Activities for children

[Disney-4ever]

What type of activities can the children enjoy without the parents? And what type of activities are there for the entire family to enjoy on the ship? graemlins/mickey.gif

[c&d]

Hi, the children are sorted by age. Our son was in the oceaneers club and with the 3 &4 yr olds. There was so much to do every day if he wanted to. There are special times when characters come and visit them. He was really excited that he got to dance with snow white. Mickey came and visited them, peter pan was there. Other times they just played games or they went over to the oceaneer's lab and made bubbles and played on the computers. The children can do as much or as little as they want. They will even take your children up to lunch and dinner if you want. I think they are open from 8:00am to 11:00pm. I may have the hours wrong though.

When you get on the ship you can sign them up and they will give you a navigator just for their age group and you can all decide what you want to do or not do.

Your children can go in and out whenever they want. The staff will page you to let you know they want to leave. There are certain times when you can't take your child out or sign them in. These are when they are moving them around the ship, when the go upstairs for lunch or dinner or move from the lab to the club.

At the end of the cruise (at least on the 7 day) all the children put on a show and it's really amazing how many children were on the ship. When we went in december there were 800 children on the ship, and you would never know there were that many on the ship.

As for family activities we mainly stayed at the pool. In your daily navigator they list all the activities and which are for families or adults only.

Hope this helps. graemlins/mickey.gif

[Disney-4ever]

Very helpful. Do any of the activities cost extra money or is part of being on the Disney ship? graemlins/mickey.gif

[Mulan]

All of the activities in the club and lab are free. There are other family activities on board also, they will be in the daily navagator. We did the Mickey 200 (you make race cars out of food and race other families) and there are things at night..comedy, magicians and dancing.

You and your children will have a great time!

[stitchfan]

Mulan is right in every particular. There's more kid- and family-stuff to see and do than time to do it. Everything from the TV in your room to the movies in the Buena Vista theatre to the Internet Cafe are geared toward families. You and your kids will love it.

The closing program in which the kids participate brought tears to my eyes. The Club and Lab programs go ashore on Castaway Cay, so if you want to spend some time at the adult beach :cool: (adult means 18+ only) your kids have fun stuff to do ashore too. [They do not take them ashore anywhere else.]

The counselors there are the best, and the kids have a blast. :D

Mechanics of the process: when you come on board, make your way to Deck 5, amidships. There are 3 elevators on board, one forward, one midships, and one aft. The midships elevator lobby on Deck 5 is between the Oceaneer's Lab and the Oceaneers Club.

Once there, you will fill out some paperwork for them, and they will give you a pager. Once the paperwork is on file, you and your child can come and go as you please. Kids under a certain age (I'm not sure what that age is) have to be signed in and out by an adult. You list who can do the sign-in and -out when you complete your registration paperwork. Kids older than the threshold age can sign themselves in and out.

Virtually everything on board is family-oriented, from dining to the shows. The only exceptions are Palo's, which is an 18+ only dining room (you need reservations), the adults only swimming pool, and one of the 3 comedy nightclubs (the one with two pianos in it) can get a little PG13 after about 8pm. graemlins/blush.gif

There's a deck party every time you set sail (don't miss the 1st embarkation party!), with singing and dancing with costume characters. We have some great photos of DS10 dancing with Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto graemlins/silly.gif

Depending on your cruise scheule (3,4,7), there will be one or more receptions in the grand lobby in front of Triton's/Luminare's. graemlins/party.gif Note that all of the drinks that the circulating waiters have are kid-friendly non-alcoholic fruit concoctions.

We had a blast. Don't miss this opportunity to spend time with your kids. As the parent of one in college, I can tell you that they don't stay little nearly long enough. Treasure their company.

Stitchfan graemlins/thumbsup.gif

[Jennib]

Hi......
How old are your children?? I have a sample list of the activities but I need to know the age of the children, then I can post them for you...

Let me know!

[Disney-4ever]

Ages, 12(DD), 10(DS), and 7(DS)