Tweens - free run of ship?

[sjsjbrook]

We last went on a cruise when my oldest was 11 and still young enough to participate in the children's program. They were allowed with permission to check themselves out of the program.

We allowed her to check herself out, in case she didn't like the program. Though one day I found her in our cabin watching TV. We didn't pay good money for her to sit in our room and watch TV.

I never let her go swimming without me though and 90% of the time she was with me or my MIL.

 

[Scooby3x1y]

We allowed her to check herself out, in case she didn't like the program. Though one day I found her in our cabin watching TV. We didn't pay good money for her to sit in our room and watch TV.
.

LOL...we caught our kids doing that too. We told them that if they just wanted to sit and watch tv, next time they could stay home. Although in their defense, some of the movies had just been released, and they hadn't seen them yet. I think it was Harry Potter 2 or something. I just remember, telling them after they have watched it once, that was it.

Also, our kids did not love the kids programs the first cruise we went on. They were 8-12 then. Since then they have liked them. Now they're all teens and they like the stack. Which brings up another thing. I didn't know there are issues there too . Not as supervised there as the other clubs. Needless to say, I often popped in to see what was up. Again, they had to be with someone, not just by themselves.

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

Jen,

I'm glad you posted because I've been mulling the same thing. Requiring my DS12 and DD10 to stick together the whole time would be a disaster. My DD is not 10 yet and is sort of a young 9 and still into the characters. I think she will be perfectly content in the kids area, although she may want to sign out to see some movies. DS12 will want complete independence (which he will not get). Maybe our boys will meet up in Ocean Quest and become friends. I think I will feel better about it once he meets some other kids, because now I sort of have the image of him wandering the ship alone.

Laurie

 

[KSDisneyDad]

We last went on a cruise when my oldest was 11 and still young enough to participate in the children's program. They were allowed with permission to check themselves out of the program.

We allowed her to check herself out, in case she didn't like the program. Though one day I found her in our cabin watching TV. We didn't pay good money for her to sit in our room and watch TV.

I never let her go swimming without me though and 90% of the time she was with me or my MIL.

This reminds me of how our kids fought off some boredom from having 7 Sea Days on our 15-night cruise! This was a lot of time for the kids to gain some freedom and either get in trouble or show how responsible they are.

We never let our youngest roam free on that cruise, but our two oldest (just turned 13 and almost 11 at the time) were allowed to roam together. They had to eat meals with us and check in every two hours on Sea Days.

Around Day 11, we discovered that our two older kids were watching the ongoing "who done it" mystery at sea presentations from the Walt Disney Theater on the stateroom TV. These were suppossed to be an adult-only event, but the kids didn't know that as they were just watching the episodes on the stateroom TV. They ended up solving the mystery with some help from another friend they met onboard. My middle son sat outside the WD Theater and cried when Disney wouldn't let them in for the final show.

I had known that was a possibility and warned them. I told them to come get me if they wanted me to go in for them. One of the staff saw how much they had worked on this and gave them permission to enter the theater with me. They ended up winning one of the prizes! They thoroughly enjoyed that mystery challenge and it kept them occupied for hours on the Sea Days. They also liked trying to figure out which characters were which crew members.

Again, they could have been doing something to get in trouble (we heard plenty of those stories too), but they found something fun and challenging outside the normal kids activities.

 

[Mich123]

I asked the same question as OP before our first cruise last February. We traveled with our daughters, then aged 13 and 10. We also gave some directions/rules beforehand, never really expecting that they'd hang out together. We were so wrong! I should mention that we'd been on vacation for a week before the cruise, so they'd spent A LOT of time with us leading up to boarding. When we first got on board, we explored the ship and had lunch. After lunch, we checked out our stateroom and while we were unpacking, our 13 year old said, "So, can [DD10] and I go?". What?? DD13: "We want to explore the ship!". And off they went! It was actually a nice bonding experience for them (as DD10 can also be an irksome thing to the oh-so-mature DD13).

Our main rules were that they needed to stick together, not eat too much ice cream, no going into anyone's room and remember your manners!

The kids were instructed to stay together and the only glitch we had was when DH and I went to dinner at Palo. The kids were going to have dinner with our friends from home who were also on the cruise. Well, DD10 needed to go to the room before dinner and was spending some time in the bathroom and then told DD13 she could go on without her and she'd catch up. Yep, broke the rule to stick together...but this was day 3 and DD13 thought DD10 knew what she was doing. So, DD10 finally leaves the room and gets completely turned around and lost. Somehow, a female cast member who was assisting a character realized that DD10 was lost (eventhough DD10 swears she never said anything) and the cast member figured out where DD10 was supposed to be (psychic? I'm not sure, DD10 also swears she didn't show her KTTW). I chalk it up to a little Disney Magic. For our next cruise, we will be requiring the kids to bring walkie talkies with them.

 

[jenvin]

Thanks everyone for the feedback - it's great information, and nice to hear all different approaches. DD8 will enjoy staying in the clubs, I don't think she'll be interested in roaming around on her own other than to go see a movie. I'll lay out some ground rules for DS12, I think he can handle it.

Jen,

I'm glad you posted because I've been mulling the same thing. Requiring my DS12 and DD10 to stick together the whole time would be a disaster. My DD is not 10 yet and is sort of a young 9 and still into the characters. I think she will be perfectly content in the kids area, although she may want to sign out to see some movies. DS12 will want complete independence (which he will not get). Maybe our boys will meet up in Ocean Quest and become friends. I think I will feel better about it once he meets some other kids, because now I sort of have the image of him wandering the ship alone.

Laurie

Laurie, it would be great if our kids ended up getting together. Hopefully our DS12s will hang out, we're even on the same deck! I think your DD10 and my DD8 might get along very well too. DD8 gets along well with all ages and has interests spanning a range of ages, and she's really flexible and easygoing when it comes to activities and playing with others.