Club Age Change…A different perspective

[Cruisinonlydisney]

I am going to put in another idea on this topic, looking from the eyes of a child. A little background….I teach 10 and 11 year olds. This age group is in middle school where I live…. K-4 on one floor and 5-8 on another. I can tell you that an 11 year old is ready to to be a big kid and get treated like a big kid. This age group finds the elementary age kids to be annoying. My own son has cruised 11 times and is now 15. He will tell you that he couldn’t wait to go to Edge when he was 11!! Did he miss the kids club….sure, a little. But he quickly got over that with the engaging counselors at Edge and more age appropriate activities, such as BINGO, ship scavenger hunts, and other get to know each other games. My son (during the last year he was at the youth club) would come back with a lot of stories….being kicked by a four year old, kids bawling because they wanted to leave, and kids with no manners and running around aimlessly. It is chaotic at times. So, let us look at this through the eyes of a preteen, and I think you’ll find this to be a welcome change. And, let us give DCL a chance here….maybe they will transfer some of those tween activities from the kids club to the new space. I think you will find at this age that it’s more about the kids making new friends and socializing, rather than just taking part in every single activity that was offered and being shuffled from one activity to the next. On a final note, my son was in VIBE on the Wish this past cruise….first time. He had the time of his life an made forever friends that are now connected through social media. A GREAT group of kids from this July cruise. The VIBE counselors on the Wish were so impressed with this group that they made a video of them for their own memories, as the kids all got along so well. It was a cruise we will all not soon forget! So even though you may want your littles to be young forever, give them the opportunity to soar. I think you will find out quickly that they were ready to move on.

 

[Mags2002]

@Cruisinonlydisney well said!!! Thank you for sharing this.
Of course other people’s experiences may be different, but it is great to see young people having very positive experiences in Edge (and Vibe)

 

[meremac]

I think this is a really accurate perspective for some 11-year-olds. Some 11-year-olds are totally ready to be treated like a big kid, some 11-year-olds may be almost ready and all they need is a little push, and some 11-year-olds are just not there yet. All of those things are ok. When my daughter was 11, she was not in any way ready to be a big kid. And trust me, I did NOT want her to stay little lol...she has an older brother, and I was ready for her get to that point, but she just wasn't. She reached "big kid status" a year or two later when SHE was ready. Now, she's an extremely grounded, confident, well-liked, mature 16-year-old. As a former HS teacher and a parent of adults/teens, I've learned over and over that kids mature at their own pace, but if you meet them and accept them and support them where they are, they'll figure it out when they're ready.