Oceaneers Club

[Holbrook]

This is our first Disney Cruise and I was wondering about visiting Oceaneers Club for my children.

Is this something you need to schedule in advance or is it just walk in at any time? If you reserve, do you do it before you get on the ship or once you get there?

Thank you for all of your advice!

 

[Holbrook]

I also was curious about the Dine and play. We have the later seating for dinner. Is the Dine and Play option something I need to reserve in advance before the cruise or once on board?

 

[GoofyTwinDad]

This is our first Disney Cruise and I was wondering about visiting Oceaneers Club for my children.

Is this something you need to schedule in advance or is it just walk in at any time? If you reserve, do you do it before you get on the ship or once you get there?

Thank you for all of your advice!

They have open houses in all clubs prior to the muster drill. You can also get the childrens bracelets at the clubs if the lines are too long in the terminal.

 

[GoofyTwinDad]

I also was curious about the Dine and play. We have the later seating for dinner. Is the Dine and Play option something I need to reserve in advance before the cruise or once on board?

IMHO, You should grab something to eat from the pool deck before going to the club. They usually serve a cold sandwich, chips and some veggies. If you decide to let them eat there, just let the CM's know that your children will be eating there. No reservations needed.

 

[Weedy]

The clubs do not require reservations. after the first afternoon they are open from early morning to late at night. There are time when they have "Open House" this is when parents and children younger then 3 years old can go in the club. During this time they can go to the Oceaneer Lab they will have age appropriate things for them to do.

Here is the link from Disney's page with more info.

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships-activities/ships/magic/youth-clubs/

Your kids will have a great time.

Dine and play is only available at the late dinner seating. If you have early (Main) seating, you can ask your server to hurry your kids meals along and then you or your husband can walk the kids to their club between your meal courses. We would feed the kids during our appetizer then take them to the club when we waited for the main course to arrive.

 

[aanderson5]

Dine and Play is when you take your kids to dinner with you but they get their food very quickly and then about 45 minutes into the meal CM's from the kids club come to the entrance of the dining room and will take them to the club for you. You don't have to reserve anything, just pay attention to the door so you don't miss them.

 

[chudson98]

This is our first Disney Cruise and I was wondering about visiting Oceaneers Club for my children.

Is this something you need to schedule in advance or is it just walk in at any time? If you reserve, do you do it before you get on the ship or once you get there?

Thank you for all of your advice!

The Oceaneers Club is not something you need to reserve for each time you drop you child off. It is a casual drop in and play. Prior to cruising (or when you check in for your cruise) you will need to register your child for the overall program (not for each individual event). Throughout your cruise you can drop your child off as frequently as you would like. Each day in your navigator they will list the activities offered in the club. You just show up and drop off whenever you would like.

As far as the Dine and Play this is offered for late seating guests only. About 35-45 minutes after dinner starts Oceaneer Club CM's will come to each main dining room and pick up children who would like to go to the club. Your waitstaff will serve the kiddies quickly to accomidate this. For us, the kiddies main course came with our appetizer or salad and then the kiddies left and we enjoyed the rest of our meal in "adult bliss". You do not need to "sign up" for this. We let our waitstaff know on the 1st night that this is what we wanted and he helped make it happen.

Hope this help. Have a great cruise.

 

[Meghatron]

I just want to point out that Dine'n'Play for late seating is ONLY the CMs coming to the MDRs to pick up the kids. The option to have the kids' food brought out first during the adult appetizer is available at BOTH seatings; all you have to do is ask. An excellent server will also suggest it just in case the family doesn't already know. Then, once the kids are finished, a parent or other adult in your party walks them up to the club. On the classic ships it takes less than five minutes. We love early dining and don't find that just CM pickup of the kids is worth the switch to late.

 

[Weedy]

Oops one more thing. You can register your children online before your cruise for the club. You don't need to worry about them filling up Disney keeps count of the number of kids so the clubs do not fill up.
One the day of your cruise you can check in for the club either in the terminal when you are waiting to board of later in the day on the ship. You can do that either at the club itself of they will have a table outside the clubs. When you check in the will give your children a wristband that they will scan when you check them in and out of the clubs.

 

[bumbershoot]

I also was curious about the Dine and play. We have the later seating for dinner. Is the Dine and Play option something I need to reserve in advance before the cruise or once on board?

You've gotten to see the variety of ways this is answered already. We didn't know we had to let the server know we wanted DS's food quickly, and we didn't know the CMs were simply going to be outside the restaurant. Therefore, DS never got to partake in this (and yes we had late seating).

Weirdly, for the Enchanted Garden and Royal Palace evenings, we were the second and first booth away from the main entrance (respectively), and NEVER saw the CMs from the Club/Lab at all.

So I don't know what was going on with our cruise, but it just didn't happen for DS because we didn't know that we needed to be the ones to take the lead on it. That's not really what I expected, since Disney is often so good, and nice cruiselines are so good, about helping you with what you want to do.

Then again, it was lovely to eat our meals with our son, instead of rushing him. On the other other hand, I know he would have liked to spend more time in the Club/Lab.

 

[Holbrook]

Wow! Thank you for all of your wonderful advice! You have answered all my questions!