Current Youth Activities CM -- Ask me anything!

[Talking Hands]

And Yes, we have computer games geared to the younger set! Mostly Disney, if thats any surprise haha!

He loves Reef and other Disney games as well as Angry Birds

 

[ggfred32]

CM, a few questions if I may: There have been many members of the staff I wanted to thank who are not in tip positions. One, of all people, was the guy at the future cruise desk on The Wonder (I still remember him, Tai from Australia). He was soooo friendly and helpful, spent forever with us talking about cabins, and was just a cool guy. At the end of cruise, I brought him some girl scout cookies I had to hand out as gifts. He was over the moon, I dont think anyone ever recognizes them. so I ask you. 1. What are some of the most unappreciated positions on the ship, but that guests still might see? (like guest services, ECT). I realize there is nothing I can do to help the laundry staff or the engine room guys) 2. If you were walking from the club to another part of the ship, in a guest area, would that be a good time to hand you mickey bar? 3. I saw my server in Cabo, she was on the patio of a bar, hanging with some other crew members (I think). She was obviously trying to be incognito, hat pulled down with big sunglasses. I left her alone, I was going to buy her a drink (not hit on her, just buy her a drink a leave her alone) Could she have let me? Or am I, as someone she has to serve every night, the last person she wants to see or interact with during her limited time off. I told her that night I saw her in town but didnt bug her, she swore she would have been happy to chat with me. I figure you get four hours off a week, the last thing you want to do is talk to a guest. True? 4. While keeping the thread Disney clean...I must ask, how much...um...crew coupling goes on. I have read several of Brian Bruns books about his time with Carnival, and he indicated quite a bit. (hey, you said ask you anything)

Great questions. I love the last one. You KNOW that is happening!!!!!

 

[CMontheseas]

CM, a few questions if I may:

There have been many members of the staff I wanted to thank who are not in tip positions. One, of all people, was the guy at the future cruise desk on The Wonder (I still remember him, Tai from Australia). He was soooo friendly and helpful, spent forever with us talking about cabins, and was just a cool guy.

At the end of cruise, I brought him some girl scout cookies I had to hand out as gifts. He was over the moon, I dont think anyone ever recognizes them.

so I ask you.

1. What are some of the most unappreciated positions on the ship, but that guests still might see? (like guest services, ECT). I realize there is nothing I can do to help the laundry staff or the engine room guys)

2. If you were walking from the club to another part of the ship, in a guest area, would that be a good time to hand you mickey bar?

3. I saw my server in Cabo, she was on the patio of a bar, hanging with some other crew members (I think). She was obviously trying to be incognito, hat pulled down with big sunglasses. I left her alone, I was going to buy her a drink (not hit on her, just buy her a drink a leave her alone) Could she have let me? Or am I, as someone she has to serve every night, the last person she wants to see or interact with during her limited time off. I told her that night I saw her in town but didnt bug her, she swore she would have been happy to chat with me. I figure you get four hours off a week, the last thing you want to do is talk to a guest. True?

4. While keeping the thread Disney clean...I must ask, how much...um...crew coupling goes on. I have read several of Brian Bruns books about his time with Carnival, and he indicated quite a bit. (hey, you said ask you anything)

OH my. I will do my best to be delicate, I'm quite sure my parents read this board while I'm away!

1. Under-appreciated but that you might see in guest areas... I suppose these would be the people that tend to be ignored much of the time and don't receive day-to-day gratitude (via tips, or little gifts, or even "Thank you!"). I'd say the housekeeping staff who aren't stateroom hosts - you see them all day cleaning restrooms, wiping down railings, vacuuming up our glitter. Most guests barely acknowledge them while they walk past! The photo people don't get much love either - they work more than I thought they did! And lastly I'd say any pool attendants - those people who spend all day refreshing towels and sucking up water, and watching the slides.


2. If you were to do that randomly to a CM they'd most likely be like "What, seriously? Oh no sir, thanks so much for the offer, but I certainly can't accept this - it's for you to enjoy! (Translation: I wish so bad that these officers in white weren't around or these cameras all over. I also wish these were sitting outside your stateroom door with a little note saying - CMs, I got the hint. Enjoy! )



3. That would've been incredibly awesome of you to do! But we really do take our time off ship to unhinge our smiles and take off our tattoo makeup and get to frown over some .....special beverages. It's not so much that we don't want to hang out with our guests in "real life", but the risk is high that another CM will report you for it. So we put on disguises



4. You know how in Disney movies, how quickly two characters can fall in love and the princess gets kissed in just over an hour? Or how a girl who lives her life trapped within a tower, and falls for the first guy she meets?
Do you know how in the Lion King, Mufasa seemed to be the only male amongst a pride of lionesses and ....so on? For some of us, we watch a different Disney movie every week, if you catch my drift. (How Disney clean was that? )

*....Okay, Scar too. But what happened when Mufasa left?

 

[twindaddy]

OH my. I will do my best to be delicate, I'm quite sure my parents read this board while I'm away


2. If you were to do that randomly to a CM they'd most likely be like "What, seriously? Oh no sir, thanks so much for the offer, but I certainly can't accept this - it's for you to enjoy! (Translation: I wish so bad that these officers in white weren't around or these cameras all over. I also wish these were sitting outside your stateroom door with a little note saying - CMs, I got the hint. Enjoy! )



3. That would've been incredibly awesome of you to do! But we really do take our time off ship to unhinge our smiles and take off our tattoo makeup and get to frown over some .....special beverages. It's not so much that we don't want to hang out with our guests in "real life", but the risk is high that another CM will report you for it. So we put on disguises



4. You know how in Disney movies, how quickly two characters can fall in love and the princess gets kissed in just over an hour? Or how a girl who lives her life trapped within a tower, and falls for the first guy she meets?
Do you know how in the Lion King, Mufasa seemed to be the only male amongst a pride of lionesses and ....so on? For some of us, we watch a different Disney movie every week, if you catch my drift. (How Disney clean was that? )

*....Okay, Scar too. But what happened when Mufasa left?

Nice answers, I like it! I might just pick a random guy polishing a stair railing and say "thank you for making my cruise great by keeping this barge clean! You do not go unnoticed!"

Great Disney movie analogy. Seriously, read "cruise confidential", written by an American server on a Carnival ship (a rarity, according to him). It is a really fun read.

If I were to go back in time and repeat that moment in Cabo over again, I would have taken a mental count of how many people my server was with, and gone to the bar and bought them a bucket of beers, then slipped away unnoticed. She swore up and down I should have come to say hi, but honestly, she deserved her time off.

Since I was on late dining, I had a great time chatting with my server (who was from Croatia) about the different ethnic "mafias" on board, and how since many of the officers are from Croatia and nearby eastern bloc countries, she gets many special privileges on board. Then my mom, bless her heart, chimes in "there are crew bars on this ship?". Yes mom, read this book.

I really wish Disney did full ship tours like Carnival does. I did a full, four hour tour of the Carnival Splendor. First you realize how useless the front crew area is when the ship is underway, way too windy and the damn bridge is looking right down on you!

Seeing I95 on the Carnival ship I was on, and how many people there are below deck slaving away for your cruise, is eye opening. And wow, the kitchen was MAYHEM!!!

Not sure if you ever got to go on the bridge while the ship was underway, but stepping out on the wing, looking straight down through glass at the ocean while the ship is pushing 22 knots was pretty awesome. Plus you realize the bridge has a pretty good view of MANY cabin balconies, for those who might want to...um...have a "magical moment" on their veranda.

 

[disneyaddict4]

When serving food in the clubs., what kind of foods do u you serve? My daughter is allergic to nuts and seafood , would I have to be worried about those types of food?

 

[Shoobie124]

4. While keeping the thread Disney clean...I must ask, how much...um...crew coupling goes on. I have read several of Brian Bruns books about his time with Carnival, and he indicated quite a bit. (hey, you said ask you anything)




I have several friends who perform in shows on various ships, including Disney. From what I understand relationships are hot and heavy and are over fast. One friend dated someone for 2 months and that's like the cruise equivalent of 2 years basically. Also - major bonus to people who date the "higher ups" because they stay in their nicer rooms for the time!

 

[mannpeg729]

My son has ADHD and sensory issues. Even though he takes medication, he can get pretty excitable and the sensory issues will be in full effect with all the stimulus in the clubs. If he were to become too silly would a CM redirect him to a quieter activity or ask us to pick him up? Do you have any suggestions how to help him be successful or how to request CM's to remind him to self-regulate? We've noted on our concerns on our registration. I guess I'm most concerned with the negative stigma that ADHD kids have gotten. He is a kind kid who just struggles to know when enough silliness is enough. Our experience in other settings has been that some folks hear ADHD and think out of control.

You rock for taking your time to answer all these questions!

 

[cgolf]

You mentioned bringing magazines for the crew, I have some entertainment weekly magazines would these fit the bill? If so who would I give them to once on the ship? We go on the Magic next month.

Thanks cgolf

 

[TeamH5]

Hi CMontheseas,
thanks for all the useful information. We are getting ready for our first Disney cruise on the Fantasy on Dec. 7th. Are son will be 2y 11 months and we switched to Disney because Norwegian was so strict on 3yo only in their kids club. We were told that if he was potty trained there wouldn't be a problem. Plus his 5 year old brother will be in there with him! Well after a few weeks accident free I am proud to announce that he is fully potty-trained! Yay.
Now here is my question: While my son is now fully potty-trained, sometimes when he takes down his pants his foot comes out (mainly when doing number 2). He has problems getting his pants back on right. Will a cast member help him occasionally, or will they call me to help get his pants back on. I know the policy is that he needs to be fully independent, but this is really the only thing he needs help with sometimes.

One more question. Do the characters come to the club and dance with the kids? My sons are looking forward to this from the DCL dvd. My youngest son want to dance with his "girlfriend" Minnie that he met at Disney World this past May. (She flirted with him and tried to take his bunny blanket .
Thanks for the info in advance.

This was our scenario when we first cruised, though our son was 3.5 but not yet fully potty trained. I told my 5 yr olds(twins) to help him out and remind him to go potty, help him with his clothes if he needed it, etc. Not once did I get a call on the phone to come get him and not once did he have an accident!

Hi there! Thanks so much for answering everyone's questions!

I have a 3.5 year old who I'm pretty sure will not want to be left without us in the Club. We'll follow your great suggestions to get him ready and will definitely come to the open house on the first day, but I'm pretty sure he will resist at least a little bit when we try to leave him. Will a counsellor be able to take him into the club when we leave him at the gate? He's more likely to warm up if someone kind of takes him by the hand and shows him that there is fun to be had, sort of takes him under their wing if you know what I mean. Once he's occupied he'll be fine! Just wondering what I can expect when we go to leave him at the Club.

Thanks!

We kind of thought this to, especially my son as he's much of a 'momma's boy'. I think the thing that cinched it for us was walking through that first day during open house and exploring with the kids. As soon as he saw Andy's room, it was a wrap! And, the night we went to Palo, when we went to pick them up the CM's told us that he had actually fallen asleep on Andy's bed!!! I sooo wish they could've taken a picture of that.
Point being our 3.5 yr old ended up LOVING the club so much we had NO issues dropping him/them off and often had to convince them to leave!

********************
Here's my question, and while I did see a LOT of mealtime questions addressed, I didn't quite see this:
If we ask the CM's specifically at drop off to feed our children, do they make a point of doing so or do they still have to follow the guidelines of if they child wants to eat they can but you can't force them?
Only reason I ask this is because we specifically asked to make sure the kids got dinner on our Palo night, but when we went to pick them up at 10:30 (taking our sweet time thinking they had already eaten) they said they were starving and hadn't eaten dinner yet. A quick talk with the CM's revealed that our kids indeed had not eaten but that it had been 'offered' to them. I would think, especially with the younger crowd(they were 5 and 3.5 at sailing) that if we asked, the CM's would be a little more directive to the kids to get them to sit down and eat.

Thank you thank you THANK YOU for taking the time to answer the millions of questions! Someone (I don't know how?) should start a FAQ thread with all these.

 

[CMontheseas]

My son has ADHD and sensory issues. Even though he takes medication, he can get pretty excitable and the sensory issues will be in full effect with all the stimulus in the clubs. If he were to become too silly would a CM redirect him to a quieter activity or ask us to pick him up? Do you have any suggestions how to help him be successful or how to request CM's to remind him to self-regulate? We've noted on our concerns on our registration. I guess I'm most concerned with the negative stigma that ADHD kids have gotten. He is a kind kid who just struggles to know when enough silliness is enough. Our experience in other settings has been that some folks hear ADHD and think out of control.

You rock for taking your time to answer all these questions!

Your son sounds like one of our many children with ADHD/sensory issues that we meet every week, who might need a little reminder from time to time. I would make sire this is noted when yiu register him, so that the Counselors understand and are aware of him. Normally silliness is expected from the kids so we do redirect them, but if that silliness ever becomes aggressiveness, or rudeness, or negatively impacts the experience for any of the other children, we'll contact you!

You're absolutely right about the negative stigma, yet most of our kids with ADHD have been a real pleasure in our spaces! It's just the occasional one (like one boy who went and shut down every kid's game in the room and kicked the Counselors shins when we asked him to stop ) - that sours opinions!

 

[CMontheseas]

You mentioned bringing magazines for the crew, I have some entertainment weekly magazines would these fit the bill? If so who would I give them to once on the ship? We go on the Magic next month.

Thanks cgolf

Goodness yes. You can give them to anyone really! I know our department likes to share!

 

[hmurray2008]

Thanks so much for all the informative posts! I'll be travelling with my 9 year (and eleven months) old niece on the Wonder in March. The age range is soooo wide for the Oceaneer Club (3-12). We're wondering (no pun intended!) if she will be bored or if there are activities directed to the higher end of the age bracket? She's mature for her age.

 

[Mayakad]

So why do you think they don't separate the 3-12 age group? It seems like a big issue that in the end of the day make young kids want to move to the edge to early...
I wrote about it in my feedback last time (and than at least half of the day in the edge was out and about and kids 8 and older could go, it should be eve worst now)
I'm sure many others did.
Why Disney won't change it?

 

[lbgraves]

So why do you think they don't separate the 3-12 age group? It seems like a big issue that in the end of the day make young kids want to move to the edge to early...
I wrote about it in my feedback last time (and than at least half of the day in the edge was out and about and kids 8 and older could go, it should be eve worst now)
I'm sure many others did.
Why Disney won't change it?

That's because too many guests complained about their kids not being able to be with each other. When we started on DCL the club was 3-7 with strict division between 3-4 and 5-7. The lab was 8-12 with strict division between 8-9 and 10-12. The teen area was 13-18. It was a big deal to get a kid moved to a different group. Over the years more and more people insisted that their kids be together and eventually it made no sense to have the divisions with so many guests demanding exceptions, so they just opened it all up for 3-12 yos.

 

[stitch'sgirl]

Hello CMontheseas,
I'd just like to send you a big hug and "Thank You" You and your fellow CMs have made our many DCL cruises magical. There were a couple of cruises my son didn't want to spend time in the Club, and that's okay, because I would miss him when he was in there and couldn't wait to pick him up. But other times he couldn't wait to go. We are leaving in just 11 days for the Magic, and this will be the first time he will be able to go to the Edge. A little bittersweet because I so enjoyed the programming and supervision you provide in the Club and Lab. As a side note, I am a Child Development Center director for the military. As you can imagine, we are very highly regulated and constantly under scrutiny. I also served on a national accreditation team and have seen lots of centers, good and not-so-much. I can honestly say, I've never seen anything that has made me feel uncomfortable or weary of leaving my son in the care of you and your fellow CMs. You do an amazing job day in and day out. I know it can be a tough job. Thanks so much for posting to this site!

 

[BAIC03]

I've seen "Toddler Time" listed in the Navigator in the Captain's Closet at the Oceanear Club... what is that? Can my toddler in the Nursery go to that?

Thanks for all the good tips. The CMs on the Wonder in December will be getting a boat-load (get it?) of magazines, chapstick, candy and Mickey Bars!

 

[Danielletx]

How would I send a care package to a counselor?

 

[SnowWhite2]

4. While keeping the thread Disney clean...I must ask, how much...um...crew coupling goes on. I have read several of Brian Bruns books about his time with Carnival, and he indicated quite a bit. (hey, you said ask you anything)

One year we were going down crew stairs to get to our muster station during the drill. The line down the stairs was moving slowly and I was looking around....and noticed a used condom in the stairwell.

 

[Sinderelli]

Hello, I recently met some of you lovely Disboards folk during my last contract on board, and they encouraged me to set up a Q&A for prospective guests & parents! (We found that there's A LOT of information that isn't quite as readily available, that could potentially make your trip better for allll of us. )

I just came back fresh from the ship (We can't access Disboards or many blogs on our crew internet on board!) , so feel free to ask away!

When celebrities are onboard, do they send their kids to the club/lab? What special treatment, if any, do they receive?

 

[TeamH5]

One year we were going down crew stairs to get to our muster station during the drill. The line down the stairs was moving slowly and I was looking around....and noticed a used condom in the stairwell.

Well hey, at least they're being safe!