Dine&Play/Oceaneer/Bedtime/PJ question

[rhorsley]

Hi all. So it's my 1st cruise with a little dude in tow. Next May we will be traveling with our then 3 & 3/4 year-old. I'm quite sure he will love the Oceaneer's club. He loves all things Disney (Calls Mickey "da-da".) As much as he loves Disney, he hates food and stopping to eat. We have the late seating and I'm interested in the Dine and Play Option. Here's my question....

When the CM comes to get my little man at dinner, can we send him with his PJ's in a bag? I'm thinking bringing him to the restaurant in PJ's would be bad form. Or should I stop eating and go with the CM to a close bathroom or to the club and change him myself? (I would think that defeats the point?) Although at that age, he may be able to change himself? As a 1st time mom I'm kind of new at this. I'm thrilled he can take his shirt off most nights now

Any thoughts on these specific questions or other thoughts on the club and/or Dine and Play would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Four Swampers]

If the pajama idea does not work out, consider having him wear a t-shirt and sweatpants to dinner. No one will think twice of a 4 year old in casual clothes, he can wear that to the club, then go straight to bed in his clothes, which are practically pajamas anyway.

 

[lanejudy]

I don't know that the CMs will change him. They aren't allowed to help with pottying or in the restroom in general, so highly unlikely they'd be allowed to change a kid into his PJs. I second the idea of either taking him to dinner in his PJs or the sweats/t-shirt idea. There also isn't really any place to store personal belongings (like a bag of clothes) at the Club - no cubbies or such.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[cruisecrasher]

Just as a heads up, dine n play is only offered for those in late dining rather than main dining.

 

[gotomu212]

We've cruised with our little guy starting when he was 2 and a half. We had one of two things happen most nights. He would either completely crash out withen the first 10 minutes of entering the MDR. When that happened our servers would make a little bed out of two chairs and he slept away until we carried him off. We ran into Snow White one night and she went crazy for Sleepy. Those nights he just slept in his clothes.

His other trick was to party all night. Those nights he'd go to the Club, play like crazy until we took him to the room, put on pjs, and forced him to bed. We were flexible about our normal routines and it worked well for us (everyone's different though).

Unless you had a specific reason for wanting him all set in pjs, I'd just leave him dressed until after the Club rather than leaving dinner to change him and carrying around a set of clothes

 

[Weedy]

Suggestion... If he hates dining, don't have him go to the dining rooms at all. You can feed him early, food is available on the pool deck, pizza, burgers, chicken strips they also have milk and fruit!! Or you can order room service there is no charge for most items ( soft drinks, prepackaged candy and booze there is a charge) . Let him eat as you get ready for dinner, drop him off at the kids club ( in his PJ's) and then head to the dining room. When our kids were small we would pick up food on the pool deck and bring it back to the room. Some nights our daughter liked us to pick her up to come have dessert with us, other nights she stayed and played in the club.

 

[rhorsley]

Great ideas! Thanks guys (gals)! We are late seating and have the added benefit of being in concierge, so (if there is anything there he is willing to eat) we could get good from the lounge before dinner for him while we get ready....hmmm... Thanks so much for the help!

 

[rhorsley]

A fine example...tonight's meal was peanut butter (straight up with a spoon), strawberries & yogurt. I'm hoping to get some crackers or granola in him later. His dinners always look do strange.

 

[Weedy]

Also if he wants to go to dinner with you and then 5 minutes later he wants to go to the club ( been there done that) one of you can take him to the club. Your servers will hold/cover your food for you.

If concierges does't have yogurt and fruit the breakfast buffets do. You can just grab some in the morning and put it if the frig for later. My strange dinner eater would not eat the peanut butter on the ship.

 

[KPetty725]

Just an FYI on the dine and play...they don't come pick up the kids until about an hour and a half into the meal. We just sailed with DD's 3 and 6 in February and had originally planned to grab them food from the top deck and let the, eat after the show but before our late dining time and then take them to the kids club before we went into dinner. Unfortunately DD3 would only eat Mac n cheese which is only served in the MDR and the buffet. Since our kids could never have lasted until the kids club people came around at 9:30, our servers would just bring their dinners out immediately (like before we got our first course in some cases) and then I would run them up to the club between the first and second course. It took about 15 minutes for me to get up there and back but was much better than dealing with wiggly kids for the duration of the meal.

 

[rhorsley]

I read somewhere they come 45 min into meal and will give you a 15 minute warning? I guess what is put on paper doesn't always work in practice?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I read somewhere they come 45 min into meal and will give you a 15 minute warning? I guess what is put on paper doesn't always work in practice?

I've always read that they time the pickup time to about the break between the normal appetizer/salad course and the entrée course.

 

[jahber]

Whatever time it is, keep an eye out. We never once saw the Dine n Play CMs. They stay at the door, I guess? At least, they did on our cruises. Whatever you end up doing, you'll have a great cruise with your little one!

 

[rhorsley]

My understanding is, if you tell your server when you arrive that that is your plan, they will contact the club to have someone come up at the appointed time and then the waiters will rush their meal? It all seems to good to be true really...what's the catch ;-)

 

[yaddakal]

FYI we had 8:15 dinner and they come to the door at 9:15 at which time my kids were waiting for dessert. Our waiter said we should have told him we wanted dine and play at beginning.

 

[lbgraves]

We have always had early seating and the servers always brought the kids' food out earlier than ours since they have fewer courses. They finished desert before our entree arrived, so DH or I would take DS to the club and return to finish dinner. Even though the kids are older now, our servers still check with us the first couple nights to see if we want their food brought out quicker. DS always orders chicken tenders so it is an easy meal to do that with.