Edge experience 2/22 Fantasy

[VegastoDis]

My daughters were not fans of Edge, describing it as unorganized and really loud. They spent time together all over the ship and had more fun that way.

 

[smmco]

There's lots of kids that love the Edge and the Vibe including mine. There's always going to be bullies and drama when teenagers are involved. I think the counselors do the best they can to make it a fun, safe environment, but kids are all different. Some kids are going to fit in better than others that's just life.

 

[Max and Ruby]

We are going on a Dream cruise later this summer. I am curious to see if the tween/teen areas are better than Royal Caribbean. After reading some posts, I have low expectations. Since the cruise is a 4 night cruise I actually do not expect my girls 13 and 15 to even want to go to teen/tween clubs. They tried Royal Caribbean's and both complained of the cancelled activities during the daytime, late night events and "all those girls were doing were texting". My girls are not big on texting and on the shy side. The 15 yo did love the Dream Kids club when she was 9 (our last Disney cruise). You could not drag her out of there. Even the kids' club on Castaway Cay. So I told them we'd go to the 3-12 yo open house for nostalgia. I will probably ask them to check out the Edge and Vibe, but I am not expecting much. They would rather see the shows after dinner and hang out on the balcony reading books!

 

[bbel]

(This isn't aimed at anyone, just my thoughts from and interesting (for me) thread)

The Edge age group is such a hard age.
They don't want to anything, but also complain there's nothing to do.

I don't meant that negatively, they want to hang out and be 'mature' but they're also still kids and need structure.
Activities get cancelled because not enough of them want to do them, or leave to get drinks/ice cream when it's about to happen.

It's an age where for a lot of kids they're just gaining freedom, especially on a cruise because its 'safe', and they're figuring out their independence.

It's a hard age on a ship, friendships are important and they're suddenly got to gain friends in a matter of hours and work out the hierarchy of that friendship group without any background. They're not the club age where they can and will just play with the nearest kid, and then find another one the next time.

Theres a fine line between banter and 'bullying', and I don't think I ever saw kids get bullied in Edge (not saying it doesnt happen), have mean things said to them? Yes, but I think that comes with the intensity of trying to form friendships so quick and impress others in quite a forced environment.
Also the kids come from such a mix of backgrounds and cultures and what one kid thinks is ok to say and do, can offend some else, but it's not necessarily intentional. Even as a CM what I would find inappropriate, other CM didnt see anything wrong with and vice versa.

I dont think Vibe is better at activities happening or friendships being made, I think that age group (I know theres only a year or two difference) has just calmed down and are more chilled and have had more life experiences, which in turn kind of makes them more accepting of others which means the group as a whole bonds and activities work.

 

[mcd2745]

(This isn't aimed at anyone, just my thoughts from and interesting (for me) thread)

The Edge age group is such a hard age.
They don't want to anything, but also complain there's nothing to do.

I don't meant that negatively, they want to hang out and be 'mature' but they're also still kids and need structure.
Activities get cancelled because not enough of them want to do them, or leave to get drinks/ice cream when it's about to happen.

It's an age where for a lot of kids they're just gaining freedom, especially on a cruise because its 'safe', and they're figuring out their independence.

It's a hard age on a ship, friendships are important and they're suddenly got to gain friends in a matter of hours and work out the hierarchy of that friendship group without any background. They're not the club age where they can and will just play with the nearest kid, and then find another one the next time.

Theres a fine line between banter and 'bullying', and I don't think I ever saw kids get bullied in Edge (not saying it doesn't happen), have mean things said to them? Yes, but I think that comes with the intensity of trying to form friendships so quick and impress others in quite a forced environment.
Also the kids come from such a mix of backgrounds and cultures and what one kid thinks is ok to say and do, can offend some else, but it's not necessarily intentional. Even as a CM what I would find inappropriate, other CM didnt see anything wrong with and vice versa.

I dont think Vibe is better at activities happening or friendships being made, I think that age group (I know there's only a year or two difference) has just calmed down and are more chilled and have had more life experiences, which in turn kind of makes them more accepting of others which means the group as a whole bonds and activities work.

Well said. That Edge age is very tough. Very difficult to find that balance with there still being some structure in there, and yet not being too childish for them.


Every kid is different. My two could not be any more opposite. Our son (turning 18 next month), when he was Oceaneer's age, we would drop him off and almost always get a message within an hour that he wanted to be picked up. Once he reached Edge & Vibe age, he really took to them and we never saw him . We just got off the Fantasy 10 days ago. That cruise was primarily because he really wanted to go on one more DCL cruise before he aged out of Vibe. Overall though, I don't think Vibe is that great at the structured activities - there are only a couple I know he likes - but for the most part, it is just the meeting place for the teens before they go out and about the ship and enjoy their freedom.

Our daughter, 14 now, was the total opposite. When younger, we'd drop her off early at Oceaneer's on a sea day and she would never want to leave. We'd go to pick her up in a few hours, and she would tell us "I'm having fun, I want to stay". We'd leave and come back a little later and she would be like "I told you...I want to stay". We'd get her for dinner and she would go right back once she was done. My wife would worry the staff would think we were bad parents and/or abandoning her . They would laugh and say that's the best compliment they could receive, when kids don't want to leave. However, once she reached Edge age and she would go and then come right back, saying there was nothing going on, or no one was participating, or she didn't like the activities. This time was a little better - we hardly saw either child! . Even though she could go to Vibe, she mostly went to Edge (I assume to avoid her brother, even though she denied that). She made a few friends and I think they primarily followed the same routine as the Vibe kids, where they used Edge as the meeting spot, but spent most of the time wandering around the ship together.

In either club, it's imperative for kids to go the first day/night and make friends ASAP. The cliques (pretty much the same ones you'll find in any high school - particularly in Vibe) are formed pretty quickly. Otherwise, they are likely to feel like they are on the outside looking in for the entire cruise.

 

[lovingeire]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their advice and experiences. On our next cruise my HFASD son will turn 11 and he is dying to go to Edge. He was not super impressed with the kids club on our last cruise. Too loud and too many little kids he said. (On the other hand my extroverted NT 5 year old didn't want to leave the kids club...). He only liked it when he was in there at the same time as his very extroverted pen pal from our cruise group. I guess I need to temper my expectations and prep him a little before we cruise again, although we do have a while. And we do have early dining since we're doing Alaska next so I'll aim to have him go to the icebreaker event. He tends to do well socially actually, his struggles are in other ways, so I'm hopeful he'll be able to make a friend or two. And having the freedom to come and go will give him a little peace of mind. He didn't like being stuck in the Oceaneers Club as when he was ready to go, he was ready. Again, thanks everyone for sharing your experiences.

 

[mmouse37]

We had a lot of fun on SWDAS! I am cc gold so was able to prebook all of the activities we wanted and it was a nice low-key day for the most part. Kiddo is an early riser and was pooped after dinner most nights, so we missed the takeover but he did jedi training and liked it but not as much as when he was younger at HS, but I think he was glad he did it once last time (honestly he is just growing up too fast for me. )

The character interactions were very good and low wait - Chewie was fun, he tried to eat the Porg off of his shoulder. Darth Vader at 5:15 pm was EMPTY, no wait. My kid was very serious about the whole thing. The droids were fun too.

We really enjoyed Star Wars at lightspeed but that is right up his alley, lots of campy humor - I would highly recommend, the cast (also of the major shows) were super talented.

They had the millennium falcon popcorn buckets too so he was THRILLED to get one as we didn't see any at disney the day before.

The one thing that was different than previous schedules I saw online is that bb-8 races happened basically during mealtimes and once in the morning (which happened to be during our scheduled jedi training), but we caught the tail end of it in the morning and controlling that thing through a maze would have been frustrating for him and he didn't really want to do it (we have done similar activities at school on STEAM night.)

We enjoyed the deck party, it is the only later than dinner activity he made it up for the whole trip (he is an early riser) and I like that they have everyone sitting because it makes the whole crowd thing a whole lot more tolerable and also easier for everyone to see.

We had some great random character run-ins too, the storm troopers were always a hoot and they are around so much you have to try to not run into them.

Overall it was a nice day although honestly I kind of wished they hadn't eliminated the behind the scenes talks they used to have - that would have been a great addition for him and a do not miss since he loves that stuff.

I loved the Storm Troopers roaming around the decks....it was so cool!!! This is right outside Cove Cafe on the Fantasy so even the adult area got some Storm Trooper love! LOL



MJ

 

[lovingeire]

An observation (as I was reading past Navigators for our same cruise this past year) and it said ice breakers were at 6:15. I don't know about y'all, but I've never eaten dinner in half an hour on DCL so I would think my HFASD child would miss most of the first night's dinner to attend the ice breakers if that's the case. For me, the peace of mind of him hopefully making friends would be worth it, but it is a hard pill to swallow!

ETA: I take it back...they have one at 8:30 so there is actually one during each dining rotation. And Gaga ball, which I know is a hit with this age group!