Kids Club Age Change

[greeneyedchick]

I love this change. Our kiddo got COMPLETELY TRAMPELLED by older children running around when he was at the young end of the Oceaneer spectrum. There should never have been such a large age range in there.

In fact - it didn’t used to be that way. They increased the Oceaneer age range years ago because of people complaining and wanting their kids together. Then people complained about the huge age range.

They are never going to make everyone happy.

I don't understand why they can't go back to the two age groups on the older ships. I know parents complained that siblings couldn't be together. I don't know why Disney can't make exceptions if the parents request it. It would still keep a majority of the older kids away from the younger ones. The kids requesting to be kept with a younger sibling are probably not the kind of kids who are going to trample and curse around younger kids. It would also allow them to offer activities that are better geared to that age range.

 

[lanejudy]

I don't understand why they can't go back to the two age groups on the older ships.

It’s been well more than a decade that Club/Lab were combined. Our first cruise was in 2012 and it was before then. Lots of comments make it seem like folks think this just happened a couple of years ago. Any “splitting” of the Club/Lab is likely to result in similar outcry — “but my 10-yr-old LOVES Andy’s Room now only the little kids can play there?!” Or “my 5-yr-old was SO looking forward to driving the Millenium Falcon, why do only the older kids get that?!” I kind of feel at this point DCL has created a problem with club/Lab that cannot easily be resolved without complaints from some group of parents/kids. No way to make everyone happy.

I don't know why Disney can't make exceptions if the parents request it.

So would the younger child age-up? Doesn’t that impact the programming? You now have a 5-yr-old doing activities geared towards 10-yr-olds. Older kids cannot “age down” due to liability issues.

 

[greeneyedchick]

So would the younger child age-up? Doesn’t that impact the programming? You now have a 5-yr-old doing activities geared towards 10-yr-olds. Older kids cannot “age down” due to liability issues.

They are already allowing 10 year olds with the 3 year olds so I'm not sure why it would be a liability issue. It's more in regards to activities.

 

[Mags2002]

They are already allowing 10 year olds with the 3 year olds so I'm not sure why it would be a liability issue. It's more in regards to activities.

If they were to split the ages, then they are split and, as now, there would probably be no exceptions. The problem would continue though as @lanejudy said, some kids and parents would complain about being forced into one space, but then you would probably have the oldest ones in the Club complaining of it being “babyish” and wanting to move up. It just never ends.
I doubt they would do this anyway as they would not do something that isn’t fleet wide

 

[CamillaF]

Do you think the 8-10 year olds would not trample the younger kids? I don't think this solved any issues. Nor made the little kids any safer as far as being trampled. It was clearly a reaction to the lawsuits. It would have been better at all if they made more age groups 3-7, 5-12, 10-14, 13 and over. That would have allowed for age appropriate programing an overlap that made most groups happy and a way for parents to decide what place made the most since for their kids. This was an improvement only in that a change was necessary. It does not fix any of there issues and makes DCL less family firendly. They could have come up with a much better solution and given proper warning. Celebrating DCL on such a poor plan is like giving them a pat on the back for putting duck tape over a broken pipe. It kind helped.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

Do you think the 8-10 year olds would not trample the younger kids? I don't think this solved any issues. Nor made the little kids any safer as far as being trampled. It was clearly a reaction to the lawsuits. It would have been better at all if they made more age groups 3-7, 5-12, 10-14, 13 and over. That would have allowed for age appropriate programing an overlap that made most groups happy and a way for parents to decide what place made the most since for their kids. This was an improvement only in that a change was necessary. It does not fix any of there issues and makes DCL less family firendly. They could have come up with a much better solution and given proper warning. Celebrating DCL on such a poor plan is like giving them a pat on the back for putting duck tape over a broken pipe. It kind helped.

Well said, it was a complete reaction to the lawsuits. With out the lawsuits nothing would have changed. Though sadly splitting them up also doesn't really really work with Wish/Treasure design. But either way it was a quick fast change to make the lawers happy. Time will tell what happens next, but I am not expecting it to be anything good.

 

[CamillaF]

They can't split them with the way the Wish and Treasure set up their kids clubs. There is only one on them vs the other 4 that have essentially 2.

That's what dry dock is for. If this is such an issue they could get it switched around in 7 days. I don't think we can let Disney use that as an excuse.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

That's what dry dock is for. If this is such an issue they could get it switched around in 7 days. I don't think we can let Disney use that as an excuse.

It’s the central check in and only one hub. In the end I just don’t think they will care. It just stinks and they implemented it terribly.

 

[CamillaF]

My kid is older and was bored to tears in Oceaneers for our last several cruises to the point he hadn’t gone at all. He’ll be at Edge next week.

Again - they can’t please everyone. This policy is in line with other cruise lines. The age ranges need to make sense from a developmental and safety standpoint more so than keeping anyone’s siblings together.

The Edge is hardly a punishment, unless you choose to see it that way

https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/tweens-what-to-expect They split up the Tween age group. it's from 8 or 9 to 12 or 13 depending on the Kid. I wish the age range made developmental sense. I assume your kid got into the Tween age around 8 or 9 and so developmentally needed the Edge programing earlier then allowed. But this is really punishing the kids who are still not developmentally a tween at 11or 12. I don't think any of the 8-12 group needs to be with 3 year olds..... but DCL made a choice to try to limit there liability. It has nothing to do with age ranges that make sense from a developmental stand point. All kids are different and don't mature at the same rate.

 

[CamillaF]

It’s the central check in and only one hub. In the end I just don’t think they will care. It just stinks and they implemented it terribly.

I really hope you are wrong in the long run...... but you are most likely correct. Unless of corse people stop booking and they have a hard time filling up the boat. We shall see.

 

[Bibbidi_Boo]

I really hope you are wrong in the long run...... but you are most likely correct. Unless of corse people stop booking and they have a hard time filling up the boat. We shall see.

Sadly what I see happening the most likely is eventually 3-9 in the kids club to align with how Disney defines kids as 3-9 for tickets, pricing , etc. then edge would be 10-13 and 14-17 ( maybe 10-12 and 13-17).

 

[KrzyKtty101]

I don't know. I can see my 10 year old still enjoying most of the things in the Club/Lab, but she is a young 10. And she is good alone just as much as she is finding new friends. Vibe and Edge honestly look pretty boring though. I can't see her being interested in either when she ages into them. And my 15 year old hates people, he is the most introverted introvert I have ever met. I am pretty sure being locked in a ship with his family for 5 days will be torture enough, so I don't expect to find him there.

I get the change though, having 12 year olds in the same space as 4 year olds seems a bit much. Honestly even 10 year olds might be a bit much. But I do understand the frustration from families that prefer to keep their kids together. All I can say is if you are willing, it is a good opportunity to give your kids a chance to spread their wings and learn to be happy apart just a bit. A chance to be a bit independent while supervised. They might surprise you, and if not, luckily you are only a phone call away.

 

[starlite_]

Do you think the 8-10 year olds would not trample the younger kids?

The dif between my cousin at 8 and then at 12 is a full 2 and a half heads (if not almost 3). So I'm much more inclined to believe 11-12yos accidentally hurting younger kids than 8yos.

 

[KrzyKtty101]

The dif between my cousin at 8 and then at 12 is a full 2 and a half heads (if not almost 3). So I'm much more inclined to believe 11-12yos accidentally hurting younger kids than 8yos.

Heck, the physical difference between my 10 year old, and her friend who is almost a year older is astounding! And my daughter isn't what I would call dainty.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I don't know. I can see my 10 year old still enjoying most of the things in the Club/Lab, but she is a young 10. And she is good alone just as much as she is finding new friends. Vibe and Edge honestly look pretty boring though. I can't see her being interested in either when she ages into them. And my 15 year old hates people, he is the most introverted introvert I have ever met. I am pretty sure being locked in a ship with his family for 5 days will be torture enough, so I don't expect to find him there.

I get the change though, having 12 year olds in the same space as 4 year olds seems a bit much. Honestly even 10 year olds might be a bit much. But I do understand the frustration from families that prefer to keep their kids together. All I can say is if you are willing, it is a good opportunity to give your kids a chance to spread their wings and learn to be happy apart just a bit. A chance to be a bit independent while supervised. They might surprise you, and if not, luckily you are only a phone call away.

My sister and I are 3 years apart and my husband and one of his sisters are 2 years apart.

In my case my sister and I wouldn't have wanted to do the same things together with having different interests at that 10-12 year old range. I know part of me would have wanted to be with the "cool" kids in so much as I would have felt left behind but my interests wouldn't have been the same as my sister's beyond that aspect and my sister would have wanted to do more upper age related things.

In my husband's case he would have wanted to do his own thing but I think his sister at that age would have wanted to stay closer to him. However, as I've been around them since his sister was 16 and he 18 I've noticed that it's mostly because their mom has sorta pushed them together. Had she encouraged them (well really his sister) to find her own voice she probably wouldn't have followed exactly in her brother's footsteps in college down to living in the same apartment and same degree (although they do things differently with their degrees as adults).

Long way to say I agree with you that sometimes it just takes the parent to give a little nudge. A lot of the comments are related to keeping siblings together and that's not bad but it's not also the worst thing to do for siblings to be able to have their own space and time too, it doesn't mean they aren't close as siblings either if they do enjoy it. Even though I was the younger sibling I also feel for the older sibling who often gets the default to watch over the younger sibling.

 

[AZMermaid]

The Edge is hardly a punishment, unless you choose to see it that way

yes! This reminds me so much of a few years back when a charter school near my public school closed without warning. As in parents got an email Friday at 4PM not to come back Monday. We got a bunch of kids from there. I got this little guy who came in and within 15 minutes told all my first graders that our school (top 15 public elementary school in the state) was lame and I was a lame teacher. All my kids were like what?! It was picture day and we had to take 4 takes because he kept smiling and then would make a horrible face on 3 when the picture was snapped. Anyway, I eventually won him over but it was a really rough battle. It came out months later (from dad) that his mom had cried all weekend and apologized to her boys that she had to send them to such a horrible school but she didn’t have any other options. The kids whose parents were I’m sure upset too but put on a positive front had a much better transition. If mom is freaked out, the kids freak out.

 

[CamillaF]

The dif between my cousin at 8 and then at 12 is a full 2 and a half heads (if not almost 3). So I'm much more inclined to believe 11-12yos accidentally hurting younger kids than 8yos.

Years ago I was irritated that a 5-6 year old was pouring water over my toddlers. His mother apologized and said he was 3. I was blown away. I got twin 10 year olds. Once is almost 5ft tall and most people think she is 13-14. Our neighbor kid who is 9 is bigger than her. The ones across the street who are 13 (twins again) are so small I some times forget how old they are, they look like my kids at 8. There are studies that teachers think that Asian kids are younger than they are and they are allowed to be more immature for longer and that African American kids are thought to be older and are expected to mature faster than they are.

 

[KrzyKtty101]

yes! This reminds me so much of a few years back when a charter school near my public school closed without warning. As in parents got an email Friday at 4PM not to come back Monday. We got a bunch of kids from there. I got this little guy who came in and within 15 minutes told all my first graders that our school (top 15 public elementary school in the state) was lame and I was a lame teacher. All my kids were like what?! It was picture day and we had to take 4 takes because he kept smiling and then would make a horrible face on 3 when the picture was snapped. Anyway, I eventually won him over but it was a really rough battle. It came out months later (from dad) that his mom had cried all weekend and apologized to her boys that she had to send them to such a horrible school but she didn’t have any other options. The kids whose parents were I’m sure upset too but put on a positive front had a much better transition. If mom is freaked out, the kids freak out.

I don't have any experience with Edge, but from the pictures online, it looked like a copy paste of Vibe. I would think they would try to make it a bit more of a blend between the interactive components of the Lab and Edge. 11 is still a bit young for only TV's, food, and tables. Do they have VR?

I dunno. Maybe I'm salty because at 39 I can't hang out at the Lab and make my own superhero suit

 

[starlite_]

Years ago I was irritated that a 5-6 year old was pouring water over my toddlers. His mother apologized and said he was 3. I was blown away. I got twin 10 year olds. Once is almost 5ft tall and most people think she is 13-14. Our neighbor kid who is 9 is bigger than her. The ones across the street who are 13 (twins again) are so small I some times forget how old they are, they look like my kids at 8. There are studies that teachers think that Asian kids are younger than they are and they are allowed to be more immature for longer and that African American kids are thought to be older and are expected to mature faster than they are.

Obviously there are gonna be outliers. But in general 11-12yos tend to be bigger than 8-9yos. Which is my point.

Not sure why you are bringing race into the convo tho.

 

[CamillaF]

Obviously there are gonna be outliers. But in general 11-12yos tend to be bigger than 8-9yos. Which is my point.

Not sure why you are bringing race into the convo tho.

Because race/genetics plays a big role in how big a child is. I live in a very diverse area with 139 different languages spoke in my kids school. The classes are diverse and so are the kids. Yes kids will be bigger at 12 than 8 however many of those 8 year olds will be the same size or bigger than some of those 12 year olds. This age range is amazing in how fast slow kids grow. I am sorry if I am being salty it just makes me irritated when someone is defending DCL on this discussion. DCL fixes nothing, making it worse, and only is a response to a lawsuit. They could have done a much better job and made smaller age appropriate groups, taken their time with the roll out, etc. But they did not. They made a big change in just a few weeks and have not told everyone who is sailing, have not updated their website, nor their check in issues (signing up 11/12 year olds for the club/lab). If you complain they send a form letter and if you call they say to talk to the CM's. Making the CM deal with the (understandably) frustrated guests. They messed this up big and only pressure will make them make this right. The 3-10 is also to big of an age group (heck a law suit involving a 3 and 7 year old happened). As far as I am concerned DCL deserve no grace on this.