Do the Kids really have fun in the kids clubs>?

[wenpop]

My kids will be split up for the kids clubs, 3,6,11,13. Will they have fun alone> What kinds of things will they do? Also I"m not sure I want my 13 year old son hanging around all the teenagers, should I worry>

 

[TnRobin]

My 7 year old would rather be in the clubs than spend time with us. He begged us to let him stay longer when we would go pick him up. He got to be a pirate, play detective, make flubber, watch movies, play video games, do crafts, make ice cream sundaes.......

 

[mouseclick1]

My boys were 10 & 12 on our last cruise, and we have gone on 2 DCL cruises. Both times our boys gave it a try 1 night, but didn't have that much fun and never went back. It's not like they refused to go back, but they definitely prefered to hang out with us, which wasn't a problem at all. There is plenty to do onboard as a family! Whether they choose to go to the clubs or not, I am sure they will have a wonderful time!

 

[PiperG]

Our DS was almost 5 and we had to drag him out of there! We spent our days together as a family, either at the Mickey pool or on excursions and then usually took a nap before dinner.

Since the feed the kids first at dinner, either DH or myself would take him over between one of our courses.

 

[Ashley24]

My dd7 was one of those who refused to leave the club, even though it meant missing dinner with us (she had been looking forward to wearning her new dresses) and not going to see Disney Dreams! If you ask her what was her favorite part of the cruise, she would definately say "The Club!"

 

[Tiiiigergirl]

My son also loved the club and would live there if he could. I think it depends on the child. Some questions to ask do your kids do well in daycare or summer day camp? Are they social or stick to themselves. The main thing is to go with the realization that your children may love the club and then again they may be those that hate it or they may fall somewhere inbetween.

 

[MrsScooby]

My DS8 and DD5 have been in day care since they were 3 months old. DS is always annoyed when we pick him up early. He loves summer camp too. As far as DD is concerned, her enthusiasm is in direct proportion to how much she likes the teacher/friends/activity. Sometimes she clings, sometimes she forgets to say good-bye to me. I'm assuming they will love the kids clubs on board. Is this a safe assumption? (I don't intend on leaving them there for the whole day. I would miss them too much to do that.)

Laurie

 

[skuba]

I remember seeing a lot of cranky crying kids the first night. It seemed to have nothing to do with the club---more that the kids were all so tired from traveling and the excitement. Just keep your plans loose for the first night.

Your younger two will spend probably half the time together and then some time apart. My youngest, 4, cried once the first time her sister left the club to go to the lab. We had to go to comfort her and then she seemed fine.

We had to drag them out at 11 pm. They would be repeating all the way to the cabin "I'm not tired." and "I want to stay" and then 5 minutes after they are in bed, they are out. By the end of the week, they can get really exhausted.

This vacation was the best family vacation we have ever taken. The kids had their stuff, we had our stuff and we had family stuff. We were all so relaxed.

Enjoy!
DG

 

[4407mark]

We just returned from the 6/23 Wonder 4-Day cruise and our two DS (7 and 8) had a hard time leaving the clubs. At least half of the time they asked for us to pick them up (club paged us), we arrived to find that they had changed their minds. They had a great time and enjoyed all of the activities. All of the counselors were wonderful and the kids show on the last day was great!

 

[Familyof6]

Our kids were each in a different group. (11,9, 6 & 2) We only insisted that they go to the clubs ONE time...while dh and I enjoyed a surial mud bath. We had planned to go to Palo's the one night also, but after two kids paged us during that ONE time, we cancelled our Palo's ressies.
We had not taken our kids to the clubs the first night...we were just too busy doing other things! That was probably a BIG mistake. Try getting your kids to the clubs on that first night so they can meet friends, before the kids each hook up with other people.
One of the kids to beep us, we dd2 from Flounders. She is never away from me and so she had a hard time. There were two men staffing the nursery at the time and they were not really eager to entertain her so I think that added to the problem. Given someone with a little more enthusiasm, I think she would have done better. (don't get me wrong, they took good care of her, but just didn't do some of the things I would expect from a place that deals with new kids all the time)
Our older two each went to their club went it was time to make Flubber. They each had a great time doing that. That was the only time they went back after the ONE time we made them go. There was just SO much we wanted to do, I just think they didn't have time to even think about going to the club. They wanted to swim and play ping-pong and such. And since we are a close family and we were on vacation, we were more than happy to just enjoy being together.
I can't say whether they would have wanted to go more often if any of them had been in the same age groups. Our 6 yr old didn't want to go in the first place. After that ONE time, she never went back. (and she wasn't interested in even discussing what the schedule was)
I should add, if your kids are the quiet type like mine are, they will be overlooked a lot. My kids told of the boisterous kids and how they got all the attention. I told them it's a lesson that you have to speak up to get what you want. No one can read your mind. They had fun just the same.
And to be honest, dh would have been upset if they had chosen to go to the clubs very much. He works long hours and travels often so vacation time is really time for us to be together. We were happy with how it turned out.
BTW, we were on the 4-day Wonder on 19-23 May.

Lisa

 

[TootyJane]

Originally posted by mouseclick1
My boys were 10 & 12 on our last cruise, and we have gone on 2 DCL cruises. Both times our boys gave it a try 1 night, but didn't have that much fun and never went back. It's not like they refused to go back, but they definitely prefered to hang out with us, which wasn't a problem at all. There is plenty to do onboard as a family! Whether they choose to go to the clubs or not, I am sure they will have a wonderful time!

Mouseclick1, are you sure you didn't have my youngest two?? Actually mine are 7 and 11. Our first cruise they did go once but that was it. This last time my 11yo wouldn't go at all but the 7yo went only one time -- again. They preferred hanging with us as well. My 14yo, however, had the time of his life on this last cruise. He made a lot of friends at Common Ground.

 

[tkd lisa]

Since no one has answered the question about the 13 year old hanging with older kids, I'll take a shot at that.

Depending on how old of a 13 he is, you could ask to have him stay with the 10-12 year olds. They do some things at the common grounds (the teen place), but some things in the labs. I asked to keep my DD down in the 8-9s and she was 2 months over 10. They had no problems with this. She interacts best with younger kids. I was worried with the older kids she'd act too babyish, and the 8-9s kept her in the same group with her brother. It worked fine for us.

Overall, our kids were kind of in the middle of the described experiences. They did like being at the clubs, but weren't there ALL the time. We were paged maybe two or three times to pick them up, and went two or three times as arranged to pick them up and they didn't want to leave. The only exception was at Castaway Cay. We expected to spend the day together at the beach, but DS wanted to go to the club (they move it onto the island for the day). We tried several times to get him to come out to "play" with us, but he was having too much fun and wouldn't leave. So we tried to get DD to go to the club with him so we could go to the adult beach. Nothing doing, she was having too much fun in the water with her friends!

I agree the best thing to do is go in with a flexible attitude. Look at the navigators on Barb's site, and have the kids pick out things they would like to do. The kids navigators are for the entire week, so you can sit down on Saturday and lay out a general game plan. If they change their minds part way through, no sweat.

Enjoy!

 

[WHITEHC]

Wendy, we were on the June 2 Wonder cruise and my 12 year old son only went to the Lab during family time with me. I don't know if he will go to the club at all when we go on our next cruise May 17, 2003. He usually prefers to stay with me. He will be 13 when we cruise again, but he is quiet and small for his age so I have a concern too about him being with older teens. He still says our cruise was the BEST vacation he has ever had.

 

[natsmom125]

Our dd loves the clubs and has since our first cruise when she was 4!!

She always tried to make a friend so she will have someone to pal around with at the pool, and Tea With Wendy, etc.

She has been in structured care since she was 2...so she really doesn't know any thing
different.

You might give the older ones the opportunity to check themselves in and out of the club..it seems to make a difference to the older ones.

Phyllis

 

[hokie5cruiser]

Just back from the 6-22 Magic
My twin sons(12) were allowed in the teen group since they will be 13 in a month. They were in and out during the day, and did family stuff on port days. After dinner (we had late seating-they went to the club and we did not see them until curfew time)
My 8 year old went a few times but preferred to hang out with us. I did not allow sign out priveleges with him. We tried to pick some activities to interest him and he went to several. When we went to Palo's for brunch, we told him what time we would get him and told him he could not page us. He went after dinner most evenings, but would page us about 11:30 to go to bed. He did not like eating with the kids because he did not like the kiddie food. The first night get-together was during our dinner so I think this is why he didn't want to just hang out in the lab. Overall, he really enjoyed the entire cruise, and it is nice when your kids like to hang out with you!

 

[Michelle]

My daughter (8, almost 9) will be taking her 5th Disney cruise in December. She is an only child, but VERY outgoing. The only time we could drag her out of the club was to go to the pool We did spend most meals together and some shore time together, but for the most part she'd MUCH rather be playing in the club than do anything else on the ship. It's her vacation too, so that's fine with me.