Childcare: Leaving Kids on Ship While Parents are in Port?

[catjammies]

How do you feel about leaving kids in the club, while parents do, say, a sunset cruise???

Suppose they had to beep you & here you'd be out in the water far away.....????????????

 

[aprilgail2]

The beepers would not reach that far.....but on another cruise we did leave the kids in the kids club and go off the ship for 3 hours and they were fine.

 

[kidzmom3]

I personally don't like it. Even at home, I would not go out on a boat while my children were with a babysitter. I just think a lot can happen when you involve water. I do realize that anything could happen to us, at any time, in any scenario, but this is one situation that I just choose not to involve myself in.

 

[Michelle]

My daughter is nine and I would have no problems leaving her in the programming for a few hours while I was in port. I wouldn't do an all-day excursion, but for a few hours, absolutely. She has NEVER wanted to leave the club, so I know that's not a problem, and the counselors are trained for any emergency.

With younger kids who may want to leave the clubs, I'd be a little more hesitant about leaving them in the programming while on an excursion. Parents know their kids best.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

Michelle - would you definately make sure DD was in the Lab the entire time you were off the ship? We're planning on letting DS10 roam deck 5 - Lab, our room, movie theatre - when we're also on the ship. However, I think if DH & I were to go off the ship I would feel much better having him in someone's care.

 

[trishy]

Cat,
The staff is so amazing in those clubs. I would definitely let the kids hang out in the club/lab for the duration of your excursion. I would recommend letting the check-in counselor know where you'll be so they don't keep sending needless pages and also to let them know if something happens and the kids wanted to leave they need to find some sort of distraction for a while longer. I definitely would not advise this for timid children who don't feel comfortable without mom or dad. There's a big difference between children that can't let go of their parents and kids that might just want a break from the club for a little while. I totally wouldn't let my older ones have roam of the ship or deck while I was off the boat though - now we're talking high risk. A 14 yr. old jumped off our ship last year while we were in port.

 

[Lrnl80]

Catjammies,
My DD(8) has already informed me that she will not be going on any of the Island excursions. We did the 3 day Wonder a couple of years ago, and she opted to stay on board at that time as well. So I booked a tour for my husband and I on St. Marteen, and am still undecided about St. Thomas. The clubs are such entertainment for her, that I may have to fight for a little family time! We had a blast at Castaway Cay, they have alot of family activities scheduled there.

Laurie

 

[Michelle]

Barb, ABSOLUTELY! My DD will not have sign in/sign out privileges and I would not leave her on the ship if she did unless she were a teen. That WOULD make me nervous!

 

[KaitlinsMom]

trishy -

Oh my gosh - A 14 yr jumped ship? Is she OK? - That is a drastic way to get attention - Just wondering what happened and if she OK -

Karen

 

[Lizardbeth61]

. . . or am I? Our daughter will still be 9 when we go and can technically be allowed to sign herself in or out of the club, but I don't feel comfortable with that. Even if she's responsible and even if I feel like anyone on a Disney ship is safe . . . that's being naive. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who will be playing mother hen! Fortunately she's not easily embarrassed yet, but being around Mom & Dad.

 

[mog]

I don't think you're being overprotective! My son was 9 on our last cruise and will be 10 on our next one and he did not and will not have sign out privileges for himself. We always planned ahead for what time he wanted us to check him out or he could have us paged if he wanted to leave (which by the way NEVER happened - we had to drag him out of there at 11pm every night!). I just think that is too young to be roaming the ship. I feel much better knowing where he is!
We were even traveling with friends whose son (same age as ours) was allowed check out privileges and my son did not mind at all that he wasn't allowed to check himself out.

 

[Lizardbeth61]

Isn't it funny, but that Disney Cruise ad where the little girl is making plans with her parents is so true. We were on the 4-night last year with our kids and we were tired, but had to keep finding things to do to keep us awake until we could pry the kids out of the club! Wow. Reading everything from everyone is so much fun. I can't wait until our next trip 2/1/03. Good for our kids too who don't mind having Mom & Dad keep a tighter reign.

 

[mog]

Lizardbeth,
Well, what do you know - you're on the same cruise as we are! February 1st - here we come! We did the 7 day Eastern in December 2001 and can't wait to go again! My son was so disgusted with me on the last one because I was so tired. He keeps asking me if I'm going to be able to stay awake later on this cruise so he can stay in the lab longer!!