Children's Programing aboard the Disney Magic Cruise Ship

Disney divides the youth on board their ships into 4 age groups. The Nursery is for those under 3 and requires a reservation (for a fee), the Oceaneer Club and Lab is for 3-12 year olds, 11-14 year olds can hang out in Edge and 14-17 year olds have Vibe. All 4 ships divide up the same way. Under the age of 8 they have to be checked in and out. At 9 years old, you have the option of letting your child sign themselves out. All cast members are happy to call the parent anytime the child asks. I didn't ever see a counselor even ask a kid why! My son called us to show us a comic book that he made! Haha, after that we reminded him to give his work to a counselor to hold till we picked them up. :-) If you are going to a special activity, let the cast member know when you drop your child off and they will note it in the record to avoid interrupting you for unimportant things. 

The kids LOVED these cool "magic" hand washers to use when they entered or left the kids area. All you needed to do was place your hands into the center of the holes and the water sprayed with soap and then rinsed them. Magic!

There were also sanitizing wipes throughout the ship. 

Oceaneer Lab
Majority of the computers are located in the Oceaneer Lab. They also have a large screen where they show movies and have dance activities. Most cooking and science classes are held on this side of the club.

The kids loved the computers that allowed you to pretend to be a captain and steer the ship in and out of ports. All the computers had multiple games on them and Disney movies were always playing!

Having a child with dwarfism (short stature) can be tough, especially when it comes to using public restrooms with out help! Disney has that covered so even the littlest of kids can do it all on their own. I was able to get in before anyone and get some pictures. Everything is very low and easily accessible. The doors have locks on them, but an adult on the outside can easily open it if there is an emergency. Step stools were everywhere in the kids bathrooms too!

There was a neat hallway that connected the Oceaneer Club to the Oceaneer Lab. When one side has open house they just send all the kids to the other side and lock the doors between the two. The windows on the right are open to view the atrium lobby area. The left is the beautiful ocean, blocked by the life boats. 

Oceaneer Club
Andy's room! The toy chest straight ahead is full of Mr. Potato Head Parts. Not sure why, but, many times that we were inside the Oceaneer Club they had the steps to Andy's bed closed off. It seems it was that way even when they weren't open to the public. Many times they take Mr. Potato Heads parts out of the bin during open hours too. When you go in to pick up your child, they tell the parents where to find the kid and let them in to do so.

There is no lack of computer screens. You'd think with hundreds of children on board that there wouldn't be enough, but we always saw some empty! The Halloween sailing that we were on had over 700 children under the age of 18 sailing. 

 Throughout the week they hold "becoming Ironman" events. These only happen when the club is in openhouse mode. This gets quite a few people to visit, most of them are adults! We had so many things on our to do list while onboard that we never made it to one of the activity times. We caught the end of one session and it looked cool though.

 

This is inside the PIxie Hollow area.

This is the open area where they have story times or special events, like Pluto's Pajama Party! 

Here is the pillowcase that my daughter got for participating in Pluto's PJ party. The only way to get this is if the child participates. My son bounced around and didn't pay attention and missed his chance to get one. if you have a child that will want one but not to color right away. Tell them to take the pillowcase, write their name on it and say they will do the rest later! 

Check out all the areas inside the Oceaneer Club in this great video!

Nursery 

The Nursery area only holds open hours very early in the morning and I never made it to take a picture! When I peeked in though, there seemed like almost an adult to every kid.. There was a kitchen play area and toy boxes full of stuff.

While I peeked into the Nursery the Cast Member showed me how their awesome security system works. Each child is given an Oceaneer Band to use during the cruise. These bands are very similar to Disney Parks Magic Bands. When my kids walked into the lobby area of the Nursery, their pictures and names popped up onto the screen! The Cast member greeted both my kids by name! Whenever you pick up your child they will tell you the exact area your kids are playing. On the left of the screen you can see that there were a total of 121 children checked into all children's programing and that 9 were currently in the nursery area.

The last day of the cruise the Children's program puts on a little bit of a show in the theater called, Friendship Rocks! Each child that participates receives a shirt. Even Mickey and Minnie come out for a few songs. They also show pictures of the children from the week.

While Mickey and Minne coming out on stage was neat, I felt bad for some of the kids. They just wanted to say hi to the characters and were told to stay back with their group. Of course it was in a kind way, but I think the characters should have turned around toward the kids and acknowledged them a bit more.

Video of the younger kids dancing with Mickey and Minnie at Friendship Rocks!

Older kids during Friendship Rocks.

They took pictures and videos in camp all week and shared them during Friendship Rocks. I loved seeing all the characters that visited them. My daughter said her favorites was Donald's birthday surprise and Pluto's Pajama Party.

Every child that participates in Friendship Rocks! gets a T-shirt! I found out that they divide the kids up by size... My daughter ended up in the 5 and under group because she was so small. 6+ had blue shirts. Another great FREE keepsake from our vacation!

For more help planning your magical cruise, contact me today! 

Jennifer - jenniehenn@gmail.com

412-716-5065