Kids in club while Mom and Dad do excursion?

[cantsitstill]

Is this possible? I know the pagers won't reach us on the island, so is this a no-go?

 

[TheWog]

Depends on your children. How old they are, how they do not being near you periods of time. People have done it and we actually left our DS6 on the ship and went into St. Thomas. Not an excursion, but he didn't want to shop. So he stayed on board in the club for about 2 hours. We were more nervous than he was and I think he barely knew we were gone. Depends on what you have planned.

 

[cantsitstill]

Our boys are 12 (will be 13 2 months after our cruise) and 10. The 12 year old would like to join us on the excursion, but the 10 year old really wants to stay at the lab. The excursion we're thinking about is all morning on St. Thomas, so I'm not sure he'd want to be stuck for 5 hours in the lab, but he insists! Hmmmm - any other thoughts?

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

we left DD7 in club while we spent a few hrs in nassau. she didn't mind at all. infact once she got in she really didn't want to leave. she has that much fun.

 

[jrabbit]

When you leave your kids in the clubs while you go ashore be sure to let the councelors know that you will be off of the ship. If you do an excursion, it would be best to do a DCL excursion. And finally, if you do leave your kids onboard while you go ashore, MAKE SURE YOU'RE ON THE SHIP ON TIME!!!

There was one cruise where the ship left St. Thomas and it had to return a few hours later to pick up the parents of a young child that had been left in either the Club or in Flounders. The unexpected detour meant much less time on Castaway Cay for everyone else on board. And from what I've heard the "dad" was a real jerk and proud of himself for making the ship come back and picking them up.

Final Though: Remember to change you watches whenever DCL tells you to. The ships stay on local time. This way you won't be late or early for the ship because of forgetting to "adjust" the time in your head.

 

[PoohJen]

Hi Cant

I asked this question too a while back, some helpful responses. Here's the link to that thread.

See you in November!!!

 

[ksjayhawks]

Our DS11 did not like Key West, so spent most of his time there in the clubs. So, yes, it is possible to spend that much time there!

 

[cruisenewbie2004]

I guess you have to ask yourself how comfortable you are with being unreachable should an emergency occur? Accidents happen. Children get scared. Plans change.

I personally would never dream of leaving my child in a kids club and then getting off the boat without him to do an excurision where no one could reach me. Even if they COULD reach me I don't know if I would, because some excurisions are quite far away I read and could involve lengthy travel back to the boat (are they going to turn the catamaran around for everyone when my child falls in the lab and cracks his head open?)

It doesn't matter how much he insists on staying. I am ultimately responsible for him and should something arise, I'd want to be available.

I know this is all worst case scenario but things happen.

 

[cantsitstill]

Thanks all for the replies and thanks poohjen for the link to the thread I was referring to! I also had a question about cel phones and that answered my question. On our last cruise (four-day), he spent all of one day in that club until dinner, let alone all the other times he was in there. He's already got a list two pages long of the activities he plans to do there (got the info. from the navigators on dave's website)!

 

[Sue Sullivan]

Personally I wouldn't do it. We are travelling with a group of extended family members and I'm sure one adult will always be on board when the kids are in the club just in case an adult is needed. Knowing my kids, that would be the day one of them came down sick and they would be very upset if a parent or Grandparent was not there to go get them. My kids may be a bit more sensitive than others though.