Phone in kids club for texting?

[JJsmama]

Was wondering if I should let DS8 take an iphone to Oceaneers in case he wants to text us. (I have an extra iphone without cell service, but with wifi.) Do the texts arrive in a timely manner onboard? The kids don't carry the wavephones, right? That is just the parents. I would rather just carry my iphone than a wavephone too.

 

[dsdeleon]

Are you letting him check out? If so I would give him a wave phone. If not, I would just have the CMs text the wave phones. They seem to be immediate and the app can be delayed.

I have two boys in this next cruise both with self check and the younger one will have the wave phone and the older one will have an iPhone knowing I may not respond right away. Both will have those athletic belt things that can fit a phone.

 

[dsdeleon]

Oh and meant to explain, each room has two wave phones that can dial each other. Any ship phone can dial each phone as well.

 

[JJsmama]

Are you letting him check out? If so I would give him a wave phone. If not, I would just have the CMs text the wave phones. They seem to be immediate and the app can be delayed.

I have two boys in this next cruise both with self check and the younger one will have the wave phone and the older one will have an iPhone knowing I may not respond right away. Both will have those athletic belt things that can fit a phone.

Why give the younger the wavephone vs the iphone? What will it do that the other won't? can they text on the wavephone and it is faster? I do not think I will give him check out privledges. The Fantasy is just too big. If he were with a brother, maybe. Also, I want to know when he is leaving vs him just trying to find me. I don't want to be surprised in the stateroom either... I guess my point in giving him the phone would be that he felt less abandoned and knew he could contact me if he wanted. Plus just to check in, along the lines of "Are you having fun?" Yes. "How about I pick you up in 1 hour?" I think it is psychological.

 

[dsdeleon]

Why give the younger the wavephone vs the iphone? What will it do that the other won't? can they text on the wavephone and it is faster? I do not think I will give him check out privledges. The Fantasy is just too big. If he were with a brother, maybe. Also, I want to know when he is leaving vs him just trying to find me. I don't want to be surprised in the stateroom either... I guess my point in giving him the phone would be that he felt less abandoned and knew he could contact me if he wanted. Plus just to check in, along the lines of "Are you having fun?" Yes. "How about I pick you up in 1 hour?" I think it is psychological.

Oh, I see where you are coming from. I have sent my kids to the club so from my perspective, they are so engaged that texting them would be bothersome and I know for us I have to go there to check in. Even when I do so, 9 times out of 10 they don't want to stop what they are doing and are threatened that I am going to make them leave, haha. The CMs do am AMAZING job of having each and every child enjoy their time in the club from everything I have seen. I even have one child with autism and I have nothing but good things to say.

I am confusing things with the wave phone too. They are really old style Nokias so the kids can't really text on them, they can just quickly call you. The Disney CMs have some program that does send text messages (ex; club is closing in 30 min) but they will call you if there is an issue or the child requests. That is what I did with my youngest his first time. Just had him use the CMs, that's what they are there for. I did have an iPhone 4 with the app and everything but I didn't even bother since he was safe in the club.

When you go to check on them they tell you exactly where they are, you can take a few min see them enjoying themselves and then tell the CM they wanted to stay and leave. I remember being so nervous they would need me, I must have went 4 or 5 times before I was just tired of bothering them and let myself have some fun. I think that was the moment I was hooked on DCL.

 

[TeaBee]

Was wondering if I should let DS8 take an iphone to Oceaneers in case he wants to text us. (I have an extra iphone without cell service, but with wifi.) Do the texts arrive in a timely manner onboard? The kids don't carry the wavephones, right? That is just the parents. I would rather just carry my iphone than a wavephone too.

My daughter was a little older (and had check out privileges), and we gave her a smartphone to use on the cruise to text us. We didn't have any problems receiving her texts in a timely manner. Her phone was a lot smaller and easier to put in a pocket than the Wavephones (and I was totally paranoid about us losing a Wavephone and having to pay for it!)

 

[bumbershoot]

My son has a no-SIM phone that has the Navigator app and it's terrific.

He has not yet had self-checkout privileges, and we have found that him sending a text through the app is better and faster than getting a cm to call. I cannot stand the Wave phones. The first time I used them I was able to call and clumsily text. The last time I couldn't do either. Not sure what the problem was but I just could not navigate on that thing.

And the one time the club felt they had an urgent matter to discuss, they called *the room*, not the wave phones, which was a bit mystifying.

We know that there might be a delay with the text so DS doesn't get antsy. We check the app, going into the texting interface regularly to make sure we didn't miss something.

It has worked out well.

 

[TJ95]

My DS used his iPod touch in the Oceaneer Lab on our last 2 cruises to text and loved it. We didn't carry the wave phones at all. The big plus to him having the iPod touch to text us was when he either wanted to stay longer or get picked up earlier, and he really enjoyed being able to easily reach out to us when he wanted. We also cruised with the grandparents, and that way everyone could be in on the text pool- made coordination really easy. That being said, we put his name on the back of the case for the iPod touch, and he knew to keep it in his velcro cargo pocket so it wouldn't get lost!

 

[squirk]

The wave phones are fine for a phone call, but if you do want to text, that T9 input is painful. Much easier and quicker to text on an iPhone.

That having been said, when we sailed last May, we had problems with the app delivering texts in a timely manner. I'm ot sure who's phone glitched (me or my son's), but more than once, I would text him and get no reply. There was nothing on my app indicating that the message had not been delivered, but he was not receiving the messages unless he killed the app and restarted it.

I thought I read on here that DCL fixed this issue, but am not 100% positive.

 

[Chrisey]

There are pros and cons to the wavephone or an iphone/ipod. CM's cannot reach you through t app on the iphone/ipod, only through the wavephone... so it is best to have the wavephone with you whenever your child is in the club.
The iphone/ipod is better though for actual texting, as the wavephone can be hard to navigate.

 

[Jareds_mommy]

We let ours take her iphone, we have not had any issues she has a lanyard on it

 

[KT2038]

Hi! You can choose to give your child either the iPhone or wave phone. That is up to you. Please be aware however that if he loses either of them while in the club we do not take responsibility for that.

 

[anricat]

We let my DD take an iPhone (an old one from my mom with no SIM) with her to the kid's club in October. She was 7 and it was fantastic. When she was ready to be picked up, she would send us a text message via the Navigator app. It worked great. She had the phone in a little pouch around her waist. I made it for her with the pattern found here: http://www.mesewcrazy.com/2013/08/running-belt-diy.html

If you're not crafty, running stores often have little waist belts. Look for Spybelt (we also have one of those and it works well). There's also a magnetic pouch called "Running Buddy" or another brand called "Roo Belt" that doing wrap all the way around, but instead are magnetic.

I wouldn't let my child take a Wave phone. They are bulky and more expensive to replace and a cheap old iPhone! We never had any delays with the Navigator app in October on the Magic. We told her, though, if she didn't hear back from one parent in 5 minutes or so to try the other. She never had to.

Our next cruise she will be 8. We'll do the same thing, but she'll have check out privileges. She'll still need to send us a message so we can meet up, though.

 

[JJsmama]

Thanks for all the replies.
FWIW, he did carry an old iphone all week on our last WDW trip (so that he could check the wait times, take photo, etc like everyone else.) He is very good about being careful with it. Most of his cargo type shorts have a leg pocket that velcros or buttons. Other days, he did wear a fanny pack with it and his sun glasses in it. We have 1 iphone that is so old it has basically NO value, so I might try and put the app on that one.

Edited: Actually I remember that I wore the fanny pack and he wore an old digital camera carrier. He wore the long strap cross body style. It was the perfect size for just the phone and sunglasses and we had several of them lying around since the cameras wore out before the cases. (Just an idea for someone.)

 

[JJsmama]

We let my DD take an iPhone (an old one from my mom with no SIM) with her to the kid's club in October. She was 7 and it was fantastic. When she was ready to be picked up, she would send us a text message via the Navigator app. It worked great. She had the phone in a little pouch around her waist. I made it for her with the pattern found here: http://www.mesewcrazy.com/2013/08/running-belt-diy.html

I would love to have that running belt. It is very cute. I like crafts and sewing, but my stuff does not turn out well -- at all.

 

[anricat]

I would love to have that running belt. It is very cute. I like crafts and sewing, but my stuff does not turn out well -- at all.

It was really pretty easy. Zippers are sort of a pain, but it worked out fine. Here's a photo of my daughter dancing in the atrium while wearing it. It worked out well. Mostly just looked like a little belt.