Greetings All,
Sorry I have been away for such a long time. It was irresponsible of me to leave without notification. I found that this was the best comment to repsond to. Children that are signed into care and are not behaving appropriately are always a challenge. believe it or not the majority of the time it only requires us to inform the parents once and the issue is resolved. On a ship with a few hundred children in one age group, we do get the child that parental involvement does not sole the challenge.
I remember one child that I delat with personally who bit. He had bit one other child, after infomring the parents of this they then informed us that this is a habit that he has and that it has been a challenge in his daycare! This of course would have been useful info to put down on his form on registration day.
Needless to say after consulting my leaders at the time (the cruise director, we did not have a Manager of Youth Activities at the time) they suggested that we allow the child back into care but that the parents remain on board at the same time in case of any challenges. Needless to say, and against mine and my staffs opinions, this was the route taken. We believed as childcare workers that this was not going to solve a ongoing behavior pattern that existed before boarding. I was thankfull that night that I did not have to pay for my own work clothes as the child had bitten through my shirt and my skin several times. In calling the parents they did not respond as it was then discovered they did not stay on board as requested and actually had gone ashore ten minutes after checking their son in.
The issue was then taken to the cruise director again with the request that the parents to remain with the child whenever he was in care. The parents countered back that they had paid a large amount for this cruise and that it was unexceptable that they have to stay with their son.
I would like to say that this is a isolated incident but unfortunately it is not. The challenge of inappropriate behavior, in it's many forms and from both children and parents, was a ongoing isssue the 5 years that I was there.
I have spent the last year consulting for Norwegian, Royal Carribean, Princess, and other cruise lines on how to provide a effective childrens program. The focus being on ratio and sheer numbers. After working Disney for so long and seeing the amazing things that the characters can do it was truly an eye opener to see the better quality of care that was provided by other cruise lines that adopted a smaller child to counselor ratio, place time restrictions, behavior guide lines based on being appropriate or inappropriate and not on how much money was spent to be there.
While Disney does offer a wonderful product and facilities, the characters being an bonus, the quality of care was not as high as Royal Caribbean or Celebrity for example. I know that I am probably stepping on some toes here and I would like to make it clear that the majority of children on a
Disney cruise (and parents) have a "magical" time, and that every cruise line has had it's share of negative and positive experiences by guests. My focus is on the quality of care. With that being said I feel that even with the new changes Disney needs to step it up again.
I was suprised that he was allowed back in the club. My DS didn't have any issues with other kids, but that one event stuck out in his mind. I do have to say that many of the children and their parents on this cruise were ill behaved. I witnessed alot of puching and hitting on the decks and by the pools. I guess it's just the luck of the draw, on our last cruise the children were impeccably behaved.
Is there something inparticular you are interested in finding out more about?
