Kid in Club - You on Shore?????

[rae519]

Just a curiosity question here - would you leave your child in the clubs or on ship, and go off shore? Yes, this depends on age of child, maturity, health and how far and where you are going - but I was just curious since I err on the side of caution and tend to be very OVERprotective of Michael!


Rae

 

[Karel]

We did. We took our oldest over to St. John. The younger two would not have liked it too much - the surf was very rough, the trip was long. Yes, a lot of things could have happened but I don't want to live that way. I was more worried about us then them. They had a great time in the club and lab and had no interest in leaving when we got back. It was nice to spend special time with our oldest.

 

[val2001]

Hard for me to answer yet as I've not been on my 1st cruise yet. If the kids seem to LOVE the clubs and stay there all day the first day, then I might not mind leaving them there a later date. If on the other hand, they page me after a couple hours, I'd probably stay on the ship with them instead of doing excursion (or better yet, have my sister stay on the ship and she can pick them up when they page her, LOL).

 

[ennazus]

We did not leave our DS (8 y.o. at the time) on the ship while we went on land. This was a family vacation and a WONDERFUL opportunity for him to experience other cultures.

We planned family friendly activities that we could all participate in (although I must say I didn't enjoy swimming with the stingrays! eeekkk!!! LOL)

 

[lisab1291]

This is something I'm having a hard time with also, I have a 10 yo son & a 6 yo daughter. I'm not worried about my son at all, my daughter on the other hand is very clingy to me. She likes the fact that I can be paged at the drop of a dime (I was paged 2-3 times during brunch our last cruise.) I finally called the club and said I was at bruch & I would be right there, as soon as I was finished of course. She was just bored..... Maybe she will be better this year, afterall that was our first cruise and she is a year older, and a bit more independent..... wish me luck....

I don't think I would go on shore more than a couple of hours.....
I wouldn't do a really long excursion without them.

Lisa

 

[makaylee]

We left of dd6 on the ship while we did the Captain Nauticas snorkling excursion for 3 1/2 hours. I was a little nervous, but I still had fun and so did my daughter. I made sure I talked to her about this before we booked the excursion. She is not clingy at all (and in perfect health), she loves being around other people whether i'm there or not. After we got on the ship and she had visited the kids club we asked her again if she would mind staying here for a few hours while mom and dad left the ship, if she said yes we would have canceled the excursion even though it meant losing $140, our daughters comfort means more to us than money. She was extatic, she loved the club and we didn't let her spend very much time there except when we did Palo. We wanted to make sure she wasnt worn out on it before we went on our excursion. We were also on a family vacation and wanted to spend all of our time together. We would have brought her with us if she was old enough, although i'm sure she would have still picked to stay on the ship. As soon as our excursion was over we picked her up from the club and brought her with us shopping on the island so she could expierence it too. She wont be old enough on our next sailing either and we will leave her in the club (if she still wants too) while we do Captain Nauticas again.

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

we left DD7 on the ship when we toured nassau and DD never really knew we left. she was very happy in the kids clubs. lots of things to do in there. the pager they give you works all over the ship and works on most if not all of castaway cay. once you are about 1 mile away from the ship the pager really dont work. but if your kids like the DCL activitys the days before your excrusions then there should be no problem with the kids onboard while you have parents time.

 

[tksbaskets]

count us in the paranoid parents group. I would never have a good time on shore while my kids were on the ship. But that is just me. When the boys were in the lab we were thrilled with the supervision and programming.

I agree with ennazus that DCL for our family was a FAMILY vacation. We used the lab in the evenings & during at sea days when they had a program that interested our boys.

Most evenings we had to drag them back to the cabin because they were having so much fun. DH and I were having fun at the piano bar knowing they were safe and supervised.

How about this for a non-answer!?

 

[cotomom]

We left our 4 and 7 year olds for the Buck Island Sail and Snorkel on St. Thomas.

They had NO problem with it. In fact, they wished we left them in the club most every day!

We just told the counselors we were going on shore and expected time of return.

I think this is a very individual decision that only you can gauge....

 

[Dreamer04]

My immediate reaction is "No way!" But, after some experience this trip, I would consider it. Let me explain. Disney canceled all shore excursions in Cozumel. My son stayed on the ship and DH, DD 6, and myself headed over to play mini-golf.

DD was whiney and miserable the whole time. We walked there and halfway back. It was boring for her. She kept wanting to go back to the ship. In retrospect, we should have left her in the club. She would have been safe and content.

So-live and learn-then move on!

 

[dclwdwlover]

On DCL, absolutely, "Yes", but of course, taking in all of the factors you mentioned first. Very often both the child & the adults enjoy it more that way because both are getting to do what 'they' really want to do.

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

We scheduled some family excursion time but also had times when the kids stayed onboard. On the first couple of cruises they were young enough to be in Club/Lab so we had the pagers which did work on shore.

This last time they were both Common Grounds aged. We did make sure that we went onboard with them after ashore time so we knew they were properly registered as being back onboard and teens can't get off (except at CC) without parent/guardian or written authorization.

No problems - but that is roughly the same amount of independence they would have had at home.

As noted, there was no point in forcing them to do something they would just whine through - it is their vacation too, and friend time is a good thing!
Deb

 

[mnlovesdisney]

We did in Nassau. After dinner our kids, then 8 and 12, went to the kids clubs and we went to Atlantis to do some gambling. They had a great time doing the evening activities on board in the clubs and we had a great time at Atlantis, leaving with more money than we came with (must have been beginners luck!). We are cruising again on March 21st (my 40th birthday) and again plan to go to Atlantis for a little while the evening we are there. Kids are now 10 and 14. DD (the 14 year old) is planning on doing the teen party boat thing and DS will be in the kids club having fun. They are very excited to this again and I anticipate no problems. This said you do need to know your kids however. My kids blend in well and make friends very easily. If your kids are more shy you may want to do it differently. What ever you do HAVE A GREAT TIME!!

 

[makaylee]

Dreamer04, I totaly agree with you about the kids being whiney while on shore. Like I said in my earlier post we picked our dd6 up right after our excursion to bring her touring around the island with us. She was miserable and whiney the whole time. She kept complaining she was hot, bored and wanted to go back to the kids club. This expierence is percisely the reason I will again leave her on the ship to do Captain Nauticas next trip. This was also a FAMILY vacation for us, the only other times she was in the club was when we did Palos, she would have spent a lot more time there if we let her. She asked almost every night if she could go to the club instead of to dinner with us, we didnt let her, we knew she would end up having fun with boring ol' mom and dad, which she did. She whined everytime we took her out of the club except the day we had brunch at Palo and took her to the pool afterward. But, to each his own, if you do not feel comfortable leaving your child on the ship that is your right completly.

 

[Tiiiigergirl]

Before we took our first cruise I said I would never leave Brandon on ship with us on shore. On our second cruise though, we felt comfortable enough with how he felt in the clubs to leave him there while we went shopping. We have done that for the last two cruises ~ leaving him after we were finished with the family excursion. After all, he is male and genetically engineered to dislike shopping! Poor Warren, I make him come with me anyway to buy me jewelry!

 

[lillygator]

For me ~ this is an absolute NO.....my dd is very young but I think no matter what age I wouldn't do it. I am very overprotective....a lot has to do with something that happened to our community recently. We had a missing child who was taken and murdered....I know things like this happen all the time, but never "so close to home".....I asked DH about even having DD in Flounders and he said NO way. That is fine with me....

 

[Mickeyhugger]

No, we wouldn't leave our 9-yo DD while we went onshore. (She prefers to do things w/us, and is bored in the clubs.)

I think it's great though, if kids want to stay there, and if parents are confident that their children will be happier there.

(You described yourself as being overprotective? I think it's more that you just know what's better for your child )

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Originally posted by lillygator
For me ~ this is an absolute NO.....my dd is very young but I think no matter what age I wouldn't do it. I am very overprotective....a lot has to do with something that happened to our community recently. We had a missing child who was taken and murdered....I know things like this happen all the time, but never "so close to home".....I asked DH about even having DD in Flounders and he said NO way. That is fine with me....

Yes, you ARE overprotective- I'm glad you realize it. LOL Because it's not a community or some daycare like at WDW or something... it's not only Disney but on a cruise ship. Those children aren't going anywhere. Even if someone was a rogue employee- they couldn't get off the ship with your child- could they? I mean regardless of where you were (on or off ship)- since you mentioned not even using Flounders.
I'm not going to be the least bit worried about using the clubs/labs and wouldn't with Flounders if I had a younger child either... atleast for sure now while I was on the ship!
I am overprotective too though- so I feel ya (LOL) at home... most of the time... but I think on the cruise I'm going to feel a lot more relaxed than in normal situations. For instance if we're at sea- I'm not going to be worried about my child being kidnapped/etc. from the childcare provided on the ship.

I don't know about leaving young children in the clubs/labs while off the ship/onshore. But that's probably because this is our first cruise so we can't know for SURE in advance how all of our children are going to feel about the labs/clubs. I think they'll have a blast- but we'll see...


(ps. you mentioned Flounders- so I assume your DD is still a baby. I am more "overprotective" with my little ones when they were babies- even more so with my first baby. I think that's normal. When they are 10yrs old- you outgrow that a LITTLE... not all the way though. Sometimes it's even more scarier because you can't just hold them all day. )

 

[lbgraves]

I can totally understand your feelings considering you have gone thru something very tramatic in your community. It is going to take alot for you to regain the level of trust needed to leave your child in another's care. It is very scarey when something happens close to home.

Before we took our first cruise, I didn't plan on leaving the kids in the clubs very long. We didn't book excursions, and that worked out best for us since both kids didn't last more than 20 minutes off the ship before they wanted to go back to the pool or the club. LOL!

IDK how DD will feel in December and we probably wont plan any excursions either just to be sure. Our big splurge will be going to brunch at Palo!!!! We didn't get to go at all last time. Now DS would stay in the club all day if we let him. I am glad that he enjoys it. It is his vacation too & if that is how he would like to spend some of it, I want him to enjoy himself. In a couple years we will probably not have a problem going on a short excursion or leaving the ship to shop for an hour or two. After seeing how they manage the club, I am confident in their ability to take care of my children.

 

[softfluff]

We left our child on board in Couzmel during our first cruise with my sister and cousin. I am glad we did. We were running out to a jewelry store to pick something up and there was a group of american adults coming out of Senor Frog's where the taxi stand is. This group was totally drunk and out of order. One of the women who was in her fifties was wallowing on the ground in her stupor. The others weren't far behind. I am really glad my child wasn't exposed to this.

The last cruise we did leave our child who was 4 at the time in the Kid's club. She didn't want to leave her friends and didn't want to go tour. We let the staff know where we were they reassured us. We had a nice time and so did she.

I would do it again.

Sherri