Bumping up a 7 year old to 8-9 group to be with sibling?

[princesspumpkin]

Has anyone ever been allowed to bump up a 7 1/2 year old to the 8-9 group in order to be with sibling or traveling companion? There are two 7 year olds, one 8 year old, one 9 and one 10. I originally thought to leave the 8 year old in the 5-7 group and let the 9 and 10 year olds be together in the 8-9 group. But now I'm wondering if they all could be in the 8-9 group since I keep hearing how this age group does better things. Anyone have this experience? Thanks

 

[jel0511]

Has anyone ever been allowed to bump up a 7 1/2 year old to the 8-9 group in order to be with sibling or traveling companion? There are two 7 year olds, one 8 year old, one 9 and one 10. I originally thought to leave the 8 year old in the 5-7 group and let the 9 and 10 year olds be together in the 8-9 group. But now I'm wondering if they all could be in the 8-9 group since I keep hearing how this age group does better things. Anyone have this experience? Thanks

I'm under the understanding that DCL will not allow you to bump up a kid, unless they are 30 days away from their birthday. If the ship isn't full, they might allow it on a trial basis, but I wouldn't count on this being available.

 

[budwmn]

When I was on the Magic last month they told me that it was easier to bump a kid down a group than up a group. You've got a lot of kids here and I don't think they're going to want to bump so many from here to there. I would just leave the 7 year olds in the club, and ask for the 10 year old to be placed in the 8-9 lab grouping. That way, you're only asking for one adjustment and each of the kids has a friend in their group. Just my two cents, for what it's worth.

For the record, not all of the kids like the lab better. Last month, my DS8 went to the Lab for the first time. He thought it was okay, but asked if he could go back to the club for our cruise tomorrow. I was surprised, but he said that the club was great because he went to the lab for experiments and free time AND to the club for running around. He missed the pirate ship and movies in the club. This way, he gets both.

 

[hopelea]

I have two dd's at the time they were 7 & 9. The 7 year old was 7 years and 3 months. She was allowed to go to the lab on a trail basis to see if she fit in. There was never a problem and she was allowed to stay. She loved the labs. They do make exceptions. Always ask and see what they say.

 

[DisneyNutMary]

We have bumped a just turned 7 year old to the 8-9, and the following year a just turned 8 year old to the 10-12's. It was one of the children in our group, she would have been left out otherwise- all the others were the same age.
Both times we were on a sold out ship.
It all depends on the counselors, and the kid, of course! She is very mature. Ask, it can't hurt to try, and at least if the counselors say know, the kid will know that at least you tried.

 

[lotsofboys]

As someone mentioned it does depend on how full the Lab/Club is when you sail. We were on the 2/7/04 Magic and my DS (7 1/2 at the time) was asked, when we were signing him into the Club for the first time, if he wanted to move up to the Lab. I was thrilled because his 10 yo brothers were in the Lab, but to my surprise he chose to stay in the Club. This was our 2nd cruise, he had done the Club before and while I didn't think it was nearly as great as the Lab, he thought it was fine. I tried to talk him into trying it and he wouldn't budge. My point is sometimes we as parents are convinced that the siblings will want to be together, for whatever reason, but when given the choice they will sometimes surprise us!

 

[princesspumpkin]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I understand about maybe being surprised when siblings want to be in separate clubs, but these group of kids are friends and the oldest are boys. I'm certain that the 8 year old girl will want to hang with the 7 year old girls, not the 9 and 10 year old boys. If her girlfriends weren't together in the club, I'm sure she'd want to go to the lab with the boys. I read a few threads that seemed to state that a lot of kids who had done the club before really wanted to do the lab, so I thought that the 8 year old might want to, and if so, then maybe bump up the 7 year olds as well. Oh well, I guess I'll play it by ear. Thanks again.

 

[cruisenewbie2004]

You should be aware that the kids move back and forth between the club and the lab, so just bec they are club age, they don't spend all the time there. My 5 year old and her group were often in the lab and using lab toys etc.

You should also know that you can only move once in one direction. You can move up once and if it doesn't work, you can move back to the lower age group, but you can't move back to the older group later. You get one chance to swap.

 

[jdm]

What's the big difference between the club and the lab? I know there are computers in the lab, are they in the club as well? Is the club babyish? What did your children do in the club?

Thanks
Jenn

 

[scrapperjill]

I don't think there are any computers in the club...and it depends on what you mean by "babyish".. the club is more whimsical...and make believe...It also has the huge "ship" climbing play slide toy...which the lab dosn't have. The club is geared towards the age groups it cares for ...where the lab is older and has more things like video games...computers....board games....building things...and a "lab" area.

As for moving your child up....like others have mentioned it is sometimes easer to move a child down...but at times they will also allow a child to go up as a "trial" to see how they do...if they can handle it then they are allowed to stay. One word of advice...they won't let you go back and forth...if you move your child up...and they do well they can't go back down. So you may want to look over some recent navagators for the club and lab....in the correct age groups and compair activities....Make sure they don't have must do activites...that your moving her out of. When we cruised the Goofy PJ party was in the club for the 6yo range...but I've also heard of it being in they older and/or the younger groups on diffrent cruises.

 

[jel0511]

I don't think there are any computers in the club...

There are computers in the Captain's Closet area of the Club.

 

[disneyfan73]

On are recent cruise (27th Nov 04) they moved our son (7yr & 4mo) to the 8-9 group with his old brother(not so happy about that). They told us that the 8-9 group has more activities and moves around the ship more. It was nice to have them in same location and we did not expect him to be bumped up… so that was nice too.

 

[savsawmom]

We moved our 4.5 year old to the 5-7 year old club on the 12/28/2004 Western. It was termed a "trial" basis, but he did fine. They didn't bat an eye when we asked.

 

[wdwoldtimer]

I'm glad I read this thread...now I know there's a least a chance they'll let a kid move down. My niece has just turned 13 and is in that "tween" period where she can still be happy with 12 yr olds. We don't really feel comfortable with her going off to the teen club alone, where it seems there is much less structure and supervision. (or am I wrong about this?) Her sister is 12 and we'd much rather have them together.

 

[NYDisneyMom]

Has anyone ever been allowed to bump up a 7 1/2 year old to the 8-9 group in order to be with sibling or traveling companion? There are two 7 year olds, one 8 year old, one 9 and one 10. I originally thought to leave the 8 year old in the 5-7 group and let the 9 and 10 year olds be together in the 8-9 group. But now I'm wondering if they all could be in the 8-9 group since I keep hearing how this age group does better things. Anyone have this experience? Thanks

Last May my youngest son was 7 1/2 and my oldest was 9. When I signed them up I asked if the youngest could be in the same group with his brother. It was no problem at all. The counselor said it's done a lot, and as long as he was okay being with the older group and he fit in, it was not a problem.
The ship was very full...they said there were over 900 kids on board.

Have a gret time!