Has anyone else had issues with the new Oceaneer's club/lab policies?

[IWannaBeAMousketeer]

This really stinks. DCL has long boasted about having more kids programming space than anyone else at sea. Now they are essentially cutting it in half for hours at a time! Isn't the rest of the ship a giant "Open House" with unsecure activities for families? Why is this necessary? Go ahead and say adults aren't welcome to stay, for security sake, I get that. But why do they have to offer this alternative? Maybe they could offer some of the more popular activities to families somewhere else.

 

[silence]

I am not a fan of the new Open House times either. I wrote DCL to express my concerns. This is the mail I got back from them today. I suggest everyone write to them, this is the only way DCL will make changes, but passengers voicing their concerns.

Thank you for your email.

Your thoughtfulness in sharing your observations with ways we can improve our Youth Activity experiences is much appreciated.

Please be assured that your thoughts will be shared with management.
Input from our Guests is a valuable tool in determining ways we can make visits more convenient and enjoyable. This is very important to us, as we are committed to offering a cruise experience that meets the Disney standards of excellence and provides the type of magical vacation our Guests have come to expect.

We look forward to sailing with you and your family in February.

Have a Magical Day!


Email Guest Services
Disney Cruise Line

Where did you send your email? I would also like to send an email. Guess my 8 y/o will not be spending as much time in the lab as she had hoped she would.

 

[wildforgoofy]

Thanks for the heads up! We're taking our first cruise in May and I was boucing between putting my DD 10 in the Lab or bumping her up to the Edge since she will be 11 right after our cruise. But since I also have a DS 5, I will be keeping her in the Lab so she can make sure her brother has a good time too.

 

[BrerNashville]

The lab and club aren't seperated on the Dream like the other two ships though. I don't understand how part of it could be "secured" and part not be.....

Anyone been on the Dream in the last month with kids who can provide some insight?

 

[ldymcbth]

This really stinks. DCL has long boasted about having more kids programming space than anyone else at sea. Now they are essentially cutting it in half for hours at a time! Isn't the rest of the ship a giant "Open House" with unsecure activities for families? Why is this necessary? Go ahead and say adults aren't welcome to stay, for security sake, I get that. But why do they have to offer this alternative? Maybe they could offer some of the more popular activities to families somewhere else.

Totally agree with this! And I am concerned that when it's open house in one section, the other secured area will be incredibly busy.

My other concern is that I think (based on research and info on the website) that my kids will love the club side, but my youngest especially will not be into the lab side.

We were not planning on having them in the club all day every day, but it's irritating to now NOT have the timing choices we previously thought we would have. The club programming is one of the reasons we chose DCL!

 

[roxy84]

To the OP and anyone else - Disney takes guest feedback pretty seriously. But if you cancelled excursions and spa appointments - let them know that too. They are a business, so losing money from adult only activities makes an impact.

They have actually been doing to "one side secure programming" now for a while. It's just been on a smaller scale. They have done toddler open houses in the club - sending all checked in children to the lab. And while in Europe, they would open one of the spaces early for excursions, and the other space wouldn't open until noon. The thing was there was generally no more then 50 kids checked in at these times.

I can't see Disney keeping this policy for long. Please let them know your feedback. While there is a lot of talk of reasons - ultimately I believe it was so many adults in the club/lab impacting programs (both in safety and quality).

 

[shillee]

I am very interested in this thread and what will happen in the coming weeks. We cruise at the end of February.

I am all for safety and was completely excited to know that I could go in and see my 4 year old play. We also have a 2 year old that won't want to be alone in the nursery (haven't signed her up).

I want to be able to do activities with both of them and don't intend to leave them alone so I appreciate that there will be things for us to do as a family.

Maybe I will be surprised and they will want to be in there a lot but I doubt it - they love being with their parents right now.

 

[TDC Nala]

Finally, can someone just be transparent about why this rule changed?

Said to be a reaction to a situation in which an adult (age 23) with special needs was allowed to participate in teen activities and undertook some inappropriate behavior toward a teenage passenger.

They're trying now to balance it between parents who want to enter the clubs to play with their children and "secure" programming in which no adults will be permitted to stay with the children except the DCL staff members. Previously, parents were allowed to stay in the clubs with their children if they wished to, while other parents dropped their children off. They are trying to separate the children who have been dropped off from being in the same area with unrelated adults other than the DCL staff, while still allowing parents who want to attend the clubs with their children to do so.

 

[LKFan]

I just called and got someone who had ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE that anything had changed. I said "thank you" and started to hang up twice (figuring I would call back and get someone else) and he started looking through his notes. He said, "I've been on 31 cruises and I've never heard of an open house in the kids clubs." I asked him if there was someone else he could check with and he continued to look through his notes. Finally, he found the info and read it off to me but it is the same as what we have all heard and doesn't answer my question.

If a child is in the Lab playing Mario Kart or some other game and it becomes time for an open house, are those children asked to stop what they are doing and, unless they have a parent with them, move into the Club? What if a child has sign in/out privileges? Would that make a difference? Would they be allowed to stay where they were?

I get the whole open house issue and was going to work around it but, if they are 4 hour blocks, that's a long time.

 

[HappyPeach]

If a child is in the Lab playing Mario Kart or some other game and it becomes time for an open house, are those children asked to stop what they are doing and, unless they have a parent with them, move into the Club? What if a child has sign in/out privileges? Would that make a difference? Would they be allowed to stay where they were?

.

I can tell you what happens... the club/lab is emptied and then any child who is staying must re-check in. We brought my son up to the Lab one night and timed it so that we were there a few minutes after open house ended and secured programming began. The staff wouldn't let us in and explained that there were still 2 guests who had to check out. We waited around for a bit more than 5 minutes until the last family left. Once the computer read zero guests in the Lab, the kids waiting for secure programming were allowed in.

 

[McPackers]

Is this just on the Magic and Wonder? When we were on the Dream it was free flow throughout lab/club (since its really just one big space) and all the ages checked in at the same area.

I would like to hear from a recent Dream cruiser to see how they handle Open House since the Lab / Club are connected. I guess they would have to put a gate in the area where the kids eat lunch / dinner.

 

[Wadekind]

The blocks of time for open house are HUGE. I can see a couple of hours a day TOTAL but 3, 4 or 5 hours in each club everyday?
Some of it may be for safety but it is also a downgrade in service as I am sure it will take less staff in the clubs now that one or the other is unsupervised for up to 8 hours a day. Our kids love the clubs and we let them stay as long as they want. This new policy takes away a lot of time for the kids to enjoy which ever area is more appropriate for them.

 

[deanimal]

Another issue I see with the new policies is what to do with toddlers? While I found the open house times to be a real pain with planning, one of the up sides to the large blocks of open times was that we had plenty of time to bring our 21 month old to the club to play with his 3 year old sister. If they cut back the open house times, what can you do with a toddler on the ship? My understanding was that before the changes you could go to the club as much as you wanted with your one or two year old, or not quite potty trained three year old, but now what is there for them outside of open times? I totally understand the no adults policy, but it leaves very little option for the under 3 set. There's no real play areas for them except for the pool area, and our little guy just got hugely frustrated up there because we had to keep dragging him away from the pool. It was also too cold to let him run around up there for three days of our cruise. I don't really know the answers, hopefully something will work itself out or we'll have to delay our next cruise until the little guy is five or six and able to be on his own in both spaces.

 

[Yokelridesagain]

This really stinks. DCL has long boasted about having more kids programming space than anyone else at sea. Now they are essentially cutting it in half for hours at a time! Isn't the rest of the ship a giant "Open House" with unsecure activities for families? Why is this necessary? Go ahead and say adults aren't welcome to stay, for security sake, I get that. But why do they have to offer this alternative? Maybe they could offer some of the more popular activities to families somewhere else.

Where would you propose that they do that?

This policy was clearly enacted on an "urgent" basis with minimal prior planning. The only way to "fix" the problem is to put in separate play areas for children who aren't able to be left in the clubs for whatever reasons, and that will require a drydock.

 

[samily]

Do the kids need a parent with them during open house times or can they go in by themselves? Could my 14yo daughter bring my 10 yr old son in and hang out together or do I need to be there too?

I was trying to be open minded about the changes in the various clubs but the more I read, the more worried I am for our cruise next month. My DD is in 8th grade and will have turned 14 two weeks before our cruise and we are taking her friend (also in 8th grade) with us. Her friend will still be 13 and from the sounds of it they now will not have a club to hang out in, as DD will be 2 weeks too old for The Edge and her friend too young for The Vibe.

 

[cnj]

I, too, am disgusted with this new policy. The open house times are ridiculous. We are cruising in March, if I could cancel, I would, but we will be going and it will probably be the last Disney cruise we take.

 

[thedonduck]

Another issue I see with the new policies is what to do with toddlers? While I found the open house times to be a real pain with planning, one of the up sides to the large blocks of open times was that we had plenty of time to bring our 21 month old to the club to play with his 3 year old sister. If they cut back the open house times, what can you do with a toddler on the ship? My understanding was that before the changes you could go to the club as much as you wanted with your one or two year old, or not quite potty trained three year old, but now what is there for them outside of open times? I totally understand the no adults policy, but it leaves very little option for the under 3 set. There's no real play areas for them except for the pool area, and our little guy just got hugely frustrated up there because we had to keep dragging him away from the pool. It was also too cold to let him run around up there for three days of our cruise. I don't really know the answers, hopefully something will work itself out or we'll have to delay our next cruise until the little guy is five or six and able to be on his own in both spaces.

While it does stink with not having a true designated play area (besides the nursery) you also aren't really paying for them. We have taken my son on two cruises (the first he was 4 months and he just slept, the second just after his first birthday) and we found lots to do. The sports deck kept him busy as did the splash area. When he needed to run we took some of his trucks and let him run around the atrium area pushing his trucks (it's never busy when there aren't characters. We had to get creative but I never felt like there wasn't something for him to do.

 

[Stinkerbe11]

This concerns me as we are cruising next month and it seems that the ship is at capacity for kids.

Will they now turn our kids away if the secure area is full? On our last cruise the clubs were extremely busy and that's when BOTH clubs were open. we choose to cruise (and pay a premium for) Disney, but this may be a deal breaker!

 

[closetmickey]

This really stinks. DCL has long boasted about having more kids programming space than anyone else at sea. Now they are essentially cutting it in half for hours at a time! Isn't the rest of the ship a giant "Open House" with unsecure activities for families? Why is this necessary? Go ahead and say adults aren't welcome to stay, for security sake, I get that. But why do they have to offer this alternative? Maybe they could offer some of the more popular activities to families somewhere else.

Yes!! That's what I have been wanting to say. If you want to be with your kids, there are oodles of ways to enjoy the ship together, not in the clubs! I love the idea of an open house for an hour or two on each day for special circumstances- special needs child, not potty trained yet, not quite ready to leave mom and dad, time to take photos, but that should be ample. In my opinion, you could even set those two hours a day as a constant, say 1-3 (just an example) and parents could plan accordingly. The clubs were designed as a kids away from parents space, not an additional play space for families on the ship.

 

[moomy-san]

I am more concerned with the BIG kids in the little kids space and vice-versa. How do they keep it fair? 10 year olds roughhousing, taking over the slide in the club and monopolizing the TV's? Little kids wandering the lab because the big kids have all the computers and there are no age appropriate toys in the Lab? My youngest is 7 and she really felt like the Lab was very much computers and board games... Not what I would call fun for a 5 year old who is forced to go there because the Club has closed down for a few hours.
BUT... I am going to give Disney the benefit of the doubt and hope that they have multiple scheduled age-appropriate activities available during those 'secure' programming times. My DD will need to go sometimes regardless of where the programming is taking place.