GF Pirate Advent Safety

[mowery]

We are going to Disney the last week of Sept and 1st week of Oct. My husband wants our 6 year old twins (son and daughter) to go on the GF Pirate Adventure. I have concerns about sending my children off with people I don't know. Please let me know your thoughts about this. I also have some questions. How many children are allowed on each trip? How many Disney people go? Are the Disney employees that go usually women, men, or mixed? Are they usually older than 20? Thanks for the info.
Lynn

 

[StormalongKay]

We did the GF Pirate adventure this past Jan. I must admit I was nervous beforehand too, more because the children would be on the water without us than anything else. We had previously done the Disney childcare in the BC and on the Disney Wonder, so I had gotten over my fear of strangers taking care of them. Also, my children that attended were 8 & 6 (didn't let my 4 yr old go) and we've had many conversations with them about appropriate/inappropriate behavior.

That said, you are given a beeper when you check in. I made sure my kids knew I would be close enough to reach them and they could beep for any reason. As it turned out, the day they went in Jan was so cold (low 40's) the CM's didn't take them out on the pontoon boat but instead conducted the whole scavenger hunt in different parts of the GF and Poly. They even got the parking valets to dress up as pirates! I needn't have worried about the water thing - but if your 6 yo's are not swimmers (or comfortable in boats), I would rethink matters.

Disney does staff it very well. I can't remember the exact numbers - no more than 20 children - and there were 4 CM's assigned when I dropped off and picked up. The median age of the children there was probably 6 or 7.

My DD and DS loved it!!! Plenty of kid trinkets, candy and gum when they finally found their "treasure". They give them the Micket ears with the pirate bandana attached which is too cute! Now that the BC is offering the same activity, I'll probably do it again with my youngest!

Good luck with your decision.

 

[crisi]

Its three women, two are definately middle aged and the third is past twenty. I believe its 24 children. Its been the same three women for years.

The children pair off and wear lifejackets the entire time.

 

[Princesa]

I wondered how I would feel about this too, but we ended up being able to book this when DS5's older cousin could go too. That said, I would have ended up being fine with it anyway. The first thing they do is don the life jackets. Ladies are fairly middle-aged and appear highly competent. They made the whole "let's all listen to the rules" speech seem like fun, so I knew they had a handle on the situation !

All said, it was a grand adventure--my son was not the smallest by far, but there were 10 year olds also, and from what we could tell, everyone had a blast.

It was a great activity for a no-park day, and worth every penny to hear them singing as they came into the dock!

 

[NotUrsula]

DS has done it 4 times, the first 2 times at age 4. I never had a qualm; they are meticulous about enforcing boating safety rules, and from what I could determine, the group is never split up.

The activity counselors are indeed older ladies, but every time DS has done it, there have also been male or female lifeguard CM's who who were in charge of the boat itself. This is good; you don't want the people minding the kids to also have the responsibility of operating the watercraft.

 

[mowery]

Thanks to all replies. I feel much better about it and we are going to give it a shot. Any suggestions for timely activity or restaurant for DH and I while kids are off adventuring?
Lynn

 

[MomofKatie]

We got DD booked for the Pirate Cruise on 10/3. She is very excited about it- she will be a new 7 year old at the time, and is looking forward to making new friends, and terrorizing the high seas!

DH and I are going to hop the monorail to Kona Cafe and have a nice quiet brunch. We will probably have a little time to explore the GF, too, before our little pirate returns.

 

[Cass]

Pirate cruise ~ the kids had a blast there were 3 CM's all women, relax your kids will be fine.

 

[mowery]

We just got our trip schedule worked out tonight. We are planning on booking the pirate adventure for Oct 3 as well. That is our "free day"...which really means everything none park that we can cram into a day. I am calling in the morning for all our PS. I just read a post about the Kona and we are considering going there too.

 

[MomofKatie]

Cool, mowery! Call ASAP- the Pirate Cruise tends to fill up fast. I called on the 5th at around 3:30 pm, and got it with no problems.

Maybe we'll see each other there!

 

[mowery]

Oct 3 was all booked. We were able to book it on Sep 28, which is a MK day for us. Should work out OK since it is EMH that day. Looking at some of the posts, looks like my DH and I will have time to go most places as long as it is off of the monorail. Thanks for all the info.
Lynn

 

[MomOf2DisneyKids]

I really wish my kids could do this....my DS5 has an autistic spectrum disorder (PDD-NOS), and I just don't feel comfortable letting him do this. I just KNOW he would LOVE it though... Has anyone had any special needs kids do this?

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

Bobbi, Naomi and Susan were the CMs that ran the GF kids activities in Dec. They are wonderful.

Lori

 

[mowery]

You might look at the all ears site. there are several articles.
click on planning on main screen. then look on the left side and scroll down and you'll see the topic. something there might be helpful although I didn't read thru any of it. hope you find something helpful. if not, you might call disney and ask questions. (I tried to post the link but I haven't had the minimum number of posts yet.)

 

[MomOf2DisneyKids]

You might look at the all ears site. there are several articles.
click on planning on main screen. then look on the left side and scroll down and you'll see the topic. something there might be helpful although I didn't read thru any of it. hope you find something helpful. if not, you might call disney and ask questions. (I tried to post the link but I haven't had the minimum number of posts yet.)

thanks for the info! I'll check it out!

 

[disneymac]

Thanks for this info - I had the same thoughts/concerns, although I know that DS8 & DD5 would love this!

 

[welovedis]

Its been the same three women for years.

My DS did it in Jan 2004 and there were 3 youngish women, probably no older than 30. Don't know if they change the staff or not, just wanted to mention that.

My DS has Asperger Syndrome and I had some real concerns about this, but at the time I felt I should let him try it and see how he did. Through Special Requests (the people you contact if you have special needs in regard to your room reservation) I found that I could have also gone along on the boat if he really needed it in order to enjoy the cruise. Luckily there was another boy that was a little older than DS and they were paired up together--DS had no problem going along.

He did not swim particularily well and they do indeed wear life jackets for the entire cruise so that was not really an issue. All the CMs made him feel welcome and safe and he really enjoyed the experience. He was (just) 7 at the time we went in 2004.

For the next trip he'd like to do either the Albatross Cruise or the Grand Adventures in Cooking. We'll probably do the AC just because we're staying at the BWV and it would be so close plus a new experience.

If you have concerns about your child on the spectrum I would call ahead and see what accomodations they could make to be certain a parent could accompany the child if absolutely necessary.

GL!

 

[della]

My three children did this cruise a couple of years back. My dd is PDD-NOS. She is very calm, just quiet and shy around strangers. She is now mainstreamed in regular Kindergarten but at the time attended a preschool program for ASD kids. With Nicole my concern was that odd things/noises frighten her. I was nervous, so we did the Alice Tea at GF one trip and the Pirate Cruise the next. The cast members at the tea were so great that I felt more at ease to send them on the Pirate Cruise. When Nicole was frightened (but remaining calm) by the Mad Hatter (at the tea) they paged me right away to come keep an eye on her. She was a little older (probably 4-1/2 or 5) for the pirate cruise. The cast members were awesome with her. She was with her 2 siblings(about 6 and 8 yrs old at the time) for both experiences which helped. I was thrilled to see the boat returning to the marina with Nicole singing "Yo Ho Yo Ho!" on top of her lungs!! Nicole is also on a gluten free/casein free diet (meaninng no wheat or most grains and no milk or milk byproducts). For both events they had special food prepared for Nicole and she was thrilled with it!