Kids club during ports?

[cokegal19]

I know that you can bring your children to these clubs and they can stay all day if they want (is that right???). But I was wondering if the clubs are open during the time the ship is docked. My husband and I would like to do a dolphin swim, or a snorkel or something, but we have a DS who will be 3 and obviously can't do that.

Is it really, honestly, truly FREE????

 

[lbgraves]

IF your DS is completely PTd...able to wipe & pull on his pants and everything...then you can leave him in the Oceaneer Club. If he isn't, then you would have to take him to the Flounder's Nursery, which I think charges $6 an hour. Yes, the clubs are open all day. I think they opened at 9 am on sea days and 7 in port. DS couldn't wait until 9 am and we were at the door waiting for them to open it a couple times.

 

[talicskai]

We left our kids (DS6 and DD4) onboard while we did the Stingray excursion in Grand Caymand and felt that they were completely happy. I did not worry about their safety at all and we had some much needed "adult time" It was truly wonderful!

 

[hopelea]

We took our dd's with us on our excursions but they were 9 & 7....on our upcoming cruise our dd's have informed us that they missed the best activities having to go on the excursions with us. They are begging to be able to stay on ship... I will let them. They had such a wonderful time while in there!!

Enjoy the adult time and know your child is well entertained!!

 

[Disneycrazymom]

They assign you a pager so that you can be reached if needed, however I don't know how far the signal would reach.

DD 4 could not go on the snorkel tour and we thought she would enjoy the club while we went. She did not want to stay at all. I think she felt uneasy knowing we were "far away", anyway it was fine for us as Grandma stayed behind with her and they had a nice afternoon together, but if she had not been available I would have missed a pretty expensive shore excersion. Just another experience for you to consider.

 

[aprilgail2]

Originally posted by Disneycrazymom
They assign you a pager so that you can be reached if needed, however I don't know how far the signal would reach.

DD 4 could not go on the snorkel tour and we thought she would enjoy the club while we went. She did not want to stay at all. I think she felt uneasy knowing we were "far away", anyway it was fine for us as Grandma stayed behind with her and they had a nice afternoon together, but if she had not been available I would have missed a pretty expensive shore excersion. Just another experience for you to consider.

The tell you that the pagers might not work at all off the ship. I did leave my 4 year old daughter on the ship in Cozumel while we were off the ship for about an hour but I would not have felt comfortable leaving her for hours to take an excursion as they would not have been able to reach me the whole time I was off the ship if there wan an emergancy...even the hour in Cozumel was a bit nervewracking knowing they couldn't get a hold of me! We wanted to do the stingray excursion in Grand Cayman and since she was to young for the Disney one we just booked on our own and she was able to come...she loved it so much! She still talks about it all the time.

 

[qofhearts]

The pagers do work off the ship. We left our 3dd on board in Antigua while we did a 4.5hr snorkel adventure. When we dropped her off the counselors told us that they would only page us in a dire emergency and asked which excursion we were on. They told us they have other ways of contacting you if something is wrong but they don't normally pull you off the excursion if your child is crying.
She was fine the entire time and we had fun.

I don't understand why cruisers have a hard time leaving their child in their wonderful program to have some mommy/daddy time. I didn't feel guilty about it , by the end of the trip she had made lots of friends, was having a great time and couldn't stop talking about her "club". We put her in daily for about an hour or two ON HER REQUEST. Two out of the seven she was in there for 5hrs. We still had a great family cruise, she got to see a lot and we got some down time.

My advice if you are going to do an excursion and leave the child on the boat is to test it out the day before by leaving your child in there for the amount of time you would be away. Kind of a dry run.

 

[talicskai]

Originally posted by qofhearts

I don't understand why cruisers have a hard time leaving their child in their wonderful program to have some mommy/daddy time. We still had a great family cruise, she got to see a lot and we got some down time.

I couldn't agree more ~ There is an old saying "if momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!"

 

[Disneycrazymom]

I was not being critical of anyone for leaving their child. Just in my case my DD was not to thrilled with the club. I thought she would enjoy it but really did not. I wanted the OP to know that not every child will have the same feelings about the clubs. Different families will make different choices. In our case DS was with us on the snorkle tour so it still was not Mommy and Daddy time.

 

[qofhearts]

Didn't mean to single anyone out. I just found that on the cruise talking to other mommies of 3-4yr olds at the pool - the general conversation the first two days included "how's the oceaneers club and have you put your child there yet". There was a lot of hesitation leaving the child there to have some adult alone time. That just surprised me I agree every child is different, that's why a recommend before booking the excursion take the first day to test the waters, get them use to the place and drop them off at the club for the time you will be gone on an excursion. If it works, then book it. We waited until day 2 of our cruise to book the excursion, had no problems, there was still plenty of openings.

Another good time to put them in for those a little hesitatn is in the afternoons, around11-12, after they come back from lunch it's quiet time (3-4yr olds). They have mats, pillows and blankets and get to watch a movie on the big screen. This is usually exciting for most kids-so if you know it's nap time, you could schedule an afternoon excursion, drop em off and at least hope they sleep;-).

Just an idea

 

[talicskai]

Originally posted by Disneycrazymom
I was not being critical of anyone for leaving their child. Just in my case my DD was not to thrilled with the club. I thought she would enjoy it but really did not. I wanted the OP to know that not every child will have the same feelings about the clubs. Different families will make different choices. In our case DS was with us on the snorkle tour so it still was not Mommy and Daddy time.

No offense taken ~ that what these forums are all about!