Better age for DD: 4 or 5

[CarnotaurDad]

Does anyone have any opinions on, if trying to decide between one age, whether DCL has more to offer for a 4 yo than a 5 yo?

That is:

Is it better to go when 4 and be the oldest in the 3 - 4 yo Oceaneer group or is it better to go when 5 and be the youngest in the 5 - 7 yo Oceaneer group?

(Note: The obvious answer is that we should take her on a cruise two years in a row, but that probably won't happen).

Thanks in advance for the opinons!

 

[vgaskin]

Our first cruise was in March and our girls were 4 & 5. The main difference we are told is that the 3-4 year olds do more princess stuff. They did let my 5 year old stay in the 4 & 5 year old group with her sister. Mine ended up not staying in the clubs. In November, they were 5 & 6 and didn't do the clubs. Loved the cruise both years, don't think you can go wrong either way. My way would be to go when she is 4 and try like heck and hope you can go again when she is 5 or 6. I never thought we would be there twice in one year.

 

[CarnotaurDad]

Thanks, vgaskin.

Should also mention that we are looking at the 7 day cruise. Don't know if that makes any difference to anyone's replies, but thought it might be good information.

 

[vgaskin]

We did the 3 night with the land/sea the first time and the 7 night this time. We just came off Disney World with the 3 night so I don't think they adjusted well with the 3 night. They seemed fine on the 7 night but they may be because they knew what was coming also. The 7 night will give them plenty of time to adjust.

 

[Disneycrazymom]

Vgaskin, Was there a reason they did not stay in the club? My DD is 4 and we are thinking about an Aug 7 day. Thanks

 

[PizzieDuster]

Well our DD was 4 on our last 4 day cruise. However, she had never had a babysitter or had not yet entered preschool. So we figured she'd never enjoy it and would cry and cry for us.

ALthough she thought she would go to the club and mom and dad would be right there, we never were beeped!

The night we had Palo reservations, she had a lil mini me fit and my DH picked her up strolled into the club and explained to a counselor we had Palo reservations and she was scooped up and had a blast.

We would check on her a lot and at the end of an evening would find her laying down on a mat watching a moving next to a bunch of other disney loving princesses giggling away.

This year she'll be 5 and had a year of preschool and I'm sure we will have NO problems with the exception of getting her to LEAVE the club.

When she wasn't in the clubs, we ordered room service, took it up to the decks, played ping ball, DH braved the icky pool and of course we were just pooped out most of the time.

It was a good thing that we could explain to her that she would have to wait in line for this and for that....... we actually waited to take a family vacation so that she could understand what was going on around her and we could as a family, enjoy the experience also.

Have a wonderful cruise~ She'll just love it!

 

[Disneycrazymom]

My DD is a social butterfly and I expect that she will never want to leave the club either, she insists that I pick her up last at pre-school! My DS is so different and I expect he will hang with us most of the week. Either is fine, I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a reason, like something not right about the program, that caused vagaskin's girls to not want to stay. We are looking at the Disney cruise and also the Royal C. one with the ice rink and hearing the club had problems would sway me. Thanks and I am glad your DD enjoyed it!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

The main difference we are told is that the 3-4 year olds do more princess stuff.

I had noticed the same thing! Which is why I think I'd prefer my youngest to still be 4 for our first cruise... the navigators I have seen are just SO much more "her" in the 3-4yr old group than 5-7.

My youngest is the same way! She threw a wall-eyed fit to go to "school" like her older siblings- so now we get the joy of paying for private early preschool.... LOL
AND she gets upset if we pick her up early before they get gym, computer, or outside playtime in the afternoon. I mean we literally have a whiny kid telling us about her displeasure if we pick her up earlier than she wanted to. She also loves her teacher- but then she loves her Sunday school teacher also- so I know it's not just that one person she bonded to. I have a feeling we're going to have a hard time getting her out of the club. LOL

 

[lbgraves]

The 3-4 group does have more character visits. We chose to keep DS in this group even though he turned 5 the day before we cruised because he had never experienced Disney before. He LOVED it!!! The 5-7 group does play in the club together with the 3-4 group at times too. The big difference was with the movies. The 3-4s stay in the club or the lab to watch them on the screen. The 5-7s went to the theater to watch the more recent movies as a group.

 

[Wishing on a star]

DS was 5 1/2, and my thoughts are that he enjoyed this age group WAY more than he would have the younger age group. He loved the Captain Hook activity, playing in the LAB... etc... We did take DS to the younger age group for one activity, and I really felt it was 'babyish' for him. As mentioned. for a girl, this may not be the case at all.

Really, this would depend on the child. Check out the kids navigators and that should give you a good feel for the different age groups.

Keep in mind that the clubs and activities are, out of necessity, very structured. My DS really enjoyed that all to rare Free-play time to just PLAY !