Jillpie-- When you get to your cabin there will be tickets made out in each person's name that have your table assignment, dining rotation and early/late seating. I'm not sure if you actually have to carry these with you. When DW & I went to Palo we suggested to our girls that they eat dinner at our scheduled place, Parrot Cay, so that the servers didn't think we had abandoned them. We figured there might be another set of kids in the teen club that were in the same predicament. Since these kids did not have the same dining arrangements as us, we gave them our tickets to present to the servers as sort of an OK from us. We had already paid the full tip for 4 persons so we thought it would be alright. All 4 kids had a blast.
I hope you gathered from my looney ramblings that I enjoy a good laugh as well. My understaning is that all the shows are excellent. We only saw the Golden Mickeys. Hercules was not one of our favorite movies and I was still trying to track down our luggage when it went on. Dreams simply conflicted with our spa and Palo reservation or we would have been at that one as well. Wavebands does a little salute to the 80s show one night and a 70s version another (hence my debut as the no-talent John Travolta). These both last about a half hour each. There is also a Newlywed Game type of show whose humor quotient depends directly on the liveliness of the couples chosen to participate. Finally there is the Dueling Pianos show next door. We completely passed on that, however. Here in L.A we have a similar place called Howl at the Moon at our Universal Citywalk and it seems like we always end up there when a friend has a birthday, so that act was old news to us. I did hear laughing, though. As far as smoke was concerned, it was never an issue because there were so few people in the clubs.
Like you, I have never had a professional massage. I did however consult my wife, who enjoys them quite a bit. She could not recommend the one on
DCL. She will treat herself occasionally at a local spa, which charges like $60/hr and loves it. I think we paid over $200 for the one on the Wonder and she had to deal with the pressurized product push at the end. We also tried this couples Raksul session for approx $70. We were essentially locked in a steambath with various muds and skin care products. I'm not sure what the real purpose of this treatment is but it did present a rather unique opportunity for togetherness (Blush! Blush!) Unfortunately, our hour was cut short by 15 minues for another sales push.
Finally, I imagine that your kids/teen will have the time of their lives. With that being said, you know them best. If they make friends in school, they probably will at Common Grounds as well. Both our girls, ages 16 and 14 found male and female friends. The activities are all age appropriate and appear to be quite fun. Supervision is excellent.
Mind you, this is a mid-driff baring, hip hop listening, MTV watching teen culture nowadys. I read an earlier post where a woman said that her 14 yr old DD, who still played with Barbies and dressed up like a princess, was mortified by the teen club. I was also heard that one parent complained because they saw a PG-13 movie on pajama night (Rob Scneider's "The Hot Chick"). You can visit Common Grounds on the day you embark and meet the counselors and pick up a copy of the teen navigator, which spells out all their activities. It all seems pretty tame to be but you know your child best.
I hope this helps. Have a great time!
