Oceaneer Club for very Active 3.5 year old??

[Dagny]

Hi All

I have been reading all the posts from 2002 re: the Oceaneer's Club and am worried about my 3.5 son behaving in the clubs - he is *very* active and barely sits still now. Having no experience with the kids clubs and reading some of the horror stories about how some children were treated in the past, I am wondering how the counselors are going to react if he simply gets up to go play with something that catches his eye during a "structured" activity. Is that a strike against him?

He has never been to daycare so I am also worried about his ability to "share" properly. He does good at home with his older sister, but I am not sure how he would react to another unknown 3 year old wanting to play with the same toy. Yikes!! Needless to say, we are practicing sharing and I am considering sending him to a M-D-O program to get him used to other kids his age.

I noted that the guidelines say that children may be prohibited from participating without a parent if they become *disruptive* - I can certainly understand if a child is hitting or biting, etc., but what about just normal 3 year old behavior... after all they are just kids, right? Do the counselors try to work with the kids??? I thought I read they *didn't* use "time-out" or other common behavior correcting practices.

I do not plan on leaving him in the clubs for very long during the day unless there is a Main Event that I think he would enjoy, but I sure would like some "adult" time in the evening...


Any comments are appreciated! Thanks!!

 

[noahsmom]

was great. My 4.5 yr old ds loved it. He would have been there the entire time if I would have let him. However, he is in preschool so he's used to some structured activities. You are right that the counselors don't use time-outs. The only time we were paged was one evening when he wasn't listening. The counselor ask that we talk to him, he insisted that he didn't have to listen to them. Well we took him back to the room for the evening and we never had that problem again. The counselor said that while they don't discipline they do expect the children to follow their directions - I totally agree with that.

The club has it's own navigator and that will help you find the activities best suited for your child. It lists not only "big" activities but also open play time. It's such a neat place, he'll probably love it and you will all have a great time!

I'm jealous, I wish I was going back.

Kelli

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Originally posted by Dagny

I... am worried about my 3.5 son behaving in the clubs - he is *very* active and barely sits still now. Having no experience with the kids clubs... I am wondering how the counselors are going to react if he simply gets up to go play with something that catches his eye during a "structured" activity.

Based on our experience, you can expect to be paged and instructed to pick up your child because he is not participating in the activity.

As noahsmom said, get the Navigator and figure out which activities he would be most compatible with or where a specific type of participation is not likely to be required.

 

[cruisnfamily]

We've only been on one Disney Cruise (3day) and at the time my kids were 4 & 7. My son(4) is famous for not really following directions or doing what he's told. Don't get me wrong, he's not a bad or disruptive kid but doesn't always listen the first time. Well, we had NO problems whatsoever. He absolutely loved the club and spent every evening after dinner at the clubs until bedtime as well as the afternoon at Castaway Cay. Nobody ever paged us or said they had a problem and he LOVED to go there.

You may be pleasantly surprised and have no issues at all. I wouldn't mention your fears to the counselors either as I feel that that would just set him up to be singled out ("yup, his mom is right...page her")

Go and have a great time. If it doesn't work out with the clubs, there is plenty of other stuff to keep busy anyway.

 

[Dagny]

Thanks for the reassurances Sonya. My son sounds like yours - a really good kid who needs to be gently reminded once in a while, LOL

I will definitely be selective about the structured programs and I have looked at some of the sample navigators. I know he will definitely enjoy Pumbaa's PJ Party and the Do Si Do with Snow White... as long as he is entertained he should be ok... well, until someone takes his crayon that is. LOL

 

[cumickey]

We are going in a few weeks with our DS3.5 who sounds just like yours!!. So I will let you know how it goes when we get back, keep your fingers crossed for us.

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

On our 1st cruise I went to pick up DD-who was 3 at the time-from the club. The CM told me she really didn't have any interest in the activity and wandered around part of the time, but they never paged me. They told me that they don't expect all 3 year olds to listen all the time and as long as they're not disrupting the whole group then they don't have to participate. I had a CM on our last cruise tell me that DD-4 at the time-wasn't listening very well during the activity. She was very nice about it and didn't make me feel like she was in jeapordy of being banned from the club. Needless to say we had a talk with DD about it and I asked another CM the next day if DD was behaving. She actually acted surprised that I would be concerned, she said kids will be kids. I wouldn't worry about him too much. I think the CM's in the clubs are trained to handle kids from shy to rowdy.

 

[Dagny]

Thanks soooo much guys I really appreciate your responses. I plan on doing a lot with him during the day. Since this my annual Mother/Daughter trip, Mom and I want to be able to do some of the adult stuff at night. I do feel a lot better!

 

[floridaminnie]

I was in the same boat as you with my 3 yr old dd. She had never been in a daycare situation before and sometimes when she makes up her mind she makes up her mind. WHile there she did plug the toliet with toliet paper and had a small fight with another child, but other than that she was good. They did not page me for the two things she did. They only time I was paged was when she was redirected and she had a crying fit that they couldn't calm her down. She was fine after I reassured her that she needed to listen or she was going to have to leave. They are really good with the kids and I was very impressed.