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Leaving Kids on Ship in Port


HappyMomTo3

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We are thinking of leaving our 12, 10, 9 year old in the "club" on the Carnival Valor next week for one of the ports (St. Lucia) so we can have a "date day."

 

I'm feeling quasi-guilty about this. It is my kids 1st cruise and all the other ports of call they will be with us in on the fun.

 

For those of you who have done this, did your kids enjoy a day on the ship while you went out? I hear Carnival has lots of fun activities for kids. I'm just trying to either talk myself INTO it or OUT of it....so let me hear your thoughts.

 

Thanks!

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Just my personal comfort level. I prefer to only do this is we have adult friends or relatives staying on the ship. I would consider leaving them at camp without a known adult only if they were in an age range where they couldn't sign themselves out, had constant supervision by staff and I was confident beyond confident that there was no chance of my missing the ship.

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I left two of my kids (ages 2 and 5) on the ship in Camp Carnival for a couple of hours while I went shopping by myself. My older son and his dad were on a kayaking excursion together. I then went back to the ship and had lunch with them and took them on an excursion that was more appropriate for them. I don't think I would have felt comfortable leaving them for more than a couple of hours, but I didn't feel guilty at all about getting a chance to shop all by myself!

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We've done it with our DD when she was 7 and 8 yrs old in different circumstances.

 

When she was 7, we were on a southern caribbean cruise that happened to stop in St. thomas on black friday, so DH and I started to plan for a heavy shopping day because who knew they had black friday deals in St. thomas, and we were the only ship in port to boot, so lots of deals to be had.

 

Now, to her credit, DD has cruised a lot for her age and we had done several excursions earlier in the week, so she took one look at the shopping list being developed and said "I'd rather stay in the kid's club" which actually worked out better for all of us. We were done by early afternoon and then took her to the butterfly farm right near the dock. We were sailing just the 3 of us on that trip.

 

When she was 8, we were in Alaska with my aunt and her good friend traveling with us. We had booked 2 excursions for Skagway, but after the White pass railroad and lunch, DD said she had had enough for the day and didn't want to do the 6 hour wildlife excursion that evening, so we left her onboard to have dinner with the rest of our party and then check herself into the kid's club.

 

No problems either time, and I don't think we would hestitate to leave her in the kid's club, although we do try to limit our activities to less risky things when she is onboard alone.

 

good luck with your decision

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Your 12 year old is too old for Camp Carnival. They would be in Circle C. For this age group, activities don't generally start until the afternoon and sometimes not until the evening. The kids can come and go as they please.

 

I have left my youngest when he was 3 on the ship while I and my older 2 went on a ship's excursion. It was fine, except the excursion got back over an hour late, after Camp Carnival had closed. Someone had stayed with ds, but I was not happy with Carnival's shore excursions.

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I would not do this unless we had other adult family members/close friends staying onboard. This would not be out of guilt, but concern of something happening.

 

In addition to he other things mentioned....what if something happens to them while on the ship while you are on the tour? What if something were to happen and you miss the ship?

 

I know the chance of this is slim, but it would concern me enough to not do it without having another adult I trust staying onboard.

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We have done this. The last time was in Cabo, and kids were 10 and 6. 10 year old had sign out privileges, but we told him to stay in camp. Circle C will be open for port day drop off, it will have a different schedule on port days. We did not feel guilty and had a great day.

 

 

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I would not do this unless we had other adult family members/close friends staying onboard. This would not be out of guilt, but concern of something happening.

 

In addition to he other things mentioned....what if something happens to them while on the ship while you are on the tour? What if something were to happen and you miss the ship?

 

I know the chance of this is slim, but it would concern me enough to not do it without having another adult I trust staying onboard.

 

This. Things happen that are out of your control, and logistically it can be very difficult to get your group back together. I would only do this if I was comfortable with the possibly of my children sailing on the ship without me. So without another responsible adult that know my children well, I would not be leaving them aboard ship alone.

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This. Things happen that are out of your control' date=' and logistically it can be very difficult to get your group back together. I would only do this if I was comfortable with the possibly of my children sailing on the ship without me. So without another responsible adult that know my children well, I would not be leaving them aboard ship alone.[/quote']

 

My thoughts as well.

 

 

To the OP, only you can make the decision if you are comfortable enough leaving them on board. If you are questioning it and having second thoughts that could be your first indication that you aren't comfy leaving them. As mentioned, your older one can sign himself out...it is their first cruise. Different circumstances for diff people. I personally wouldn't, but that's just one opinion. go for "Date Night".... ;)

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Actually, this raises an interesting question. Since the cruise ship tracks everyone entering and leaving the boat, what would they do if parents were missing and they knew a child sharing their cabin was in the kid center? Would they leave the child at the port with the offshore cruise representatives or keep the child in the kid center? I've never thought about this, since my son is too little to stay at the kid center by himself.

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As a single mom, I wouldn't be able to travel at all if I weren't comfortable with the idea that if something happens to me during the trip, my kids are going to be with strangers until a family member can travel to get them. To me, the kids are safer on the ship than anywhere else. If something happened to me, I'd rather they be on the ship with the kids staff than in the control of foriegn authorities. Clearly, it depends on the kids of course. a) you'd have to trust them not to sign themselves out and b) I know my kids wouldn't fall apart if something happened.

 

To the OP - parents do this all the time, but of course it has to do with your comfort level. You'll have a much better idea once on board, so I wouldn't pre-book anything non-refundable. I had a friend who SWORE she would never leave her toddler with strangers on the ship, and then once on board and she saw the set up in the nursery, he got to go a lot and had a blast.

 

All the best,

Mia

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I agree with Mia.....if you don't make it back to the ship, the cruise ship won't dump your kids ashore....they'll most likely contact your Emergency contacts that you registered before the cruise and discuss options with them....and the kids will stay on board and have a chaperone....

 

If your kids want to stay on board, let them....and don't do some long excursion that might put you at risk for missing the ship...

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Actually, this raises an interesting question. Since the cruise ship tracks everyone entering and leaving the boat, what would they do if parents were missing and they knew a child sharing their cabin was in the kid center? Would they leave the child at the port with the offshore cruise representatives or keep the child in the kid center? I've never thought about this, since my son is too little to stay at the kid center by himself.

 

There have been rare instances posted on the boards here where parents were delayed reboarding the ship (due to late excursion returns and the ship was unable to wait for their return.) The children on board were left in the care of one of the kids club workers until the parents returned to the ship at the next port.

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Add me to the No camp too! I'm just imagining the sick feeling I'd have watching the ship pull away (if something happened and we missed it) knowing my kids were without us. Thank goodness we normally sail with grandparents. I have no problem leaving them on board when someone I trust stays on the ship too. However, for us that is the only way we'd do it....at least until they are in their late teens.

 

If you do decide to do it. I would most certainly leave a cell phone number with the staff so they could reach you in emergency.

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I agree with Mia.....if you don't make it back to the ship, the cruise ship won't dump your kids ashore....they'll most likely contact your Emergency contacts that you registered before the cruise and discuss options with them....and the kids will stay on board and have a chaperone....

 

If your kids want to stay on board, let them....and don't do some long excursion that might put you at risk for missing the ship...

 

Mia's situation is a bit different, she is a single Mom cruising with her kids. Yes, something could happen to her while on the cruise, nessitating others to help her children. Unless she wants to live near other people who know her children all their life, things may happen. To me, this falls in the "not preventable" category, and not at all the situation the OP is suggesting.

Leaving your kids on a ship while you go into port is an active choice. There are many things that can (and do) happen to prevent people from returning to the ship. My boys would be traumatized if they knew we were left behind in port and they were left with strangers in an unfamiliar environment, so we don't take the chance. Others may have a different view, but for us, this is not a good option. Many people don't realize how many people are left behind by cruise ships because of traffic, broken down vehicles or not realizing ship time and port time are different. It is not as innocuous a choice as many people think.

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Actually, this raises an interesting question. Since the cruise ship tracks everyone entering and leaving the boat, what would they do if parents were missing and they knew a child sharing their cabin was in the kid center? Would they leave the child at the port with the offshore cruise representatives or keep the child in the kid center? I've never thought about this, since my son is too little to stay at the kid center by himself.

 

I have been on a ship when this happened. There were two families and the parents all went off on a private tour and didn't make it back to the ship. Of course, the ship left without them and the kids were left alone for two days until the next port of call. There were four kids left on the ship, one a 25 month old and the rest under the age of 10. They were assigned full time babysitters and from what I understand, the charges to the parents were HUGE as they had to pay by the hour----- a total of about 42 hours, per child, and at night, they had two babysitters for two kids, for a total of 4 babysitters for the kids.

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I have left all 4 of my kids ssinf in Disney in the eastern Carr. , never did have any problems all kids 5&7. We didn't do an excursion and left our cell numbers w the staff. Only gone also 3-5 hrs max sometimes. This is our first w med on the epic kids r now 7-9 will leave them maybe in Naples it will depend on how the kids program is etc etc

 

 

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Provided my kids wanted to go to the kids club, I wouldn't hesitate in going ashore while they stayed on board.

Last cruise we went to South Pacific and they found the ports a little 'hot and boring' apart from the beach, so we would take them to the beach if they wanted to go, but they asked to stay in the kids club a couple of times and we got to walk around for a few hours in port without all the moaning! LOL.

 

I guess you'll have to see how it all pans out when you get there, it can be hard to predict whether kids will want to spend time in the kids program or not. I was actually surprised at how excited ours got about it - they would study the daily schedules and pretty well tell us what they were doing - it was great. They also made friends and spent a lot of time with them which was nice. But some kids don't like it, and I guess you have to be prepared for that too.

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I think this also depends on the kid. Do they like being in the club for long periods of time?

 

We left our kids while we went parasailing in Catalina. We were only gone from the ship for 2 hours though. We also had

 

The problem isn't "will the ship leave" in most cases but just if something little happens at the camp. ie, kid falls, wants to be with you for comfort. They spend a few hours being upset. They'll survive.

 

My son once fell on the Disney Wonder in the kid's club and I was with him. I don't know if anyone would have noticed if I wasn't there.

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