Ideas for a kid who is a future cruise ship designer? :)

[mrsgthatsme]

My 8 year old son is fully convinced that he wants to be a cruise ship designer when he grows up. He has planned out his ship, carefully named it, written out dimensions and passenger counts, and drawn detailed designs and maps for his "future ship." Needless to say, he is beyond excited about his first cruise on the Dream next week! Does anyone have ideas of specific things he might enjoy given his intense interest in ship designing? I noticed there is a ship tour on the first day and a movie about the making of the Dream. Are either of these things he might enjoy? Anything else I am missing? All of our friends and family have been saying we should tell DCL about his interest in this to see if there is anything special they or he could do, but I'm not sure there is much likelihood of them doing anything specific for him. I would welcome any suggestions of things you think he would enjoy. Thank you!

 

[dcassetta]

My 8 year old son is fully convinced that he wants to be a cruise ship designer when he grows up. He has planned out his ship, carefully named it, written out dimensions and passenger counts, and drawn detailed designs and maps for his "future ship." Needless to say, he is beyond excited about his first cruise on the Dream next week! Does anyone have ideas of specific things he might enjoy given his intense interest in ship designing? I noticed there is a ship tour on the first day and a movie about the making of the Dream. Are either of these things he might enjoy? Anything else I am missing? All of our friends and family have been saying we should tell DCL about his interest in this to see if there is anything special they or he could do, but I'm not sure there is much likelihood of them doing anything specific for him. I would welcome any suggestions of things you think he would enjoy. Thank you!

Make sure and have some time in your schedule to in the terminal building. There's a beautiful model of the Magic in the center of the terminal. One side shows the outside of the ship, the reverse shows a cut out where you can see all the decks and lots of different elements of the ship.

The ship tours are really divided into two categories. On the first day it's a basic layout of the ship so people can find a way around easily. There's also an art tour offered on some cruises which allows you to take a look at the way the ship was designed as far as its public areas. I'm not sure whether those would be of interest to an eight-year-old or not. You can inquire at guest services if there's a galley tour offered, but I haven't heard of them offering those in several years now.

The ships officers are very friendly, in my experience. And I think you'll find many of them more than happy to answer your son's questions about what their job is and how the ship functions.

 

[Sunshine2U]

This is really cool.

I would think some pre-study about the different types of officers and crew. If your son has an understanding of the different roles, then y'all can make a game of identifying the role. And it will help him when he talks to various officers.

Get him a camera or device he can use to take pictures so he will have them when he comes home. You can review the pictures daily and help him to understand what it was he liked that prompted him to capture the image.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Too bad everything is so hush-hush about the new ships, because updates on how that's going would be right up your son's alley.

What if you had him put together a question list, like asking each person one thing about the ship or it's design that makes their job easier. Then get him to carry a notebook and write down the job (maybe the name) and what their answer was. He could put it in a spreadsheet and have some real ideas for his ship.

Gah! Hit enter by accident....

For example, our stateroom hostess said the bunks are really easy to make up, because the mattresses are light enough to come off the bunk, so they make them on the ground and put them back up. That's a function of thinking about the worker when making design/purchasing decisions.

 

[KVH]

You can also pick up and age-appropriate book that would fascinate most boys. See this.

 

[MelSpees]

I would talk to guest services on board about your son's intense interest and see what they suggest and can do for you. You never know when some Disney magic might happen. I wouldn't get his hopes up, however, as sometimes magic can be hard to come by.

 

[Pens Fan]

I feel you - I really do. Our son was convinced for years and years that all he wanted to do with his life was to work for Disney as an Imagineer. Flash forward (he's 20 now and studying mechanical engineering at Penn State) and the dream is sort of still alive - though his passion for cars is also driving him to that industry .

I will have to say that I was always a bit underwhelmed with Disney's offerings to non-adults for peeking behind the curtain experiences. The one thing we were able to book was at WDW, not DCL. We booked the Dining with Imagineers lunch and it was worth every penny. We all enjoyed that at lot. One thing we mentioned to the Imagineer was how disappointing it was as a frequent DCL cruiser that similar offerings were not available on the cruise line. We have a trip to WDW planned for the week before Christmas this year and our son is thrilled that we are going to book the Keys to the Kingdom tour which will hopefully give us a bit of additional insight. We would have loved to have booked this previously, but there are age restrictions.

All that being said - at your son's age - Disney really doesn't offer a lot for someone that is actually serious about learning the ends and outs of Disney design. Our son found much more information in books on Disney. Just check out the selection on Amazon - there are tons on Disney history. This became a go-to gift for pretty much every occasion over the years and now our son blows me away with how much he understands about Disney and the behind the scenes stuff.

Additionally, if your son is really interested in cruise ship design there is a show on the Discovery channel called Mighty Ships that offers great insight.

 

[Dug720]

Make sure and have some time in your schedule to in the terminal building. There's a beautiful model of the Magic in the center of the terminal. One side shows the outside of the ship, the reverse shows a cut out where you can see all the decks and lots of different elements of the ship.

The ship tours are really divided into two categories. On the first day it's a basic layout of the ship so people can find a way around easily. There's also an art tour offered on some cruises which allows you to take a look at the way the ship was designed as far as its public areas. I'm not sure whether those would be of interest to an eight-year-old or not. You can inquire at guest services if there's a galley tour offered, but I haven't heard of them offering those in several years now.

The ships officers are very friendly, in my experience. And I think you'll find many of them more than happy to answer your son's questions about what their job is and how the ship functions.

As far as I know, Art of the Theme Show Tour is 18+. No kids allowed - even if they want to be a cruise ship designer.

 

[GPaLarry]

Two things might be helpful. One, recently I saw on story on a 10-year-old boy who worked with his engineer grandfather to make a 26-foot (Wow!!!) long Lego Titanic. Just Google "boy builds Lego ship." The boys name Brynjar Karl Birgisson and lives in Iceland. A Titanic Museum in Tennessee now has it. You might contact them or various maritime museums for ship details. A long shot would be to contact the German ship building company itself and see if they can provide some info, plans, etc. I can't believe there were 56,000 Lego pieces. They created a blueprint to begin the project.
Two, the back-stage, galley tours are usually offered on longer (8+days) cruises. I don't remember an age limit. We have taken both which were great. Agree with those above, that you should let one of the ship's officers know of your son's interest and see if some magic happens.

 

[Capt_BJ]

recently I saw on story on a 10-year-old boy who worked with his engineer grandfather to make a 26-foot (Wow!!!) long Lego Titanic.

lego QM2 depicted under construction in dry dock ..... I didn't measure, but it is BIG .... maritime mus' in Hamburg ....

 

[mrsgthatsme]

Thanks to all for the awesome suggestions! Loved the photos, too, Capt BJ! I will look into the ideas offered here! I truly believe that just being on the ship will be an unbelievable thrill for him but these are great ideas! Thanks so much!

 

[GPaLarry]

recently I saw on story on a 10-year-old boy who worked with his engineer grandfather to make a 26-foot (Wow!!!) long Lego Titanic.
With a few more Legos that ship is ready to launch and take on passengers. Wonder if DCL might make a Lego-like ship with one of the three currently being constructed. I would love to see a Lego Nautilus or at least one of the DCL ships with the "20,000 Leagues..." theme. I had a lot of coffee this am...sorry!
lego QM2 depicted under construction in dry dock ..... I didn't measure, but it is BIG .... maritime mus' in Hamburg ....

 

[SlickWilly]

There are some excellent videos on the in-room TV system that go into some details about the inner workings of the ship. I'm an engineer and I always enjoy watching them. Your son would learn a lot from them as well. They are 5-8 minutes each and run throughout the day and night.