A Mother's report on Disney Cruise Line's Children's Programs
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A Mother's report on Disney Cruise Line's Children's Programs
By Coleen Bolton - MouseEarVacations.com

You all know the cruise commercials. The kids telling the parents they already have their own plans and the parents should go and find something to do without them. I am the mother of an only child that is 6 years old. To say that I am overprotective is an understatement. This was our fourth trip to Disney as a family, but our first cruise. We had always spent our vacations together doing activities together as a family so I hadn't really put much thought into the children's programs onboard. Then friends of ours came back from their Disney cruise and their kids told my son about all of the fun things they did. After that my son started asking me if he was going to do all of those things.

We were only onboard for five minutes when my son started asking when we could go check out the kids club. Once the fire drill was over we headed up to check it out. I was amazed with all of the space Disney has dedicated to the children's program. The kids clubs occupy a large portion of an entire deck.

The Oceaneere Club
(c) Disney

Disney's Oceaneer Club is for ages 5-7. We walked into the club and I was very impressed, Disney's attention to detail was obvious everywhere you looked. There are definite security measures in place, but are so well disguised everyone feels very comfortable. Each child is given a name badge and bar coded bracelet that's linked to all of their information, including a private password that you select. Each parent is given a beeper so they can be in touch at all times. There were smiling cast member faces everywhere we looked. They all seemed more than happy to meet the new kids and make them feel comfortable. The cast members come from all over the world and even as the end of the cruise neared all seemed to still be having fun. There is a children's navigator which is a schedule of events just for the children. The Oceaneer's Club looked like it came right from Neverland complete with Captain Hook's ship. There is a wonderful dress up station where kids can become Peter Pan or Cinderella (and more!), a bunch of interactive computer stations, and tons of room to play.

The first day on board was available for parents and children to roam around and check out the facilities. We decided to look at the separate club for children age 8 - 12. Its called Oceaneer's Lab and it's a wonderful name for it. There was a computer lab, a science lab, and my son's favorite... the giant Playstation. There were game controllers that looked like they belonged to a giant. I checked the navigator and was happy to see that the 5 - 7 year olds were going to be doing things there as well.