Changes coming to the Fantasy!

[Bear3412]

All these enhancements / and changes aboard all the cruise ships lately are a bit disturbing.

It just seems to be focused on the almighty dollar. I suppose that is expected, but damn, when will it stop? ? ?

I feel the US 3 major airlines may have finally turned the corner to improve service and attitude.

Perhaps a few more years is needed for the cruise ship industry to get a grip. And concur.

Perhaps one day a vessel will be built around the pax needs, wishes, and desires.

Oh wait, isn't that the DCL cruise line philosophy. ? ? .. ..... Never mind. ....

One can dream.

JMO

 

[TestingH2O]

FWIW, I know a LOT of girls who are into Star Wars and Super Heroes.

And I know more than a few boys who are into Princesses etc.

Gender lines are a LOT fuzzier for more and more kids.

Thank goodness this is true. Let kids be kids. No need to call toys girl toys or boy toys.

I'm sure for a lot of older girls, it might be fine. For a 3-7/8 year old, not so much.

Anyway, isn't Star Wars rated PG-13? I don't think I'm going to show this movie to my 4 year old granddaughter.

My 4 year old loves Star Wars and superheroes. The original 3 movies are PG and we felt comfortable watching them with her.

Most of what she know about superheroes is from cartoons or comics. We don't let her watch the live action movies. All the kids at school love playing super hero.

I'm not interested in these movies and I would surmise that you are, otherwise how would your children even know about them? I'm fairly confident that among my granddaughter's friends, these movies are not on their radars, either.

I think you'd be surprised. Star Wars is common conversation for kids at school particularly now that movies are coming in again. This is true of boys and girls. My mom knows nothing of Star Wars, but I certainly do and it's fun seeing my daughter enjoy strong females instead of just Cinderella. Times have changed and, as pp said, the stigma of girl/boy movies and toys is on the decline.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

A lot of people let their young children watch the Star Wars movies. That the original trilogy is PG (which, note, The Incredibles, Wreck-It Ralph and Moana are PG as well!) is more about the changes in standards since the late 1970s than any suitability/unsuitability. Pretty sure they all qualify as PG-13 under modern standards (and, Lion King wouldn't be G under those same standards, lord).

Avatar is PG-13, as are most/all of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, if I am not mistaken.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

Looks awesome.. we cancelled our 3 night Fantasy cruise following the dry dock though...
Booked Royal Caribbean's Anthem instead. Hope we can make it on the Fantasy next year. Can't wait to read all the first hand reports!

 

[wombat_5606]

Thank goodness this is true. Let kids be kids. No need to call toys girl toys or boy toys.



My 4 year old loves Star Wars and superheroes. The original 3 movies are PG and we felt comfortable watching them with her.

Most of what she know about superheroes is from cartoons or comics. We don't let her watch the live action movies. All the kids at school love playing super hero.



I think you'd be surprised. Star Wars is common conversation for kids at school particularly now that movies are coming in again. This is true of boys and girls. My mom knows nothing of Star Wars, but I certainly do and it's fun seeing my daughter enjoy strong females instead of just Cinderella. Times have changed and, as pp said, the stigma of girl/boy movies and toys is on the decline.

I'm sitting here tonight with my daughter who is the mother of my 4 year old granddaughter and she is telling me that her friends and classmates are not interested in Star Wars. They are into Paw Patrol, Moana, PJ Mask, Elena of Avalor and Trolls.

No one, boy or girl, is into Star Wars and Super Heroes that they know of or interact with, boy or girl.

Just so you know, I'm not worried about the gender issues or toys geared to boys or girls. How old do you think I am?

By the way, my granddaughter isn't interested in the least in Cinderella or any other Princess, but she loves Moana. Her favorite character is Pluto.

I'm glad you guys all are happy. I'm not. My granddaughter isn't going to be and I do think I'm a better judge of that than anyone here on the Disboard.

This is just another example of Disney making changes after people have made their vacation decisions. I'm definitely going to see if I can accelerate our cruise to depart before the dry dock. Just don't know if I have the time to make that happen.

 

[JW9DVC]

Star Wars would definitely appeal more than princess stuff to most older girls in lab/club ages, I think. My 11yo still loves her princess m&g's, don't get me wrong, but she had NO interest in the new Frozen area on the Wonder. FWIW, I didn't see a single kid in that section during open house. I'm not sure what it's used for, but it wasn't teeming with little girls like you might think, in any case. It seems like those working on the Star Wars franchise have realized how many girls love it just as much as boys, with far better character development of late for females (thinking of Clone Wars cartoons plus obviously Rey); so it makes sense to me to devote a section to something with more broad-range appeal than Frozen or Doctor Strange.

Yeah, Dr. Strange is a little weird. The above-referenced 11yo lasted through about 15min of the movie, although my 8yo son did watch the whole thing on the Wonder. However, he has not talked about it whatsoever, it was just "fine". I'm not sure I see how that character is as appealing to kids as most other super-heroes are... I would have gone for Thor, myself. I do like Thor.


WORD. "Why don't you like Padme, Mom?" Well, child of mine, let's go through the character progression of an awesome child-queen who battled fierce creatures in Geonosis to the sad ninny who just up and died b/c her husband turned evil...

Many woman die from complications of child birth. Not because she gave up the will to live.

 

[cmph]

Many woman die from complications of child birth. Not because she gave up the will to live.

I am aware that that happens in real life. However, in the movie, the characters clearly state that they don't know why she's dying, that she's lost the will to live. I'm sure someone else can detail to you the various theories on what caused her death beyond what was presented in the movie, but as presented in the movie, the fact is she dies because she lost the will to live. It's an irritating ending to the character, particularly if you are the mother of a girl watching it. And to be clear, this is not even vaguely like any real-life scenario, as we're talking about "the force", aliens, robots, and other fictional space stuff... so any interpretation of my words to apply to real-life would be an enormous and inaccurate stretch. Just saying that, in case anyone out there actually thinks I'm at all equating a sci-fi movie character and plot to any real life medical situation/tragedy...

 

[JW9DVC]

I am aware that that happens in real life. However, in the movie, the characters clearly state that they don't know why she's dying, that she's lost the will to live. I'm sure someone else can detail to you the various theories on what caused her death beyond what was presented in the movie, but as presented in the movie, the fact is she dies because she lost the will to live. It's an irritating ending to the character, particularly if you are the mother of a girl watching it. And to be clear, this is not even vaguely like any real-life scenario, as we're talking about "the force", aliens, robots, and other fictional space stuff... so any interpretation of my words to apply to real-life would be an enormous and inaccurate stretch. Just saying that, in case anyone out there actually thinks I'm at all equating a sci-fi movie character and plot to any real life medical situation/tragedy...

Great explanation. I stand corrected.

 

[bbel]

For those of you 'worried' about the club changes...
At the end of the day, its just two corners of the club that are going to have a new theme. Yes, my guess is they'll introduce programmes around Star Wars/ Marvel. As to the rest of the time, especially if your kid doesn't have any interest then they'll probably not even realise where they are.
On the Magic, I saw plenty of kids with no interest in Marvel, yet they didn't object to using the Marvel room for the iPads, and the tables for games and craft. They did Become Iron Man, and didn't even know who Iron Man was, but it was something DIFFERENT and FUN!
Ive also seen plenty of children, boys and girls, who have never seen the Tinkerbell movies and probably never will or have any interest in fairies, but again Ive never seen them actively avoid Pixie Hollow because of that...

Go into it with an open mind, maybe it will add some interest, something to talk about. If it doesn't, great, you were still lucky enough to go on a Disney cruise and have the opportunity to experience it...

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Our kids are not into star wars at all and they have not seen any marvel because frankly it's drivel and have 0 interest in it. And they are boys btw. I am a girl and was a bit interested in star wars as a kid but i would say the primary audience of SW and marvel is male. So, in my world, this continued sw/marvel/not disney original material push is an epic fail. 3 boys of different ages in the house and no interest. I dont know why in the world anyone thought avatar, what I see as a very negative movie, has a place at disney world, but that's another topic. I feel like disney is being run by a group of middle age males who watched these movies and read these comics as teens and are trying to relive their youth by pushing this stuff on today's youth (think music in guardians of the galaxy). That's really their target audience, why so many adults want playtime in the kids clubs. I wonder if disney is headed for trouble, if Espn is just the beginning.

 

[TestingH2O]

Not a fan of the changes. Don't see this appealing to young girls at all.

Just so you know, I'm not worried about the gender issues or toys geared to boys or girls. How old do you think I am?

Well, you are the first one who said Star Wars wouldn't appeal to girls. It seems that several of us were just a bit taken aback that you were applying gender stereotypes to some characters. As to your age, I assume you are about my mother's age since she is also the grandmother of a 4 year old. My mom has fully embraced the reduction of gender stereotypes in toys and interests. However, she has friends who are not so comfortable with their grandsons loving pink and watching Frozen 1000 times.

Moana, PJ Mask, Elena of Avalor

All excellent shows. I would hope to see more theming from these as well but there is only so much room on the ships.

 

[KristiMc]

I'm sitting here tonight with my daughter who is the mother of my 4 year old granddaughter and she is telling me that her friends and classmates are not interested in Star Wars. They are into Paw Patrol, Moana, PJ Mask, Elena of Avalor and Trolls.

No one, boy or girl, is into Star Wars and Super Heroes that they know of or interact with, boy or girl.

Just so you know, I'm not worried about the gender issues or toys geared to boys or girls. How old do you think I am?

By the way, my granddaughter isn't interested in the least in Cinderella or any other Princess, but she loves Moana. Her favorite character is Pluto.

I'm glad you guys all are happy. I'm not. My granddaughter isn't going to be and I do think I'm a better judge of that than anyone here on the Disboard.

This is just another example of Disney making changes after people have made their vacation decisions. I'm definitely going to see if I can accelerate our cruise to depart before the dry dock. Just don't know if I have the time to make that happen.

The whole area is not going to be changed. There will still be stuff that a 4 year old girl should be interested in.

 

[MickeyD74]

I am OK with it not being appealing to young girls....heck they have all the princesses but I do agree Dr. Strange seems a bit...well....strange!

MJ

I agree. I am a mother of 2 boys and they are always adding princess stuff. Which is totally fine. This is a nice change. I agree Dr. Strange is a bit odd. I am sure my boys will love this either way!

 

[gsmith0113]

But not in the kids clubs. How in the world I'm going to get my granddaughter to stay in the club long enough to eat at Palo is beyond me.

I'm sorry, but this is where you lost me. The main issue that you seem to be having is that you don't think that you will be able to just leave your granddaughter so that you can eat at Palo.
I have two boys and a girl (7, 4, and 2), and they love star wars, the avengers, princesses, frozen, and all of the programs that you noted. Did my oldest know about star wars at 4, no, but my 4 year old does because he wants to do everything that the 7 year old does (and now, so does the 2 year old).
For us, we are happy with the changes, I can see why others would not be.

 

[RedSox68]

I've heard from an onboard source that this may be going in upstairs where shutters & the art gallery are.

Hmmm, I wonder where they will put Shutters.

 

[ImprovGal]

I'm sure for a lot of older girls, it might be fine. For a 3-7/8 year old, not so much.

Anyway, isn't Star Wars rated PG-13? I don't think I'm going to show this movie to my 4 year old granddaughter.

I saw the original Star Wars in 1977 and loved it so much, I had the comic books and posters and the record. I was 5. I don't think there's been much damage.

The pg-13 rating didn't exist until 1984. It was created as a response to the complaints of Gremlins and Indiana Jones & Temple of Doom being too intense for their pg rating.

 

[Lumee23]

I am a little underwhelmed with the changes. I have two young girls (3 and 6 at time of cruise) and for me it isn't so much that Star Wars and Marvel are more "boy" themed but the maturity level associated with these movies. I haven't seen Dr Strange though so I am making an assumption on that. Both my girls are extra sensitive and get easily upset/scared during "scary" parts in movies so I don't think they are ready for those films. I understand that Disney is catering to a wide range of ages though, so for me it will depend more on what they remove to add this. I could see my girls enjoying the activities without knowing much about the movies but if they were to take away Andy's Toy Room I think that would end up being a negative change for us. Sounds like people think the Nemo and Monster's Inc area will be the ones updated like on the Dream.

The ice cream/candy shop I expected, though I was hoping for the Wreck It Ralph theme because our family loves that movie. Tiffany's is out of our budget range.. especially after taking a Disney cruise (haha) so that doesn't impact us. I was hoping for a new show announcement since Dream is getting a new show.

Overall the changes aren't something that would entice me to book the Fantasy over the other ships. My husband on the other hand... I might have difficulty getting him out of the kid's club open house

 

[RedSox68]

I saw the original Star Wars in 1977 and loved it so much, I had the comic books and posters and the record. I was 5. I don't think there's been much damage.

The pg-13 rating didn't exist until 1984. It was created as a response to the complaints of Gremlins and Indiana Jones & Temple of Doom being too intense for their pg rating.

And those movies were intense -- especially Temple of Doom. I loved the original there Star Wars and just found all my books and programs and souvenirs. I don't care to see any of the new movies, but I know there is a whole new generation out there getting their first taste of awesome just like we did in 1977. Thing is though, in 1977 -- those movies and movies like Alien later on brought us effects and screen shots we had never experienced. It was a new and inclusive experience and (for us at the time) it was jaw dropping. I don't think there's anything they can do nowadays in movies that has that affect on anyone since it all seems to be done (except maybe the new 3D that Cameron invented to do Avatar).

 

[yowcruiser]

Lots of good interesting discussions. All in, I suspect that the partial changes to the Kids Club are to provide broader appeal, while leveraging the ownership/licensing rights of brands recently acquired at high cost. For me it's not so much about gender but I have indeed been wondering what interest my currently 5-year old girl will have in the DCL's kid's club once she is in the 7-10 years old range. I don't know whether she will be interested in Star Wars or Super Heroes, but this is a step up, age-wise from what's currently there. Unlike other cruise lines that have a more formal split with their kids program around age 6, I have always felt that DCL had a bit of a gap there so if the intent is indeed to keep 2 rooms in the more traditional style while changing two into something a little bit more grown up this could work. Now like most others, a bit baffled by the choice of Dr. Strange but who knows...

 

[kaseyC]

You say optional, I say nickel and dime.

It's only nickel and diming on other cruise lines. When DCL adds fee-based items they're options.