Hello everyone!
I find the kids who have the best time with us are the ones who have been well prepped by their grownups about what to expect. Too often we have families come who haven't done their homework: "
So how much are you charging us for this daycare? I thought y'all were going to dress up in costumes all day. What do you mean you don't have a soda machine for the kids, what'll they drink? Why won't you let me stay in here, just for a few hours, I paid so much for it! 
" * all real people
Thank goodness for Disboards. And all of you for looking things up!
5 Successful Ways to prepare your kids for the Club/Lab
Now, what you can do to prep your kids is to tell them:
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You won't be trapped. I won't be abandoning you, but this is a special place and the Disney characters sometimes only come when no grownups are around.
Biggest source of kid-panic and discomfort is the sobbing when they don't know if their family's coming back. For kids older than 6, giving them a time frame seems to make them happy to know how long they're in there. Kids hate the realization they can't leave when their grown ups haven't shown up.
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The counselors aren't mean teachers. These are older boys and girls who are Disney experts and good friends with the characters. They can help you make things to give to them!
Guests (and apparently some travel agents
) tell the kids some fairly strange things about the Counselors. We want the kids to feek comfortable playing with us and asking us for help. The above tends to work the best. Sidenote, my very...feathery roomate LOVED when we'd get the kids to make them crafts. She kept them on our wall!
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The Mickey Band is a special bracelet that all of the kids on the ship get to wear, just like at Disney World! Don't take it off, because only kids who wear this can play games or meet Mickey or Stitch or The Princesses without lining up in the Club!
We love the idea of those Magic bands they have in the parks - because it really prepares the kids for what to expect on board wearing Mickey bands. A lot of children who weren't told about the Mickey Band tend to not love it. One very clever family made "Oceaneer in training" bracelets for the kids to wear the week before their cruise to make them feel accustomed to it (and get them excited!). Best. Idea. Ever.
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On Mickey's boat, they like everyone to be clean all the time! So every boy and girl needs to know how to wash their hands!
We surprisingly have a lot of struggle with kids who simply don't wash their hands often enough - or whose parents just use hand sanitizer on them all the time. The sooner you can prepare your kids on how to use automatic faucets and hand dryers in rest rooms, so they don't get scared of them - the better!
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I can come with you for the first day, or when it is Open House so we can look at everything together. But you have to go and meet everyone and your Counselor friends on your own on the first night ok!
Also, make sure their first time is with you and not dropped off solo right away. Go to Open House with them, make sure they attend the welcome parties on the first evening. Those kids get the most comfortable in the space and end up being the ones who choose to spend all their time with us!
Even if you aren't sailing with any children, we'd still love it if you came to our floor even just to say hi, or to give us a little summary of what's been happening in the world. You should've seen the surprise that rippled through the department when we heard about the Royal baby from one guest casually mentioning it!
Annnd if you have anything you want to drop off for us, feel free to!
I remember one time at the end of the cruise, one lady asked us if we had any need for her leftover conditioner and laundry detergent. Us girls ended up having an all out bidding war for it
. 
)
So next cruise, let her stay in longer, still had rules like we watched the shows together, ate meals together, ect.... well she had so much fun, the last night I picked her up, she cried herself to sleep as she was going to miss it so much. You will see it is wonderfully clean and all the CM really do try to make sure your kid is having the time of their life!!
