Kids Club Concerns

[CathyCU03]

I would say less open house times especially later in the cruise. I also wish they broke up the ages a little more. Having 12 year olds and 3 year olds playing in the same space just doesn't make any sense.

 

[cmph]

Couldn't the open hours at least be posted for individual cruises prior to the open booking dates for Palo/Remy/spa appts? I can sorta see why they don't have a set open house schedule, standard across all 4 ships w/o variation, b/c I guess it does need to vary by ship/destination/schedule/etc. It just seems like there should be a way to simplify parents' ability to schedule their own activities in advance rather than scramble around once they are on the ship, making changes. From what I'm reading above, open house schedules are all over the place, so everyone is just making their best guesses right now. That seems (mostly) avoidable.

 

[Chica1581]

I agree that the age should be further divided. I was worried about leaving my 3 year old in an area with very rough 11 and 12 year olds playing.
We went on Celebrity (although their club is super small) and they had the ages divided 3-5, 6-8, 9-12, ect. Each group had their own activities. It made me feel better to know my child was with preschoolers and not with preteens.

 

[FamilyHolidayPlanner]

[QUOTE="belac, post: 56234190, member: 236238]
My Three points are:

• It is a kids Club, let it be a Kids Club for the most part, it isn't a Family club.
• Have a set schedule of OH so parents can schedule their adult only activities when there aren't OH.
• Have more scheduled activities for the kids, I hate the long blank spaces in the Navigator, that meas no scheduled craft, art, or science something. Seems like there are more blank spaces now then before.

I wonder, what would happen if they made Palo/Remy 40% of the time family dining or Spa/Adult Pool area 40% of the time family OH? IMHO, I don't think we adults would like it much.[/QUOTE]
THIS!! kids clubs should be for the children to enjoy...less OH free-for-all

 

[FamilyHolidayPlanner]

I personally like the open house times as well. I work full time so vacations are a time when I get to spend lots of time with my son. I like that he isn't barred from going to the club just because he wants his special vacation time to include me and I want to spend the time with him. the only time we even use the clubs is during the open house

By this reasoning, children should also be allowed into Palo, remy, and adults only pool area.

All those in favor....

 

[adSimba]

I feel really bad that my kid can't go into Palo/Remmy for another decade, we've trained him to appreciate good food. (it's ok though you can hate me)

 

[cruisingtwins]

I love open house times when we went it was way too hot to have toddlers out on the deck and no other real space to entertain them. So either keep the open house or make a play space where kids can hang out with their parents all the time.

 

[Keyser]

To mention one other thing: a few weeks ago, we were (for the first time) on the Dream, and found the checkin/checkout at the Lab/Club to be a mess. I don't know if they were experimenting for the cruise or what, but it seemed as though they had a different system every day (sometimes you checked in at one, checked out at the other; sometimes you checked in on one side and checked out on the other; sometimes you could check in/out anywhere). There were often lines, but the lines weren't split into checkin/checkout - so we would wait 5 minutes to spend 10 seconds dropping our daughter off, after waiting several minutes while other parents were waiting for pickup. Other times we had to wait and wait on one side while CMs stood talking on the other side, doing nothing. It just felt very inconsistent and far from an optimal system. We've sailed on the Magic and Wonder previously, and though there were sometimes lines (no way around that), it always ran much smoother.

Oddly, I would have thought that the Dream drew would've had the most experience in that it's regularly dealing with new passengers, so I would have thought they would have had the most clear and optimized system. Maybe they really were using our cruise as an experiment, but it wasn't the best, and seemed like something easily fixable.

 

[KT2038]

I'm sorry that a lot of you don't like the Open House times. These are times though that children who can't or won't use the spaces during secured programming have the opportunity to experience some magic within our spaces. This will never change. They are usually scheduled at times when there isn't a large number of children expected for secured programming; for example on port days, early in the mornings and at dinner time.

 

[belac]

I feel really bad that my kid can't go into Palo/Remmy for another decade, we've trained him to appreciate good food. (it's ok though you can hate me)

No not hating you at all, I know this all too well. DS would love more than anything to go to Palo and Remy but it is an adult area for adults to enjoy so he can't. I have waited almost a decade to go back to Victoria & Alberts, and I can't wait to go back next year when he is 10. He will love it no doubt, and he will love Palo and Remy when he is 18 too.
So while I completely sympathize and understand your point, it is an adult area, much the same the Youth Clubs are Children's areas.
A scheduled time in the AM and PM is great for parent bonding, and yes I say scheduled because it should be so that we can schedule adult dining etc.. accordingly. We shouldn't have to be rescheduling due to OH times once onboard.

 

[soniam]

Isn't Open House the only time that parents can even go in to see what the space is like? I remember not being allowed to go get our son, while we waited around forever for a CM to actually help us check him out. We were the only parents there at the time, shocking I know, so the CMs were all busy inside and wouldn't come out to help us I understand it's a safety issue to let non-CM adults in, and I am very fine with that. However, Open House would be the only time that parents would be allowed in even to just look around.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Isn't Open House the only time that parents can even go in to see what the space is like? I remember not being allowed to go get our son, while we waited around forever for a CM to actually help us check him out. We were the only parents there at the time, shocking I know, so the CMs were all busy inside and wouldn't come out to help us I understand it's a safety issue to let non-CM adults in, and I am very fine with that. However, Open House would be the only time that parents would be allowed in even to just look around.

Yes, and the embarkation day Open House will allow that. Or one or two, short (1 hour) ones on the next day or two in the morning.

 

[RatherBeInAK]

I really appreciate the open house time. It's so wonderful that my child, who has a low tolerance for noise and chaos, can experience the super fun environment of the kids' club under circumstances where he feels safe. I'm hopeful that eventually he'll enjoy it alone, but until that happens, I'm happy he can still have fun in that space. I really appreciate that DCL gives children like him that opportunity.

 

[belac]

I'm sorry that a lot of you don't like the Open House times. These are times though that children who can't or won't use the spaces during secured programming have the opportunity to experience some magic within our spaces. This will never change. They are usually scheduled at times when there isn't a large number of children expected for secured programming; for example on port days, early in the mornings and at dinner time.

Firstly I want to thank you for being one of the great Counselors on the Ships. I also want to thank you for asking this question on here and answering our questions.
I think people here are saying the OH scheduling is getting excessive. While we understand children may need parents to come in with them or child may have special needs, the amount of OH and randomly scheduled OH times are what is the issue. I looked through several more recent Navigators and it was random throughout all the ships. Some times were 3 hours down to 1.5 hours a couple of times a day. We aren't saying get rid of it but make it fair, the pendulum seems to be swinging in the family club favor vs the kids club.
My son was one of those kids who wouldn't use the club without us. We chose one time a day to go to OH, which 4 years ago was less time and more consistantly scheduled. We know our child, we knew he wouldn't use the clubs back then.
So it wasn't like this 4 years ago. It was also more consistently scheduled. So something changed, someone complained or simply thought it is better to have more OH and for longer periods daily, so parents could act like kids again.
So it has changed for sure.
It would be great to know the OH schedule before parents book special dinners, spa at their 120/90/75 day check in times or schedule it throughout all the ships consistently so it is common knowledge. BTW dinner time isn't the best time for OH as that is the time to have adult dining scheduled

Thanks again for what you do, although we complain we do really apriciate you very much and we know it is no small task taking care of our children.

 

[KT2038]

I will follow up on this and see if we can offer a solution. Are there any other concerns or indeed good things that you feel need to be brought up?

 

[Macprincess]

Please return to having the club groups divided by age groups. On our last cruise my 11 year old lasted only about 45 minutes before she had the CM's page me. She would not return the rest of the cruise. She felt the club was boring now and all about the younger kiddos. I eventually gave in and let her try the Edge, which she liked, but I wasn't wild about my 5th grader being with Middle School age kids. I found myself checking in on her much more then I would have in the lab/club. We also didn't let her go off to the Edge as much as we would have allowed her to go to the Lab/Club, because we were not as comfortable with her ability to handle the Middle School crowd. Admittedly, this was a last minute on board decision where we elected to let her move up, and the Lab/Club was available to her. It just caught us by surprise that Disney had changed their policy since our last cruise.

One of the reason we are willing to pay more to cruise with Disney is we have always found the children and teens clubs to be first rate. To my husband and I it was worth the extra money to have happy, entertained children so we can have some much needed adult time. This change did little to my cause of championing the extra cost to cruise Disney over other lines to my husband.

When my older children were lab/club age things were still divide up by age group and they never complained or asked to leave. They were placed in separate groups and still loved the lab/club. In fact I had to drag them out of the Lab/clubs for family time.

I also agree that I would be less then thrilled to have my preschooler in a club with 11 and 12 yearolds. I also think by doing this your asking for younger kids to age up to the Edge and Vibe, which in my opinion, can lead to problems.

I get that Disney did this to make parents happy who didn't want to separate their children. Parents don't walk into schools and request that their 1st grader be placed with their 5th grader. I personally wish Disney would stop kissing the behinds of a few squeaky wheels and stick to their rules...I also, think there are far too many open house times.

 

[TestingH2O]

I would like something like a course catalog of activities. Not everything gets a blurb in the navigator and it would be nice to have more to go on when dropping my daughter off. Because she's at the young end of the age range, we have taken her for activities instead of just free play. Sometimes though I just don't know what to expect from the title listed.

Oh, also, day 1 on the Dream had a very weird schedule where the schedule said the club waa secure but the navigator said it's not. Even when we asked at the club, the counsellors don't know if it's open house or not. It seems to me that, by the time first dinner starts, there should really be secure programming.

 

[TestingH2O]

Oh, and it would be nice to have Dine and Play at both dinner settings.

Thank you for your regular help and appearance on these boards!

 

[Chica1581]

My daughter loves all the activities that include characters like the pajama party with Pluto and story time with belle.
She also enjoyed the preschool only play hours in the club.
The personalized invitations to go to a certain activity made her feel special. She always checked the fish extender for a cute envelope.

 

[To the honeypots]

By this reasoning, children should also be allowed into Palo, remy, and adults only pool area.

All those in favor....

Never said that. I can appreciate there are areas set aside for adults only who want adults only time and kids only for kids who want kids only time. As the parent of a child who doesn't want to go to the kids club alone, I am happy they have a time for him experience the kids club in the manner which he likes. That's all I was saying. I like the open houses.