First-time cruiser with 2 questions

[DavidandLeahZ]

Hi everyone,

This will be our first cruise and we have a couple of questions:

1) How many people in the podcast group did bring/plan on bringing their toddlers? (our oldest would turn 5 on the cruise)

2) If we were to bring him - I've heard a lot about kids' clubs - but don't know much about them in terms of: how long the kids are at them, do they cost extra, do they still eat meals with us?


Thanks in advance,

Dave

 

[winotracy]

Hi everyone,

This will be our first cruise and we have a couple of questions:

1) How many people in the podcast group did bring/plan on bringing their toddlers? (our oldest would turn 5 on the cruise)

2) If we were to bring him - I've heard a lot about kids' clubs - but don't know much about them in terms of: how long the kids are at them, do they cost extra, do they still eat meals with us?


Thanks in advance,

Dave

Hi Dave,

I'll let the others with toddlers answer the first question. In general, there aren't many children with the podcast cruise (about 25% are kids of all ages).

There isn't a set amount of time your children need to be at the kids clubs and the hours do vary, but in general you can bring the kids there early in the morning and pick them up late at night. The amount of time you have them in the clubs is up to you and them. You will receive a beeper so if they want you back sooner, they will beep you. The cost of the Club and the Lab are covered in the cruise fare (children not potty trained or under 3 must use Flounder's Nursery and there is a charge for that). Meals again is up to you. They can stay and eat with the other kids or go to dinner with you. There is a transition time to pick the kids up if you want them to go to dinner with you. More information can be found here http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/cruise-new/cr-childrensactivities.htm.

 

[DVCsince02]

We will be bringing our 3 kids. They will be 7, 4, and 2. We went on the podcast cruise without them, and again in June with them.

You pre-register the kids online for the clubs and nursery. When you arrive to port there this a place to check them in. Here you will get a pager and the kids will receive wrist bands (waterproof) and instructions. When you get on the ship you can explore the clubs and nursery to familiarize yourself with them and understand the process. When your kids are ready to go to the clubs, you arrive at the front desk and the cast member will check them in. You can go in if they are nervous. I had to do this many times with our 3y/o. Eventually he went off to play (about 15 mins). Our 6y/o had a blast and had to be dragged out. She woke up and wanted to go. They feed them too, so don't worry about meals. We would take the baby for a walk or if the baby was in the nursery we would go have a drink in one of the lounges.

Eventually we would get paged that the 3y/o wanted to be picked up. It was great. They had a blast and we were able to have some adult time.

Hope that helps.

 

[Anjiebaby]

We will be bringing our 2 kids DS10, DD6, it will be the first cruise for them.
I wonder if there will be less kids on this cruise since Podcasters make up 1/4 of the ship and sounds like many are not bringing kids.

 

[aGoofyMom]

DD will be 9 on P.C.C. 2.0 She was 7 on 1.0. She thought the kids clubs were great. She did have us paged about 30 minutes into her first stay in the kids club. I think she was testing the waters to make sure we would come back if called. After that she divided her time between the clubs and us.