Is it safe????

[mrsltg]

To leave a 3 year old on the ship (in the children's club, of course)while you go on a shore excursion? Dh and I are nervous about the idea of leaving our DD on board while we're off the ship. Has anyone done this? Anything you can say to ease my nerves?


Thanks-
Erin

 

[BBB Family]

I can't say that I would personally do that. I could be wrong, but I don't think they would be able to contact you if they needed to. More specifically, I don't know the "range" of the parental beepers that they give out.

I think it also depends on the length of the shore excursion. I might entertain the idea if I knew they could reach me and it was easy for me to get back to my child in the event of an unforseen circumstance.

But perhaps I'm a little control freak...I'm the mother of three probably over-protected boys.

 

[mrsltg]

That's kind of how I was leaning! I don't think it's overprotective. Believe me, I have visions of watching the ship sail away with my my DD aboard because DH and I were somehow detained!


Thanks for the opinion!!!

Erin

 

[BBB Family]

You should go with your mother's instinct since it is apparent you have one. I have met some mothers who are missing there's (either that or they left it at home)!

I'm sure it will all work out. You know what they say -- they grow up fast. Who knows, there will probably be a day (like when you're on your 10th Disney cruise) that your DD won't care! She'll wish her mom and pop well on their excursion because she's having fun meeting boys in Common Grounds...OPPS, probably the wrong analogy but you get the jest! The moments go by so often unseized and unnoticed. Boo Hoo.

 

[DopeyRN]

That's a toughie. I have 3 boys(20,17 and 11, so i am a veteran mom) and I am not an "over protective" mom...and thankfully they are all still here. I know some ladies at work who have kids in daycare across the lake where they live, so in an emergency they are at least 40 minutes away. Yet nobody questions their amount of caring for their children.

I also believe that Disney is careful with kids. Of course, all accidents cannot be prevented.

For me it would depend on the child...would she care if you were not there? Does she make friends easily? Would she have a better time in the clubs than on the excursion?

In the end, you need to do what you are comfortable with.

 

[TnRobin]

I agree it should be on a child by child basis.

We left Matt at age 4, but we made sure he was comfortable with the club before we made reservations for an excursion. In addition, we did only a short excursion (2 hours). I don't think I would have left him for one of those all day excursions. As soon as we returned we then took him off the ship for his own little trip.

 

[DARWIN91]

We took my daughter (4) on an excursion to St. John but when we got back to the ship, we decided to put her into the kids club and go shopping in St.Thomas for about 1-1 1/2 hrs. I did not think she would be too happy walking around town. I thought before the trip that I would never do that but she loved the club so much and I felt very comfortable once we were on the ship a few days. I let them know that we were going into town for a little shopping.

 

[vstitt]

We left our kids in the clubs while we had dinner in Key West on evening #2 of our 7-day western cruise. Our DD5 (in the 5-7 age group) wasn't happy in the high kid:counselor ratio of the club (her pre-school has a much higher teacher:kid ratio). So, just as we were seated for dinner they paged us--so the pager worked. We called (cell phone worked just fine in Key West) and calmed her down a bit and explained to her we would pick her up when dinner was finished. She was O.K. with that.

VS

PS - I feel the counselors have their hands so full with the large number of kids that they don't have the time to hand-hold kids who are timid in this environment. Our daughter had us paged four out of five times we had her in the club for 2-5 hours. Her older brother DS8 was just fine in his 8-9 age group.

 

[mrsltg]

Thanks, everyone for all of the responses. Dierdre will be just turning three on the third day of the cruise (I will obviously NOT be leaving her anywhere on her birthday!), and I think that she may be just too young at that point. She is a "daycare baby", so I think she'll do fine for a few hours here and there, but I really think that I'd be uncomfortable leaving her behind while I was off the ship.


Thanks again!

Erin

 

[westjones]

I wouldn't leave her at this age. Actually, I am not comfortable leaving my kids on the ship alone anyway (and they will be turning 9 this year--twins). We use the kids club while on the ship, but we don't leave the girls alone.

It is nice to be able to go to Palos or to other Adult planned activities on the ship for an hour or so while the kids enjoy the Club programming. But we picked the activities we thought they would enjoy and only had them go to the club during those sessions. One of my twins loves the club and the other prefers to be with us. Sometimes we have just one girl in the club and the other is with us.
DJ

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Originally posted by vstitt

Just as we were seated for dinner they paged us--so the pager worked. We called (cell phone worked just fine in Key West) and calmed her down a bit and explained to her we would pick her up when dinner was finished. She was O.K. with that.

How did you call her onboard the ship? Did you have a # for a cell phone in the Club? Did you pay the high shore-to-ship rates? If so, how did you get the call transferred into the Club? Did the Club leave you with a contact # if you were paged while you were off-ship?

 

[LarryC]

Originally posted by BBB Family
.... More specifically, I don't know the "range" of the parental beepers that they give out......

Pager signals are sent via satellite - no worries on range.

 

[DL_DCA_fans]

Is the satellite system for the Oceaneer's Club/Lab pagers new? I thought when we went last time that we were told they would work anywhere on the ship only. Also, according to another post, one mom wrote that she had left the ship and after she returned, she received a page from the Club/Lab that her child had wanted to be picked up an hour earlier. They had tried to page her, but the message wasn't received until she was back on board. Just wondering if things had changed recently.

 

[vstitt]

As I understand it, paging systems have a satellite and terrestrial component. So, you are still at the mercy of land-based transmission systems and local paging company owners. So, I suspect the reason they were able to page us in Key West is because we were a) docked in the U.S., b) close proximity to a terrestrial paging transmission tower. I wouldn't assume that paging would work at other ports of call. However, our AT&T wireless cell phone did work in Cozomel. Paging system and wireless/cellular system coverage is one of those great mysteries, you can only be certain it works by testing it out.

Regarding cost: we don't know yet what we will be billed for our call to the Oceaneer's club. We were given a direct phone number to call, but I haven't seen the bill yet.

VS