Adventure Ocean for 4 year old

[kacoombs]

We attempted to check in our daughter when she had turned 3 last year. She was pretty upset, so we didn't do more than 1 afternoon. This year, we're planning for a better time. We've been talking about the kids' club for a while. She's getting there, but she's clearly still nervous. One thing we won't do this time is go to the orientation Sunday night. The decibel level in the ice rink was ridiculous on Mariner so that increased her anxiety.

 

Any advice on doing this? She goes to a preschool & hasn't had separation anxiety for a while. We're trying to talk about specific activities they do at the kids' club. Parties, activities...

 

Thanks!

[WeBCruisin]

Our oldest son is now 8 and loves Adventure Ocean.

 

However when he was 3 our experience was the same as yours. We placed him in Aquanauts and then excitedly went off on our own soooo thrilled to have a little free time - our pager went off only 20 minutes later and we had to go pick him up. He refused to go the rest of the trip.

 

On our next cruise - when he was five - he loved the kids program - and still does.

 

We have never attended the orientation in the ice rink. We simply attend the open house/registration which is lower key and gives the kids time to become familar with the room and the counselors and also possibly get acquainted with some of the other children their age.

 

Our younger son attended for the first time last year at 3 years of age and did OK - not sure he loved it (he didn't want to go at times) but he tolerated it most days. We are going on the Freedom again next month and we have been really talking up Adventure Ocean to him and he is excited. He is already practicing his "pirate talk" for pirate night!

 

Don't write it off for your daughter just yet. Kids can really mature a lot in only year and she may be much more comfortable this year - especially with a year of pre-school under her belt. I would talk it up as much as possible and also play up special activities/events that you think would really appeal to her. You can find copies of the Adventure Ocean compass on cruisedailies.com

 

Good Luck!! Hope you have a wonderful cruise!!

[rstout]

On the FOS last week, my 3 and 4 year olds loved AO. It absolutely helped my 3 YO to have his brother with him. It was the 4 YO that really pushed to go (and the 3 YO tagged along, of course). Since she's in preschool and a year older, I agree with the others that she should be much better this time around. Skip the family orientation show, and just go during the registration period (between 8 and 10 PM) the first night - definitely a better way to get acquainted with the Aquanats room and program.