What to do with kids on Dream?

[kathi]

I'm curious what parents are planning to do with their kids on the upcoming Dream (and hopefully Fantasy) cruises with the limited hours in Club/Lab? Do you think there is enough to keep them busy/happy? Maybe DCL will have additional activities outside of the Club/Lab for them to do? Sea days could get really long with bored kids.

 

[OpieDoodle]

There's the pools, aquaduck and the kids club. My understanding is you can book one session per day with the current rules and once you're on the boat you may be able to book more if there are slots available.

We are looking forward to doing the Ice Cream Challenge at Vanelopes. There's also various family friendly events through the day.

 

[kathi]

There's the pools, aquaduck and the kids club. My understanding is you can book one session per day with the current rules and once you're on the boat you may be able to book more if there are slots available.

We are looking forward to doing the Ice Cream Challenge at Vanelopes. There's also various family friendly events through the day.

Are you sure those other activities will happen? They haven't said yet. With social distancing being required, hopefully they will add multiple sessions so that everyone can participate. I think for the Dream, it won't be as hard. But 2 or 3 sea days on the Fantasy, could be more tricky. It will be great to see how the first few sailings go - really looking forward to that information.

 

[karen4546]

I'm curious what parents are planning to do with their kids on the upcoming Dream (and hopefully Fantasy) cruises with the limited hours in Club/Lab? Do you think there is enough to keep them busy/happy? Maybe DCL will have additional activities outside of the Club/Lab for them to do? Sea days could get really long with bored kids.

We did not have a cruise booked but I wanted to take my granddaughters and there was availability. I had the cruise in my cart and the next day the new protocols came out. I did not book because I know that they kids club was a bid deal to them.

I am sorry for those of you that have booked and rebooked only to have things very restrictive.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

When my kids were the age for the clubs, they spent as much time as they possibly could in them. They would come out periodically to eat or get ice cream. They would not have wanted to go on a next cruise if they couldn't do that again. If it was a first cruise, or if my kids weren't so excited about the clubs though, I wouldn't hesitate to take them with these restrictions.

 

[OpieDoodle]

Are you sure those other activities will happen? They haven't said yet. With social distancing being required, hopefully they will add multiple sessions so that everyone can participate. I think for the Dream, it won't be as hard. But 2 or 3 sea days on the Fantasy, could be more tricky. It will be great to see how the first few sailings go - really looking forward to that information.

Ah, totally different situation asking about the Fantasy versus the Dream.

There's no way to know how things will change for the Fantasy sailings. Since the test cruises for those aren't until the end of next month its hard to speculate what will happen with the Fantasy. Once some of the first few cruises go out we will have a better idea what the shows and activities will be like.

I doubt people will be in their rooms twiddling their thumbs all day.

 

[tvguy]

My kids had no interest in the kids clubs. Cruises with our kids were our time to be with them 24/7, hang the mom and dad roles at the gangway, and just hang out as their friends. So I would say there was plenty to do without the kids clubs, we never found time in 7 days to even try to use the pools. However, for parents were at home with kids home schooling with the pandemic, I can see where some parents want time away from their kids. During normal times, we might have seen our kids for 2 or 3 hours a day during the week during the school year. They are 30 and 34 now and still comment once in a while what a great time those trips were. They discovered their parents were pretty cool people.
So to OP's question, we sure had no trouble finding stuff to do.....WITH our kids.

 

[Kennywood]

(To the tune of "What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor")

What do you do with the rowdy children?
What do you do with the rowdy children?
What do you do with the rowdy children
On the Disney cruises?

Lock 'em in the room 'til the cruise is over.
Lock 'em in the room 'til the cruise is over.
Lock 'em in the room 'til the cruise is over
On the Disney cruises.

 

[yorkieteacher]

I hope people report back on the early Dream cruises -ours is January third. I hope there is some way we can see copies of the navigators-maybe people can make/share screenshots from their phones? We are traveling with our daughter's family and grandsons -ages 1 and almost 5. Both sets of their grandparents will be on the cruise. We are doing in -room fish extender surprises for them a few times each day. I have been watching vlogs from the UK cruises and saw the kids clubs had open houses, so I am hoping we can go play with them some in there then. The adults were in there filming. On a previous cruise I took with my then 3 year old grandson in 2015 we loved being able to take him when there were activities he liked, and would prefer to see what was going on before we signed up for slots. If there are no activities we know the older one will just enjoy playing with other kids for a short time each day. I do hope they have Jedi training, scavenger hunts, science experiments, and such like they did in the past. On the UK sea days there were lots of characters to see while socially distanced. The boys will love that. I am hoping they still have the detective agency interactive game. We will enjoy the pools and Nemo's Reef, AquaDuck , movies and such as well. I believe they will enjoy it all, especially as this is their first cruise and they "don't know what they're missing", as PP said. It actually seems like it will be more relaxing and less stressful trying to fit so much into a four day cruise. If we are still lucky enough to have two stops at Castaway Cay the time on the ship will be very limited anyway.

 

[DCLDVC1]

Let them run all over the ship.

 

[Dug720]

Let them run all over the ship.

And that's different...how?

 

[katmigordon]

Does anyone know if they have this challenge at Sweet on You on the Fantasy? Also I really wish they'd give us better souvenir bowls, not gonna lie the idea of eating ice cream out of a bifurcated Mickey or Minnie is kinda gruesome to me.

We are looking forward to doing the Ice Cream Challenge at Vanelopes. There's also various family friendly events through the day.

 

[tvguy]

Let them run all over the ship.

LOL. at 5:45 am on a sea day.

 

[Swatchler]

I switched my 4 day cruise to a three day for this reason. I wanted to avoid a sea day with limited pool and kids club access. I’m on the Aug 13 sailing, I’ll be happy to report back on how it goes.

 

[jrapps]

I switched my 4 day cruise to a three day for this reason. I wanted to avoid a sea day with limited pool and kids club access. I’m on the Aug 13 sailing, I’ll be happy to report back on how it goes.

Were you able to reserve spots in the club for your kids? If so, how did the process go. Were u limited to 1.5hr or 2.5 blocks? 1 per day?

 

[n2mm]

You could always bring your own sitter. Do you have a niece, nephew, child of a family friend? I’m sure if you have cabin space, they would love a free cruise, in turn entertain the little ones.

 

[LambertLion]

The answer to most questions like this is to look at or ask the people on the UK staycations. They had the same rules and every person posting here, FB or YouTube have said the same thing, that it was different but them and their children still had lots of fun. The kids will be fine, there’s still plenty to do and Disney knows how to provide the magic to give them extra stuff to do outside the clubs. They will be fine and have a great time regardless.

 

[Cheburashka]

I wonder if Midship Detective Agency will be functioning. Aside from that and the other activities around the ship, we've gotten in the habit of bringing board games with us on vacations (not just cruises) as a way to pass the time when we have a little more down time than we need. Our lives are pretty hectic at home during the school year, so it's nice to have the opportunity to play together on vacation, especially Monopoly (we bought a Disney version at Vero Beach last year) which takes a long time to play. We always check a bag, so bringing in a board game or two is no big deal for us. It's some peaceful family bonding time in our comfortable stateroom. We enjoy watching Disney on Demand in our stateroom, too.

 

[DCLDVC1]

Based on all of the cancellations I'm seeing in my FB groups, I don't think there are going to be many kids onboard for a while.

 

[hubbard53]

Let them run all over the ship.

yep. this is what's going to happen. My boy will meet others in kids club and then when their hour is up, they'll find each other and other kids to run around - not sure that they'll do if their allotted pool time is expired. Backetball courts and ping pong are closed - what about mini- golf? is it still open?

I guess instead of hanging out in groups in kids club they willl hang out in groups in the various public spaces across the ship...