Dream, veteran cruiser and 2 big disappointments

[misseulalie]

I could not stay inside for more than 5 minutes per their rules. I saw all the chaos from the window. Yes, this is the perfect time to teach independence. Kids need to learn how to make friends and play together with kids their own age.
It was not just my son having a hard time. Other small children were either having no part of it or were always pushed around by bigger kids.

Palo in 2014, that's what we did.

Club/Lab has been that way since before Feb 2013.

Those splits are almost what they have on Royal, and some people hate it.

A cruise isn't the place one must teach kids to be independent.

Having ages together can be incredible for kids.

I'm sorry your 4 year old had a hard time. Not all kids do, and not every moment at th club is like that. Sounds like you had an unruly group. Since you were right there, is it possible they thought you could handle it?Maybe that's why the CMs said nothing?

My son stays far from the club side. When he was little he was knocked down at Disneyland, and on this side he can see how little kids get underfoot. So he tries to stay away from them at all costs.

I

 

[disneyholic family]

oh wow!! i had no idea...
it's been years since we used the kids clubs, so i didn't realize they'd changed the groups..
i'm so glad i read this thread as i was thinking about taking the entire family on the Dream next year when our grandson is 3 so he could go into the kids club....but there is no way he would be ok being on his own in a place full of much bigger kids all the way up to the age of 12...
and in all honesty, even if he were ok with it, i wouldn't be ok with an age spread like that...
that is the most insane thing i've ever heard....

 

[VFG]

My son is three and loved the kids club because we only took him for events. We would check the navigator and dropped him off for an hour at a time for a set activity.

 

[Hundredacre]

I did not have time to fully respond before. I am on the fence about the kids club but I lean towards the disney model. While I do think kids ten and older opt out, I think it is good for kids to be "pushed" around a bit. Kids are so overwhelmingly coddled today that I like the idea of kids having to deal with the idea that not everyone is nice all the time. I would not let my kids push other younger kids around-- I am not saying that, but I think that kids are not allowed to experience life anymore in a way that figures like Tom Sawyer did. I have both older and younger children and regret not exposing my older child more to the vagaries of existence. A few hula hoops taken away from him by older kids at a young age might have made him less soft.

 

[saraheli]

We just got off the Dream last week. My kids, 6 and 9, LOVED LOVED LOVED the kids club and they LOVED to enjoy it TOGETHER. Same thing last year when we sailed and they were 5 and 8, and also the first time we sailed when they were 3 and 6. Every time I went to pick them up they never wanted to leave and begged to stay a little longer. While I understand some might be anxious to leave a 3 year old in the same club as 12 year olds, I would not be happy being forced to split my kids up due to their ages while they were at the club. Its a family vacation and they want to experience the kids club together! Nothing crazy about that!

 

[willijen]

Both these points are good information for us. I'm hoping to get my first Palo brunch on my upcoming cruise. We'd much prefer to serve ourselves, but I don't think it would be a deal-breaker if they don't let us.

Our boys are 5 and 10. I have mixed feelings about the huge spread too. I know they're looking forward to exploring the clubs together to start with, but my DS5 is independent, self-assured, and confident with kids much older than he, and will quickly make friends on his own, leaving my DS10 (introverted, but mature for his age) to find his own friends/activities in the Oceaneer Club or maybe venture to Edge if they allow him. I think it really depends on the personalities of your kids. In my case, we're going to benefit from the arrangement, I think.

 

[TestingH2O]

My son is three and loved the kids club because we only took him for events. We would check the navigator and dropped him off for an hour at a time for a set activity.

This is what we did last time when DD used the clubs for the first time. On our first cruise, she would have been in the nursery and we could not get her in there for the life of us. So strange.

She did end up choosing to stay longer on a couple of occasions, but we wanted to make sure we left her wanting more club time instead of feeling like we were begging her to go. Also, it is a family trip, so we wanted her to spend time with us too!

Kids are so overwhelmingly coddled today that I like the idea of kids having to deal with the idea that not everyone is nice all the time.

I agree with this. I even find myself getting to hands-on at times. At the same time, I really don't know that I think 3&4 year olds should be asked to deal with the more complex social expectations of 12 year olds. It's a hard balance to find.

In a perfect world, I would love for Disney to maintain some age splitting with the option of Lab kids being able to age DOWN if the parents insisted on their kids staying together. That seems like a reasonable compromise to me. I think DCL must be getting some push back though because they did have some times reserved on the Dream this spring just for the preschool set. No big kids allowed!

 

[Dug720]

Both these points are good information for us. I'm hoping to get my first Palo brunch on my upcoming cruise. We'd much prefer to serve ourselves, but I don't think it would be a deal-breaker if they don't let us.

I've done it both ways - both times on the Fantasy - and really did not find it that horrid to have someone put the things on my plate. If I wanted more of something, it was NBD to simply and politely ask for more. In fact, the server helping me usually asked me if I'd like more before I had the chance to say anything. The only time I didn't get words out fast enough was when I asked for prosciutto and he automatically put melon on the plate. I cannot stand melon. I'd just been starting to say no melon when he put it on there, and he realized it. I told him it was not a problem, I'd just take it off on my own, but he insisted on getting me a whole new plate and replicated everything I'd had on the other one minus the melon. I think some people make far more of a deal out of it than necessary and get far too stressed about people "knowing how much they're eating" (which let's be honest a) they don't care about and b) they know anyway just from monitoring the buffet section and the amount of plates).

 

[TestingH2O]

When we did brunch on the Dream, I liked that the server made up an antipasti plate for us. I never would have considered doing it on my own. He also made recommendations that I wouldn't have tried on my own. I actually enjoyed the experience.

 

[disneyfab]

We did Palo brunch on the Dream in early July. We were asked if we would like assistance with the buffet but we told our server we were fine and they let us deal with it on our own.

We did Palo in early July also. As our host showed us the buffet, 2 servers got food for my mother and I on the first go round. Dh had to get his own plate, but I think the host asked him if he wanted him to fix it and dh declined. After that initial time, we all got the food ourselves.

ETA: The servers nor the host inquired or offered to prepare any other plates for us except for the hot bunch items.

 

[Trera]

I look at vacation and Disney cruises as a place to be happy and be polite to those around you trying to do the same. I will never be ok with older children being rude or pushing any of my kids around. My kids have been taught to wait their turn, say please and thank you and not be physical with other kids........and that doesn't make them soft. (Elementary school kids are not in the same school with middle school kids for a reason.)

I understand not all older kids are like this and I also understand that some parents like to have their kids together but as usual, it's the few bad apples that spoil the bunch. Disney has the rules the way they want them so until they change them, we will just keep our DD with us more until she is a bit older.

 

[3Gsandme]

I hear what you are saying about kids of different ages being together but I have watched the older kids in evironments where little ones are there and they are too rough. Go to Nemos reef and watch how 10-13 year lids act around younger kids. They push them out of the way and cut in front of them in line for the slide and also run around knocking kids down. Our DD is three and she also is intimidated by the older kids running around the clubs and taking over areas.

i am not saying all preteens are this way but just look closely next time and you will see what I mean. At an open house last year, I watched a 10 year old girl steel a hoola hoop right from my DD hand with her mom watching and she didn't do anything.

Younger kids should have a safe place to play just like everyone else and it shouldn't be the nursery.

Just my opinion.

That is a parenting problem. Not an age group problem.

 

[Dug720]

That is a parenting problem. Not an age group problem.

Specifically a problem of parents thinking a vacation means a vacation from parenting...

 

[hanscarlet]

On the Wonder in 2015 they held the plate at Palo and agree it was kind of awkward.... Magic this past April we were allowed to serve ourselves....

The Clubs - I am probably in the minority but i love that my ODD can be with my YDD because she's delayed (ASD) and it's nice to know she's not in their by herself... having said that, we've only used Magic Class clubs and so while chaotic, nothing crazy - we return to the Dream next year and I am not a little concerned my 5 and 8 year old will be overwhelmed with the bigger populations in the club... ugh, I hope they will be ok

 

[Quellman]

I hope you left feedback on both of those issues you mentioned, Palo and the kids clubs. If not, it isn't too late to do so. Maybe Palo is trying to rpvide you with similar fancy service that you would see at dinner.

My son is three and loved the kids club because we only took him for events. We would check the navigator and dropped him off for an hour at a time for a set activity.

This is what will be be doing. He was 14 months and 20 months on his first 2 cruises. So we always made sure to attend open house times. I think by setting them up for an activity it allows them to have fun, but not get overloaded with everything going on!

We just got off the Dream last week. My kids, 6 and 9, LOVED LOVED LOVED the kids club and they LOVED to enjoy it TOGETHER. Same thing last year when we sailed and they were 5 and 8, and also the first time we sailed when they were 3 and 6. Every time I went to pick them up they never wanted to leave and begged to stay a little longer. While I understand some might be anxious to leave a 3 year old in the same club as 12 year olds, I would not be happy being forced to split my kids up due to their ages while they were at the club. Its a family vacation and they want to experience the kids club together! Nothing crazy about that!

What lovely points you have made. My only counter thought is, for a 3 year old who doesn't have an older sibling to hangout with, the prospect of the kids club being a free for all isn't exactly something parents may be thrilled about. I just envision the 3 year old kid following kids around hoping for something fun to happen. Which is why I agree with @VFG dropping off younger kids for a set activity is a wise choice. And it goes with being a parent first, do what your child can handle and thrust them into safe environments where they can work out dealing with more. But integrating with kids up to 9 years older, not really going to happen much.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Why doesn't Disney keep the Oceaneer's Club for the 3-8 year olds, but allow the Lab to be open to the 6-12 year olds? That should be enough overlap for most parents and the really small ones would have a place of their own without being intimidated by older kids.

That said, the CMs for a club with youngsters should be child and youth educators, not just babysitters/camp counsellors and they should be willing and able to sort out issues between the age groups.

 

[deanimal]

Totally agree that the age spread is just too much! The idea of 3-8 and 6-12 would be great as well. I think the problem is way worse on the big ships as it's such a big open space. On the classic ships they can move back and forth to an extent but the little ones seem to stay in the club and the big ones in the lab.

We recently jumped ship after three Disney Cruises and went to NCL and we liked the age divisions in the clubs way more. In fact, my kids now say they like the NCL clubs more than the DCL ones and I think this is the main reason. My 5 year old son was able to just be a little kid in the 3-5 age group, doing shorter activities with lots of movement and counsellor attention. My 7 year old daughter loved the more sophisticated activities, geared towards school aged kids in the 6-9 group. She made several good friends, which has never happened on a DCL cruise because the size of the groups were just so much more reasonable. The 9-12 groups looked really cool as well, doing things like circus school, mini spa evenings and fairly complex science experiments. With no "little kids" to slow things down there would have been no complaints about the clubs being too babyish from most of the tweens I know.

My kids aren't shy or coddled by any stretch of the imagination. They both did group daycare from age 2 and my oldest even handled sleep-away camp at the age of 6. But when those clubs on the new ships are full and the packs of older kids are running around they don't want anything to do with it. It's such a shame because they could be so much better.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Why doesn't Disney keep the Oceaneer's Club for the 3-8 year olds, but allow the Lab to be open to the 6-12 year olds?

Totally agree that the age spread is just too much! The idea of 3-8 and 6-12 would be great as well.

That would be great. I like the Princess policy on kids moving into a different level club (that "just so my kids can be together" attitude). They will allow older kids to "age down", but not younger kids to "age up". Yeah, so how many older kids want to be in the "little kids club"?

 

[drea21]

I'm sorry your little one didn't enjoy the kids club. We haven't been on the Dream since 2013, but the clubs were all together then too and my daughter loved them at 3.5. She never complained about older kids and I never saw anything out of line. It seemed that the little ones gravitated to the younger areas and the older ones to their areas. I have a feeling this has a lot to do with the CM staff in the club too. We also go when school is in so I'm sure that plays a big part. I've also never seen big kids in Nemos reef.

I'm for one glad my 4 and 6 year old can be together on our next cruise in Feb. not because I don't think they will be independent and play with kids their own age, but just knowing they have a back up and that sense of security there makes me feel better leaving them.

I think it's hard to paint the clubs with a broad stroke because there are so many variables from cruise to cruise, the demographics of the kids, the willingness of the CM's to step in, etc.

 

[xavier2001]

I will also throw in my 2 cents that some kids need more time to 'warm up' to the clubs (and vacation in general). Both cruises (my son was age 6 and then 8) took a day or two just to get acclimated to the ship and vacation mode then another day to warm up to the clubs. By day 6 or 7 we couldn't get him him out of the clubs to go to the shows at night. He would've been even worse at ages 3 and 4 (he is a very routine oriented kid). With the Dream having shorter itineraries I can see where that may be an issue.