Tips on getting almost 3 yo excited for kids club

[nattie]

I need some advice from fellow cruise mommies. Just a background, we are sailing in mid Feb (YAY!!!), my DS will be 3 in end of April, this is his 4th cruise. He loves cruising and is very excited to go on a ship again, however, he has never attended kids club before. He goes to home based daycare full time at home (we both work).

 

I would like to try to get him excited about Camp Carnival, but am not sure where to start. I think part of why he likes cruising and travelling so much is because it is his mommy/daddy time with no day care (am I over analyzing???)

 

So, how did you get your kids excited about Camp Carnival/kids club? Any specific things they do there I can play up?

 

As a side note, I wouldn't be devastated if he doesnt like it or doesnt want to go. We have a back up plan in place and will still enjoy our cruise. I just would like him to try the Camp and experience another aspect of cruise life.

[cb at sea]

I wouldn't talk it up too much....he's accustomed to being away from you already, so that shouldn't be a problem! Sometimes, when you start playing up a situation, for good or bad, it can make a child a bit reticent! Just let things take their own course!

 

Make sure you go to the orientation...usually the 1st evening....that way, he'll get to see for himself what cool things he'll be doing...and, get to see the other kids chomping at the bit to have a great time!

[Mom2B&Z]

I wouldn't push it too much either. DS2 (who is now 4) hated kids club at first, even though both parents work and he is used to day care and now school. He wanted Mommy and Daddy time, not playing with other kids ;)

This time, before we left, we talked about what was available to him...the pool, places to eat, things to do and the kids club. It was presented to him as an option he could choose. We visited on embarkation day, did the tour and signed him up, again with the understanding it was his choice to go. The first time he decided not to go, we took him shopping. He hates shopping ;) So when he said he wanted to play, we told him he had the choice of kids club or shopping. He chose kids club, we dropped him off and he had a great time!

We usually drop the kids off for an hour or so in the evening, more as a way for them to burn off any extra energy before bedtime without bothering other passengers. I think the key is having some balance, where they spend time with you but also have some time to be a kid.

Good luck!

[CFIGuy]

I agree with the last post about balance. We typically did 1 session a day. As for how we got my son excited, we spoke about how he was potty trained, so now he was big enough to go to kids club. And we also mentioned how it was a special area only for kids, no parents allowed. Not sure what special activities Carnival does, but we also mentioned the Pirate parade. That got him excited enough. But of course every child is different.

[nlt46]

You can show him pictures of Fun Ship Freddy. We did that. We haven't told our girls about our February cruise yet, but ours is at the end. About 2 weeks out we will tell them. We don't want them to peak too early.

 

Nancy

[TheCalicoCat]

I need some advice from fellow cruise mommies. Just a background, we are sailing in mid Feb (YAY!!!), my DS will be 3 in end of April, this is his 4th cruise. He loves cruising and is very excited to go on a ship again, however, he has never attended kids club before. He goes to home based daycare full time at home (we both work).

 

I would like to try to get him excited about Camp Carnival, but am not sure where to start. I think part of why he likes cruising and travelling so much is because it is his mommy/daddy time with no day care (am I over analyzing???)

 

So, how did you get your kids excited about Camp Carnival/kids club? Any specific things they do there I can play up?

 

As a side note, I wouldn't be devastated if he doesnt like it or doesnt want to go. We have a back up plan in place and will still enjoy our cruise. I just would like him to try the Camp and experience another aspect of cruise life.

 

Our story is similar... One thing to realize that time in camp is short & broken...

I think it opens at 9 (we are up closer to 6) you have to pick them up for lunch, then they are open again from about 1 to 3. Dinner, then My son went to bed, so I did not pay attention to the hours after that - though they do have late hours for a fee if you want to dance the night away.

 

Since my son goes to day care, he needed no encouragement.

(FWIW, My so was 2 & then 3 - he will be 3.5 on his next cruise I am not going to do anything special to get him primed.)

[Julienatul]

Show him pictures of the kids club from that particular ship before hand. Get the song "tutti-tot" its a kid dancing rhyme that they do alot in the club and for the talent show in the 2-5 age group on Carnival. There is also a children's book about cruising called "freddy gets his sea legs" I think you can get on Amazon.

Talk to him about all the fun he will have face painting, dancing, arts and crafts, playing with toys, balloons, meeting fun ship freddy. My DS loves Camp carnival, he's 3. We always attend the family welcome aboard party the first evening so that he can get aquainted with his counselors with us there before we actually drop him off the next day.

[MichelleChell]

Mine goes to daycare but has already told me he doesn't want to go to kids club. So I talked to him and said no its not daycare its camp. They have fun and do alot of fun stuff. I told him there are parties at night. I am not pushing it to much but have showed him pics of the room and plan to visit when we get there.

 

I think mine got mad at a caregiver on our last cruise and thats why he is saying he doesn't want to go.

[nattie]

Thank you all for the replies!

 

The book idea sounds great, I'll order it today. He loves books, especially with any kind of machinery involved, so this would be perfect.

 

The Pirate Parade sounds great too, I think this should get him excited.

 

Cruise was actually partially DS's idea. We were looking at his picture albums over Xmas with a lot of cruise pics and after that every couple of days he would bring out his model of Crown Princess (last ship we sailed on) and show me where he wants to go. I know, Cruise Diva in training...