Child a month shy of 3

[jandiart]

we may be traveling with our grandson who will be 2 years 11 months old and his 4 year old sister. Our grandson is potty trained and has been in daycare since he was 6weeks old. He is advanced in his speech and is used to playing with children up to 5 years old on a regular basis. He would not be happy in the nursery. Is there any chance that they would permit him to try out the 3 year old group instead?

[Shmoo here]

we may be traveling with our grandson who will be 2 years 11 months old and his 4 year old sister. Our grandson is potty trained and has been in daycare since he was 6weeks old. He is advanced in his speech and is used to playing with children up to 5 years old on a regular basis. He would not be happy in the nursery. Is there any chance that they would permit him to try out the 3 year old group instead?

 

Doubtful, but you certainly may ask at Oceaneer's once onboard. Used to be a time they would let potty-trained "almost 3s" in, but recently started enforcing the age limits better.

 

I'll also just point out that there will kids up to the age of 12 in there with you little one. Will he be able to handle those?

[c-cruise]

Possible, but not guaranteed. It's been a couple years now, but our 2yr old was able to go to the kids club when she was a month shy of 3. She was with her older sister though. They "interviewed" her and made she could respond to their questions, etc. Had to be potty trained as well of course.

 

Just got off the Magic a couple weeks ago and I was kind of keeping an eye out for this, but didn't see anyone asking about an under 3yr old or see any cast members questioning kids. Doesn't mean they weren't allowing it, just that we didn't see it on this last cruise.

 

Honestly our then almost 2yr old didn't particularly enjoy the club on the Fantasy and only went a few times. She was much happier hanging out with us (while her sister was in the clubs). It's organized chaos in there at times and kind of a lot for a 3yr old to handle with the bigger kids running around.

 

Even if they didn't allow him in you could still take him during the open house times at the club. There's tons to do on the ships for little kids even if they can't use the clubs.

[Tagong]

We were in the same boat (no pun intended) as the OP as our daughter was just shy of three, potty trained and quite advanced with her language skills. She wasn't permitted in Oceaneers outside of their Open House hours which turned out to be much more fun and useful than we thought going into our cruise. There are open house hours everyday for at least 1 to 1 and half hours which was perfect. Some of our greatest memories from our first Disney Cruise were when we were all playing as a family in the Oceaneers. Don't rule out the nursery though. We had our daughter in there one night and she had a blast.

[Gardeneroflove]

We were in the same boat (no pun intended) as the OP as our daughter was just shy of three, potty trained and quite advanced with her language skills. She wasn't permitted in Oceaneers outside of their Open House hours which turned out to be much more fun and useful than we thought going into our cruise. There are open house hours everyday for at least 1 to 1 and half hours which was perfect. Some of our greatest memories from our first Disney Cruise were when we were all playing as a family in the Oceaneers. Don't rule out the nursery though. We had our daughter in there one night and she had a blast.

 

This. yes, you can use the open house hours, even with under 3's. We did both times, it was great!

[rx4funtravel]

We cruised October 2014 and they allowed our friends little girl that was 3 months shy of 3, go into the club. I think it's a case by case basis, but it doesn't hurt to ask!!

[Shmoo here]

We cruised October 2014 and they allowed our friends little girl that was 3 months shy of 3, go into the club. I think it's a case by case basis, but it doesn't hurt to ask!!

 

As I mentioned the age enforcement is a fairly recent policy change - maybe abut 3-4 months.

[moki'smommy]

Policies in the OC have changed, as Shmoo said. What happened a year ago is irrelevant--those policies were in effect since 1998, but are now gone.

 

New policy is 3 years old. Period. Not 3 less a day or a week. The ONLY place you have "wiggle room" is with a child who turns 3 on the cruise--then you can win the use of the drop off on and after the birthday even though the computer keeps the child at the age on embarkation day.

 

Toilet training is no longer required.The new policy is that staff will phone parent to come get the child if a change is needed. Containment of any biological material in a form that will be managed by the parent is required--doesn't matter if it is a cloth or disposable diaper, pull up, or whatever as long as it doesn't leak and the parent comes when called to deal with it.