Caution: Stateroom doors and Young Kids. (long)

[cindy_k]

Hiya!

I am currently sailing on the Magic, and I wanted to post a little warning for those with young children.

I was up early this morning. At 6:15a, my father and I left our stateroom on Deck 6 to go up to Deck 9 to see Sunrise and get Coffee.

As I left my room I looked down the hall and saw a little girl standing there, in front of a stateroom door. I waited a minute or two to see if someone was going to open a door and collect her. Since I felt she was too little to be standing there alone.

When no one did, I approached her. She was a scared and lost little two year old. I took her by the hand and and we went towards the elevator,looking for a crew member, I tried to get some information from her. She didn't have enough language other than to tell me her first name (Alyssa), her age(2) and that she was looking for Mommy.

We saw a crew member near the elevator and he asked us to take her to Guest Services. We did that and the castmembers at the desk found her in the computer based on a mispronounced first name and her age. Her name was actually Calissa and she came from DECK 2!

That cute little girl woke up before her Grandma, and opened her own stateroom door, and went looking for Mommy. WOW!!
A castmember at the desk took Calissa from me, to take back to Grandma, after they called the room to confirm that was where she had come from. Alls well that ends well.

The Magic does NOT have chains on the stateroom doors. I cannot see anyway other than setting something infront of the door, that would have prevented Calissa from taking her little journey.

So that's my tale and story of caution.
Have Fun and be Safe out there!

Cindy (currently at Key West on the Magic) normally in NY

 

[ThreeCircles]

Originally posted by cindy_k
The Magic does NOT have chains on the stateroom doors. I cannot see anyway other than setting something infront of the door, that would have prevented Calissa from taking her little journey.

The ship's stateroom doors do not have chains but they do have interior deadbolt locks if I'm not mistaken.

The lock is located at about mid-chest level and would be way too high for most young children to reach.

 

[ducklite]

If you have little ones you could buy some large jingle bells at a craft shop and hang them by a ribbon from the door knob.

Anne

 

[CRB#33]

Originally posted by ducklite
If you have little ones you could buy some large jingle bells at a craft shop and hang them by a ribbon from the door knob.

Anne

It works too! That's what I would do on Christmas Eve when the kids were little. As I was putting things under the tree, I would have plenty of warning when the little ones got too curious

 

[tvguy]

Wow, strong kid. Those doors are very heavy.

 

[kristen821]

Thank you so much for this post. My daughter will be 2 1/2 when we cruise and i wouldn't have thought of that. I appreciate it a lot! It is so easy for something like that to happen. I am sure that grandmother feels horrible.

 

[HappyMommy2]

Thanks so much for the warning (and for helping that little girl find her family)!

We too will have very small but very clever young children with us on our cruise, and I never would have thought that the staterooms wouldn't have the chains we rely on for extra safety in hotel rooms! Anne, the jingle bells are a fabulous idea and I think I'll be bringing some with us!

 

[ptlycloudy]

Small rubber door stops wedged under the door, work well also.

 

[4nana]

Thanks! Very scary! Our door took a lot of pressure to push open. I cannot imagine a 2 yo opening a heavy metal door.

~ Sandie

 

[KennyK]

Hi All,

I"mCindyk's Dad, and I was wityh her when we found that young tot. Just a note that the dead bolts are below the door handles so, I doubt that would have stopped her and I do believe they retract when the inside handle is turned. You know safety first for exiting a pasenger room.

Anyway as she said all end well.

kennyk

Live from the Magic in key West. Sunny and warm on Easter Sunday.

 

[disneyme]

My 1 1/2 year old had no trouble opening the door as well. The lock opens as soon as you turn the handle. We put our luggage in front of the door our first trip. The second trip we did use a doorstop. They really need those top flip locks like hotels use.

 

[KyBuckeye]

If you look in a travel catalogue or web site you will find a portable deadbolt type lock that would work on just about any door. We bought one when we traveled to Russia several years ago for an adoption and were unsure of the hotel conditions we would find. They aren't expensive and can be placed anywhere on the door so it would be easy to put it up high enough to be out of children's reach. After reading about this experience I will definately be digging ours out before our October cruise!!

 

[gottaluvdisney]

I am thinking that the doors are like that for a reason, such as a fire safety - If you have a bolt accross the door, the fire team would not be able to enter your room too easily - just a guess on my part.

I also think the doors were pretty heavy.

Glad to hear that the child found their way back. I am thinking this doesn't happen too often, but when it does, I am sure it is quite frightening.

 

[mkymouse4ever]

just curious,

why didn't the "found" cm take the little one to guest services, themselves? I'm very sure you are friendly, family etc... BUT shouldn't that be there place? I think you did the right thing looking for the 1st cm to be found. Of course I'm still waiting for my 1st cruise, (don't know how things are run on board, but it's the pediatric nurse coming out in me.

MKY

 

[cindy_k]

Originally posted by mkymouse4ever
just curious,

why didn't the "found" cm take the little one to guest services, themselves? I'm very sure you are friendly, family etc... BUT shouldn't that be there place? I think you did the right thing looking for the 1st cm to be found. Of course I'm still waiting for my 1st cruise, (don't know how things are run on board, but it's the pediatric nurse coming out in me.

MKY

I thought that was a little strange myself but by then I had the little girl in my arms and the CM was a young man and one of the maintenence ones. They don't normally interact much with guests.
From the expression on his face, I think he was a little concerned about taking the obviously frightened little girl from the arms of a woman who was holding her comfortingly.

I didn't mind. She was scared and shaking, the poor thing. I'm just glad she was returned safely.

He did move quickly to get us an elevator.

Cindy at sea.

 

[lbgraves]

I got chills reading your post. Thank goodness you found that little girl. It makes perfect sense to me that the maintenance CM didn't take the girl from you, but I would think that he would have escorted you to guest services. This is definantly one reason for them to put wristbands on ALL children. She obviously was too young for the club but I didn't know that the ones in flounders didn't get the bands to use. My DD was just a little over 3 yo when we cruised & she could open the stateroom door very easily. We had to distract her several times. She can now unlock the deadbolt on our front door so I'm sure she wouldn't have a problem escaping next time. I am hoping that she will have matured a little more by 12/4 to listen to us about that more.

 

[tink5697]

As I read through this thread, I kept wondering...How long did this whole thing take place? Like where was someone looking for her? I know she traveled from Deck 2, but I would have been yelling so loud that you would have heard me on every deck if my 2 year old was lost!

 

[Zandy595]

tink5697 ~ I believe Cindy said the little girl's grandmother was still sleeping, so no one even knew she was gone, yet.

 

[tink5697]

Thanks for the clarification Sandy! My eyes went directly to the 2 year old gone and I didn't read the sentence before!

 

[piglet33]

I know I will be buying one of those portable lock things for our stateroom door. I don't want to lose my 2 year old DD. I can't even imagine how I would react if she wasn't in the room when I woke up.

One other thing that I was wondering about. Once she opened the door and walked out of the room, did she hold the door to keep it from banging shut? I know our door would slam shut very loudly if I didn't slow it down when shutting it. Interesting that Grandma didn't hear the door slam.....