OK to let 12yr old return alone

[tink1663]

Hi again. My ds will be 12 at time of cruise and I have a question about him and the oceaneers lab. I see that they are open to 12 and sometimes 1 in the am. I wanted to know if he would be able to return to the cabin alone and has anyone else ever let their child do this? He has talked alot about staying there late but my dd will want to be in bed way before this. We will be on deck 5 the same as the club so I was thinking it may not be so bad to either let him come back alone or leave my dd alone for about 1-2 minutes. Anyone have any experience with this or suggestions please let me know. Oh by the way, it is just myself and my two children.

 

[manchurianbrownbear]

Our oldest DS was 12 on our cruise last November (3 months ago today I was enjoying the buffet in Parrot Cay.... sigh) and we let him come and go as he pleased as long as he told us where he was going to be. He didn't do a lot in the clubs, but just enjoyed roaming the ship. Every kid is different; I'm not sure we'd let our middle two kids have that much freedom when they're 12!

 

[eye R.N.]

We see the cruise as a time to allow them some slack. As long as we know where they are it's fine. Of course the understanding was if trust was broken the freedoms ended.

 

[Ontario Kim]

We have always allowed our children, the youngest DS 10 to come back from the labs on his own. I guess it is whatever you are comfortable with. He would often like to go to the late movies, and we didn't want to stay up that late. We have always felt that the ships are very, very safe and our son has yet to disappoint us. He is now 11 and he too, really doesn't spend a lot of time in the labs. He really enjoys doing the sports so he could often be found up on the sports deck.

 

[jwann]

Our son was 8 on our last cruise and after we were sure he knew our cabin number and he showed us he knew how to get between the room and the lab by himself (we had a dry run) - we let him leave the lab and come to the room by himself. We thought he would probably never do it since on our first cruise he closed out the lab every night. Boy were we surprised when on the second night, we came "home" at 10:30 to find him asleep (with the TV on, of course) in the pull down bed. It worked great for us!!

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Last year I was pretty paranoid about letting DD#1 (then 11) roam free, and I made sure I always picked up DD#2 (then 8). This year I think I'll let DD#1 have more freedom but I"m taking a magnetic note pad for our door and she has to tell us whenever she changes locations. I don't know about DD#2 yet.
Robin M.

 

[westjones]

My twins will turn 11 on our cruise in September. We have not (in the past) allowed them to check themselves in and out. I am not really comfortable with it right now (they are lobbying for it). I just don't see it happening, but maybe in 8 months I will feel differently. I do know I wouldn't let them go anywhere alone, I will make a rule that they must be together at all times.

I think you have to go with what you are comfortable with, friends of ours let their daughter come and go from the lab and she is the same age as my girls. I am just very protective I guess (constantly thinking of the 'what ifs').

DJ

 

[EPCOTLADY]

Last year my son was twelve and even though I asked them to page me when my son was ready to go, they let me know that usually at twelve they let them sign themselves out. I didnt have a problem with that and thought well, where can he go.. ha ha.. so thought it would be fine. They still were real good at paging me though. But this one time he was there and he changed his mind and wanted to be with us to swim, so they let him sign out and guess what... he got lost on the ship, when he ask someone where to go and got to us he was in tears!! I guess he didnt stop and think that we have no where else to go and that he would eventually find us.

 

[wildcatwmn]

My son is 9.5 and pretty independent. We are going on the cruise next week and are talking about this. I am planning on bringing our 2 way radios. Can anyone tell me if I will have a problem with them working there?

Also, we always have a plan whenever we go anywhere that if he gets lost or can't locate me to go to the room and wait. It's always good to have a "what if" plan. If he doesn't show up as planned after 5 mins, or I can't find him, I know to go to the room.

 

[Verandah Man]

On our first cruise 8/03 our DD was only two weeks shy of turning 13 so she was able to be in with the teens. She didn't do many teen activities with the group, but even though we consider ourselves over-protective parents, we allowed her more freedom on the ship than we would ever think of at home. We had guidelines and she followed them to the letter. On a few nights my DW and I were already asleep before our DD came in, she was so quiet we never even heard our cabin door open.

 

[NAT&MAGSMOM]

Tink...our 10yo(now 11) checked herself in and out of the club on our last cruise. We were also on Deck 5 and did not worry too much about her.....One night they did page us and let us know she was on her way back to the cabin. The rest of the time, she went to activities she wanted to go to....and if she wasn't with us..she stayed in the cabin. She was not allowed to roam the ship at will.

We let her stay out because there were some late night activities that she wanted to attend. One was a pizza/swim party, a girls night out party and things like that.

As long as she was where she was supposed to be when she was supposed to be there....then we had no problem. We told her if she abused the priviledges...then she'd be back to being checked in and out....like a BABY....that seemed to do it!!!!

Next cruise we will be on Deck 7....so we may have to re-think...kids in elevators..alone....especially a girl.....not too sure about that....anyway...

Just my experience....

Phyllis

 

[westjones]

That is one of the reasons we choose Deck 5 too (that and the SPH room). Maybe since we are so close to the Lab we will consider allowing them to check themselves out to go back to the room as long as they are together and they only go to the room.

DJ

 

[cindy_k]

I also let my DS check himself in and out of the Club when we went on the Wonder 2 years ago. He was 9 at the time.

We had Motorola talkabout radios with us and I had the pager.
He also had strict rules. He had to page me when he left the club with where he was going and call me on the radio for permission.

He was very good about it. Mostly he would go from the room to the club and back. Once he asked for permission to go to the arcade, which he was allowed to do. He also left dinner a few times to go back to the club. We had late seating and he would eat with club at early seating and then wouldn't be hungry later.

My son is rather mature for his age, so I gave him this trust with the warning that if he broke the rules he would lose sign-out privilages.

He never got lost on the ship, but my son has been awesome with directions since he was 2.

We are going back in April on the Magic this time. He's now 11 and he will have signout privilages again, with the same rules.

I asked my son what he thought and he said that it depends on the kid. He has kids in his class that he wouldn't give the privilage too. As always you know your kid best.

Have a fun cruise!!
Cindy in NY

 

[danjulia]

My son is also 9.5 (turns 10 in July) and we are on the 2/14 Magic. Is that the cruise you're on? Last cruise (2 years ago), he buddied up with a boy from NJ before the cruise. They exchanged a couple of emails and then met on the ship. They ended up hanging out most of the week together. If you think this might interest your son, please email me at danjulia99@yahoo.com

Thanks...Sue

 

[DMOMof3]

We are on the 2/14 Magic also, have you checked our thread in the Cruise Meets section?

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=432745

Only 1 week left!

 

[wildcatwmn]

Danjulia, we will be on the 2/15 Wonder cruise. We haven't found anyone yet for my son to correspond with, but I am sure he will have no problem once we board.

 

[The4OfUs]

I agree - we let our kids (10 and 11) come and go as they pleased - the rule was they either beeped us (which was a bit worrying at first as the first beeper DID NOT WORK so they were telling us they were paging us, but we didn't get them - the beeper was switched out after they showed us logs of the beeps...) with a text message telling us where they were, or they went to the room and left a note on the write on/wipe off board we got - Wal Mart had one that hung on the door, the size of the "do not disturb" sign, and that system worked great! The first night, my 11 yr old DD was out later than us!

 

[ennazus]

The first time we cruised was when DS was 8 y.o. We will be cruising again this year and he will be 9 y.o. I HIGHLY doubt I will give him more freedom on the ship than I would give him in any other public setting. It's not HIS maturity that would concern me. There are sick people everywhere and surely, DCL is not immune to attracting them from time to time.

How easy would it be for some sicko to snatch a child and drag him or her into a stateroom or some other quiet area? How is maturity going to help then? Size would help a lot more.

Sure the criminal would probably be easily caught considering the ease in which the crime area (ship) could be contained, but criminals don't always think that far ahead.

I just don't understand the concept of letting precious children run unattended.

 

[prymsu]

The last cruise we took around xmas, I finally decided to let Dakota try this out. He is eleven. He had been on cruises before, so he was pretty familar with cruising. We didn't have a problem at all. Of course, i made it a point to set times for him to check in, and always left a note in the cabin if i went up by the pool area so he would know where to find me.

 

[MerryPoppins]

My daughter was about 10 the last time we cruised. I gave her a family service radio. The deal was that she had to call for permission when she changed locations. That way I always knew where she was. If she was walking alone in a deserted area, I had her stay on the radio with me while she walked or I met her and walked with her. We had no problems. Usually, she was with her older brother or a group of friends.

The radios worked beautifully on the ship. We found them very helpful!