August 28, 2004 "LOST AT SEA" Cruise

[SeaSpray]

Originally posted by invaderzim

SeaSpray: We also had 6:30 show, 8:30 dining and tried to do a couple of 10:15 movies. They were the bad experience. We did get one 11 p.m. movie in without too much trouble and a 10 a.m. movie in. As for the teens, my daughter is 17 and tried to experience the new teen club -- but said it was miserable. She said the kids, again, were out of control and the couple of times she went there to draw, a couple of 14-year-old girls kept trying to bump the table so she would mess up. She finally packed up her stuff and left and never went back. She was disappointed, but made use of our verandah instead.

I partly blame DCL because I think they can definitely have better supervision. Children under 14 should not be roaming the ship after 11 p.m. without supervision! But I blame the parents more for not teaching their children respect and taking the responsibility to know where they are and what they are up to. My daughter had a curfew (even at her age) and if something was going on that she wanted to go to after her allotted time, she just had to ask and let us know where it was and when it was over. We left notes at all times to each other in the cabin as to when we'd be back and where to meet up.

It got so bad by day 5 that my husband and I were having serious doubts about even going through with next year's August Repo Cruise because we assumed it was a summer thing. We always cruise in November -- this was our first summer cruise. So we figure maybe it's an end of the summer high energy behavior that we've never seen before.

DARWIN Just curious, what months were your other three cruises?

I'm really sorry that there were so many kids who were out of control and that they interfered with you having a good experience. I know I'd be upset too, if I saw the things you described.
My older son, 16, went to the Stack a few times, mostly he and my 13 yr old son played chess together. I know he also did the scavenger hunt one of the days, and did the Gotcha game. My 13 yr old son, on the otherhand, didn't enjoy the Stack at all. He said it was mostly older teens in there, so he ended up making a few friends whom he played air hockey with, and just spent time with.
I agree that some parents don't teach their children respect for others, and for themselves, and then the kids are out of control when left on their own.

 

[O'BWV]

Invaderzim - As far as the kids on board go I have to agree with you. Now let me preface my saying that I hope my kids were well behaved but I do know that kids will be kids. In fact, my son John (11) went by himself to the sports deck and we got our meet-up plans crossed. I heard from many people of him running around the ship looking for us (sorry if he bothered any of you). He even went to our table 12 during the early seating looking for us and asking our servers where we were. So I know my kids can be a pain too. However, I saw alot of things this cruise that I did not like. Kids pushing all of the elevator buttons and other kids making prank phone calls to stateroom from hallway phones. I got a few of those late night calls myself. I think parents could have been more on top of this but then that's a pet peeve of mine anyway. I going to chalk these incidences up to parents believing their kids were in the clubs when in fact they had signed themselves out. If DCL security would alert parents when their children acted up I'm sure alot of parents would have nipped it in the bud.


-Mary Rose

 

[SeaSpray]

Originally posted by O'BWV
Hey Terry that sounds great!! We are leaving for WDW on 10/30 but are free up until then. What weekend in particular are you coming up? Can you believe we have to make that drive to FL again Too soon to think about that!


Any NJ/NY DISers interested in meeting up with Terry & my family at the end of Oct? I'd be more than happy to offer my humble abode.


-Mary Rose

Mary Rose:

It's the weekend of October 23rd. Not sure which night we'll be driving down, probably on Friday, Oct. 22, but we'll probably get to Sayreville pretty late. The party is on Saturday night, the 23rd, then we'll probably head out back to MA on Sunday. Would you be interested in meeting for breakfast on either Saturday morning (if we drive down Friday), or Sunday morning?? Do you know where the Peter Pank Diner, on Rt. 9 is?? I wish we'd have more time in NJ but DH used a lot of his vacation days for the extra time we were on the cruise, and now he has to start saving vacation time again for our cruise next June. Let me know what you think! And when I know for sure what day we're driving down, maybe we can plan something! I really would love to see you and DH again!

 

[O'BWV]

Terry - Do I know the Peter Pank Diner? Do I ever!! I love the Peter Pank! We would love to meet you guys there on either morning. We are wide open that weekend so we can shore-up which morning works better for you as we get closer to that weekend! Wow, how exciting - thanks for asking us!


-Mary Rose

 

[Mary Anne]

Interesting observation about the teens;\

My 13 year old did very little in the Stack. He too said it was a lot of older kids. I really think they need to seperate the older and younger teens. He spent most of his time shooting hoops or with us.

My 16 year old did spend a lot of time there, but most of it was spent sitting on a stool watching World Cup Hockey and talking Hockey to the CM's in charge. Speaking of the CM's he said two of them were on their last cruise and when it was announced the cruise was going to be longer then normal, they opted out and spent the last 3 days sitting by the pool and in the hot tub so there were only 2 CM's for that group. My son, also wasn't too happy with a lot of the group of teens. To use his words, "Mom, I'm just not hanging with them, they smoke and drink" I think the drinking was when we were in Costa Maya and you can drink at 16 there. My son cannot stand to be even near a smoker, he gets physically ill. He did say he spent most of his time talking to two girls who were quiet and nice.

We didn't see a lot of the kids running around but then again, we kept different hours then many, we were up early and retired after dinner most nights. By 10 pm or so we were in bed. Good it's sad to be old LOL That is until the last night or so when we were up late, and my DH said he couldn't believe the younger kids running all over the place. We found the exact same situation 4 years ago. They really need to do something about it.

 

[SeaSpray]

Originally posted by Mary Anne
Interesting observation about the teens;\

My 13 year old did very little in the Stack. He too said it was a lot of older kids. I really think they need to seperate the older and younger teens. He spent most of his time shooting hoops or with us.

My 16 year old did spend a lot of time there, but most of it was spent sitting on a stool watching World Cup Hockey and talking Hockey to the CM's in charge. Speaking of the CM's he said two of them were on their last cruise and when it was announced the cruise was going to be longer then normal, they opted out and spent the last 3 days sitting by the pool and in the hot tub so there were only 2 CM's for that group. My son, also wasn't too happy with a lot of the group of teens. To use his words, "Mom, I'm just not hanging with them, they smoke and drink" I think the drinking was when we were in Costa Maya and you can drink at 16 there. My son cannot stand to be even near a smoker, he gets physically ill. He did say he spent most of his time talking to two girls who were quiet and nice.

We didn't see a lot of the kids running around but then again, we kept different hours then many, we were up early and retired after dinner most nights. By 10 pm or so we were in bed. Good it's sad to be old LOL That is until the last night or so when we were up late, and my DH said he couldn't believe the younger kids running all over the place. We found the exact same situation 4 years ago. They really need to do something about it.

Mary Anne: I wonder if our 16 yr olds ever met at the Stack? He gets sick from smoke, too, and can't stand to be around it. I think my 13 yr old son would've enjoyed it more if they were separate from the older teens. While they weren't totally thrilled with the cruise (neither really "loved" it), they made the best of it and said they'd like to cruise again. They liked the cruise itself, but they would've enjoyed it better if they had friends onboard.

 

[SeaSpray]

Originally posted by O'BWV
Terry - Do I know the Peter Pank Diner? Do I ever!! I love the Peter Pank! We would love to meet you guys there on either morning. We are wide open that weekend so we can shore-up which morning works better for you as we get closer to that weekend! Wow, how exciting - thanks for asking us!


-Mary Rose

GREAT!!! I just told DH about this and he's looking forward to seeing you both again, too Do you want to get together with the kids or without? We don't have to decide right now, just let me know.

 

[Mary Anne]

Terry, my oldest loves to cruise but he said he would prefer the next one not to be Disney. He said there is nothing for him to do and there were just too many young kids on it.

To be honest and please don't take what I'm going to say wrong, it's Disney, it's going to be kids, lots of them, some good, some bad and while my DH and I love kids we're not doing Disney again either for that purpose. My kids are older and we want to spend more time together on cruises in quiet places enjoying stuff. Our best meal was up in Topsiders for dinner one night, we were pretty much alone, it was quiet we could enjoy it as a family and we had no kids being pains next to us. (We had a table in the dinning room next to us with three kids who were under the table pulling stuff the entire week. I wanted to bop the parents!)

We also discovered that we enjoyed eating when we wanted and by eating at Topsiders we could eat at 6 or 6:30 or 7 or 7:30. We had looked into ships that had freestyle dinning and didn't think we'd like it but after last week are really looking more at ships that have that kind of eating schedule.

 

[SeaSpray]

Mary Anne: Just tonight my DH was saying that it'll be much nicer cruising as a family once the boys are 18 and we can do things together in the evenings. For example, I know they would've loved the 60's night, with the Charles Marshall band imitating the Beatles. But I totally understand that they want those clubs to be 18+ at night.

 

[Mary Anne]

That it it exactly Terry. We're used to doing things as a family on vacation and this time I really started to miss my kids as there were so many times we weren't together.

 

[Mjasp]

I only saw the kids acting loudly once, when they were all packed in an elevator and got off on deck 5. I saw them holding cigarettes on Deck 5 by the theater, but they weren't lit and they weren't loud. So I guess I have to say I really didn't see any unruly kids either. I guess it was where you were.

I do agree that I think it must be a summer thing, as our last cruise was in May and not many teens and Carol your cruise you did was the very end of August into the first week in September, when Labor day was early so you were cruising the first day of school. I remember that, because I didn't cruise with you for that very reason.

Bobby...I will have to read your trip report tomorrow.

Joanna

 

[Mjasp]

I just looked at the pictures. GREAT PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANKS FOR SHARING

JOANNA

 

[SeaSpray]

Well Bobby's great web site inspired me to get started on my own site. I finally sat down tonight and added a few pages of the cruise to my home page. Here's the link to my home page, I hope you enjoy what I have done so far: http://terry527.home.comcast.net/

 

[MoranClan]

Great photos...

Hopefully I will be done with mine today..It takes too darn long..

Bobby

 

[Hygiene99]

Bobby LOVE Your Attitude.....

and the picture with the Sayying in your post

pictures were awesome...

 

[DARWIN91]

Joanna, I believe our Western Inaugural was a pretty full ship. I remember at the kids show on that cruise the Head of the childrens activities saying there was more than 900 kids on that ship. Now on this trip it was a select group of rowdy ones that I saw regularly. I am sure there were teens on that cruise too - just not as rowdy. Right in the middle of the day while standing on line at guest services a few of them were hanging out in the lobby burping and grabbing themselves. Pathetic

 

[paulinewdw]

My 13 year old hated the stack from the first day(he complanied
about the filthy mouths, smoking etc...) He ended spending most of the time by himself either drawing or at the movies or hanging out with us. MY 10 yo and 7 yo went to the kids clubs and loved them.

We did experience a problem at the Goofy Pool though. We took the younger ones there to swim and stayed with them(adult supervision required!) There were several 11/12 yo boys pushing and shoving at the pool, they were totally out of control! They threw a young girl into the pool and she hit her head...my DH fished her out and I went to get a CM.....we stayed away from the pool after that!

 

[SeaSpray]

Originally posted by paulinewdw
My 13 year old hated the stack from the first day(he complanied
about the filthy mouths, smoking etc...) He ended spending most of the time by himself either drawing or at the movies or hanging out with us. MY 10 yo and 7 yo went to the kids clubs and loved them.

We did experience a problem at the Goofy Pool though. We took the younger ones there to swim and stayed with them(adult supervision required!) There were several 11/12 yo boys pushing and shoving at the pool, they were totally out of control! They threw a young girl into the pool and she hit her head...my DH fished her out and I went to get a CM.....we stayed away from the pool after that!

It's a shame that they allowed ANY kids to smoke in the Stack, I can't believe it, and I think it's a disgrace. I wish we had gotten our 13 yr olds together, Pauline. And I can't believe the behaviour of some of the teens that many of you are describing!! I am sorry this happened and that a lot of you had to deal with it. We never went to the Goofy pool, neither of my DSs wanted to swim there. In fact, the only swimming they did was on Castaway Cay on the first day. I guess we were fortunate that we never encountered any of these problems, but I hate hearing about them anyway.

 

[Mjasp]

Ouch Darwin...Burping and grabbing themselves, DISGUSTING!

As far as the clubs go, my DD8 did NOT enjoy the club, she mostly either hung out with us or went to the arcade, she LOVED the arcade which was OK for us. She is not a sit down and watch a movie kid at 9 at night when on vacation, I guess sort of like we are, as I am not a "watch a movie" person either.

Will get back on later and read trip reports and look at Terry's pics.

Joanna

 

[Mjasp]

For those who used a travel agent for this cruise BUT booked your own air, did the travel agent help you with your air travel changes after we found out we were to be delayed getting back to port.

Just Curious

Joanna