At what age would you/did you let kids have free range of the ship?

[KT2038]

The majority of kids who are Edge age usually have more freedom from their parents to wander the ship. This comes in handy when they make friends, agree to meet at Edge and then go somewhere else. I have also seen tweens whose parents are strict at the start of a cruise but then relax the rules due to the nature of Edge and the activities the tweens want to do outside of the space.

 

[Travel60]

Unpopular opinion so I don't need anyone to 'boo, hiss' me.
You are on a floating city with 6000 strangers. You may talk to them in a group forum before you sail but do you 'know' them? It might not be common but there have been cases of sexual misconduct with children aboard, even by crew members. You also have to think about if your child is in a group of other children, what might they come up with in a game of dare? Pushing elevator buttons would be the least of my worries.
For sure you, the parent, know your child best but you don't know others so keep that in mind. I did not 'helicopter parent' my children at all times but I did not let them have control while on vacation. Nothing bad happens until it does.
Again, JMO, not popular, so no need to bash this. Just putting something out there to think about.

I think we tended to be similar. Our kids were pretty sheltered at home.....local neighborhood where we knew everyone, parochial school where we knew all their friends and most of the parents. Our first cruise, they DS was 9 and DD was12ish. We kept a pretty tight rein and they loved the clubs. We let them check themselves in and out but club notified us via beeper. Next cruise they were about 12 and 15. We had rules...breakfast & dinner with family every day, we went over schedule every night for next day, they had to stick together and no going in anyone's room. This was back before cell phones or the messaging phones in the rooms. We had a notepad on the desk and used it to update each other throughout day. If we had seen or heard of them acting wild, doing stupid pranks or being rude their privileges both on ship and at home would have been squashed like a bug. And they knew it. Third cruise they were 16 and 18 and other than the family breakfast/dinner we let them be on their own. They still loved the clubs and were usually doing group activities.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I always enjoy these threads!

On our last cruise my oldest was newly 10, and the other two were 7 and 6. We did not sign the waiver for the oldest to join Edge as he wasn't particularly interested. Of all the kids misbehaving with their free range wandering, it was definitely the Edge-aged kids I saw the most causing problems (enough to be talked to by cast members). I imagine it's different with every cruise but being on a TA cruise it's likely many of those kids were gold/platinum so were trusted by parents since they knew the ships well. Probably a little more supervision would have been warranted.

I think I'm a little more of a nervous parent than some, I do not love the idea of my kids wandering the ship with strangers (ie friends I have never met with parents I've never met) and among strangers (the thousands of others on board). I know at some point I'll have to let go a little more but it's challenging. It's great to hear how others have dealt with this. I think for our next cruise I might go with both the cell phone option as well as maybe a white board or notepad in the room.

 

[Clojel]

My kids will be 10 (almost 11) and 13 when we take our second DCL cruise. When we took our first last year, they were 8 (almost 9) and 11 and we had a tight reign on them. However, it seemed like some 11/12 year-olds were on their own. I know it all depends on the kid, but I am curious about your experience.

As a side note, I wish the tween club started at 10. I am going to have a hard time convincing my younger daughter to go to kids club with the little kiddos.

We’ve cruised twice. The first time, DD was 6, the second 8. We kept a relatively tight reign on her both times but the 2nd time around she stayed in the cabin by herself mid afternoon while we went to a cocktail tasting (she was a tiny bit seasick and not up for kids club) and she was allowed to leave our cabin in the morning to grab bfast from the concierge lounge while we got ready for our day. She’d grab a pastry and a juice and eat back in the room. Our next cruise, she’ll be 11 turning 12 and I intend to give her more freedom.

It varies kid to kid on what’s appropriate. A few things I’d consider if I was you:
Are your kids good with directions? The ship layout can be disorienting at times
Are they experienced speaking up for themselves? Do they know how to politely order food from an adult? It seems silly but a lot of kids don’t learn manners bc parents step in for them.
Have they been given similar freedom/responsibility at home or will this be new?
Are they easily roped in to bad behavior by other kids?

I joke that our DD was born a tiny adult...but her best friend (for instance) would not be able to handle the little freedoms we gave her last trip. You know your kids best. Trust your judgment. And remember, just bc you give them freedom on day one doesn’t mean they get it on day four. If they’re abusing it, just shut it down.

 

[lklgoodman]

We went on our 6th cruise this past Jan., it was our 3rd cruise on the Fantasy. My dd was 11 yrs old. It was the first time we let our dd go places on her own. Like others, she had rules she had to follow: had to tell us where she was, only meet others in public places, no going into other cabins & no one allowed into ours, had a curfew, etc.

 

[tlprice]

My daughter has pretty much had free range since our second cruise at 9. That being said, she has almost always made really good friends with our table mates and has really only ever done everything with them (so I know their parents since we eat together every night). She does check in with me often and is very aware of behaving respectfully as she has seen kids behaving badly and it really bothers her when she sees that. We have had 2 cruises where she didn't make friends with table mates and she spent a lot more time with me (by choice).