Kid's Club Question

[krystyana]

We've been on the cruise before but never with our 3&1/2 year old son. He's kind of shy around strangers and I'm not really big on leaving him. That being said....Would I be able to take him to the children's club or do they not allow that? Also if I am able to accompany him...do I still register him? It looks as though he could have alot of fun there but I'm not sure how he would feel about being left with people he is unfamiliar with. Any advice, info, suggestions? Thanks in advance!!!

 

[missmulan]

yes, go ahead and still register him. you'll be surprised at what the counselors can do! they are great. believe me, they've seen & heard it all so your child will not be the first "shy" one. you can stay with your child as little or as long as you want. when you feel comfortable to leave him, he will be fine. i would say to register him just in case.

 

[soccerdad-Chris]

"Krystyana"--

I will go out on a limb and offer a slightly-verbose prediction here:

As you would expect, your typically-shy son will be apprehensive when you first bring him to the Oceaneers Club. And, of course, true to form, so will you. Threre will possibly be some separation issues (i.e. he won't want you to leave, and though you won't admit it, neither will you). There will also be crying (though you really shouldn't do that in front of your son, if you can help it), and you will be tempted to forget the whole thing and just take him with you.

You will then receive your obligatory beeper (which Disney always provides so that they can notify you if your child decides you need to come get him), which you fully expect them to do within 30 seconds of you dropping him off.

Then something strange happens......the beeper is silent. Surely it must have malfunctioned. After 30 minutes, you are convinced that the beeper doesn't work. Armed with this thought, you pick up the house phone and call the Oceaneers Club to request a new beeper. Surprisingly, shockingly really, they inform you that they have hot tried to beep you, and that it's highly unlikely that your beeper is malfunctioning. You ask the receptionist if you can speak to your son. After a slightly-annoying pause, you are told that your son does not wish to speak with you, that he is busy "building a fort". It is not clear from this conversation at what point your son will be available to speak with you, though it's suggested that is will possibly be "never" so long as the completion of the fort is outstanding.

At this point, you decide to trust the Disney people and that your son is in good hands, and also obviously not in need of you, and so you head down to Deck 3 and partake in an adult beverage or two, which is your right when on vacation. After several dances at the nightclub, and despite the fact that the beeper has not gone off, you decide to pick your son up fron the Oceaneers Club.

At least, that was the plan. The only problem, once you get there and provide the obligatory password, is that your son has absolutely no desire to leave at this time, or ever, for that matter. He is totally content. He is still shy, of course. After all, the Oceaneers Club can take shy kids and show them a fun time, but they can't change the nature of the kids themselves.

Let it go!!! That's my advice.

Chris

 

[Aced1]

Soccerdad-Chris - that was a wonderful little message!!!!

 

[aprilgail2]

I thought I was going to have to stay with my daughter the whole time...but when we got to the club, she went off with a counselor and waved good-bye. I did get a beep over 2 hours later-which is another whole story,they didn't change the time on the beeper and when I looked at it it looked like I missed the beep by 2 hours...I ran there feeling terrible but turns out the time on it was wrong!!)...the next day she stayed 4 hours and one day she went in at 9, I went to get her for lunch, she didn't want lunch with me, I went to get her for dinner and made her come with me for dinner...then after dinner she wanted to go right back and I picked her up around midnight!! It was fine for one day but I would hate for her to do that the whole cruise..there are family things I want to do with her too.

 

[jtiufekchiev]

My recommendation would be to stick around in the Oceaneer Club for a little while and watch how the kids are doing. Leave your daughter for short periods at a time and see how she is when you come back. The counselors are great about parents staying or hanging around. I just got back from the 4 day Wonder and I think there were so many young kids 7 and younger that a few really got lost in the shuffle. My 4 yr old daughter is not really shy and was very eager to go but she had a few really sad experiences where she was stuck all alone. She has never cried for me before so I wasn't really happy with the attentiveness of the staff towards the 3-4 yrs. Maybe my cruise was really packed and maybe the staff was really busy but I did get paged a few times which surprised me and I did watch many kids standing alone or wanting to leave. The manager was very nice and tried to be very comforting but I don't think they have enough staff for the 3-4. This is just my experience so I don't mean to scare you off, just warn you that the club may not be for everyone, or at least maybe for shorter visits than some. Good luck, I would try the activities where the 3-4 are separated from the older kids, or get their before a planned activity starts so your little one does not feel shy about joining.

My littlest still had a great time. I think she'll do more of the "clubbing" next time when she is a little older.

 

[kshabare]

First - Chris - great story, great comments.

krystyana - one thing not really mentioned here was the fact that even if your child is with you they can get lost. If you are able to register your child, please do so. Your child wears a waterproof bracelet which will identify them. You always have a beeper associated to that bracelet. If they get away from you tell them to find a cast member and they can be identified sooner and you'll be paged. I was comfortable with the club and the lab - both were well supervised on all my February trips.

Just my two cents,

Kim

 

[Lizardbeth61]

. . . at least that has been our experience on our 5 Disney Cruises so far. It's amazing. Now our started in the 5-7 group so I can't speak for the really little ones, but our just love the club . . . so much that we're going on another 7-day Disney Cruise in March. We figure we'll let them enjoy it as much as possible until they're ready to move on to something else.

 

[krystyana]

Thank you all so much for all the great advice. I'm probably super overprotective as he is my only child so far....You'd think I'd be more relaxed after starting him in preschool...but I'm not ...Maybe someday...
I'll probably register him and then take it as it comes...You are all wonderful!