Tricky requirements ?

[CarolynU]

So we live in the Uk. We have two very young diverse kiddies! One daredevil, 7 nearly eight and another one far more timid aged 5.
The eldest is gold next trip the younger one has only 3 sails on DCL due to Covid.
On our last DCL cruise they were bored! The councillors European just monitored free play.
Activities outside the club was restricted to trivia ?! Not ideal for pre or early readers.
The pool was totality
overwhelmed and the weather very cold!
I have family in Canada so could use Vancouver as a starting point. We can only travel in August due to school holidays. The rules out every Mediterranean cruise. Caribbean must factor in $ 4000 in flights.
I do see non DCL cruise lines which look as if they have much more excitement for kiddies.
So many things. Climbing walls, mini golfing, surf riders, water slides etc etc.
but I’m unfamiliar with those cruise lines.
It’s hard to leave DCL but they simply don’t offer what other lines do in August .

 

[lanejudy]

I’m not sure of the "tricky requirements" question but DCL has more than just trivia outside the Club/Lab. There are movies, bingo, towel folding, the sports deck, etc. Some activities will depend on ship -- the aquaduck, aquadunk, aqualab, mini-golf, mid-ship detective agency, etc. I agree the pools on an at-sea day are crazy crowded and not fun. Would you plan any port excursions or are you only planning to stay onboard? I could see that could get boring.

If you are only looking at August out of Vancouver, then you are limiting yourself to the Wonder. But it really sounds like you haven't fully explored the onboard options designated as "all ages" on the Navigator. Maybe check some other destinations/ships.

Also note that the Club/Lab programming has recently changed. There is more specific programming for the younger ages (I'm not sure if that 3-4 or 3-5). But if your 7-yr-old has been on at least 10 cruises, there must have been something of interest. Though I can also see that possibly s/he is "burnt out" from DCL and maybe your family wants/needs to check out other cruiselines or other vacation options for a few years.

 

[CarolynU]

I’m not sure of the "tricky requirements" question but DCL has more than just trivia outside the Club/Lab. There are movies, bingo, towel folding, the sports deck, etc. Some activities will depend on ship -- the aquaduck, aquadunk, aqualab, mini-golf, mid-ship detective agency, etc. I agree the pools on an at-sea day are crazy crowded and not fun. Would you plan any port excursions or are you only planning to stay onboard? I could see that could get boring.

If you are only looking at August out of Vancouver, then you are limiting yourself to the Wonder. But it really sounds like you haven't fully explored the onboard options designated as "all ages" on the Navigator. Maybe check some other destinations/ships.

Also note that the Club/Lab programming has recently changed. There is more specific programming for the younger ages (I'm not sure if that 3-4 or 3-5). But if your 7-yr-old has been on at least 10 cruises, there must have been something of interest. Though I can also see that possibly s/he is "burnt out" from DCL and maybe your family wants/needs to check out other cruiselines or other vacation options for a few years.

On our last cruise (Northern European) the youngest was 4 so towel folding was beyond him. We were on the Magic. The weather was cold most of the time and sadly the club was very understaffed (2022) and nothing much seemed to be organised so it was colouring sheets most of the time in their sessions.
My granddaughter was quite happy to meet the characters all morning and afternoon but the grandson less so. Neither met the height requirement for the slides. I did forget about the detective agency.
The ports of call were European cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam and it was cold and windy so really not worth taking them off.
They have now swapped The Magic for The Dream so maybe more options onboard? I’ve not been on The Dream so that might be better and perhaps the clubs offer more activities again now?
Beaches would be good too but to bring them to Florida to start a trip would cost around $4000 in flight costs.

 

[soniam]

It sounds like that was a start back cruise after Covid. I wouldn’t let that influence you. Things are pretty much back to normal now.

 

[Skippyboo]

I have only been on the Fantasy but the Dream is same class. It had mini golf on the back upper deck, aqua duck, splash pad. I looked at the itineraries for this August, cruises to Spain from Southampton, if you don’t want to fly to Orlando or Ft Lauderdale for the Caribbean ones.

 

[auntlynne]

?No to Med in August: is it heat/ flight prices / availability/ high number of tourists or the possibility of destinations being un- or understaffed during the big vacation month?

Otherwise, it would offer a lot of variety of US cruise lines while they do the summer Med. You could look at Royal Caribbean with one of their ships with more onboard activity features.

Sailing from Vancouver (or Seattle) in August is rather limited to an Alaskan cruise, I would think.

If you could get lower airfare, I would suggest this. Mainly beach time. So only one Sea Day to find enough activities to keep kids entertained. It will be hot. But it does make getting out of the ocean less of a shock.

Good luck on finding something to fit your needs.

 

[Flcruising]

In our recent experience , unless a specific activity is scheduled in the kids club the counselors don't do much to interact with kids. There are crafts and activities outside of the kids clubs perhaps you missed. Some of which may require more family interaction rather than kids going off on their own.
You may find other ships with different activities but the grass isn't always greener. Some ships have fees for those activities. Some of those activities have huge wait lines or require reservations. Which means you may only get to do it once in your whole cruise.
I do agree the counselors and family crafts/activities have slipped a lot in the last couple cruises. I don't know if current leadership has forgotten what DCL used to do to build their reputation but I hope they recapture it. That side I still love DCL.

 

[Kit Jackson]

This link will allow to see activities from past cruises. Find the Person Navigator and look at the all ages events/activities and see if anything might appeal.

https://disneycruiselineblog.com/

 

[CarolynU]

?No to Med in August: is it heat/ flight prices / availability/ high number of tourists or the possibility of destinations being un- or understaffed during the big vacation month?

Otherwise, it would offer a lot of variety of US cruise lines while they do the summer Med. You could look at Royal Caribbean with one of their ships with more onboard activity features.

Sailing from Vancouver (or Seattle) in August is rather limited to an Alaskan cruise, I would think.

If you could get lower airfare, I would suggest this. Mainly beach time. So only one Sea Day to find enough activities to keep kids entertained. It will be hot. But it does make getting out of the ocean less of a shock.

Good luck on finding something to fit your needs.

View attachment 827485

We would love The Med in August but they reposition the ship from the Med to Northern European before August and our kiddies school holidays don’t start until it’s too late to get a Med sadly. Pre-school we could and did. It was so perfect seven days in a hotel in Spain and seven days DCL out of Barcelona.
That’s no longer an option.
Coming up to Northern Europe the weather becomes very hit and miss even in August and ours was pretty horrible apart from one day which meant indoor activities only but I guess the lack of excitement in the kids club was disappointing.
I’ll see how the cruise out of Southampton to places in Spain and back goes this year and read some reviews and also check into Royal maybe, both of them for next year.
The date for that Bahamian is good too. I’d prefer that but my daughter not because of the long flight with the kiddies and sadly her husband wouldn’t come as he will not ever cruise. It’s just not his thing!

 

[CarolynU]

This link will allow to see activities from past cruises. Find the Person Navigator and look at the all ages events/activities and see if anything might appeal.

https://disneycruiselineblog.com/

Interesting. Looking at these I definitely feel as if it reinforces how much it’s important to choose an itinerary with warmer weather and beaches. My granddaughter is happy colouring and crafting the younger grandson not at all.
If we can’t find that itinerary in The Med in August with DCL we’ve either got to jump cruise lines to Royal maybe or take a DCL Caribbean/Bahamian.

 

[CarolynU]

In our recent experience , unless a specific activity is scheduled in the kids club the counselors don't do much to interact with kids. There are crafts and activities outside of the kids clubs perhaps you missed. Some of which may require more family interaction rather than kids going off on their own.
You may find other ships with different activities but the grass isn't always greener. Some ships have fees for those activities. Some of those activities have huge wait lines or require reservations. Which means you may only get to do it once in your whole cruise.
I do agree the counselors and family crafts/activities have slipped a lot in the last couple cruises. I don't know if current leadership has forgotten what DCL used to do to build their reputation but I hope they recapture it. That side I still love DCL.

Ahhh so not just us then. This was in our last family cruise which was 2022. It was the first time that our kiddies were old enough to go to the clubs together and they were excited to go.
We started with an open house. The councillors (two girls) were just chatting between themselves. There were some sheets to colour with felt tips with many that had no ink, some bean bags, some hula hoops and the slide. That was it.
Now because it was an open house parents were there too, but after a while you could see the kids were bored, so I organised some games for all of them involving the hoops and bean bags. We then asked if there was anything for them to do in the way of building and construction and the councillors said yes and brought out one box of Lego type things for all the children to share! So it wasn’t big enough.
Then the session finished and the next day we booked them into the club for a proper session.
They lasted about an hour before we were called to pick them up. Again according to my granddaughter there was little to do except more colouring. The slide was out of action as she was told there wasn’t anyone spare to supervise it.
It was too wet and windy for the pool. They had already met the characters for the morning so we got lunch. Trivia was too hard for them and so I organised a photo treasure hunt on the ship.
During the week the pattern was much the same except for a session of slime making in the club, a visit from Stitch I think and a storytime session with a princess.
Had the weather been better after their hour in the club they’d have been happy in the pools but the only time that it was suitable the pool was so crowded you couldn’t move and they kept blowing the whistle ordering every child out of the pool for an enforced toilet break every hour and shut the pool for around 20 minutes so the kids just sat doing nothing getting cold.
I’ve never sailed with the family on any other line but DCL but the clubs were the major disappointment because we’d heard such good things about them. We would never have left them in for hours but it was a shame that it seemed so lacklustre.
So for other cruise lines I don’t mind the additional cost, but the queuing for hours doesn’t appeal either.

 

[CarolynU]

It sounds like that was a start back cruise after Covid. I wouldn’t let that influence you. Things are pretty much back to normal now.

Yes we in the Uk were lucky enough to sail twice with DCL in 2021 on staycation cruises to nowhere so that was literally just as restrictions were easing so we expected everything to be scaled down but we assumed wrongly that by August 22 it was back up again but we were wrong. Even dinner was taking 2 1/2 hours each night as the dining room was so short staffed. We just cut out the desert or appetiser every night to try not to be so long.

 

[Flcruising]

Ahhh so not just us then. This was in our last family cruise which was 2022. It was the first time that our kiddies were old enough to go to the clubs together and they were excited to go.
We started with an open house. The councillors (two girls) were just chatting between themselves. There were some sheets to colour with felt tips with many that had no ink, some bean bags, some hula hoops and the slide. That was it.
Now because it was an open house parents were there too, but after a while you could see the kids were bored, so I organised some games for all of them involving the hoops and bean bags. We then asked if there was anything for them to do in the way of building and construction and the councillors said yes and brought out one box of Lego type things for all the children to share! So it wasn’t big enough.
Then the session finished and the next day we booked them into the club for a proper session.
They lasted about an hour before we were called to pick them up. Again according to my granddaughter there was little to do except more colouring. The slide was out of action as she was told there wasn’t anyone spare to supervise it.
It was too wet and windy for the pool. They had already met the characters for the morning so we got lunch. Trivia was too hard for them and so I organised a photo treasure hunt on the ship.
During the week the pattern was much the same except for a session of slime making in the club, a visit from Stitch I think and a storytime session with a princess.
Had the weather been better after their hour in the club they’d have been happy in the pools but the only time that it was suitable the pool was so crowded you couldn’t move and they kept blowing the whistle ordering every child out of the pool for an enforced toilet break every hour and shut the pool for around 20 minutes so the kids just sat doing nothing getting cold.
I’ve never sailed with the family on any other line but DCL but the clubs were the major disappointment because we’d heard such good things about them. We would never have left them in for hours but it was a shame that it seemed so lacklustre.
So for other cruise lines I don’t mind the additional cost, but the queuing for hours doesn’t appeal either.

Ditto...I am afraid leadership has forgotten how their reputation was built and are letting some of those things fade away because they have forgotten. I could give many examples and solutions if Disney was interested. You mentioned some. But ships are full, people remain excited meeting characters so all is well in the kingdom.

 

[soniam]

Yes we in the Uk were lucky enough to sail twice with DCL in 2021 on staycation cruises to nowhere so that was literally just as restrictions were easing so we expected everything to be scaled down but we assumed wrongly that by August 22 it was back up again but we were wrong. Even dinner was taking 2 1/2 hours each night as the dining room was so short staffed. We just cut out the desert or appetiser every night to try not to be so long.

We did our first cruise after covid in July 2022. Staff seemed to be still coming up to speed in the MDRs. Our son is older, so he was in Vibe. He didn't say much about it being different. Vibe is kind of hands off anyway when it comes to the counselors. Good luck with your next cruise.

 

[CarolynU]

Ditto...I am afraid leadership has forgotten how their reputation was built and are letting some of those things fade away because they have forgotten. I could give many examples and solutions if Disney was interested. You mentioned some. But ships are full, people remain excited meeting characters so all is well in the kingdom.

That’s what we felt. Simply couldn’t understand a kids club with nothing going on. That’s what I meant by tricky in a way. My granddaughter would be happy all day meeting characters over and over again, but not my grandson. He was happy seeing them once a day but that’s it, but he wasn’t old enough to take part in trivia which was the predominant activity.

 

[CarolynU]

We did our first cruise after covid in July 2022. Staff seemed to be still coming up to speed in the MDRs. Our son is older, so he was in Vibe. He didn't say much about it being different. Vibe is kind of hands off anyway when it comes to the counselors. Good luck with your next cruise.

Thank you. I’ve got a couple of DCL cruises just with a friend in April/May and we are as a family going to DLP for a quick break this August (which is driving distance from us.) so it’s therefore 2025/6 we may consider a family DCL trip again. I think I really feel that it would have to be a Florida trip with beaches as ports of call.
That way we wouldn’t be confined to Northern Europe or a pool so packed on the odd sunny day that it had to have hourly breaks or have to rely on kids clubs with nothing much going on. However, that time of the year is hurricane season lol!!!
Or we jump ship literally and try Royal Big Ships ! Not sure if that’s my idea of heaven or hell!

 

[Rex1993]

Our experience on the Wish was the same. The kids 9 and 11 went to the club only once for a few hours and didn't want to go back. They had to find stuff to do and didn't get much help. My kids are on the shy and quiet side so they are not the kind to demand attention. That meant they just kind of got ignored. It didn't ruin our trip at all, it just changed our expectations.

We are scheduled to go out of Seattle this summer on an NCL Alaska cruise. For us, DCL just doesn't make a ton of sense given the huge cost involved. I'm not saying we won't try it again, but it's tough to justify if the kids aren't getting an extraordinary experience.

 

[GirlfromTN]

My son has been going to the kids club on Disney cruises for about 6 years now. He likes it fine as long as there are some kind of iPad or video games available, bc he otherwise doesn’t get to play video games. But it has never seemed that any activities are going on other than intermittent dance parties (sometimes with characters), or coloring sheets that I guess some kids will do. So, while the clubs have provided a “safe” place for him to be supervised while we go to an adults only dinner or something, we haven’t found them to be much of a value add at all as far as organized activities or counselor-led programming. Maybe others have had better experiences or maybe it depends on the counselors, but it does seem that they are often caught up with taking care of younger kids who are upset or finding kids when it is time to be picked up.

 

[CarolynU]

Our experience on the Wish was the same. The kids 9 and 11 went to the club only once for a few hours and didn't want to go back. They had to find stuff to do and didn't get much help. My kids are on the shy and quiet side so they are not the kind to demand attention. That meant they just kind of got ignored. It didn't ruin our trip at all, it just changed our expectations.

We are scheduled to go out of Seattle this summer on an NCL Alaska cruise. For us, DCL just doesn't make a ton of sense given the huge cost involved. I'm not saying we won't try it again, but it's tough to justify if the kids aren't getting an extraordinary experience.

Wow DCL. My grandkiddies were 4 and 6 at the time and definitely needed direction and not just left to find colouring. I honestly thought that there would be organised games, activities etc. if they couldn’t see it they wouldn’t think to ask for it either.

 

[CarolynU]

My son has been going to the kids club on Disney cruises for about 6 years now. He likes it fine as long as there are some kind of iPad or video games available, bc he otherwise doesn’t get to play video games. But it has never seemed that any activities are going on other than intermittent dance parties (sometimes with characters), or coloring sheets that I guess some kids will do. So, while the clubs have provided a “safe” place for him to be supervised while we go to an adults only dinner or something, we haven’t found them to be much of a value add at all as far as organized activities or counselor-led programming. Maybe others have had better experiences or maybe it depends on the counselors, but it does seem that they are often caught up with taking care of younger kids who are upset or finding kids when it is time to be picked up.

Well this is eye opening. So I’ve gone from thinking that our experience was atypical I’m beginning to think that it’s not and there has been some kind of policy shift! This can’t be coincidental.
Ours aren’t even tech savvy although perhaps a bit more than they were two years ago but I’d be a bit unhappy to think that all they do in the club is staring at a screen. It’s fine for an hour or two every so often but ours just asked to be picked up. We gave up putting them in at all after day three.