WHY do parents allow children to run in the cabin hallways??

[TDC Nala]

I've shared this story before......

In the Walt Disney Theater for a show one time. Little girl behind me, probably 6 years old??...not sure, but old enough to be told to sit quietly.

When she WAS sitting, she kicked the back of my seat...and it had nothing to do with her little legs being so short that she couldn't help bumping the seat in front of her.
Most of the time she walked back and forth behind me, with her hands on the back of my seat, and my neighbor's. I had long hair then, so every time she grabbed my seat, she pulled my hair.

At first, I turned and looked at her mother...without any real expression on my face, just hoping to get her attention so she'd notice what the little one was doing.
Finally, I had to say something to the mother. I told her (quietly and as politely as I could) that the little one was pulling my hair, and could she please sit down. Of course, mama bear went BERSERK. She went on and on about how "this is a DISNEY CRUISE and that means it's for KIDS and if you don't like it, then you shouldn't be here....blah blah blah....."

I was so shocked, I didn't say a word back to her. I could not believe that just because it's a DISNEY CRUISE, that meant that her child did not have to practice good manners.

We traveled extensively with our kids, and they knew the rules from the beginning. NO running in the hallways (or around the dinner table, which we've seen MANY times on the cruises) NO loud talking, no screaming, etc, etc etc. If they did, they knew they'd be confined to the room for an indeterminate amount of time. And we wouldn't take them the next time.

Parents need to be parents....and quit trying to be their kids' best friend.

I always do enjoy the "You have to put up with my allowing my bored child to kick your seat and pull your hair, because it's DISNEY and Disney is for kids."

 

[cruisecrasher]

I'm a big fan of making my kids "practice". At 3, if DD was running down the hallway she got to walk back to where she started and practice walking down the hall again. Not just on board. In the hall at the Y, next to the pool, down the hall at church, really anywhere running was dangerous (as in she could bump/trip people or slip or get lost in a crowd.)
She hates practicing and would rather sit in the hall in public for a timeout. But she walks where she's supposed to for the most part. And if she isn't "in touch" (like within two steps) when walking in public places, you'd better believe I end up holding her hand.
In my experience, my kids get away with what I let them get away with.

 

[su_A_ve]

in my experience, my kids get away with what i let them get away with.

exactly!! Well said!!

 

[NFLDERS]

Okay, I'm going to come clean… Besides, given the number of times this happens, and the fact that the only people who've posted so far are those bothered by it, I think it's clear those of us who are guilty are lurking quietly.
So the first few days of our cruise, I walked the hall with my four-year-old and didn't really think twice when he ran or spoke loudly. It wasn't until our third day when I heard kids running through the hall that I realized HOW loud it truly was. You can rest assured that after that our rules changed. You have my sincere apologies for the first few days! Honestly, given my insistence in making sure he behaves politely, kindly and respectfully, I can't believe I so completely spaced out on this one...
Again, you have my apologies and can be assured that this will not happen on future cruises.

Apologies accepted, we live and learn.

 

[EPCOTatNight]

Well yes, but it's so much more fun to complain about terrible parents and lament about how our society has gone downhill than it is to point out that I would take a herd of 4 year olds over one drunk adult any day.

Agreed. If someone is going to act like a child, it should actually be a child.

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[justmestace]

A little tip about the stateroom doors on cruise ships:

There is a vacuum created in the room when the door is being opened or closed. You can't just walk out of the room and expect that the door will close tightly on its own.
Just as you can't walk out of the bedroom in your own home and expect the door to close by itself.....you need to take the couple of seconds to place your hand on the door handle, and close the door. Give it a little pull, and it will shut tightly.
It does NOT need to be slammed.


People should be grateful that the balcony doors on DCL are sliders. On some of the other cruise lines, they're actual doors...and people run in and out and just the let door slam shut ALL THE TIME. And thanks to the powers that be who design the rooms, it almost always happens that the head of your bed will be on the same wall (or as close as possible) as the neighbor's balcony (slamming) door. And there's really not a darn thing you can do about it.

Some people are just completely thoughtless. It's that whole "ME ME ME" mentality. And people do a lot of things when they're on vacation that they would never do at home.....like cleaning up after themselves if they spill food or drink......just one example.

 

[Lexa]

This is interesting for you to point out because on our last cruise (14 nights, WBPC) our door had issues closing properly. Maintenance was out several times to try and fix it. Got better but never really solved. We HAD to let it slam to for it to shut all the way.

Sorry neighbors.

Were you my neighbor? I understand if door can't close properly...but I have seen people let go of the door when fully open, whole hallaway shakes when door slam shut

 

[justmestace]

Agreed. If someone is going to act like a child, it should actually be a child.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[Maddysdaddy]

The issue to me seems to be that the threshold for what some people consider acceptable behavior both for themselves and their children ends up being the lowest common denominator of acceptability, rather than striving for the highest levels of common courtesy and respect for their fellow passengers. If you wouldn't act or allow your kids to act that way at home, why is it more acceptable to act that way on vacation?

Are we really at a point where the attitude of some (most?) people is "I paid good money for this vacation so my children and I will do what the heck we want to do when we want to do it"?

 

[peachygreen]

At the risk of coming across as being rude I am going to ask the question anyway.

From some of the comments in this thread, it seems like people expect the hallways to be practically silent 24 hours a day.

I understand expecting people to adhere to it during the requested quiet hours of 10pm to 8am but it sounds like people here are requesting that you are quiet and practically make no noise all day long.

I'll admit it, during the day I let my kids run down the hall. They weren't noisy, they weren't screaming, they weren't talking loudly, they weren't banging on the walls or doors, but yes they would run down the hall. There aren't a lot of places to really run around the ship. Yes there is deck 4, but it was frequently closed due to high winds and I'd rather them not run in front of runners. They are just burning off a little extra energy in an area where there are less likely to be a lot of people. They weren't allowed to run around corners just on the straight aways and were only allowed to get a few doors ahead of us at a time.

Would I let them do it early in the morning or in the evening? No. This was a 10am to 6pm thing. And you know what, I would probably do it again.

 

[baleeve]

I would never let my 8 and 10 year old boys run down the hall because with my luck that would be the time a mom or Dad would be coming out of their cabin with a baby in their arms! Or anyone for that matter.

It's my opinion that running is for outdoors or up on the jogging deck

that's just my 2 cents

 

[RedSox68]

I always do enjoy the "You have to put up with my allowing my bored child to kick your seat and pull your hair, because it's DISNEY and Disney is for kids."

Basically what I get every time I hear this is that "I'm on vacation from parenting and they're your problem and I don't want to be a parent cause.......I'm on vacation.....etc. etc. etc.

Well, I'm on vacation, too, and I love Disney cruising with or without our kids, but I certainly don't expect children to be "allowed" bad behavior and ill-manners just because they are on "vacation". We have had the running up and down and slamming doors for a straight hour on our last cruise and I finally opened our door and told them to knock it off or I was calling security -- and they did. Never did see or hear a parent get involved. We've also come across very young (too young to be roaming decks on their own) children going up to the soda station at night, alone, unsupervised and riding the elevator. The two times this happened, NONE of them were older than eight! Midnight, and your kids are roaming the ship alone! Very troubling!

On our Panama Canal trip in 2005, we came across dozens of teenagers laying all over the steps and walkways on many decks at all hours and talking about how bored they were. At some areas, we couldn't even pass. Someone called security and they were cleared away and told not to do it again! Again, I guess the parents don't have to parent while THEY are on vacation, so the rest of us have to parent other people's kids not only for their safety, but for our sanity

 

[Gigi22]

Agreed with PPs, from what I observed the number of unsupervised children roaming the ship seems to be worse on 3 day cruises. There was a band of three or four tween boys who were having a great old time playing with the midship elevators at about 10 p.m. I finally told them to knock it off, or I would call security.

 

[cris0809]

Were you my neighbor? I understand if door can't close properly...but I have seen people let go of the door when fully open, whole hallaway shakes when door slam shut

Haha, I have no idea. We are usually very careful with our door and do not allow it to slam. No manner of cajoling would have it close properly. We tried several ways while waiting for the maintenance guys to arrive. It seemed to be "falling" on its hinges a bit so the doorjamb was not quite square.

It did get better (in that it closed at all) after three visits to try to fix it, but they explained to us that it needed that extra hard contact to get it to "seat" properly.

Hopefully one of those things they will fix when the Wonder goes into dry dock.

 

[Kitster]

I don't understand it. I'm a Mom of three boys, all in their twenties now. They grew up going to Disneyworld and one thing we always stressed to them, is to be quiet leaving our room and NEVER run where people are possibly asleep. So why, why do soooo many parents allow this behavior on the ship? Don't they get that people are asleep at every hour of the day on the ship, late into the mornings, naps in the afternoons and obviously at night? Somebody please explain this to me.

This is the reason I will NEVER book a Deck 2 room again on the Magic or the Wonder. Ever since they move the Edge into the old conference rooms, the number of kids running in the halls is completely out of hand.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

This is the reason I will NEVER book a Deck 2 room again on the Magic or the Wonder. Ever since they move the Edge into the old conference rooms, the number of kids running in the halls is completely out of hand.

All of our cruises have been on the Magic & Wonder. Always on deck 2. In fact, one of them we had rooms immediately off the elevator lobby where Edge is located.

We've never noticed that the numbers of kids in the halls were out of hand.

In fact, we were told (by kids as well as CMs) that the children in Edge are reminded that it is a rooms only deck, and unless their room was located on deck 2 they were not to go down the halls. When they left Edge, they immediately used the stairs or elevators to go elsewhere.

YMMV

 

[BooToYou7]

At the risk of coming across as being rude I am going to ask the question anyway.

From some of the comments in this thread, it seems like people expect the hallways to be practically silent 24 hours a day.

I understand expecting people to adhere to it during the requested quiet hours of 10pm to 8am but it sounds like people here are requesting that you are quiet and practically make no noise all day long.

I'll admit it, during the day I let my kids run down the hall. They weren't noisy, they weren't screaming, they weren't talking loudly, they weren't banging on the walls or doors, but yes they would run down the hall. There aren't a lot of places to really run around the ship. Yes there is deck 4, but it was frequently closed due to high winds and I'd rather them not run in front of runners. They are just burning off a little extra energy in an area where there are less likely to be a lot of people. They weren't allowed to run around corners just on the straight aways and were only allowed to get a few doors ahead of us at a time.

Would I let them do it early in the morning or in the evening? No. This was a 10am to 6pm thing. And you know what, I would probably do it again.

I'm sorry, but during the day, I'd rather your kids yell down the hall than run down the hall. You're right that the hallways aren't under quiet hours during the day. But running indoors down hallways filled with doorways where anyone could come out at any time is just dangerous for both your kids and the people coming out of their rooms.

 

[Jillpie]

In my experience, my kids get away with what I let them get away with.

OP here. Best sentence of the entire 5 pg. thread.

 

[Kitster]

All of our cruises have been on the Magic & Wonder. Always on deck 2. In fact, one of them we had rooms immediately off the elevator lobby where Edge is located.

We've never noticed that the numbers of kids in the halls were out of hand.

In fact, we were told (by kids as well as CMs) that the children in Edge are reminded that it is a rooms only deck, and unless their room was located on deck 2 they were not to go down the halls. When they left Edge, they immediately used the stairs or elevators to go elsewhere.

YMMV

Then it must have just been our Christmas 2010 cruise that was out of control. People in at least 3 other cabins were MOVED because of the constant noise and commotion. Repeated calls to Guest Services and Security made absolutely no difference. Kids were running up and down our halls until 01:00 - 02:00 every single night. I can honestly say is was the worst Disney cruise I have ever been on (cruises 9 and 10 coming up in October) and because of this one experience I have no interest in doing another Deck 2 cruise aboard the Wonder or Magic, ever again.

 

[Kitster]

I'm sorry, but during the day, I'd rather your kids yell down the hall than run down the hall. You're right that the hallways aren't under quiet hours during the day. But running indoors down hallways filled with doorways where anyone could come out at any time is just dangerous for both your kids and the people coming out of their rooms.