Current Youth Activities CM -- Ask me anything!

[Minniemiss]

I have someone that wants to go and they have 2 boys. One is 4 and the other one will be 2 1/2 in March when they plan to go. He is progressing to being totally independent and potty trained by then.

If he meets all the other requirements and doesn't want to be separated from his brother, will they let him in?

Check the first post in this thread.

 

[randomiam79]

Being full-time working parents, all of our free time is spent with our DD, so I can't fathom as to why I would drop her off while on vacation...

Just to give our perspective, Me wife and i both work full time as well and spend all our free time with our kids. For us at least, that is precisely why we drop them off. It gives us time to be together without the kids, which is priceless. We may do an excursion or the spa, but sometimes its just so we can enjoy a quiet meal or time at the quiet cove, etc. having this opportunity, which we don't get at home, is one of the big reasons we love and appreciate the youth activities CMs.

The other reason we drop them off on vacation is because they have SO much fun. They literally beg us to let them go from the minute we walk on board.

That said, i do know people who don't use the kids spaces because they aren't together as a family much in 'real life'. To each his/her own, there's no wrong way to do a Disney cruise

 

[Mayakad]

Thank you CM

We are just back from the Wonder and we did as you have said candies and magazines
I have asked here about "out and about" so just to share that kids over 8 are still invited to all activities that happens on the ship by the Edge as long as it out of the age. So all the hunts, sports , browns and brain are open as well as open house that made our little 9 years old extremely happy!

 

[CMontheseas]

A couple of questions:

1) When do parents typically drop their kids off in the club/lab? Is it for all day excursions? Or spa treatments? Being full-time working parents, all of our free time is spent with our DD, so I can't fathom as to why I would drop her off while on vacation...

2) If my DD went to the Oceaneers Club, but decided she wanted to be in the Lab, is it something that is easy to switch back and forth?

3) If I were to make a CD of "popular" music for all of the CMs in the club/lab, exactly what type of popular music is suggested? And how many CDs would I need to burn?

This is fantastic that you are taking the time to do this. I used to work for a small ship cruiseline and I know how underappreciated the crew is and how little they are paid. I applaud that you care about your guests this much to do this.

Yay you can relate! If you were to come back to working on the cruise lines now, apparently you'll find they've become far stricter on many things over the past few years!

1) It really depends from family to family on this one, your parenting style, and the kids' personalities! On one end of the spectrum we have some adults who only bring their children in to have a look once or twice but decide to spend most of their time on board together. On the opposite end, we have parents who make it very clear to us on the first day they booked the cruise specifically to spend as much time away from the kids as possible and leave them past closing every evening. (CMs have become quite good at being able to guess which ones these are! )

But like someone else said, there's no right or wrong way to do it, most people fall in the middle of that . At the end of the day, you're technically paying for it whether the kids stay in our spaces for a long or short time!



2) On most of the ships (Dream, Fantasy and Magic), the kids can pass freely between the Oceaneer Lab and Club via the secret passageway connecting the two. On the Wonder however, kids are expected to wait to be escorted over by two Counselors when it is available!



3) A good reference would be top 40s music that is currently on the radio, I know a lot of Brits would love some British charts but whatever's current would be lovely! (It's always so disarming to come home after several months and find out the newest Katy Perry, Gaga and Bruno Mars songs. Or that Miley Cyrus is a completely different person!)



Hope that answer your questions!

We'll be on the Fantasy 2/22. Hope to see you there!!! Are you working in the Club/Lab?

I honestly have no idea, we aren't really told until we get there which space we'll be working in! The only thing I'm fairly certain of is that I will not be in the Nursery!

 

[CMontheseas]

The fantasy, departing 30th August Caribbean stopping at Falmouth

Ahh. Yes, it'll still be quite busy on the Disney Fantasy at that point!

 

[CMontheseas]

CM, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! I'll be on the Dream for Christmas Are there any must-not-miss activities in the Club / Lab for the holidays? I already know about the Gingerbread houses, but anything else that is holiday specific?

Our crafts will often be more holiday-themed, but our programming won't change dramatically. We might add in a lovely holiday-story activity. Depending on the management sometimes we do little caroling choirs with the kids and sing in the Atrium! We throw a mini Christmas-party in the space as well and everything's decorated. And of course Santa might come down onto the ship for a visit .

But oddly enough, my past 2 Christmases on board have been fairly business as usual - nothing too out of the ordinary!

 

[Bear3412]

.... Or that Miley Cyrus is a completely different person ....

 

[vgaskin]

I did read the first page. The comment was made that if they were 2 months shy of their 3rd birthday and met the other criteria, they would probably be let in. This child will be exactly 2 1/2. If he meets all of the other criteria and has a sibling that is in the club, what are the chances they will let him participate? I thought I had heard people say they let their 2 1/2 year old in the club. I just don't want to give them false hope. He will be 6 months shy, not 2 month.s

 

[CMontheseas]

I did read the first page. The comment was made that if they were 2 months shy of their 3rd birthday and met the other criteria, they would probably be let in. This child will be exactly 2 1/2. If he meets all of the other criteria and has a sibling that is in the club, what are the chances they will let him participate? I thought I had heard people say they let their 2 1/2 year old in the club. I just don't want to give them false hope. He will be 6 months shy, not 2 month.s

Oh no! Sorry if I wasn't clear or anything, I tried to make it simple for everyone!
Like I said on the first page, 2 months to turning 3 is what we'll approve. Since 6 months is more than 2 months, there's a higher probability that it won't happen! Anyone not meeting that they'll likely have to refer you to a manager who will then decide. (The staying with older siblings reasoning doesn't always work with the management, be aware!)

While it is true on the rare occasion children who were 2 1/2 have been approved in the space, this has often been after their parents throwing a bit of a fit and being persistent in forcing the Cruise Director and MYA to relent! My advice is to not overpromise anything to the kids, tell them to keep working away on the 2 year old's socialization, potty training and independence so they have a stronger case for a manager when the time comes!


Again, make sure you ask yourself - will my child be ok being seperated from you for extended periods, do they have experience in settings wih a hundred other children, am I ok with the idea of 12 year olds playjng wih my child, if for any reason the siblings are seperated during a game or one has gone over to the other space (Lab/Club), will my younger child get upset or still enjoy themselves?

hope that helps!

 

[ggfred32]

We sadly can't have liquor! We physically aren't allowed to be holding or consuming more than an ounce at a time. (So no buying more than one drink per person at any time! Ever.) Beer and wine we're allowed to have 24-packs in our rooms, but never liquor. I've heard stories of sneaky guests buying alcoholic coffee drinks with Baileys, or Frangelico, or Kahlua delightfully swirled in there and given as "special hot chocolate". But in my good conscience I can never ever condone that sort of naughty behaviour, my goodness!

Well, for putting up with all of our pain-in-the-*** kids, even more obnoxious tourist parents, and SLEEPING BELOW THE WATER LINE, I am smuggling you all some beer and wine!!!! And shame on DCL for having a ridiculous 1oz liquor rule.

 

[onebighappyfamily]

Hi…It took a few days of on and off reading to get through this great thread…thanks for taking the time to answer our questions!!

We just booked a cruise for DS's 3rd B-day for February 2015 on the Dream. DS is a a cancer survivor in remission but left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He has a manual wheelchair and even at his current 21 months he gets around amazingly well and is super social. He will be in the kid club as he turns 3 on the cruise. My question is…how do the other kiddos in the clubs, in your experience, treat kiddos with physical disabilities? This most likely will be the first time DS will be left with kiddos that are not familiar to him. Thanks!!

 

[babyt]

I don't generally push to have my kids move up the the next space early or anything but I am curious. I know the self check privlidges start at 8 (I am nervous that my 11 year old will have it for the first time this year), but I do plan to have her in Edge and allow her to do the activities and give her some freedom this time. But I also have a 7 year old son who turns 8, 7 days after the cruise. I saw the out and about for Edge allows 8 year old to participate, and I am just wondering if his sister was at one and I decided it looked particularly fun for him would he be able to participate at 7, but only one week shy of 8? Also, the thought crossed my mind if we wanted my daughter to drop him off at the club if say one evening they ate dinner quick and didn't want to wait for us, would self check in be an option at one week shy of 8 so that his sister could drop him off there on her way to Edge rather than one of us leaving dinner? Like I said, still nervouse so not sure if we would try either of these ideas but giving all the other leeway windows I thought I would check if the 8 year old options also had any leeway . . .

 

[SeattleSuz]

Well, for putting up with all of our pain-in-the-*** kids, even more obnoxious tourist parents, and SLEEPING BELOW THE WATER LINE, I am smuggling you all some beer and wine!!!! And shame on DCL for having a ridiculous 1oz liquor rule.

Some cruiselines have a NO alcohol rule. No alcohol at all, even if you are OFF the ship. 1 oz is not bad, IMO

 

[sbtrfly74]

My family is planning on cruising with again next year and I will just have turned 18. We are trying to decide whether to go with Disney or not. I understand there is a strict rule against going into Vibe even though I will still be in high school but there is an 18-21 group. My question is how do you find out about the group? Is there a CM that gets them together at first and then lets them do whatever or something else? I'd just like to know how likely it will be for me to meet people my age since there's not an "official" place to meet.

My DD was 18.5 on our last cruise but still in High School and was allowed in the Vibe, I just asked on our first day and no problem. Im worried what she's going to do this time being 21 and hoping she'll find a college group of kids.

 

[CMontheseas]

Hi…It took a few days of on and off reading to get through this great thread…thanks for taking the time to answer our questions!!

We just booked a cruise for DS's 3rd B-day for February 2015 on the Dream. DS is a a cancer survivor in remission but left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He has a manual wheelchair and even at his current 21 months he gets around amazingly well and is super social. He will be in the kid club as he turns 3 on the cruise. My question is…how do the other kiddos in the clubs, in your experience, treat kiddos with physical disabilities? This most likely will be the first time DS will be left with kiddos that are not familiar to him. Thanks!!

This question reminds me of some of my best, favorite memories working in the youth spaces on board, and I'll gladly answer why:

I think a lot of people can stand to a learn a lot from watching how children interact with other children with disabilities. When I first started I was always nervous and a bit worried for them - after all, kids can be cruel sometimes (As you can imagine, we tend to get our share of Make-A-Wish children as well) - and so I tended to keep a close eye whenever anyone with physical disabilities was on our spaces to step in, just in case anything that amounted to teasing or exclusion happened.

What I've experienced first-hand over the past few contracts as a Counselor has made me have so much faith in our next generation, it's insane! What I mean is that these kids, without fail, have openly embraced their peers with physical disabilities and go on to do so much more about making their cruise special than I would've been able to as a CM.

Some examples are:

-The 4-year old Deaf girl who this other 4-year old boy was crazy about and always played with her despite never speaking

-The little boy with a breathing tube who the older kids would sit with during programs

-The 5-year old in a wheelchair who the other girls worked together to put on a princess dress and helped push her around at the Royal Ball. (Cinderella confessed in the hallway later on that she almost cried seeing that!)

-The 8 year old with leukemia who made friends with two new "sisters" who held her hands for the whole cruise whenever they walked from one part of the room to the other

-The blind tween dude whose first dance was with every girl in Edge!


It always starts off with innocent, maybe blunt questions from the other kids: "Why does she walk like that? Why is he wearing that? How come she won't talk to me?" But then, when answered they simply say: "Oh, ok".

And I don't mean to get your hopes up or anything, but I gotta say watching these very nonjudgmental interactions between the kids was far more magical than -dare I say it - Mickey Mouse doing the same thing! It's wonderful that he's social, that will go a long way in making that first introduction to the other kids. Hope he enjoys the cruise!

 

[CMontheseas]

I don't generally push to have my kids move up the the next space early or anything but I am curious. I know the self check privlidges start at 8 (I am nervous that my 11 year old will have it for the first time this year), but I do plan to have her in Edge and allow her to do the activities and give her some freedom this time. But I also have a 7 year old son who turns 8, 7 days after the cruise. I saw the out and about for Edge allows 8 year old to participate, and I am just wondering if his sister was at one and I decided it looked particularly fun for him would he be able to participate at 7, but only one week shy of 8? Also, the thought crossed my mind if we wanted my daughter to drop him off at the club if say one evening they ate dinner quick and didn't want to wait for us, would self check in be an option at one week shy of 8 so that his sister could drop him off there on her way to Edge rather than one of us leaving dinner? Like I said, still nervouse so not sure if we would try either of these ideas but giving all the other leeway windows I thought I would check if the 8 year old options also had any leeway . . .

If all you need is for him to be able to check into the Club/Lab without you being present, you're in luck! Children of any age can technically check themselves into the spaces without an adult, as long as they have their wristband. Which means that if the most intrepid 4 year old came marching up to the Club unattended and wanted to come in, we could let her (and most likely sending a message to her grownups in case they weren't aware)!


Now for Out and About... I'd be careful that it's very dependent on the activity. Consider let's say....if he thought that playing dodge ball looked fun, which is an Out and About Edge activity. Would you be ok if your 8 year old was playing that with pre-teens? (It gets mighty vicious !)

 

[redmomof4]

This question reminds me of some of my best, favorite memories working in the youth spaces on board, and I'll gladly answer why: I think a lot of people can stand to a learn a lot from watching how children interact with other children with disabilities. When I first started I was always nervous and a bit worried for them - after all, kids can be cruel sometimes (As you can imagine, we tend to get our share of Make-A-Wish children as well) - and so I tended to keep a close eye whenever anyone with physical disabilities was on our spaces to step in, just in case anything that amounted to teasing or exclusion happened. What I've experienced first-hand over the past few contracts as a Counselor has made me have so much faith in our next generation, it's insane! What I mean is that these kids, without fail, have openly embraced their peers with physical disabilities and go on to do so much more about making their cruise special than I would've been able to as a CM. Some examples are: -The 4-year old Deaf girl who this other 4-year old boy was crazy about and always played with her despite never speaking -The little boy with a breathing tube who the older kids would sit with during programs -The 5-year old in a wheelchair who the other girls worked together to put on a princess dress and helped push her around at the Royal Ball. (Cinderella confessed in the hallway later on that she almost cried seeing that!) -The 8 year old with leukemia who made friends with two new "sisters" who held her hands for the whole cruise whenever they walked from one part of the room to the other -The blind tween dude whose first dance was with every girl in Edge! It always starts off with innocent, maybe blunt questions from the other kids: "Why does she walk like that? Why is he wearing that? How come she won't talk to me?" But then, when answered they simply say: "Oh, ok". And I don't mean to get your hopes up or anything, but I gotta say watching these very nonjudgmental interactions between the kids was far more magical than -dare I say it - Mickey Mouse doing the same thing! It's wonderful that he's social, that will go a long way in making that first introduction to the other kids. Hope he enjoys the cruise!

This brought tears to my eyes!

 

[onebighappyfamily]

This question reminds me of some of my best, favorite memories working in the youth spaces on board, and I'll gladly answer why:

I think a lot of people can stand to a learn a lot from watching how children interact with other children with disabilities. When I first started I was always nervous and a bit worried for them - after all, kids can be cruel sometimes (As you can imagine, we tend to get our share of Make-A-Wish children as well) - and so I tended to keep a close eye whenever anyone with physical disabilities was on our spaces to step in, just in case anything that amounted to teasing or exclusion happened.

What I've experienced first-hand over the past few contracts as a Counselor has made me have so much faith in our next generation, it's insane! What I mean is that these kids, without fail, have openly embraced their peers with physical disabilities and go on to do so much more about making their cruise special than I would've been able to as a CM.

Some examples are:

-The 4-year old Deaf girl who this other 4-year old boy was crazy about and always played with her despite never speaking

-The little boy with a breathing tube who the older kids would sit with during programs

-The 5-year old in a wheelchair who the other girls worked together to put on a princess dress and helped push her around at the Royal Ball. (Cinderella confessed in the hallway later on that she almost cried seeing that!)

-The 8 year old with leukemia who made friends with two new "sisters" who held her hands for the whole cruise whenever they walked from one part of the room to the other

-The blind tween dude whose first dance was with every girl in Edge!


It always starts off with innocent, maybe blunt questions from the other kids: "Why does she walk like that? Why is he wearing that? How come she won't talk to me?" But then, when answered they simply say: "Oh, ok".

And I don't mean to get your hopes up or anything, but I gotta say watching these very nonjudgmental interactions between the kids was far more magical than -dare I say it - Mickey Mouse doing the same thing! It's wonderful that he's social, that will go a long way in making that first introduction to the other kids. Hope he enjoys the cruise!

AWESOME! Thank you so much for replying and you certainly have set my mind at ease!

 

[meggielove]

We have never been on a cruise before and just trying to get an idea of how been the kids clubs are? Also on average how many kids? specifically edge on the Dream and the lab? Thanks!

 

[meggielove]

How does the Out and About work? 10 yos can participate in Edge activities? Thanks