Carousing Kids?

[Corryn]

Hi,
We've got that large group going and we'll have 17 kids 10 and up. The other kids are under ten and cannot be checked out.
Anyway, my question is......Are there a lot of kids carousing?
We have 12 kids in the 10 - 12 range and the other five are 15 & up.
My concern is with our 10 - 12 year olds. They're a good bunch of kids, very responsible. When we go camping they all stick together in a "pack" and have fun together. But when they're not checked into the club, what can they be doing on board?
And if the adults decide to do one of the clubs one night, what is the latest hour these kids can be wandering alone on the ship?
Thanks!

 

[kcashner]

Well, as to the latest the kids can roam the ship....it's like all night.

My teen and a friend explored the ship at 3 am (yes, I am nuts, I gave her a night with no curfew.) She reported that they were "trailed" by a ship's officer. In fact, they even asked him if he was following them...he replied that he was just doing his job, and she ventured a guess that his job was to keep an eye on them. She gave me a detailed report of what happens on deck 9 at night (cleaning, etc.)

As to what they can do on board....movies, family activities (see Navigator), swimming, sports type activities on deck 9, eating (non-stop at the fast food outlets on 9), arcade games, etc. They can basically make their own fun.

We normally travel off season, so there are not huge numbers of school aged kids then. We consider that to be a plus. If your group is responsible, they'll find plenty of things to do. It's more like "there isn't enough time to do all that we want to....."

 

[Mickeyhugger]

kcashner, where have you been? Your input would be appreciated on the 'can kids be left alone in the room' thread. LOL!

 

[zeldacruiser]

They can go in the Goofy pool and hot tubs (but realize there are no lifeguards). They can play pingpong by the pool. They can eat all the pizza and ice cream etc. that they could ever want. They can go to the movies. They can go to the family shows in the nightclub. They can stay up all night as long as they can be pleasant to everyone the next day (recommended rule!). Of course, I'm sure they would also have instructions from you on how to do all this without causing a disturbance for other passengers.

 

[videogal1]

They can go in the Goofy pool and hot tubs (but realize there are no lifeguards). They can play pingpong by the pool. They can eat all the pizza and ice cream etc. that they could ever want. They can go to the movies. They can go to the family shows in the nightclub. They can stay up all night as long as they can be pleasant to everyone the next day (recommended rule!). Of course, I'm sure they would also have instructions from you on how to do all this without causing a disturbance for other passengers.

..and they do, indeed make their own fun...running up and down the stairs in the aft areas, punching all the buttons in the elevators playing tag up and down the corridors at 11PM...do I sound like I've actually seen this happening? Yep...Some kids actually do take advantage of the unstructured atmosphere...You always know who they are, though. They're the ones who say they don't know where their parents are when confronted by a grouchy adult passenger.
Fire away...

 

[zeldacruiser]

Videogal1, I'm totally with you on that! If they are causing a disturbance, the freedom should go away immediately. (And I should clarify that I drifted off to teenland with the "stay up all night" thing - can't really imagine letting a 10-year-old do that.)

 

[Corryn]

Thanks for the replies....
MickeyHugger, that's where I got the idea for this thread......

We're pretty good parents. We try to be fair to the kids but also make sure the kids don't embarrass us nor cause aggravation to other people. My kids are aware that this trip is not cheap, and everyone else on the ship is also paying to take a wonderful cruise and they should be not be aggravated...

I am sure the Dad's will get together and read the kids the riot act beforehand, of course including the death threat if they're bad.....
(I'll have my own riot act speech to give..)
I just didn't know what to expect because that's the one thing I haven't read on this board. I am glad to hear that there is plenty for the kids to do, even if they're not in the kids' clubs. But if anyone has anything else to add, please do!


Videogal1 Boogie Queen, that's so funny! That will be on my: "Do This And Your Behind is Grass List"!

 

[Hollyster2]

I would hope that any parents who are aware that their kids are running up and down the halls and knocking on doors and punching elevator buttons until the wee hours would stop it in it's tracks! We witnessed alot of this going on during our last cruise. My MIL still is worried it will occur again. That really has been our only complaint on DCL. Oh, and dripping wet kids running in and out of the elevators is a bit scarey too! We saw quite a few fall, not to mention the danger to the non swimming elevator passengers. I am all for the kids having the time of their lives, but I think they should have a few limits.

 

[Hollyster2]

I wanted to add that we are bringing a big bunch of kids with us too, and will be giving them the "be considerate of other passengers speech". On our first Disney Cruise, we saw one child fall in a wet elevator , actually in the doorway of it. Poor thing was carried off by a sibling crying her lungs out. Of course there was an attendant right at their heels, so that is a good thing.

 

[FlynnStone]

My 12yo had plenty of freedom. The only rules were: 1. be back at the room by 5:30 to dress for dinner and 2. 1am curfew (plenty late, considering we "old" folks can't sleep when one of our kids is gone...). Whenever he went to a different location of the ship, he had to go into our room, and write the time and where he was going in a "log book" (we all did that, was an easy way to figure out where everyone was at any given time...).

He really enjoyed hanging out with his new friends. Sometimes they were in The Stack, sometimes at a movie, sometimes by the pool, and a LOT of the time on the Sports Deck.

My 12yo felt to "old" for the 10-12 group - he fit in much better with the 13-15 crowd at the stack. He is so tall and mature, they never even questioned him (in fact, when I tried to sign him up for the 10-12 group, they tried to send me to the Teen Group, until I insisted he was only 12...).

 

[Tigger&Belle]

This is interesting reading. One of my concerns as a parent is that I won't get to sleep until all of my kids are in their room, meaning that I won't get enough sleep. Of course if they have a room across the hall then I won't know if they are in unless I physically go check.

I like the idea of a 1am curfew--that is plenty late. I also relaly like the idea of a log book. I hope that my kids would actually remember to go to the room and use it--I guess if they don't then we'd have to get more restrictive. Is there some sort of onboard intercom in case I really needed to get in touch with my kids and couldn't find them?

If I found out my kids were involved with racing up and down hallways or doing other things to obviously annoy even the most rational guest then their head would be on the chopping block. Not cool. I would be more afraid of teenage hormones taking control, but I'm assuming that there are not onboard places for teens to do more than basic necking.

Ahhh, the teen years are so much fun!

T&B

 

[geffric]

FlynnStone]My 12yo had plenty of freedom. The only rules were: 1. be back at the room by 5:30 to dress for dinner and 2. 1am curfew Our kids had to join us for dinner too. Then our 11 year old was allowed a 1 am and the 13 year old a 2 am curfew, it seemed that most other kids on the ship had those curfews too..


( Whenever he went to a different location of the ship, he had to go into our room, and write the time and where he was going in a "log book" (we all did that, was an easy way to figure out where everyone was at any given time...). We had talk abouts and whenever the kids changed locations they had to call us and let us know .. or they lost the priviledge of the freedom to hang with their friends.

He really enjoyed hanging out with his new friends. Sometimes they were in The Stack, sometimes at a movie, sometimes by the pool, and a LOT of the time on the Sports Deck.

YEP Lots of time on the sports deck and eating pizza, and ice cream ..

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Is there some sort of onboard intercom in case I really needed to get in touch with my kids and couldn't find them?

Walkie talkies work great on the ship.

 

[jrabbit]

I also relaly like the idea of a log book. I hope that my kids would actually remember to go to the room and use it

Your stateroom phone has voice mail so they should be able to update you on it too.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Your stateroom phone has voice mail so they should be able to update you on it too.

Are there phones around the ship that would allow the teen to call the parent's cabin phone and leave a message as to their location? We do have the walkie talkies, but only 2 of them. I suppose if I got two more, for my extra 2 teens, we'd be in good shape. We've never really used them much because we're used to using cell phones to keep in touch.

Ugh, a 2pm curfew for the teen? I'd be so wiped out the next day--do you all go to sleep when the teens are out or are you able to stay awake that late?

T&B

 

[tkd lisa]

I caught my child doing the elevator thing on something like day 8 or 9 of our 10 day trip (yep Lynda - videogal was with us when he did it!) I hopped off at the next floor and caught him and his little buddy. Boy was he read the riot act. The other little boy too! I went into a few more details in my trip report if anyone's interested. It's still on the board. Anyway, it never happened again.

My DS was 11 1/2 on the trip. He did spend quite a bit of time in the clubs, but by about halfway through the trip, he had found a couple of buddies, and they liked to check out to go around the ship. They visited the movies, went to scoops for some of the bottomless ice cream, hung out on beat street playing gameboys (there are some big portholes there to lay in), went to the pools, played on the sports deck, hung out at the arcade (even without arcade cards, DS spent a lot of time there), etc.

The last 2 cruises, the kids had dinner with us almost every night. This cruise, DS in particular really wasn't interested. He ate with us maybe 3 times: 1st night, the Animator's Palate show night, and Christmas night. He came to the dining room probably 3 more times, and left after appetizers. We finally quit fighting about it, since it was his vacation too. I think he just wasn't willing to spend that length of time at dinner, since he doesn't really eat very much. He was happier grabbing some pizza and scoops.

 

[magicplace4me]

I guess I am really naive. We are planning our first cruise & my sons will be 9 & 11 when we sail. I pictured them BOTH happily in the kids clubs unless they were with us! A 1 AM curfew? The attendants won't have to worry - I'd be following him around well before then!

Help. Do I need a reality check?

 

[inkkognito]

In 42 Disney cruises, we've probably witnessed just about everything possible. Happily, most of it has been positive. Hubby likes to wander the decks late at night, and he often sees older kids but they're generally well behaved (or at least as much as you might expect on vacation). I hate the running in the halls stuff, but that's why I love 5650. It's so far back that nobody ventures all the way back there, not even the rowdy kids (except once, and they left before I could shag them off).
But we've seen the flipside, too, with the worst being someone shattering the basketball rim. We saw it on the deck cam in our stateroom! We also witnessed some wild running that was stopped by a ship's officer.
All in all, it depends on your kid. Personally, when I was a teen, I know I would have loved staying out until all hours. Let them have some fun, but make sure they know to be respectful of fellow passengers. There are plenty of places to have fun without disturbing others.
Barb

 

[Grumbo]

What would of these threads be without the obligatory rant about the bands of elevator button pushing desperados skulking, and hanging about the Wonder and Magic

Here is an interesting article in today's Toronto Star which touches on this subject.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...geid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1107862241326

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[Disneyfamfan]

We are taking our first cruise ever on March 17, and I am surprised at the ages of the children who are given free reign in the ships. My DD is 11 and I will know where she is at all times and with whom. Maybe I am overprotective, but this really surprises me! We are really looking forward to this trip and we want to enjoy it with our DD with us unless she is in the Lab, but like I said this is our first cruise, maybe if we were more seasoned I would be singing a different tune.