Kids Clubs for Preschoolers

[SEK2012]

We will be sailing in late February 2020 with our 4 year old. I know the age range for the kids clubs is 3-12 which is a huge range. I have been reading that the clubs can be a bit chaotic. My daughter being an only child is not used to lots of loud, screaming older kids and I fear this might scare her. What have been people’s experiences with sending preschoolers to the kids clubs?

 

[hcox31]

on the first day there is an open house where you can go in with them. You could help them get accustomed to the business of the club then. If I remember right there is also some pre-school programming for the younger kids too.

 

[Marc D]

I think OPs vision of the clubs as being ‘chaotic’ is not exact. Whenever we go to pick up our son, there’s no shouting or running around, unless there’s a specific activity monitored by the counsellors. Kids will be kids, but it is not an uncontrolled mess. Some spaces in the clubs are only suited for quiet activities, like drawing, or playing on tablets.

 

[Missus_Aitch]

I agree with Marc. The Oceaneers’ Club is big and sprawling, but there are separate specialized rooms. The art and block and reading areas are calm, and even a shyer child should feel comfortable there. The staff are very kind and welcoming (and abundant), and I’m sure one of them would take a hesitant child under her wing until he or she is comfortable.

 

[KT2038]

I am a youth activities counselor and I agree that there is a lot of info out there about it being very chaotic. At times it can be, if there is a game or something going on, but most of the time it is not. Many counselors love working with our younger kids and will happily play with her.
I agree with a previous poster about coming to Open House on Embark day and showing her the spaces so she can become familiar with them and us. A lot of parents worry about their kids in the spaces but the kids are usually fine once they are there!
please don’t hesitate to PM me if you have any other questions or concerns!

 

[Numtini]

Look at and show her YouTube videos so she knows what to expect

 

[MIAMouseketeer]

We will be sailing in late February 2020 with our 4 year old. I know the age range for the kids clubs is 3-12 which is a huge range. I have been reading that the clubs can be a bit chaotic. My daughter being an only child is not used to lots of loud, screaming older kids and I fear this might scare her. What have been people’s experiences with sending preschoolers to the kids clubs?

We are going on the Magic at the end of February and have a 4 year old as well.. We sailed on the Symphony of the Seas and my son used their kids club. He loved it. Didn't want to leave. He made new friends and I found that many of the older kids loved playing with the younger ones and were great.

 

[rere101399]

I’ve found that it’s way more chaotic during open house, and then occasionally when they have an “active” activity going on like dance party, magic play floor etc. Whenever we’ve picked up there’s almost always been one main activity going on where many/most of the kids of all ages are peacefully participating, and then in all the other areas there’s a few children doing their own thing instead (iPads, crafts, etc)

 

[Ladybugx87]

There are little nooks for kids that want more calm or quiet - I have often found one of my daughters in the 'art' area drawing if they are tired or a little overwhelmed.
The only activity that was a big 'miss' for us was 'Toy Story Boot Camp' - our then 3-year old (and only child at the time) LOVED the Club area and asked to go for this event so we sent her - well in came CMs dressed as army men giving the kids orders and she freaked out!! The other CMs helped and she said she wanted to stay but it could have been bad.

 

[Meriweather]

We took DGD at 4. She didn't know what to do and no one seemed to help her (we did go to open house).
She usually asked for us to come get her after and hour or so of just standing there.
We went to check on her once and she was just sitting in a corner by herself playing with something, but ready to leave.
She will be 6 on the next cruise so hopefully she will try it again.

 

[deanimal]

We did three Disney cruises with kids in the preschool age range and I have to say that I felt the clubs were more geared to school aged kids than preschoolers. My kids went to preschool and were quite outgoing, but the age range and numbers of kids were just too much for them. We'd drop them off for certain activities and they enjoyed it overall, but after an hour or so they were ready to go. We also did a Norwegian cruise when my son was 5 and I have to say that the split up clubs, with the 3-5 group separate, seemed like a much better setup, at least for my kids. Of course, every family is different, but we didn't really feel like the kids were really enjoying the clubs until they were about 6 or 7.

 

[otten]

We will be sailing in late February 2020 with our 4 year old. I know the age range for the kids clubs is 3-12 which is a huge range. I have been reading that the clubs can be a bit chaotic. My daughter being an only child is not used to lots of loud, screaming older kids and I fear this might scare her. What have been people’s experiences with sending preschoolers to the kids clubs?

I will be honest, my 3.5 year old hated the clubs and wouldn't go in. Many preschoolers are fine in the clubs but I recommend managing your expectations in case she won't go in.

 

[Calantha]

My son was almost 4.5 when we went in June and unless one of his older cousins were also there (aged 6-10), he refused to stay very long. We'll be going again in September (so he'll be 5.5) and I hope he has a better experience.

 

[MomOTwins]

It was a mixed bag for our four year old. He did request to go and was always happy to be dropped off for a while, but it is certainly not an all day thing at that age--we usually got the call to get him about an hour in, which was fine with us since I love my family time. We found it was important to arrive just at the time an activity he wanted was starting because that way we could make sure he was in the right section (club or lab) and didn't miss it, because participation in activities is self-directed. Overall, he did enjoy it, especially the character activities.

That said, I am in the camp that it is very chaotic, at least on the large ships (maybe this is better on the classics where there are fewer kids total). We did get called to pick up various kids on several occasions because they had been injured by other kids running or hitting/kicking, but I think that is just to be expected any time you get a large group playing together (think recess at the school playground). The time of day definitely makes a big difference, since it was always craziest in the evenings and least crowded in the mornings.

 

[pezgirlroy]

My 3 year old (turned 3 on the cruise) loved it last year but and I think this is a big but she went with her then 8 year old sister so that made a big difference.

 

[gotomu212]

Our experience was pretty hit or miss too. From our experiences it was at its worst when one side has an Open House, and all secured programming is pushed into one club. That’s when we experienced the large age range and the increased numbers of kids making things too overwhelming.

I know there our youth activities CMs on here, and they are great, but in all of our experiences, unless it was a special sailing like a TA or PC, they really weren’t set up to allow for any of the special attention since they are assigned certain rooms and positions and are juggling hundreds of kids.

Like others, the best times were when they had a specific activity (but make sure the activity fits with the age- ours would go for an activity when littler and would have no idea what they were suppose to do while the older kids jumped right in and he stood to the side and watched), and we usually only got an hour before being paged at that age.

 

[jodippls]

We sailed on the Fantasy in November with our 3 year old. He's an only child, but goes to daycare, so is used to being away from us. He LOVED the club and activities but did not like that there were "loud big kids" there. We managed to get him to stay for a few hours during our Remy reservation (with the help of counselors) but he had no interest in going back by himself. I think he kind of got lost in the mix and didn't have enough to engage him while he was there.

 

[KT2038]

We took DGD at 4. She didn't know what to do and no one seemed to help her (we did go to open house).
She usually asked for us to come get her after and hour or so of just standing there.
We went to check on her once and she was just sitting in a corner by herself playing with something, but ready to leave.
She will be 6 on the next cruise so hopefully she will try it again.

We will always try and engage a child of any age who is just standing there or wandering around. But we can’t force them to join in and can’t just stand around with them if they don’t want to play. Often there are children playing by themselves in a corner. We do have a lot of little corners! There are not enough of us to be one-on-one with every child, and we will have probably approached the children playing by themselves numerous times and invited them to join in. At the end of the day, we want the kids to enjoy themselves when they are with us! But we cannot make them join in.

 

[KT2038]

It was a mixed bag for our four year old. He did request to go and was always happy to be dropped off for a while, but it is certainly not an all day thing at that age--we usually got the call to get him about an hour in, which was fine with us since I love my family time. We found it was important to arrive just at the time an activity he wanted was starting because that way we could make sure he was in the right section (club or lab) and didn't miss it, because participation in activities is self-directed. Overall, he did enjoy it, especially the character activities.

That said, I am in the camp that it is very chaotic, at least on the large ships (maybe this is better on the classics where there are fewer kids total). We did get called to pick up various kids on several occasions because they had been injured by other kids running or hitting/kicking, but I think that is just to be expected any time you get a large group playing together (think recess at the school playground). The time of day definitely makes a big difference, since it was always craziest in the evenings and least crowded in the mornings.

While participating in scheduled programming is indeed optional, we try and get as many kids to participate as possible and some other activities are stopped during that time. As a CM, one of the things I have dealt with the least is children being violent with each other. Sometimes it will happen with a particular mix of children, but in my years of experience, the majority of times a child gets hurt is because of an accident rather than another child.

 

[KT2038]

Our experience was pretty hit or miss too. From our experiences it was at its worst when one side has an Open House, and all secured programming is pushed into one club. That’s when we experienced the large age range and the increased numbers of kids making things too overwhelming.

I know there our youth activities CMs on here, and they are great, but in all of our experiences, unless it was a special sailing like a TA or PC, they really weren’t set up to allow for any of the special attention since they are assigned certain rooms and positions and are juggling hundreds of kids.

Like others, the best times were when they had a specific activity (but make sure the activity fits with the age- ours would go for an activity when littler and would have no idea what they were suppose to do while the older kids jumped right in and he stood to the side and watched), and we usually only got an hour before being paged at that age.

I agree it can get chaotic when one space is in OH, but we do attempt to run more games and random activities to keep kids occupied during that time period. I think being scheduled to a particular area is a great thing as we are able to relax and enjoy working with the children in that area, instead of running around doing may different things. It is during this time that we are able to really get to know the kids and build those relationships that will hopefully entice them to come back.