acquainted with the Counselors. We have a welcome party in both club and lab where programs are introduced and rules explained. while your 10 year old is nearly at edge age we do have 11 and 12 year old repeat cruisers who still love Oceaneers and don't move to edge until they have to rather than moving her to edge at 10, remind her that if she is lonely or bored to come and talk to one of us and together we can come up with an activity to do.

Thanks! I finally got back here and saw one of the other threads about this (I think you were on there?) and I think my dd will be just fine with the activities in the lab. Only hoping other 10yo's will be there, too (and will not have opted to try and move up to edge)!

 

[bumbershoot]

How fun, a double post.
ETA, OK, on my cell phone earlier it clearly showed me two posts. Now on my computer there's just this one, and my systems shows that I never sent what I thought I sent. LOL.

Thanks! I finally got back here and saw one of the other threads about this (I think you were on there?) and I think my dd will be just fine with the activities in the lab. Only hoping other 10yo's will be there, too (and will not have opted to try and move up to edge)!

My son still loved the stuff in the Lab at 10 and if we go on another day cruise before he turns 13 I'm quite sure he'll go there still.

He's willing to have friends for the moment, in whatever activity he's doing, which makes it easy and nice. He doesn't have to have one bff the whole cruise. Convenient personality.



And YES, the Navigator app is so convenient for scheduling Lab time! You can see when ongoing things are each day (like DS still likes the Get The Hook activity and wants to do the whole thing) so other stuff can be scheduled around that.

DS has a phone with no SIM in it, so we put the app on his "faux phone", and he was able to message us when he was ready to go (we haven't given him checkout privileges).

 

[aidtrismommy]

My son is 9 (almost 10) and he loved the club/lab. He requested to spend more time in there than on past cruises this past November. He likes the board games and I have seen him playing checkers and other games with the counselors. He also enjoyed the secured programming on the sports deck that they offered on one day of the cruise. They played basketball and other sports and he asked to be dropped off there

 

[Weedy]

Suggestion if you have a smart phone down load the Disney Cruise app. This way you can see the events in the club for the entire week ( the app starts working once you board or in some of the cruise terminals) Check what is happening in the club during the time of your reservation. Sometimes one of the clubs can be doing an Open House. If the Lab is doing an Open House the kids will all be in the Oceanears Club. When this happens some of the older kids think it's to babyish.
If this is the case call/ go to Palo and try and adjust the time of your reservation.
Have a great cruise.