Do kids need money for the club/arcade?

[nana_b]

Hi fellow cruisers,
We will be taking our first Disney cruise and have read lots of great information on these boards but don't remember reading about the cost of arcade games for kids. Are the video games in the arcade free or do the kids need to have money when we drop them off in the clubs? (The kids are 4,6,8 yo).

THANKS SO MUCH!

 

[scrapperjill]

The clubs don't do anything or go anywhere that would cost the children extra...But the arcade does cost. We skipped it altogether...so I can't tell you how much games costs...but you can purchase a "game card"..which looks like a phone card...or credit card...and put whatever $$ amount on the card that you like. It all gets charged to the stateroom account. I think depending on how old your kids are...It could be WAY to easy for them to rack up $$$ used at the arcade if they are allowed to go on their own. That was one reason we stay away from it...Using the card you really loose track of how much you've spent. One nice thing about having the arcade card...is you can prebuy however much your willing to spend there...and just tell the kids when it's empty...its empty.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

We would allow our daughter to spend 10.00 a day at the arcade. We just put it on the card and when it was gone, it was gone. I believe the games are the typical .25 to 1.00 arcade type.

 

[depomas]

Just to add that these games in the arcade are pretty outdated, and often broken down. And the money flies by so fast. My ds8 is a game fanatic and really was not enthralled on any of our 3 cruises. He had more fun in the lab playing playstation on that giant tv screen.

Just wanted to put in my two cents.

Enjoy your cruise.

 

[ivanova]

Okay, here's a horror story for you.

Someone was talking to my DH on a plane once. He mentioned we were going on a Disney Cruise. They then started ranting again Disney because (1) their little cherubs had charging privileges, (2) they did not choose to suspend charging for their kids, (3) they never went to Guest Services to check the status of their stateroom account in the 7 days they were onboard, (4) and how dare DCL not have the capability of checking your stateroom account from your room tv, and (5) their little cherubs decided they wanted to be the "cool" kids.

Can you guess what happened????

Yeah, said little cherubs decided to use their KTTW cards to buy EVERYONE arcade cards ... succeeded in racking up something like $1,200 in charges ... and the parents were ticked at Disney. Go figure.

Oh, and apparently these people had cruised other cruise lines before, so they knew that kids cards could have charging privileges unless you requested that they not ... and they knew you could check your stateroom account, they just wanted to do it on their tv and since they couldn't do that then they didn't want to be bothered with going to Guest Services.

So, moral of the story - be careful about letting your kids have charging privileges and cut 'em off if they get outta hand.

 

[depomas]

Wow Susan, that is a horror story. I would freak if that every happened. But like you said, they were not new to the game... This sort of thing must have happened in another way with this family.... OOh boy...the nightmare..

 

[zellda]

We were on the Wonder in December with entire family - 5 staterooms and 17 people. Our two oldest DGS stayed with us. We discontinued their charge privileges immediately upon boarding, but did buy them arcade cards to use at their discretion. When the money was gone - it was gone. They also enjoyed the lab computers at least as much as the arcades.

Phyllis

 

[tksbaskets]

I'll give you a quick run-down on our sons' arcade experience. On our first cruise they were in the lab - plenty of computers/PS-2s we didn't give them charging priv. or money for the arcade because they really didn't need it.

On our last cruise they were 13 and in the Stack with only a couple of computers for everyone. They had charging priv. and a budget of their own for the trip ($ from grandma's etc. for Christmas) It was actually a good experience for them to have a card that they could charge with and need to keep track so they wouldn't go over budget. They were very responsible and checked at the service desk every couple of days to see what their charges were. They will divide it up by passenger for you and are happy to print reports each day if you'd want. DH and I considered it their first time with a 'visa'. They did very well, no $1200 arcade charge for us. They pretty much kept to $10 a day in the arcade too.

Hey, *I* loved the old games. Took me back to my youth with Galiga (which used to be Galaxia). The only video game the I can whoop both the boys at

 

[diz_cruise_rocks]

Kids don't need money for the club I'm sure. BUT they need money for the arcade.

 

[nana_b]

Wow, so we will cut off the kids's charging privlidges within the first hour and stay away from the arcade which is separate from the kid's club - THANKS FOR THE INFO

We're going to have a wonderful time and we appreciate your insight!

 

[kcashner]

Kids do not need money in the club or lab. There is no opportunity for them to spend or charge anything in these settings. Teens in The Stack can purchase smoothies if they wish with a KTTW card (not money.)

The arcade works on arcade cards. Again, kids don't need either money or charging. You can purchase an arcade card and give it to the child. The club/lab groups do not go to the arcade, so any group in there would be a spontaneous deal. There are computer games (free) in the lab.

Obviously, each family has a different idea on whether or not a child needs to be able to charge. We are veterans of 12 sailings on the Magic. I cancelled the charging until DD turned 13. At that age, I gave her a budget for the entire trip. She asked whether, if she didn't spend the $, it could roll over to our next scheduled trip (I agreed.) Bottom line, she spent about $30.

You can get a print out for each guest and/or each stateroom any time at guest services. This would allow you to track what a child is doing, or to allow the child to track his/her own finances.

 

[jrabbit]

I remember this one from a while back that someone posted. This is the short version.

There DD had charging privledges, abused them, parents turned off her card.
Then... she swiped her younger siblings (a baby or toddler) card and racked up another large bill before the parents found out.

I don't think that I would want to be the parents OR child when the do-do hit the fan after the cruise. DD sounds to enterprising and resourcefull, parents not enough control - it will be quite a battleground raising that one!