The kids' club incident...
My 3yo Celeste is a little spitfire - Miss Independent. We've never left her anywhere without us before, but we were sure she would have no trouble in the Oceaneers' Club. I stayed with her the first night, and the second day I stayed in the chairs just outside the club in the hallway just in case she needed me. Instead, she never looked back nor cared a bit that I was gone.
The third time we took her into the club I let the counselors know I was leaving her without me for the first time, and they promised to keep an extra-close eye on her. The 3-4yos were doing some activity, I forget... and Celeste dove right in. I checked on her about 30 minutes later and she was having a great time - I could see her but she didn't spot me.
Then another 45 minutes later I came to check on her again and the entire place was chaos - they had just transitioned EIGHTY-SEVEN 5-7 year olds into the Club, in addition to whatever 3-4yos were already there, and there were not enough counselors AT ALL to handle the ensuing madness. I couldn't see Celeste but I knew I didn't want her in there, so I went in and started looking for her. As soon as I walked into the main part of the Club I could hear her sobbing, but I couldn't find her. I was getting frantic as I could hear her even above the pandemonium... I was afraid she might be hiding somewhere, or that she might be hurt and unable to come out.
Instead I found her standing 5-6 feet from the "treasure chest television" bawling her little eyes out, sobbing and terrified. Her eyes were red and swollen and she'd obviously been crying for quite a long time... when I picked her up the front of her shirt was completely wet with tears. She kept repeating "Nobody helped me Mommy... I'm crying and nobody helped me. Nobody took care of me, Mommy."
It broke my heart to see my little smidget like that.
I headed for the exit and BLASTED the poor girl who was standing there. To her credit, she handled me very well - saying that never should have happened, getting on the radio and calling for more counselors, and offering to have a manager come talk to me. But I told her very honestly that I was in no position to talk to anyone - I was FURIOUS and ENRAGED and I was afraid I would do or say something I would later regret. She processed us immediately and let us out, saying she would have someone contact me the next day.
The following day I had an extended conversation with Gabi and Lisa, the manager and assistant manager of the youth programs. They said all the right things, acting contrite about the situation, saying they were so sorry and although they couldn't go back in time, they were willing to do whatever necessary to make sure Celeste didn't leave the ship with a negative impression of the Club, of being left to play, etc. They asked if Celeste had bonded with any particular counselor, and when I named one they immediately transfered her over from the Lab to the Club and assigned her to shadow Celeste, making sure she felt safe. Obviously there was no way I was going to leave Celeste alone in the club again, but I wanted her to be able to come in and play and have a positive experience instead of clinging to Mommy. They approached the situation with a problem-solving attitude, agreeing that the transition had been overwhelming and deciding that from that point forward they would put the 3-4yos into "Captains Closet" whenever they transitioned the 5-7yos in, just to make sure no little ones got lost in the shuffle. (Sidebar: That didn't happen, at least not consistently. I was in the Club with Celeste two more times on the trip when they transitioned the 5-7yos in, and only once did the 3-4s go into Captain's Closet at that time).
Meanwhile, my sensitive, reticent, somewhat fragile 6yo son *loved* the Club and Lab, and BEGGED to go there every waking moment of every day. <shrug> This is the boy who hates loud noises (cried for half an hour on Tuesday knowing there would be fireworks on Pirate Night, even though I assured him we would NOT hear them from our cabin while he was sleeping!) but somehow he felt perfectly fine with the din in the kids' clubs.
The only negative with him was the graduation ceremony. Knowing how he is, during the online registration for the youth activities I noted that he is scared of loud noises, especially surprises or other startling noises. Several hours before the graduation my husband talked directly to one of the counselors and re-explained the situation, then asked if there was any cause to be concerned with the ceremony. She said there would be "loud singing" but nothing else. So, when the streamers blasted and shot out across the stage, my poor little guy practically jumped out of his skin and burst into tears... and with the way everyone was sitting facing the audience, none of the counselors could see that he was distressed. I held off for a moment to see if he would be okay, but when he started crying harder I raced down the aisle to get the attention of one of the counselors to let them know he needed help (a big apology to anyone I stood in front of as I tried to get somoene's attention to help him out).
Overall not a HUGE deal - he rebounded fairly quickly and wanted to go back to the kids' programs later that night - but I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. Obviously they deal with a lot of kids on each voyage - but really, between letting them know during registration that he has this sensitivity, AND speaking directly to a counselor hours beforehand... shouldn't somebody have been able to give us a heads-up about this?
So anyway, a long story to say our experience with the youth activities was very uneven. Dexter would live in the Club/Lab if he could, and after the incident Celeste had to be bribed to set foot in the Club again. (They arranged a private audience with Mickey in order to entice her to come play again). If we were cruising again tomorrow (don't I wish!) I would still let Dexter enjoy the programs as much as he wanted, but I wouldn't take Celeste in there at all. She's still traumatized - she keeps making me promise that I won't make her go in there again "because nobody would help me, Mommy"
Not the lasting memory I want my 3yo to have of the
Disney cruise, kwim?
Luckily, she has plenty of other wonderful memories to counteract the incident - she had a blast at the Mickey pool, going down the slide, chasing bubbles on
Castaway Cay with "Miss Heather and her pirate boy" (I have no idea why she remembers him as a pirate!), meeting so many characters, developing her first crush (on "Mr. Lazslo" our assistant server). She cried getting off the ship, so even with all the trauma and drama, she still loves the Mickey boat.
I am usually rocking for about a week afterwards. 
)
I think pulled a muscle in my chest just below my right shoulder doing this though.
We wanted to go to St. Croix or Tortola in Sept/Oct. but can't afford the $1,000 more then we paid this year per cabin.
Not sure why she refused to wear the shirt and hat, but she did. She insisted on wearing her hoodie and would NOT take off the hood. Weird kid.
