Rooms:
Not going to lie, Disney’s win for looking fancy. They theme them well and look attractive. However, they are big and can be noisy and overwhelming for some kids, sometimes there can be hundreds of kids in one room. As staff, its obvious how chaotic it can get as you are strategically placed to and your job is to watch to make sure the kids are fine. They all look very similar from ship to ship, especially as the Magic and Wonder were updated. There’s so much to look at and it looks like there’s lots to offer.
Royal’s rooms are basic, but functional for the programme they offer. They all vary between class of ships and then often between the ships in those classes too. They don’t need screens because they're not needed for the activities, however, I know that some kids see the lack of screens and modern technology and never come back. Royals rooms are also by age, so while they can also get noisy and chaotic, its probably not going to be as overwhelming, especially for the little ones.
Structure:
DCL, no structure, haha! Literally a free for all, all day every day. Not saying they don’t do activities, of course they do, but no kid is ever made to do anything on DCL. They can move from area to area, iPad to craft to science back to iPad. Which is great for some, they can get so much done in an hour if they want to. kids can give themselves a break if they want to. But from my time, I also found that no kids were really encouraged to do things either, they make an announcement for the big activities, but not for any of the activities in the other room. Personally, I found a lot of running in the club and lab, I felt like I was forever saying ‘walking feet’, and I think that comes from big open rooms and kids not really being engaged in anything, kids needing to burn off energy, so they just go. All Disney’s activities are on the navigator (although I hear now they dont deliver them to the rooms anymore), each kids space has a line on their with the schedules activities on there.
Royal is a lot more structured and runs an activity based programme. Which, like DCL works for some, but not for others. Kids that like the freedom of DCL maybe less likely to enjoy Royal’s clubs. On sea days, Royal has 3, 3 hour sessions a day, and each session has a different theme and different activities. Most sessions will include games, a craft and a science (while DCL has a room called the lab, royal have a lot more science activities). Its generally more active. Kids are expected to join in with activities or sit out, there maybe an option of colouring or
lego for those that don’t want to join in, however, every time the activity changes, kids are to come and sit down and listen to the rules or what happening and then if they still really don’t want to join, they can go back to something quiet. I find that because of this kids get to know each other well and quickly and staff get to know kids quick too. Staff are usually in one room for the majority of a cruise so everyone, parents, staff and kids all get to know each other. Kids are also taken out the room for activities on royal, the sports deck for sports night, pirates/space night walks, the teen centre of rock n roll night. At Royal, the kids have their own kids compass, which is delivered daily to their stateroom and lists all the activities going on in AO that day and other information.
