Potential dangerous area for children on Magic

[Rob1559]

Let's face the fact that this issue is blown out of proportion on the safety issue. As stated earlier that if people keep whining about a "potential safety issue" Disney may have to inconvenience everybody because of others over reaction. Some parents need to relax and use common sense and not see every situation as a potential safety issue. We have cruised DCL since the inaugural year with small children and have NEVER had an issue with this subject. Quit crying wolf!

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

I would like to thank the original poster for calling this to our attention. If you have more than one child and one of them stumbles and falls, requiring your immediate attention, you'd have to have eyes in the back of your head in order to keep track of the others in those few seconds or more. Anything can distract you. Some children are more active than others.

Like others have said, no one is perfect. We try the best we can to be perfect parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles and so on, but let's face it, kids have the darndest knack of getting themselves into the strangest situations in the shortest amount of time no matter how closely watched.

Not all children on the ship are with their parents at all times, like someone else pointed out. Sometimes they are with older siblings or whoever. I don't think the original poster was suggesting this area be closed off to joggers, but wanted to point out this safety hazard and would like for it to be made more safe and secure.

Tink

 

[kristen821]

I think I know the area the op is talking about and see thier concern. I came across the area having no clue it was coming up because i was a first time cuiser. I think the op was warning first time cruisers not to believe because it is disney that everything is safe and to hold your childs hand especially on deck 4. That floor is usually empty during the day and first time cruisers may let thier children a few feet ahead of them without realizing danger is coming. I can see this happening. I didn't have my children with me when I walked around that deck, but I definately would hold thier hand knowing it was coming up. Maybe dcl would only have to post a sign saying to hold young hands of young children and that would solve any problems that may become of the situation.

 

[Hygiene99]

I want to bring to your attention a potentially very dangerous area on the Magic that we discovered on our trip last week. In fact, it is so dangerous I am surprised that we stumbled literally right upon it

Dcl Started cruising in 1998, Why have I Not heard of this Until now ??
As Dangerous as U have Posted, Well that is for Each Cruiser To Decide...

My .02 is that it would Be hard For this too Happen in this area...

With 7 cruises on Dcl We have Viewed the Area Many Times...

 

[S. C.]

I would like to thank the original poster for calling this to our attention. If you have more than one child and one of them stumbles and falls, requiring your immediate attention, you'd have to have eyes in the back of your head in order to keep track of the others in those few seconds or more. Anything can distract you. Some children are more active than others.

Like others have said, no one is perfect. We try the best we can to be perfect parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles and so on, but let's face it, kids have the darndest knack of getting themselves into the strangest situations in the shortest amount of time no matter how closely watched.

Not all children on the ship are with their parents at all times, like someone else pointed out. Sometimes they are with older siblings or whoever. I don't think the original poster was suggesting this area be closed off to joggers, but wanted to point out this safety hazard and would like for it to be made more safe and secure.

Tink

ITA

 

[JennsBabySky]

Not wanting to add to the controversy, but I did want to give my 2 cents as a parent of two young kids. First of all, my kids are always closely watched by either me or my husband. But, we often take walks on this particular deck with our kids. At home, our kids run around the backyard or a park every day. While our kids are well behaved, they certainly can't sit through 3 sit down meals a day and a show in the evening without having some active play to burn off some energy. They get some of this in the kid's club, but we would also walk around deck 4 and let them run slighly ahead of us (mom can only run so fast). One of my favorite features about the Disney cruise ships is that they have been so well planned out. Like the original poster, I was a little startled to see such an area that looked so accessible. We took this as a learning experience to show our kids an area of the ship that is really neat to look at, but they are absolutely not to cross the ropes. As a parent, it is nice to know that these areas exist beforehand, so that we are prepared to handle them in the best way possible. That is why I frequent these boards, I don't want to leave anything to chance! So, if I were a first time cruiser, I would have wanted to see a post like this so that I could be a little more vigilant (and maybe forewarn my kids so that they aren't immediately drawn to this new area). Ideally, of course no kid should be out of a parent's reach. Unfortunately, sometimes my kids are just slightly out of my reach.

To the OP, I'm sure there are plenty of first time cruisers that will appreciate reading your thread. I don't think anyone was suggesting that this area be closed off, but just that there was a potentially dangerous area on deck 4 that parents should be aware of. Afterall, I've read many posts on this subject, i.e. balcony safety with children, cabin safety with children, carseat requirements on the airplane, carseat laws in FL, taxi driver speeds on the islands, bus safety without seatbelts, use of nursery for babies, etc. Goodness, I've even read posts about peanuts or other potential anaphalytic allergens in food. Because I like to be aware about these things, I always read the posts. I don't think I've ever seen some much uproar because someone was trying to prevent an accident. I think their heart was definitely in the right place.

Merry Christmas,
Jennifer

 

[tvguy]

I hated statistics in college, but let's give this a go.....roughly one million passengers have traveled on the Magic and Wonder since they set sail, and it hasn't been a problem yet. If there was to be a problem TODAY, that would be an occurance rate of 1 in a million.
My mom is on a heart medicine that has a .01% mortality rate. It causes a reaction in 1 in 10,000 people that is fatal, and THAT is considered an acceptable risk factor.
Having said that, continue pointing out what you think is a safety hazard, and watch your kids, because you aren't going to get out of this life alive.

 

[carriep1657]

Thank you for the info. I definitely appreciate it.

 

[MarkRG]

We took this as a learning experience to show our kids an area of the ship that is really neat to look at, but they are absolutely not to cross the ropes.

Bravo! That is exactly all that is needed, if anything at all. In my opinion, this area is no more dangerous than being able to climb over the railing in the verandah.

 

[Doctor P]

Well put, Mark. ITA.

 

[Aisling]

To the OP, thank you for the information.
I don't have a toddler, but I do have a curious 12 year old. Statistically, there is only a miniscule chance that any child will fall through that opening, but it's enough of a chance for me to warn my son where he is NOT to go.
I really do appreciate the warning. Preventable freak accidents happen all the time.

 

[castlegazer]

I have read here to where kids have slipped out of the kids clubs without the staff knowing about it (not often but it happens). One mother was shocked when her 5 year old showed up by herself at their cabin. .

Thanks to the OP for mentioning this. I will keep my eye out for this area.

Hmm, but the above quote is more disconcerting than anything else here, in fact it is down right terrifying to me. This can NOT be true. I am taking it as heresay. This would be a lawsuit against Disney in my family. I would so kill them with every legal maneuver I could. This infuriates me so much. I love Disney, but if my 5 yo were to do this I would simply bring my wrath down on them.

Gotta tell you, if you know this to be true - I mean really true, then fine, but repeating only a rumor about this here is completely vile. This is terrifying and irresponsible and if its not true, then you are irresponsible for posting it.

 

[ladytampa]

I would like to thank the OP also. IMO, being forewarned of potential danger is preferable to being sorry later. I like to be as informed as I possibly can. That's why I read these boards.

Again, Thanks OP.

 

[marie2004]

Well I found an area on the ship that was a danger to two adults. The goofy pool has a ledge that you can sit on on a ledge for your feet, I saw two adults slip and fall into the pool(they were in the process of swinging the second leg over to sit, one foot was already on the lower ledge, the paint is no longer griddy, but smooth. I think they need to re-do this area.

 

[Stimpy]

Hmm, but the above quote is more disconcerting than anything else here, in fact it is down right terrifying to me. This can NOT be true. I am taking it as heresay. This would be a lawsuit against Disney in my family. I would so kill them with every legal maneuver I could. This infuriates me so much. I love Disney, but if my 5 yo were to do this I would simply bring my wrath down on them.
.

I don't know if the above is true, but I can say from personal experience that the staff "lost" our DS, almost 5 at the time, in the club. We went to pick him up the first night on board. We asked to get him, they told us to just go in and find him. We looked pretty much everywhere for him and couldn't find him. We asked where he was and we were pretty much blown off and told to "go check the bathroom or something". We checked both bathrooms...just in case! No sign of him. Now we're getting worried and annoyed that no one was helping us. It was pretty obvious that we were looking for someone and couldn't find him. Finally after looking around for 10 minutes and asking about 10 times where he was, one of the CM's told us "Oh, maybe he's the sleeper in the corner" and she walked away. Luckily, he was the "sleeper" in a dark corner, totally underneath a blanket or something. (He looked like just a pile of cloth, had his head under it and everything)

I was more upset about the CM's attitude that night than I was about him being "lost". They simply didn't seem to care that DS was "missing". I knew the chances of him getting out of the club by himself were almost impossible so I knew he would show up. But the CM's did nothing to help us find him. They just kept blowing us off. The club wasn't crowded that night at all....maybe 25-30 kids at most.

Fortunately, it was a one time thing for us and DS had no problems with the clubs for the rest of the cruise. We made sure to remind him not to leave the club with out one of us! And it must not have annoyed us too much because we're planning another cruise in April.

My point is that anything is possible. They don't really know where every individual child is. It's extremely, extremely unlikely, but although they try their best, CM's aren't perfect. I can see that it is slightly possible for a kid to slip out when there is a mass of people all taking their kids out at once. I do think that if that were to happen, they would know about it pretty quick.

 

[DrCavin]

I don't know if the above is true, but I can say from personal experience that the staff "lost" our DS, almost 5 at the time, in the club. We went to pick him up the first night on board. We asked to get him, they told us to just go in and find him. We looked pretty much everywhere for him and couldn't find him. We asked where he was and we were pretty much blown off and told to "go check the bathroom or something". We checked both bathrooms...just in case! No sign of him. Now we're getting worried and annoyed that no one was helping us. It was pretty obvious that we were looking for someone and couldn't find him. Finally after looking around for 10 minutes and asking about 10 times where he was, one of the CM's told us "Oh, maybe he's the sleeper in the corner" and she walked away. Luckily, he was the "sleeper" in a dark corner, totally underneath a blanket or something. (He looked like just a pile of cloth, had his head under it and everything)

Stimpy we had a similar experience, not to the degree of yours. We could not find one of our kids. I did get the same reaction from the CM's at first that you did, sorta Oh well he/she is here somewhere.....

After about 5 minutes of searching a CM did start searching with me. We finally found her/him hiding in the tree house that was supposed to be closed :-(

 

[castlegazer]

I apologize for being so amazingly ticked off about this issue of the potential of a child getting out of the clubs - but it is amazingly scary to me. If that story were true about the child showing up at the door of their cabin I would be raising a lawyer on the phone immediately if I were them. That is inconceivable to me that that could happen. I am not a suit happy person either - its just that amazingly irresponsible to me.

I do understand about your child being "missing" within the club - I do not understand their attitude to you.

It is not understandable at all to me that a child could get out at all in that age group.

 

[S. C.]

Thanks to the OP for mentioning this. I will keep my eye out for this area.

Hmm, but the above quote is more disconcerting than anything else here, in fact it is down right terrifying to me. This can NOT be true. I am taking it as heresay. This would be a lawsuit against Disney in my family. I would so kill them with every legal maneuver I could. This infuriates me so much. I love Disney, but if my 5 yo were to do this I would simply bring my wrath down on them.

Gotta tell you, if you know this to be true - I mean really true, then fine, but repeating only a rumor about this here is completely vile. This is terrifying and irresponsible and if its not true, then you are irresponsible for posting it.

One of the disers had reported this happening to them about a year or so ago. So yes i did get it straight from the person this happen to. No i do not personaly know them but I had no reason to NOT believe them, either did anyone else who posted on the thread. I did not post it to scare any one.

 

[fantazmickb]

All I have to say is that you don't let toddlers walk around by themselves on a ship or anywhere else. You are right, the area is quite accessible, but when I am onboard a ship, I am paying attention my safety when I am outside at all times, and I would be watching my toddlers like a hawk.
Keep your eyes on your children at all times. Even though Disney Ships are very much child friendly, they are also operating structures that require mechanical components to be accessible. After all, you could say the life boats are a safety concern. You walk right under them! What if one were to fall? Safety should always be your Number 1 priority especially when travelling with children. But outside of keeping them strapped down in a padded room, no place is completely safe.

 

[disneyfreak1]

No place is completely safe...the previous posters are correct. However, as a risk manager for a school district, I can assure you I would much rather someone address a safety concern to me than beat a dead horse on a message board. It is always good to alert others of unsafe areas, but Disney should have been the first people alerted. I'm sure there is a legitimate reason and this area has been inspected by their risk manager(s). As one person previously posted, it very well may be that they CAN'T do anything about it. However, Disney is the only one that can answer this question. None of us can.