Did anyone else notice....

[moinab]

Just got back from the July 17 cruise. The second night of the cruise, I was at guest services at 1 AM. A boy came up to the counter. He must have been ten, but he looked more like 8 to me. His mother was supposed to pick him up at the kids club, but never showed. They had paged her repeatedly. He went to his stateroom twice and knocked on the door, but nobody answered. While he was talking to my friend Baxter at guest services, another CM came out from the back room and was shocked he was still there. Apparently, she had tried to help him much earlier. Finally, Baxter called the room and got a hold of the father, who said to send the kid to the room. I was in tears. I felt so bad for this poor child. Did I mention it was 1 AM?!?!?!

 

[Buckaroo's Dad]

His mother was supposed to pick him up at the kids club, but never showed. They had paged her repeatedly. He went to his stateroom twice and knocked on the door, but nobody answered.

moinab - at this juncture, DCL security should have been alerted.

Finally, Baxter called the room and got a hold of the father, who said to send the kid to the room.

There is no way I would return the child to his "family" by this time. The parents should have been arrested and turned over to American authorities at the first US port of call. DCL security could then interrogate the child abusers and provide a complete report for the police.

 

[Scratch42]

Don't forget, DCL is one of the same, that allow underage kids to sign themselves out of the clubs!

DCL's parenting skills are lacking also!

I for one was shocked when I was paged to pick up my child and before the page was even read, there she was standing outside the theatre waiting for me! This was after I had told them that I was to pick her up there! She left because she was not feeling well and knew where to find me ( she was 11 but still ) I guess they did not want to deal with her illness! Now after reading these other posts. It's just shocking!

And these parents that "Forget their children are in the car" or leave them for a few minutes while they go inside, should be shot! No, ifs, ands, or buts!

I could go on but won't, it's a very sore subject with me!

You had the children, be responsible for them! They are our future!

Scratch

 

[mmouse37]

DCL security is onboard and they do a wonderful job. One time our "across the hall neighbor" was being abusive to a family member of his who came to check on the man's son (the guy was drunk all week and the woman wanted to take the boy to stay in her cabin for safety reasons. The father went beserk and the the woman came tearing across the hall and started pounding on our door. Our DD16 was in the cabin and let the woman and boy in to get away from the nut. DD called security and they were there within 90 seconds. They removed the jerk from his cabin and basically put him under house arrest in some other cabin for the remainder of the cruise. This was the same guy we saw all week walking around drunk and he was sharing the cabin with his 3 year old son. The mom was not even on the trip. It was a disgrace but DCL handled it very well.

The woman was so thankful.

MJ

 

[rae519]

MJ - thanks for that story - it's a shame that these things happen, but I'm glad to know DCL security is there!

BD - I'm with you, partner, on that one - abuse is abuse!

Rae

 

[piglet33]

Don't people realize that it takes only a split second for something to happen? A stranger needs just one second to entice a child somewhere. It could be a bathroom or even back to that person's room. Anything can happen when you leave a child alone. People don't realize the seriousness of all this unless it happens to them. I know Disney is a family place, but bad things can happen anywhere. What if the child fell in the pool and couldn't get out? It's just horrible.

On the other note, a good smack on the butt never hurt anyone. My parents did that to me and my sister, and we're still here. We learned that if we did something wrong, then we got punished. If we didn't want to get punished, then we thought twice about what we were doing.

I also had to call 911 on someone. I was in a parking lot and this guy was screaming at and hitting this little boy. He shoved him in a van and jumped in. Then I heard the little boy scream. The guy got out, and jumped in the driver's seat and took off. The guy wound up getting pulled over and was "talked to". Like that did any good.

Rae - I just read the website about your daughter. I am very sorry for your loss. I can't even imagine what you must have and are still going through.

I know this isn't on the topic, but people leave their pets in cars too. That makes me mad too. I would love to put those people in parked cars without any ventilation to see how they like it. I know people don't feel the same way that I do about this, but hey my pets are my children and I treat them the same way I do my daughter.

My husband was at our post office when a woman locked her keys in her car with her dog in the backseat too. She was so stupid that she called the cops to see if they could break in for her. Well she wound up getting a ticket for animal endangerment plus having the officer break her window to open her car. He told her she had 10 minutes to get a locksmith or he'd break the window. She didn't know what the big deal was. After all, it was only her dog. When my husband told me that I wished I'd been there so I could hit her. Some people don't deserve pets or children. Too bad there isn't a test for people to take to see if they're qualified to have them.

Sorry for the long rant.

Renee'

 

[S. C.]

Scratch

Did any of the counselers say WHY they let your child out before you got there?

We were on the wonder a few weeks ago. Our 10 yr old grandson was not happy with us that we would not give him sign out privliges, It's not that we don't trust him. it is exactly what everyone says here you never know when there is a sicko lurking and we wasn't about to have him walking around by himself.
The counselers were very good about paging us and we had to give the pass word before we could check him out.

when they had the kids playing on the slide and splash pool GS came out of the marked off area to talk to us and was told by a counseler that he was not signed out and had to stay over there with them.

We went one night to sign GS out of the kids club at midnight and all the other kids were signing themselves out and no parents were in site.

 

[midnitemist]

AMEN TO ALL!! THIS IS CHILD ABUSE!! Neglecting your kids.

THis is also a very sore subject for me. It just kills me to see people ignore/abuse their kids. I can't have children and there are times I see people at restaurants/DCL, etc let there kids wonder around by themselves. I think how can these people have kids when they don't deserve this precious gift from God.

When I was growing up my mom swatted my butt a few times and I thought it was child abuse. But now that I am 35 yrs old, I am glad she did. It taught me right from wrong. Also, that my mom loved me enough to spank me when I needed it. You spank a child today and you have child protective services all over you.
There is a difference between discipline and abuse.


Ok, I will stop, otherwise I will be on a rampage all day.

 

[midnitemist]

Another thing I just remembered.

DCL allows people under the age of 18 to get off the ship by themselves if parents sign the permission form.

Who in there right mind is going to let any child under 18 to get off the ship by themselves in a foreign port.


I had three 17yr olds on my first cruise 3 yrs ago.
I wouldnt let them off the ship without my boyfriend or me.
Now maybe I was wrong, by some people standards. But we were in foreign areas and they were not getting off that ship without us.
I try not to get off the ship without my boyfriend. I do not know these ports, what is a safe area or not.

 

[Scratch42]

S.C. - I was in shock to see her standing there then my instincts told me to get her right back to the stateroom. I've seen that look on her before. I was hoping if I got her into bed right away that everything would be okay. But things just went from bad to worse. We spent the next two days and nights in our stateroom.

I won't go into details but luckily by CC day she was able to get up and we went out.

I asked her today how she managed to go and she told me she just walked out! All she wanted was her mommy!

When I returned the pager the only thing on my mind was how I was gonna get her home since we did not have a direct flight and she was still a bit green.

Even now she is saying how she does not want to do the club when we go back in January. But I told her it will be another ball game and this time no "Tube Steaks" (HotDogs).

Midnitemist - I would not do it either, you were right to not let them on their own. Better to ere on the side of caution than to have something happen!

Scratch

 

[rae519]

When I was 21, I was stationed in South Korea - and for two weeks I stayed on the base because I was afraid to go through the gates into that "foreign country". After the first trip, I was fine, but still.......I didn't go down alone! EVER!

Times sure do change - and now always for the better,

Rae

 

[Moosysmom]

In March, I didn't see any of the little, little ones roaming the boat alone, but I would have taken them to guest services right away. We had alot of young teens, 12 and 13 yo that were roaming, playing on the elevators, with not parent's in sight.
Rae, I'm glad you called 911. That mother deserved it. This weekend in Tampa area a child was reported missing. The parents had met this man at church, and thought it would be okay for him to spend time with their child. Turns out he was a transient and they found him and the child at the bus depot I think.
When I was younger we could only spend time in the company of adults that my parents knew very well. Relatives and neighbors and that was it. It became worse after we had a construction company building our garage and one of the workers came over to where my sister and I were playing in the sandbox, and started talking to us. It became worse, and without all the details, my sister and I went to our mom because she always told us to if something happened that we didn't like. My parents pressed charges and although my sister and I had to go to court to identify the man, he was charged and served jail time. This was in the middle 60's and very unheard of and kept hush hush at the time. I've never been able to understand how parents cannot always know where their kids are especially on a big boat where they have no idea who could be on the boat.
Sorry this got so long.
Lynn

 

[trishy]

DCL has no policy on unsupervised kids. This is the biggest downfall I see on cruising DCL. In fact, we advise our friends who are not travelling with kids to NOT cruise DCL because of this. I've written letters to DCL about my own personal dissatisfaction about this. I dont allow my kids to have the sign out privilege even at age 10-12. The counselor will give you a mildly hard time about it, but if you stick to your beliefs they will give in. This last trip was a struggle with my 10 yr. old who felt out of place since "...so many of the kids, even younger ones, have sign out privilege mommmm..." Oh well, so what. It is my very strong, firm belief children under 13 should NOT have sign out privilege and I've stated it many, many, many times before and directly to DCL. Now if there is a problem on the ship pertaining to one of these unsupervised children, the ship's policy is to locate the parent and that's that. Nothing further. Matters not that harm may have been done in one way or another. Matters not that some little turd ruined another vacationer's experience with their little tirade in the Walt Disney Theater during a show. Matters not that these kids are causing a rukus in the stairwells. As long as DCL already has their money and the family is continuing to chaching their way into a high-billing stateroom account, they do not care. The argument of whether the parents are to blame is elementary - of course they are to blame. However, I feel it is DCL's DUTY to penalize these negligent parents in some way that hurts them - monetary fines for unsupervised kids. First, however, they need to abandon their policy of encouraging unsupervised kids on the ship.

 

[Jeanny]

Originally posted by Tracie Wallace
You mean like:

c) don't leave them alone when they're under 12 years of age

Gee times have certainly changed....I was babysitting 3 & 4 kids at a time when I was 12.... Nowadays, I wouldn't leave a 12 year old alone. What with all the kooks and weirdo's in this world, I'm sometimes scared to be alone!!!

Jeanny

 

[Buckaroo's Dad]

Hey Rae.

Times sure do change - and now always for the better,

I guess you DO look a little bit like Pollyanna!

I didn't go down alone! EVER!

Nevermind...

 

[Rootee]

I didn't notice any little ones left unattended when we cruised (and if I had, I would definitely had called it to a CM's attention and then would have waited to see the situation resolved.) However, I did notice an incidence that really put a sour note on our otherwise wonderful Captain Marvin's excursion in Grand Cayman.

There was another family from the Magic with 2 or 3 children when we got on the boat at Captain Marvin's. One of the boys - maybe around 9 - was trying to adjust his snorkle strap by himself. He asked his father who ignored him. Then his mom took it from him and disgustedly told him he had broken it. She then said "that's it - no snorkling for you" and then all of a sudden, his father yelled "That's it - we are sick of you - we don't even want you to be a member of our family any more!!" The boy was told to sit on another level of the boat by himself and didn't make eye contact or do any snorkling, etc for the rest of the day. Most of the time he was just sobbing quietly to himself. The rest of his family just ignored him.

I had to beg my husband not to "have it out with that jerk" (the boy's father) but he was certainly ready to do it!

So obviously verbal and emotional abuse can also be very detrimental to children. But I do want to state that I have two very disciplined children, one who successfully made it through her teens giving us no problems whatsoever, and another who is now 17 and a joy - neither of whom was ever spanked. I just wanted to say that it is possible to NOT spank and still have very respectful and well-behaved children who do know right from wrong!.

Ruth

 

[Jeanny]

ohmigod Ruth~ I can just imagine the emotional scars that poor little boy is going to grow up with, because you KNOW it's not the first time the parents have spoken to him like that. I can't understand that type of verbal abuse... The parents think just because they're not physically abusing their children , that they're not abusing them at all?? Verbal abuse is still abuse. That was just plain wrong. NO child deserves that!! and those people on that boat certainly do not deserve children!!

Jeanny

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by rae519
...
THIS IS CHILD ABUSE.
And if anyone wants to "set me straight" about what "child abuse is or isn't" - go ahead.
I will not debate this issue.
Rae

No debate here...I completely agree with you. How sad for that poor child.

 

[lisak1]

how horrible. Even if the parents yelled at or reprimanded me, I like to think I would have tried to comfort that little boy.... it would have just ruined my whole day, there's no way i would have been able to enjoy myself after witnessing that.

what a terrible story.

 

[christinou]

My 2 DDs are 6 and 8, and I could not even imagine giving my 8 year old signing out priviledges, this is just too young, I certainly would not leave home alone, in her home house, why would I let her roam around a ship that she does not know, with 3000 people that I do not know.......