Cruise without kids

This is our first cruise without kids. We are leaving our two teenagers home (19 and 17). I hope we come home to an intact house. Anybody have any suggestions on how we can get in touch with them while on board ship?

Depends on where you are going. You can always contact your cell phone carrier and add extra coverage for a month to the places you are going and call them when you get to your destinations. Or you can get the internet packages and email/facebook them from the ship. Some of the ships have the new "social media" packages very inexpensively. Or you can call them using the "ship to shore" on the ship - a bit pricy but a good way to call home quickly and check to make sure the kids are ok...

Have fun!

A previous post said May 11, Inspiration, Catalina and Ensenada. Someone inquired where were they going.

Teenagers are fun! Too old for a sitter, too young to be fully trusted. I would also have a friend stop by randomly and tell the kid's you are doing so. Also make sure they have a contact close to home in case of emergency, illness, etc. Then go enjoy your adult time! I just last month left my 19 year old in charge for 2 nights, was scary but he was genuinely pleased that I trusted him to do it and my house, though pretty messy, was intact when I got home. :D

I'm on my first kid free vacation with my hubby :) leaving today! :) I have no help... Other than ask a neighbor to watch and stop by everyday/every other?

If your ship offers the social media package do it! You can keep up with them through Facebook messenger and it even has a phone feature to call.

I think they should be fine, as long as they're not the partying types. (Read: won't use the house to throw a party.) I was the 19-year-old in your situation at one point; my parents were going on vacation, and it was during college winter break. I survived. Maybe they'll even surprise you by cooking dinner and having it ready for your return. That's what I remember doing. Do your kids know how to cook?

Also, the only times you'll be out of cell phone reach is in Ensenada and on the sea day. Long Beach and Catalina are on US soil, with a cell phone signal. That's just two days, and you can still do the ship-to-shore calls.

There is absolutely NO WAY I'd be out of town with my teens at home alone. Yeah...they SHOULD be old enough to not get in trouble, but they really aren't. All it takes is one "friend" who can influence your kids...and voila...it's a PARTY! And, a BIG party, at that!

We left our 18 year old home....and I made my cousin come and stay at the house with her. My almost college-bound daughter wasn't happy, but who cares? There were no parties, no arrests, no insurance claims, etc...

A phone call will tell you NOTHING!

me at 17 or 19 would have been boring and fine.

I'd just call/email/text once you hit a hot spot at ports. Yes, have a neighbor keep an eye on them. Most ports I've been to have a starbucks or some bar/coffee shop with free wifi, or buy a drink get the password wifi.

You can check in then.

Thank you all for the advice. I am going to trust that they won't burn down the house, get arrested or get pregnant. I will be checking on them regularly while I am enjoying my week off. :)

This is our first cruise without kids. We are leaving our two teenagers home (19 and 17). I hope we come home to an intact house. Anybody have any suggestions on how we can get in touch with them while on board ship?

Only you know your kids and their friends and their character well enough. IMHO one of the best things about cruise versus land, is that the line really is cut for the most part, for good and bad.

Could be a Risk Business/Weird Science kind of time :eek:

or what was the most recent movie Project X :eek:

You can always buy those secret motion sensor surveillance cameras, there are some pretty good ones that you can even monitor remotely if you aren't the trusting kind or have those that aren't trusting worthy!

Seriously, have a adult neighbor check up on them, they shouldn't mind.

We set up a way to communicate with our daughters at home through the Carnival website, at their forums. They have a section called "currently onboard" and you have the ability to write to each other for free. Of course, they would need to create a log in there and write too.

There is absolutely NO WAY I'd be out of town with my teens at home alone. Yeah...they SHOULD be old enough to not get in trouble, but they really aren't. All it takes is one "friend" who can influence your kids...and voila...it's a PARTY! And, a BIG party, at that!

 

We left our 18 year old home....and I made my cousin come and stay at the house with her. My almost college-bound daughter wasn't happy, but who cares? There were no parties, no arrests, no insurance claims, etc...

 

A phone call will tell you NOTHING!

I guess we all know our own kids best.

If I left mine home alone (16, 19 and 22) I'd be more concerned that they would spend all of their time in front of their computers watching Youtube videos, live streams, playing video games, etc. and forget to eat or shower. :eek:

We've done this for 3 cruises now. On the first 2 we had prearranged times that I would message them on facebook using the ships computers and internet package. Our last trip a couple weeks ago had stops in St. Thomas and San Juan where I could use my phone to contact them on those days. I found I contacted them the most on the first cruise then not as much on the next one via facebook. I didn't get on the internet at all on the last cruise, just the 2 phone calls. They did have the ships emergency contact number if they needed to get ahold of us for an emergency.

As a side note our kids were 16 and 19 when we left them home alone on our first adult cruise and they did great on their own as they have every time since.

There is absolutely NO WAY I'd be out of town with my teens at home alone. Yeah...they SHOULD be old enough to not get in trouble, but they really aren't. All it takes is one "friend" who can influence your kids...and voila...it's a PARTY! And, a BIG party, at that!

 

We left our 18 year old home....and I made my cousin come and stay at the house with her. My almost college-bound daughter wasn't happy, but who cares? There were no parties, no arrests, no insurance claims, etc...

 

A phone call will tell you NOTHING!

Wow....I feel sorry for you if you can't trust your 18 year old. They are an adult. My daughter turned 18 in January. I have to keep reminding her that she is an adult now and she doesn't have to ask my permission to go out places but I do appreciate her letting me know when she will be gone so I don't have that mothers worry about where she is at. I had to break both my kids habits of asking for permission....in fact my son will be 21 this week and he still does it sometimes. A hard habit to break I guess when they live at home while going to a local university. I was out of the house at 18 going to college and never asked my parents for permission for anything at that age. I was an adult and I took responsibility for my decisions and actions just like I expect my adult children to do.

Skype can be a good way to communicate or facebook messenger. It's kinda easy to teach kids on how to use such applications compared to elders hahaha!:)

Skype can be a good way to communicate or facebook messenger. It's kinda easy to teach kids on how to use such applications compared to elders hahaha!:)

I imagine the kids know how! One of my kids showed me when she was 10.

A previous post said May 11, Inspiration, Catalina and Ensenada. Someone inquired where were they going.

Catalina is part of the County of Los Angeles, no worries there assuming you have a local phone. So you'll only be out of contact for two days--Ensenada and your sea day. There are places in Ensenada that have wifi available. Cell phone service is $2.49/minute. Calls from your cabin phone are $1.99/minute.