Very disappointed withe the kid's programming

[CathyCanada]

dmdeitz, I disagree that we are guinea pigs for DCL. I know for a fact that they read ALL guest comment cards and many improvements have come about as a result of what guests write. I prefer to think of it as meeting the needs of your clientele. I don't know of any business or company that has stayed exactly the same as they did when they first started. If you don't listen to your clientele and try to meet their needs, you will not be in business very long.

The fact that DCL has done this (and done it well) shows how anxious they are to make their product the best it can be. You can't please everyone and everyone has different expectations, but I think they do a terrific job and as a travel agent who sees how many people rebook, obviously DCL is doing something right!

Just my opinion, but enjoy your RC cruise and hope it is all you hope it to be.
CC

 

[twiceasnice]

Hello my name is Julia and I was on the ship 3 times and will be on my 4th one on May 25 2001. I didn't actually EJOY the lab either. I mostly walked around the ship with callahanjulie10's daughter and bbethparson's son. We ran around deck 4, we went to see the Princess Diaries and we just walked around. I really think that the lab should do more stuff like make something that you could take home with you so you could have something to remember from your trip. I looked on the website and it sad that the 10-12 made computer mouses, but I never actually remmbered that activity being on the 10-12 nvigator. I think that is a great activity. We mostly did storm the lab. They really should improve the kids activities. They did go see movies but the thing I didn't really like about that was that you couldn't sign out or in in the middle of the movies. I mean the "you can't sign in in the middle of the movie rule" is fine with me but what if you get really bored in the middle of the movie or if the movie is too intense for you. Some of the counselors weren't too nice either. On the other hand, most of the conselors were so funny and VERY nice! This is just my opinion. But I do love the DCL! I can't wait for #4!


#4 Disney Cruise- May 25th, 2001 .... yay!!!!!!!!

 

[wdwobsessed]

From the mouths of babes ...

You have such a good attitude!

Ok --- so everything was not perfect ... but you still had a good time.

I think us adults could learn something.

wdwo

 

[dmdeitz]

Does anyone have the URL for the board / site that lists actual recent navigators? I found one recently, but forgot where it is. I want to make sure I saw it correctly that there was 1/2 officiailly scheduled for transition. And they wrap up 10-15 min before that typically. and don't start back up for 10-15 min after the transition time.

THANKS!

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Originally posted by dmdeitz

Does anyone have the URL for the board / site that lists actual recent navigators?

www.dcltribute.com

and

www.castawayclub.com

 

[KAB13]

Actually, there is no transition times listed in the schedules. It does mention on the front that there is a 15 minute transition time before a move. That means 15 minutes to get one place to another, which seems about right for moving around the boat. Of course, that does not mean that they will use that whole 15 minutes. And its a bit of warning to parents to check the schedule because they may be in between places, so they could be at A or B, and maybe it's better to wait 5 minutes to make sure they are at B.

Looking through the navigators, it looks like there is one schedule activity in the morning, about an hour long, two schedule activities in the afternoon, and two scheduled activities in the evening.

Activity time - free time - is scheduled once in the morning, once in the afternoon, once early evening and then late evening, where its combined with a movie to provide quiet time.

As for not being able to check in and out at Movie time, yeah, I think that's hard , but I would think it's a logistical nightmare having kids coming and going in the dark. How many parents would complain that little Susie wasnt' where she was suppose to be?

 

[mog]

The Navigators don't actually call it "transition time", but if you look at the schedule it will show, for example, that one activity will be until 11:45 (or whatever) and then the next one listed is lunch at Topsiders at 12:00 - 12:45, then the next activity is back in the club at 1:00. Somewhere they either tell parent, or it is written that during those "in between times" you can't sign in or out.
We did end up waiting a couple of minutes once or twice because we got to the next place before the group, but they were usually right on time and once they were there we never had to wait any longer - they let us sign them right out on the clipboard as soon as they got there.

 

[candleonwater]

I can't believe this thread is still going strong!

As for transition times - we ran into that a couple of times, where I would have to wait for the kids to get back from somewhere else, but no big deal. As for the times where they request no checking in/out... my daughter wanted SO BADLY to join them... they checked over the two way if they would check her in...and they said go ahead and bring her down (BV Theatre). Another time we went ahead and waited for them at their next stop and they checked her in as soon as they arrived.

 

[Just Chip No Dale]

I think that the kids program has been getting a really bad rap. Everyone has their own opinion, but I wanted to level the playing field a bit. My sons (5 and 9) really liked it a lot. My nine year old, who is very shy, never wanted to leave. Our five year old came and went as he wanted to. We were paged when they wanted to leave.

The fact that they were moved around makes a lot of sense. My nine year old played a lot of supervised activities but also had a lot of time to simply play computer games, which he loved. It's true that they had to move to deck nine to eat...so what? It takes five minutes to do that.

We read the Navigator (ship's newspaper) each day, and took them out to see movies and shows together. I thought that they had the best of both world's. The security was excellent as well.

It's too bad that so many people thought the kids' program was poor. We thought it was excellent, so it really does depend on the individual child.

Dave

 

[Casey's mom]

On our cruise in June, my 2 DDs (4 and 3) did not spend a ton of time in the clubs -- a few hours here and there when we went to a movie, a show or dinner at Palo's -- but everytime we went to pick them up, they would wave hi and then go right back to whatever activity was going on. Eventually, they left with us, but they were clearly enjoying themselves adn were in no rush to leave. Like others, I viewed our trip as a family vacation. I love to spend time with my kids as I work full time, but for the time we wanted for ourselves, the kids were happy to visit the club and can't wait to try it again on our next cruise. I have one shy girl and one not-so-shy girl. They were a little young to come away with lifelong friends, but all of the counselors were friendly and the place seemed very secure (which I am always concerned about).

I did notice the first night my older daughter's group visited the lab for their welcome aboard party and when we came to pick them up, they seemed to be spending a fairly long time sitting on the floor in the "secret" corridor between the 2 clubs while the younger kids were being organized in the club for their next activity (watching movies).

I'm sure things can always be improved upon, but on the whole, my kids liked the clubs and want to go again. That is the endorsement that counts for me. I can't speak to the "free time" or meals as my girls were there - -for the most part I think, while one of the more structured activities was going on. We heard about how fun it was to "find Tinkerbell" for months after our cruise.

 

[minneymaniac]

So have things gotten better on the cruises since November when this user posted this note?

 

[DreamingofDisney]

We sailed Nov. 29th on the 3 day and my kids had a blast (3 & 5). In fact they can hardly wait until we return in Dec. for the 7 day!

I would think that they are continually "tweeking" the program to try to improve it. I think one of their greatest challenges is trying to estimate how many kids will be in the club/lab at any given time. It seemed that when the kids were watching a movie in the club or having "free time" was when the kid count was the lowest.

 

[gscott8075]

We have been on 4 DCL cruises with 2 more coming.

My kids love it - the kids programs are a blast. They talk about it all the time. They have the things they made hanging in their rooms. They prefer it to Disney World.

Could it be better? Sure, and so can life.

Make the best of it. I think the counselors do a solid job keeping the kids together and with the program.

 

[legs22]

Oh no! This thread is back!

 

[crackerjack]

I had to look through 15 pages to find this darn thread - just bumping it up for a friend to read. Thanks.