Kids Club Check Out

[MIndy S]

Ok I have been going back and forth on this and I can't decide whether to allow my 8 year old to check herself out of the Kid's club. She has an 11 year old brother that will be able to check himself out and go to Edge if he wants, and I have a feeling that will cause some friction if we don't give her privileges also. This is our first cruise, so I am really uncertain of how safe I will feel allowing both of them to wander on their own.

My question is, can we change our mind on board? If we choose not to give her check out privileges, but we become more comfortable with the idea on board, can we add them for her?

 

[TestingH2O]

Yea, you can change your mind and give her privileges once you are on the ship.

FWIW, I would not have given my 8 year old sign out if she hadn’t already been on so many cruises. Some families make a rule that younger kids can only sign out if they go with their older sibling.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Ok I have been going back and forth on this and I can't decide whether to allow my 8 year old to check herself out of the Kid's club. She has an 11 year old brother that will be able to check himself out and go to Edge if he wants, and I have a feeling that will cause some friction if we don't give her privileges also. This is our first cruise, so I am really uncertain of how safe I will feel allowing both of them to wander on their own.

My question is, can we change our mind on board? If we choose not to give her check out privileges, but we become more comfortable with the idea on board, can we add them for her?

There is a huge difference between 8 and 11 year olds, and I would not feel comfortable with an 8 year old having self-checkout privileges. You can simply tell your DD that her brother is allowed self-checkout because there is another club for his age. When she is 11, she can have the same privilege.

But yes, you can add the self-checkout privilege later in the cruise if you start without it and become comfortable with her being able to leave the club on her own. On our third cruise, when we were doing the registration in the terminal prior to boarding, they didn't ask me if we wanted self-checkout. DD was about to age out of Oceaneers and had self-checkout on the prior 2 cruises. It slipped my mind that they hadn't asked about it. Then that night around 11:45pm, I got a text on the Wave phone from the club telling me DD needed to be picked up because she didn't have self-check out. I rushed down there to get her and change it so she could come and go as she pleased.

 

[nancipants]

If it causes friction, could you explain that her brother is in a different club with different rules? or does she know she could possibly check herself out?

Maybe give her a day or two onboard to see if you’re comfortable with the idea and if she’s comfortable with the ship. We’ve got a long way until my son reaches 8, but I’d personally be less concerned with something bad happening to him than him getting lost oe getting into trouble on his own.

 

[MIndy S]

At the moment, she doesn't even know that she could have the ability. She knows that her brother does, and that he can choose between Edge and Oceaneer's. I think I will probably tell her before the cruise that we chose not to give her privileges since it is her first Disney cruise and she is a little young yet.

If we did allow her privileges, we would have a rule that she would have to stay with her brother (which obviously she can't do when he goes to Edge anyway, so it seems pointless to allow it).

 

[lanejudy]

If we did allow her privileges, we would have a rule that she would have to stay with her brother (which obviously she can't do when he goes to Edge anyway, so it seems pointless to allow it).

And that negates her brother’s ability to go to Edge. Unless you are ready for her to walk the ship unescorted, trust her to contact you and get herself to a designated meeting place — then she isn’t ready for self-check-out privileges. And I wouldn’t be surprised if her brother ends up spending his time at Edge anyway which makes it a moot point.

 

[Geomom]

At the moment, she doesn't even know that she could have the ability. She knows that her brother does, and that he can choose between Edge and Oceaneer's. I think I will probably tell her before the cruise that we chose not to give her privileges since it is her first Disney cruise and she is a little young yet.

If we did allow her privileges, we would have a rule that she would have to stay with her brother (which obviously she can't do when he goes to Edge anyway, so it seems pointless to allow it).

If she doesn't know about self checkout for 8 yr olds, I would not bring it up unless she asks (if she discovers friends on the ship have it), and then you can state your reasoning for no self checkout for this cruise. If you make a rule that she has to stay with her brother, you should talk to him about it first.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I agree about explaining that it’s different for her brother because he could go to Edge. At 11, brother might not actually even want to stay in Oceaneers at all. If he is an “older” (in age or spirit) 11, I suggest he check out Edge on the first day as he might find some buddies to hang out with!

On our last, we gave our 9 and 10yo self checkout privileges but had strict rules about sticking together and only going to the room. Thank goodness we did bc at the time the clubs were still doing 1.5 hour time slots, with 10 min in between, and they got kicked out for those 10 min between time slots …lol

 

[mmbrad02]

I agree with what others have said - I would not feel comfortable at age 8. We just got off the Wish yesterday and I was nervous for my 11 year old to have those privileges. She ended up being kind of skittish and didn't want to do a ton on her own - she would go to and from our room/Edge and that was about it. That was fine by me. The app is very useful if your kiddos have access to a device.

 

[otten]

It's going to be very kid dependent and you know your kids best. Our oldest was 8 on our last cruise and she did have check out privileges. We established ground rules of where she was allowed to go after checking out and I knew she would follow the rules. We were on the Wonder however which is a smaller ship and we had 10 days at sea so she was very familiar with the ship layout by the end.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

If you choose to provide check out privileges, it might be helpful for her to have a device on which she can check in with you. We bring an old iPhone on DCL for my 9-year-old, who has been provided with check out privileges since she turned 9. (There were not cruises when she was 8, so there's that.)

The old iPhone doesn't have a data plan, so it only connects to WiFi, and the only apps on it are the DCL app and the camera, so she can stay in touch with us, heart activities she wants to do, and take pictures. It works great for her to stay in touch with us when she is out and about on the ship - we have a rule that she texts us when she leaves one space to go to another.