Kids Club - Advice

[Sheryl Moroschak]

We did our first Disney Cruise in December 2015. I thought my girls would love the Kids Club; however, we have booked another cruise for March 2017 and my oldest is not looking forward to going to the club. She said it was boring. How do I get her excited about it? Are there better times to take them than others? Girls will be 9 and 5 on the March cruise.

 

[Tink1010]

We did our first Disney Cruise in December 2015. I thought my girls would love the Kids Club; however, we have booked another cruise for March 2017 and my oldest is not looking forward to going to the club. She said it was boring. How do I get her excited about it? Are there better times to take them than others? Girls will be 9 and 5 on the March cruise.

Make sure that you take them to the Ooen House the first day. I am sure when she goes and sees what activities are planned and see all the kids her age she'll change her mind. Mine were 10 and 12 and said they wouldn't go but once on the cruise they did a few hours each night and enjoyed it. Have fun!

 

[Ozarkglittergirl]

I've got a 12 y/o who says she wants to try it and an 11 y/o who says nope, not happening. Glad we can go with them to open house so maybe she will have a change of heart

 

[MunFam]

Yes, there are better times than others. Look in the Navigators for actual activities to be going on within the club. During the "other times" its more of a babysitting type experience.

 

[Sheryl Moroschak]

Thanks. Have any of you made sure your children were there for the Ice Breakers? I told her I thought that might help her meet some children her own age.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I've got a 12 y/o who says she wants to try it and an 11 y/o who says nope, not happening. Glad we can go with them to open house so maybe she will have a change of heart

Both the 11 year old and the 12 year old can participate in both Oceaneer's and Edge. Be sure to visit both.

 

[Drusilla99]

My youngest never really cared for the oceaneers club, but absolutely loved edge & can't wait to get into vibe this summer. It depends on the counselors, the schedule, and definitely, the kid. Mine prefers the come and go and do what you like feel of the older clubs, while my oldest has liked them all because she likes structure.

 

[darnheather]

I think I'd set some rules about having adult time when the kids have to go to the club. Maybe I'm just a big meanie though.

 

[SoozCruise]

My younger daughter loved the Lab at age 7 but at ages 8 and 9 lost interest, unfortunately. (This may or may not be due to her sister going to Edge for those cruises; neither kid ever went to the Club.) We encouraged her to look for activities in the Navigator, and if your daughter is the planning type it may help to look at Navigators from similar recent cruises to check out what might be offered. On our last cruise, when she was 9, we scheduled a Palo brunch and told her she'd need to go to the Lab for at least part of the time (she has checkout privileges). If you have certain times when you have adult events scheduled, I agree with darnheather that it's fine to set expectations about your children being in the club at those times.

For our first cruise my younger daughter connected with a girl her age via the cruise meetup thread; we facilitated email communication between them for a couple of months before the cruise and they were excited to go to the Lab together. The social media stuff was really helpful for my older daughter too, and I think she still participates in a group message board with some Edge friends from last year's cruise.

 

[wl1117]

Have you joined a cruise meet-up group? You might find one and ask about kids her age. Maybe she can make some friends before the trip and it'll become more appealing to her.

 

[danajay]

We just came off the Fantasy 2 weeks ago (our first cruise). Kids (girls ages 4 1/2 and 8) were super excited about the club before we left. Day we boarded we went to open house and they were still so excited. Dropped them off at the club the next day. Got a text about an hour and a half later that my little one wanted to be picked up. Both kids came out and said it was boring. DH and I were upset--hopes of a "vacation" for us dashed... Well, we told them that them going to the kids club was part of the vacation and that they would be going for a bit each day. Turns out, they loved it (my 8 year old more than my 4 year old, but I think she just wanted to hang with us). They didn't spend a ton of time there (maybe an hour or 2 each day except for 1 day where we had Palo brunch and massages-- I think they spent around 6 hours there that day!)--but it was enough for us--an hour or two of kid free relaxing in the adult only sun decks was heaven. I agree that it was better for them when there was a scheduled activity--my daughter loved Pluto's pajama party--I had to drag her out of there at 11pm--I wanted to go to sleep! I also agree that it may be nice to have another friend to look forward to seeing and playing with there. We met a girl on a line the first day and they became friends and were excited at the opportunity to see her at the club. So, this long winded post is to say, "don't lose hope".

 

[My2litteprincesses]

Last year on our 1st Disney Cruise, our kids had no interest in kids club until we sat with our table-mates at dinner. They had 2 little girls of similar ages who LOVED the club & talked about it non-stop. That peaked our girls' interests & theydecided to check it out with them. To their surprise, they loved it too.
Good luck!

 

[Sheryl Moroschak]

Thank you. I will try the online meet and greets. She is also a planner, like me, so perhaps letting her pick when she goes based on the navigator will help. We have already told the girls they have to go to the clubs so we can have time adult time. However, I just would like for them to have fun.