How much time did your kids spend in the clubs?

[my2disneyboys]

I am a crazy planner, and I am just trying to figure out how much time my kids will be in the kids club. They tell us now that we will never see them LOL! Our kids are 4 and 7 and we are going with our friends who have a 6 and 9 year old!

I want to make sure I get to enjoy them too- but trying to manage what my expectations should be...for instance is it best for kids to spend a couple of hours after dinner or maybe in the morning?!

What did your kids do!?

 

[VKtravel]

My kids DID NOT want to spend time with us!! They were too busy in the kids clubs to be bothered with Mom and Dad!! DDs are 9 and 7 and had so much fun that they felt it was their duty to shut it down every night! One night we decided to go to the movie as a "family". DD 7 states she doesn't want to go to the movie and wants to go to the kid's club. DD 9 starts getting excited because she is finally going to have mommy and daddy all to herself without her sister. As we dropped off DD 7, DD 9 sees all the kids playing, laughing, screaming and following "Professor Make A Mess". She then states, "Mommy, Daddy, are you guys going to be okay? Please don't take offense, but I think I need to go with my sister to make sure she's okay!" DH and I went to the movie alone. We had dinners together every night but a cast member comes to the dining room to take kids to the clubs if they would like to go. I think it's called "Dine and Play". But every kid is different. I have read posts in which some kids didn't want to participate at all.

 

[scootch]

The first cruise we had, I didn't want my kids in the club... it was our family vacation(we just did a 3 night). I did let the younges(7) go for an hour or so after dinner. Well after we got home, all she talked about was the kids club.... so when we went on our 7 day(B2B) cruise, I decided that her idea of fun and my idea of fun might not be the same, so decided to compromise, meals/excursions with me. Well one evening she was in the club and I went to pick her up for the play... she said to me.... "mom, I love you more than anything... but I have you all year and I only have this club for a week, can I please stay here?" She had these puppy eyes and was hugging me fiercely... so let her stay. At MIDNIGHT on the last night, I picked her up, she cried the whole way back to the room and cried herself to sleep. That is how much she loved it. Now my 11 year old like them, but also liked doing other things, so I think each kid is different, but for us they were truly a hit!

 

[LKFan]

It depends on your kids' personalities. My 12 year old daughter enjoys making new friends and hanging out with them all day. If she had her choice, she would leave the stateroom at 8 am and return at midnight. Fortunately, she is good about using the wave phone and we often meet up throughout the day.

My 9 year old son, on the other hand, would prefer to sit in the stateroom watching TV or playing his DS. He'll hang out with us on the ship but, if we want time to ourselves (which we do), we have to force him to go to the clubs. When there, he pretty much just plays Mario Kart (which a bunch of boys that age do). He is eager to leave the clubs when we pick him up.

 

[kimistry6]

My boys 7 & 4 spent at most 2-3 hours a day in the clubs. We were on a 5 night and we had excursions planned at Nassau and Castaway Cay, so we were off the ship for most of the days. They went to the club a bit on the sea day but they still wanted to stay with us. They loved the clubs but also loved swimming, the arcade, goofy sports deck etc. Our next cruise my oldest isn't wanting to do the clubs, he wants to hang with us. We are perfectly okay with that.

 

[jetskigrl]

It was different for my two kids. My DD is kind of shy and doesn't really make friends easily so if she does not know anyone on the ship, she barely spends any time in the Tween area. But when we did the 4-night on the Dream, she had friends her age so we didn't see her from the end of second seating dinner until midnight every night. Once her friends left the 4-night and we were doing the 3-night (B2B), she didn't go back to the Tween club at all.

My DS, on the other hand, spent a lot of time in the Lab on his own. He did Dine and Play every night and spent a good deal of time in the Lab on our sea day. The other days we had excursions booked but he would go for an hour here or there (before dinner, etc...whenever he could fit it in).

 

[MelissaE1]

I am a crazy planner, and I am just trying to figure out how much time my kids will be in the kids club.

My best advice is, if you can, try not to go in with a plan. Our first time my kids were 8 and 4, and I had read that we would never see them, etc. because they would want to be in there ALL the time. So DH and I planned some grown up stuff. Well, DD4 loved it, she went in quite a bit. DS8, however, was a little shy at that time and didn't really connect, so he ended up spending most of his time with us. Bye bye plan!

The next time we went, kids were 11 and 7. Son still kind of quiet, so this time I plan a bunch of kid/family stuff we could do together. He went into the newly formed preteen area and I'm not sure we saw him again until we got off the cruise. I think he showed up at dinners. DD loved it again.

After that I learned not to plan and just to go with the flow! Seems to change a little every time. This time DS will be newly 18 and not allowed into the clubs, so I am planning a bunch of stuff for us to do together to keep him entertained. Based on that I figure he'll find a group of kids his age and we won't see him much.

 

[my2disneyboys]

Thanks for all the great replies!! I think not planning is probably the way to go with this. I have purchased the rainforest passes and I would really like some time to relax with DH at the adults areas but I will try to just go with the flow. We are spending a couple nights at Disney before so by the time we go on the cruise hopefully i will be in vacation mode and throw all my plans overboard!

 

[DLW8]

Before our first cruise, pretty much every thread I read about the kids clubs had people saying their kids never wanted to leave the club.

My kids were almost 8 when we sailed the first time and they wanted nothing to do with the clubs. DD went a couple times to do a specific activity, but she spent MAYBE a total of 2 hours there.

Second cruise, they were almost 9 - same thing. No desire to be in the lab at all. Again, DD went to make Flubber and then to rehearse for the show they put on at the end of the cruise. DS only went while DH and I went to Palo Brunch. If you asked, it was probably the worst time of the cruise for him!

My kids wanted to hang with us and do things as a family...hang at the pool, do the Mickey 200, shuffleboard, ping pong, etc. DS was interested in the activities that were listed for Edge, but he was too young.

So, if you definitely want to make plans for Palo/Remy or spa, I'd say go for it, and let your kids know ahead of time that at these specific times, they will need to be in the Lab/Club. Then, any other times they want to go can be up to them.

Upcoming cruise for us, we will probably hang as a family again unless they do things with Edge or Out and About. Either way, I'm fine with it, and we will be cruising with Mickey! This is definitely our favorite vacation, so we just go with the flow!

 

[mom2brooke76]

My dd, 7, has been one of those that never wanted to leave the club. As soon as she woke up she wanted to go, but I'd tell her that she had to eat breakfast first I'd pull her out to swim for a little while, to go to the show, to go to dinner (she'd leave dinner with Dine and Play) and going to CC (we've only done 3 nights and we've done plenty in Nassau on past cruises) and then pick her up close to midnight. She also cried herself to sleep the last night.

 

[schwenksvillemouse]

My 9 year old would have lived there all week if we let him. He loved it

 

[princesscinderella]

Our two DS 6 and DD 3 really enjoyed the clubs. DS also on the last night cried all the way to the stateroom not wanting to leave at 11:30! We would spend the morning together and put the kids in the club around 1 after feeding them and enjoy a quiet lunch and avoid the cranky hours. My kids tend to be very well behaved in the morning and by mid afternoon they get, tired and cranky, but won't sleep so they can be little monsters. But in the club they are to busy to whine and we enjoy the quite time to ourselves and then pick them up for dinner and the show, then off to bed. We only let our son go to the club in the evening on the last night cause we wanted him to enjoy his last few hours on the ship before being kicked off in the morning.

 

[Mandersons04]

When we cruised, my DD (4 at the time) and DS (3 at the time) LOVED the kids club. If they had their way, they would have stayed there ALL DAY. Even to this day, my son eats his food and says, "See mom, I was good. Now can I go to Andy's room on the ship again?"

So when we cruise on the Fantasy next year, my kiddies will have their cousins cruising with them and I expect that they'll stay for many hours a day. I was proud of them, because I'm a SAHM, so I feared that they'd be shy. Well they are VERY social considering they're not around other kids as much as they would be had they been in school.

Now that I think of it, maybe because they aren't around kids as much is why they had such a blast

 

[Bear3412]

The major reason I began looking into cruising was kids clubs. My wife is always "on mommy duty" during land vacations, regardless of my attempts to "change it up".

So we decided on DCL, well I decided on DCL, after extensive research surrounding the kids clubs. In a way it was an easy decision with kids 7 and 11. Also who else better at luring kids than DCL, were my conclusions, especially after reading all the trip reports and such.

Of course I'm spooked a bit, after reading this and other threads that my children will want nothing to do with the clubs. Yet, it obviously gives me hope too, that my wife and I actually might have an hour or two without the maniacs. Some kids enjoy the clubs, some not so much. We, as the parents, are all good if they prefer to be with us, as long as we can fit in a Palo Brunch. Are there any Disers on my cruise that will watch my kids?

I suppose one will never know till after boarding whether the kids will participate or not. I do know I will follow Disers suggestions and make sure my kids make it to the open house to make friends. Also the next morning, to facilitate making friends. Also, if possible, email / chat with others their age on the Dis Meet threads for our sailing. I feel that offers another chance to make friends with someone prior to embarkation, albeit electronically, which could only enhance their experience, which would potentially translate to parental enhancement.

As much as I would like my children to participate in club activities, I'm not sure I would desire them to mingle till closing. Life is unexpectedly twisted though.

I'm also concerned about their new open house policies. But we have time for them to work it out. Fantasy 10/2012


edit; It lost my paragraphs when posted, yet they show when I edit?I added line breaks instead.

 

[Goofy's_Gal]

DD3...not enough! Only about 3 hours total of a 5 night cruise. She didn't like it, much to my I really wanted some "ME" time that I didn't get. There was a lot of training going on my cruise and often the Club would be closed so she would be in the Lab - that might have had something to do with it. It wasn't even that she liked it after having her in for an hour - she wanted out. But then, she spends 10 hours at day care, so I shouldn't blame her for wanting "Mommy" time. I'm hoping that the next cruise in October will be better.

 

[Fellowship9798]

I am a crazy planner, and I am just trying to figure out how much time my kids will be in the kids club. They tell us now that we will never see them LOL! Our kids are 4 and 7 and we are going with our friends who have a 6 and 9 year old!

I want to make sure I get to enjoy them too- but trying to manage what my expectations should be...for instance is it best for kids to spend a couple of hours after dinner or maybe in the morning?!

What did your kids do!?

For our DD4 and DS6, I would say anywhere from 1-4 hours per day, depending on the day and activities offered. Our son would have stayed longer if we hadn't come to get him as he really enjoyed the computer games in the Lab (probably a little too much).

 

[floridahippy]

My two grandchildren - CJ who was 5 and Chloe who was 4 didnt really like the clubs at all although they liked the IDEA of going it didnt last long!!!
They go to a childminder each day at 7am and get collected at 6pm 5 days a week for more or less 51 weeks of the year so on holidays they do like to spend time with us when they get the chance!
Their mother was a little disappointed that they were not keen to go and made them go a couple of times but personally I dont think its worth the aggro when they are not happy to go!
I hated 'joing' things when I was a kid so completely understand that they dont like them
Some kids love clubs others dont - so just go with the flow!!!!!

 

[my2disneyboys]

I love to hear about everyone's experiences here! It is so helpful for those of us who have not cruised. I picked DCl over another week at WDW because of the kids club. I do not want to vacation without my kids but I do want some daddy and mommy time - to sit out in the sun together or go have a drink after dinner, or sit in the hot tub in the quiet cove. I hope my boys will atleast spend a couple hours a day there. We both work full time so they are in school/afterschool for 8 hours+ a day. It will be nice to spend some good family time together and hopefully they will like having a few hours here and there to be w/o us!!