Kids left onboard...? Yet another question :)

[BabySam99]

I read the other thread that was on the boards about letting older kids sign in and out themselves, etc...

I have a 3.5 year old and need to hear from some of you about leaving them in the club. Did you leave the ship? Did you feel good about it? We were planning to go to Nassau for an hour or two to the straw market and was wondering if this is done and if you had a good experience with DCL? It would be DS and his Cousin.

Thanks!

 

[ebaynut31]

When you sign up your child for the club, you get a pager for the length of your stay. My DD is 9 and she had sign in/out privledges with the understanding that she was to page me before leaving to tell me where she would be going. I went to Atlantis with my sis for a little while and did some browsing in some of the shops near port. I was paged shortly before going back on the ship so we went on and went swimming. We had more fun on the ship that day!

 

[mog]

In St. Martin, we took our kids on shore for a while to do some souvenir shopping. We wanted to do some jewelry shopping and by then they were over it, so we took them back to the ship. They were 3, 6 and 9 at the time. The 9 yo did not have sign out privileges. We signed them into the clubs and went back on shore for an hour or 2. I felt very comfortable doing this and I am one of those parents who worries about everything! We rarely even use a babysitter (other than aunt or grandma) at home. One thing to keep in mind, though - we had already been on the ship for a couple days and we knew that our kids were VERY happy in the clubs and would stay there for a few hours with no problems. I don't know if I would have done it if I had thought any of them would have been unhappy and wanted us to come get them.

 

[dmfuru]

IMHO I would not leave my kids onboard by themselves, no matter what age.

 

[dgroet]

We left all three onboard while we went into Nassau for about 1.5 hours. We got paged as we were getting back on the ship to pick up our youngest who just did not like Flounders. We're not "day care" people either, so we never do the drop and run that a lot of people do with their kids on a daily basis. Our decision was based on the fact that the kids would want absolutely nothing to do with shopping, and the boat is 100 times cleaner than that city was.

 

[cruisnfamily]

We left DS6 on board when we went into Nassau. The counselors asked if we would be off the ship and our approximate time of return. All was well. As a matter of fact, we returned at 11:30am and I tried repeatedly to drag him out of the club and he just didn't want to go. "I want to go with you mommy but this is too fun". Finally I was able to convince him to hang with us around 3pm that day. He had a much better time in the club than he would have had in Nassau, that's for sure!

Now, I would definitely not leave my kids onboard if I was going to be off the ship for an extended period of time. But we were only gone about 2 1/2 hours. By a long time I mean maybe about 4 hours or more...that would be too long to leave him in my opinion although it probably would have been fine with him as he was in the club about 6 hours that day.

 

[markºoº]

Consider avoiding the morning on Nassau day (at least on the 4 day cruise). I will relate our experience with a 3.5 yr old.

DW and I wanted to go into Nassau for an hour or two. We dropped him off about mid-morning. He was not to sure about being left behind but this is normal for him. He usually gets over it within a minute or two. We thought the club was very loud with lots of kids running all over the place and many not listening to the counselours. Well, 10 minutes off the ship we got paged so we went and picked him up. The club was just too "busy" for him and he was not comfortable.

We spoke with a counselor about the club being a little out of control. She said that is often the case during the morning on Nassau day because they are short handed as some of their staff have to attend life boat drills. She said to try later in the day. We did go back late afternoon just to see how he would do. The club was much better and they were a lot less kids. Although he did not want to be left, a counselor took him and we quickly disappeard. We went back after an hour to pickup him up. The said he was fine within 2 minutes of us leaving and did not have any problems.

We used the club several other times (never more than 2 hours at a time) and never get paged again.

 

[FOJMO]

What's the difference between 2-1/2 hrs. and 4 hrs. (besides the obvious answer of an hour-and-a-half)? Things can happen during any time period, so I don't understand the difference between leaving your children at the club for a "short" period or a "long" period.

It's not the time away from them (especially if they're happy where they are, as some have indicated) that's the factor here. It's how physically close are you to them to be able to get there if something were to occur and the club had to contact you?

 

[Michelle]

No parent is available to his or her child 24 hours a day every day of their life. Parents go away on trips, they are at work, they go out to dinner or a movie and are not reachable. We leave our kids at school all day and we are not always reachable by phone. Face it, kids are in the care of the others sometimes. It's a fact of life.

I personally have no problem leaving my child on the ship well-supervised in an excellent club that she loves if I wanted a few hours on shore without her.

As I said on another thread, if I had a very young child who was unsure about the clubs I would probably not leave them on the ship unless I was certain they are happy in the programming.

One thing I can't stress enough, though, if you DO leave your kids on the ship be sure to get BACK TO THE SHIP in plenty of time!

 

[IrishCowboy]

Michelle,
I couldn't agree more!

I remember reading somewhere on this board that some people were about to get left behind at St Thomas and the ship waited because they had left their children in the clubs and the Captain didn't want to sail and leave the children without parents onboard. Anyone lse remember this?

 

[lUVTOGO]

I agree Michelle! If my kids wanted to stay in the club while we did some shopping in St. Martin or St. Thomas, then I would let them. It's their vacation also, and the clubs are well supervised. We are spending the mornings on an excursion together and the afternoon is up to them. If they want to tag along shopping, they can, If not, they will be in the club.

 

[BabySam99]

Originally posted by WebmasterMichelle
No parent is available to his or her child 24 hours a day every day of their life. Parents go away on trips, they are at work, they go out to dinner or a movie and are not reachable. We leave our kids at school all day and we are not always reachable by phone. Face it, kids are in the care of the others sometimes. It's a fact of life.

I agree Michelle, I take great care of my son and am very over protective so this is why I started this thread. It took me 7 years to get pregnant with my sweet son.

I recently went back to school to finally get my degree, I am 40 years old and I am a stay-at-home mom. I go to school full time, 5 classes a week, 3.5-4.5 hrs a day and my son goes with me, he goes to a pre-school on campus. I was hesitant at first as the only sitters he ever had was my mom or my one aunt. I decided to do this for his social skills and so he is not freaked when he starts kindergarten. He is well behaved, loves other kids, interacts well, and is not afraid to be in a new place with other children. I am very proud of him and how his personality is developing and I attribute this to his pre-school. This is why I think an hour or so will be fine. After reading some of the posts on this thread, I guess everyone will have there own opinion : )

Thanks everyone!

 

[Chropistopy]

"I remember reading somewhere on this board that some people were about to get left behind at St Thomas and the ship waited because they had left their children in the clubs and the Captain didn't want to sail and leave the children without parents onboard. Anyone lse remember this"

Yes, Irish Cowboy!! I had family members on that cruise. The ship actually turned around to go back for the couple because they had a baby in Flounder's. It caused everyone to miss 2 hours at Castaway Cay.

 

[mcnuss]

Originally posted by WebmasterMichelle
No parent is available to his or her child 24 hours a day every day of their life. Parents go away on trips, they are at work, they go out to dinner or a movie and are not reachable. We leave our kids at school all day and we are not always reachable by phone. Face it, kids are in the care of the others sometimes. It's a fact of life.

Michelle -- Well said, and DITTO!!!

And, please don't flame me for this one, but the comment about "day care people" and "drop and run" was personally very insulting. It's as though you think that we just dump our kids out of our cars and run away.

 

[Melrosgirl]

I personally don't feel comfortable leaving kids on the ship while I go on excursions or shopping ashore. What if I missed the boat? I can be as careful as I want to be, but things happen and the boat will not wait around. (They don't do check to be sure everyone is on board before the ship leaves.)

We came home from a cruise (Princess) last month. I took our 4 year old with us on each excursion, etc. Cost me more and she would have preferred being in their kids' program (excellent program, btw), but I just didn't feel comfortable with it...the only reason being I was afraid of missing the boat myself, lol.

 

[dmfuru]

I am one who is with my kids 24/7 when they are not in school. When they are in school and I am not at home, I have my cell phone with me at all times. My DH and I do not have babysitters for our kids. Even when our DSs were in VBC this summer, we were at church while they were in class.

On the very rare occasion when we do need someone to watch our DSs and now a DD, we ask our closest friends. At least they are with people my DH, kids and I have known for more than a few days.

Yes, if my DSs wanted to go to the clubs while we are onboard, we would certainly let them, but we would at least be available to them within five minutes from the time they want us.

BTW, our DSs are 6 and 4 and our DD is 8 months.