Sign & Sail Account Restrictions for Minor

Me and my girlfriend are traveling with her son and while he is old enough to wander on his own, we don't want to give unrestricted access to charge back to a credit card. I see where the account can be set to not be allowed to charge, but is it possible to load a fixed amount daily onto the card as a deposit so that he has a daily allowance?

I seem to remember being able to add cash to my sign & sail account, as I had a good bit of cash left over on my last cruise on our last sea day and I'm pretty sure I was able to load it onto my card so I could spend it onboard. Am I remembering correctly this is possible, and does it still work?

We just did this in November with the Grandson. We gave him $25 per day but only two or three days worth at a time. This allowed him some sense of control and to understand budgeting. The first $50 was gone in a few hours. When we put money on his account on the third day (again $50) he managed to make it last for both days.

You do have to set this up once on board and set the limits as you see fit.

Now you can skip the long line at the guest services desk and use the kiosk. We go to the kiosk every couple of days and up the spending limit on our teens accounts. They can only spend up to the limit you specify. We do a $50 limit the first day, $100 limit the 3rd day, etc. It all comes straight from your sign & sail account. And if you do the hub app (for $5 a week) you can go online and check your account balance on your phone. :)

Now you can skip the long line at the guest services desk and use the kiosk. We go to the kiosk every couple of days and up the spending limit on our teens accounts. They can only spend up to the limit you specify. We do a $50 limit the first day, $100 limit the 3rd day, etc. It all comes straight from your sign & sail account. And if you do the hub app (for $5 a week) you can go online and check your account balance on your phone. :)

The only time that you will get charged for the HUB app is if you use the chat feature. If you do use the chat feature then yes it is $5 for the entirety of the cruise. You can access the S&S account, Fun Times and all of the other features for free.

Thanks for the info. It looks like the Dream is getting the Hub app during its February dry dock. We were looking forward to using it for some onboard communications. Glad to hear it can be used to monitor the account too.

I remembered using the kiosks on my last cruise. I just didn't see an option on the website to set any limits or restrictions when doing the check-in. Glad to know they've got that ability onboard.

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Now you can skip the long line at the guest services desk and use the kiosk. We go to the kiosk every couple of days and up the spending limit on our teens accounts. They can only spend up to the limit you specify. We do a $50 limit the first day, $100 limit the 3rd day, etc. It all comes straight from your sign & sail account. And if you do the hub app (for $5 a week) you can go online and check your account balance on your phone. :)

I was not able to do this on my Thanksgiving cruise on Conquest. Guest Services said I had to see them daily to put a daily limit on his account.

I was not able to do this on my Thanksgiving cruise on Conquest. Guest Services said I had to see them daily to put a daily limit on his account.

We had this problem on the Dream and the Magic. My kids could add cash at the kiosk but I had to go to GS every time to up the limit. Kind of annoying since they already added the cash on their own.

I was not able to do this on my Thanksgiving cruise on Conquest. Guest Services said I had to see them daily to put a daily limit on his account.

Correct. The ONLY way to limit spending is by limiting how much cash you add each day. There is no way to add one lump sum or link a credit card then designate a daily max spending limit. Not possible.

You can set it all up through the kiosks so that they only have access to just cash you add to their account. Otherwise, guest services will be happy to help you.

We used CCL gift cards to fund our DD13 account on our last cruise. It worked perfectly for us. We gave her a set amount each day and did not give her charging priviledges on our acct.

My Daughters are now 16 and 19 and no longer require a limit, but years ago when we started cruising I just told them that they each had a $25 a day limit. This was not true, but they both believed it and never exceeded the limit. Exceeding that limit would have lost their charging privileges though.

When my kids were younger I turned off that card.

at 8 he will be in a kids program that does not allow him wandering.

but when wandering-- he comes across that arcade. or that candy store.

yes he can go over the amount. because purchases are not registered right away-- if he goes into the arcade and spends 15. there then goes to the candy store and spends 15 there- he is now over. and you are responsible because he is a minor.

Correct. The ONLY way to limit spending is by limiting how much cash you add each day. There is no way to add one lump sum or link a credit card then designate a daily max spending limit. Not possible.

 

You can set it all up through the kiosks so that they only have access to just cash you add to their account. Otherwise, guest services will be happy to help you.

That's not true. We have never used cash or added cash to our account while cruising EVER. And our teens always have a spending limit each day. And we've cruised well over a dozen times (not all of our cruises are listed.) Maybe people are confused about how it's done. So I'll explain how we do it. When we do online check-in we add our credit card to our sign & sail. Then it asks who can use this account so we allow ourselves full spending privileges and check the no spending privileges for the kids. Fast forward to when you're on board. We go to guest services and request that our kids have a specific spending limit on their accounts (that's linked to our credit card.) It's all linked to the credit card in our account, NO CASH involved whatsoever. Once they've hit their limit you can go back and adjust it. I could have sworn that I could adjust their spending limits at the kiosk on the Breeze last year. But I'm hearing otherwise from some cruisers. Maybe it's because it's a newer bigger ship with more bells and whistles. Or maybe I'm remembering wrong. But I'm 100% certain everyone can go to guest services and up the spending limit every couple of days for their kids or anyone they want to link to their sign & sail account. I hope this helps clarify everything for you guys. Happy cruising my friends. :D

Is this only for minors?

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That's not true. We have never used cash or added cash to our account while cruising EVER. And our teens always have a spending limit each day. And we've cruised well over a dozen times (not all of our cruises are listed.) Maybe people are confused about how it's done. So I'll explain how we do it. When we do online check-in we add our credit card to our sign & sail. Then it asks who can use this account so we allow ourselves full spending privileges and check the no spending privileges for the kids. Fast forward to when you're on board. We go to guest services and request that our kids have a specific spending limit on their accounts (that's linked to our credit card.) It's all linked to the credit card in our account, NO CASH involved whatsoever. Once they've hit their limit you can go back and adjust it. I could have sworn that I could adjust their spending limits at the kiosk on the Breeze last year. But I'm hearing otherwise from some cruisers. Maybe it's because it's a newer bigger ship with more bells and whistles. Or maybe I'm remembering wrong. But I'm 100% certain everyone can go to guest services and up the spending limit every couple of days for their kids or anyone they want to link to their sign & sail account. I hope this helps clarify everything for you guys. Happy cruising my friends. :D

It didn't help clarify a thing for me. Because what I'm talking about is specifically linking a credit card or adding cash ONCE (not as you go along) and then the system - either through the kiosk or going to guest services- setting a specific spending limit. For example putting $200 on a child's specific folio # by whatever means and having the system not allow them to spend more than $25 a day. That type of barrier is not possible. I tried it myself on 2 ships. Now if there is a way to do that specifically, please advise what ship you were on so that I can write Carnival and suggest they implement it Fleetwide. Of course you can manage spending by watching what they spend or adding as you go, but that's not maintenance free nor is it setting a spending limit. That's limiting access. Yes anybody can do that.

We use gift cards. Add them to our folio numbers, then transfer over money to the kids throughout the cruise. They have gotten pretty good at budgeting now so it's no big deal. But yes it would be great if you could address it once with a daily max spending limit and be done with it. I have yet to see that possible. And it may be because there can sometimes be a lag in when charges show up. Therefore there's always a chance at kids going over.

I'm not looking at how many times you've cruised. Can't see it anyway from my phone. I've been on 10 but it only took 2 with the kids and specifically being told by guest services that there is no way to implement a DAILY spending limit.

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To clarify for everyone involved, you CAN limit your kids spending and you can do it with a CREDIT CARD. No need to pay those exorbitant ATM fees on board then add the cash at the kiosk every few days. Just put a limit on how much they can spend on their account. If you don't want to go to guest services again you can set one set amount and if they spend it all quickly then they've learned a lesson on self control. But if you want you can adjust that spending limit as needed every couple of days. Does Carnival have a DAILY limit allowed for each account? No, and personally I wouldn't want it that way. On port days we are gone all day and don't spend much time on the ship. In fact, my kids usually don't spend money at all on port days. So if Carnival had a daily limit for them, on port days my kids would rush to spend their daily amount on stuff they may not have normally gotten just because they want to use up that "daily limit." There wouldn't be a rollover of the amount because it's a daily limit. So once you hit that daily limit they won't allow anymore spending on that account regardless of how much you did or did not spend the day before. This is why daily limits through Carnival just don't make sense to me. That's why I only spoke of putting a certain amount in every couple of days and then setting your own daily limits with the kids. It just makes more sense that way. AGAIN, I hope this clarifies things everyone. Enjoy your cruise guys.

To clarify for everyone involved, you CAN limit your kids spending and you can do it with a CREDIT CARD. No need to pay those exorbitant ATM fees on board then add the cash at the kiosk every few days. Just put a limit on how much they can spend on their account. If you don't want to go to guest services again you can set one set amount and if they spend it all quickly then they've learned a lesson on self control. But if you want you can adjust that spending limit as needed every couple of days. Does Carnival have a DAILY limit allowed for each account? No, and personally I wouldn't want it that way. On port days we are gone all day and don't spend much time on the ship. In fact, my kids usually don't spend money at all on port days. So if Carnival had a daily limit for them, on port days my kids would rush to spend their daily amount on stuff they may not have normally gotten just because they want to use up that "daily limit." There wouldn't be a rollover of the amount because it's a daily limit. So once you hit that daily limit they won't allow anymore spending on that account regardless of how much you did or did not spend the day before. This is why daily limits through Carnival just don't make sense to me. That's why I only spoke of putting a certain amount in every couple of days and then setting your own daily limits with the kids. It just makes more sense that way. AGAIN, I hope this clarifies things everyone. Enjoy your cruise guys.

Of course it would roll over. lol. All a daily limit does is allow a max spending amount daily. If you don't use it, it's a non-issue. The OP asked if there was a way to set a fixed amount daily as a daily allowance. And the answer is no.

Me and my girlfriend are traveling with her son and while he is old enough to wander on his own, we don't want to give unrestricted access to charge back to a credit card. I see where the account can be set to not be allowed to charge, but is it possible to load a fixed amount daily onto the card as a deposit so that he has a daily allowance?

 

I seem to remember being able to add cash to my sign & sail account, as I had a good bit of cash left over on my last cruise on our last sea day and I'm pretty sure I was able to load it onto my card so I could spend it onboard. Am I remembering correctly this is possible, and does it still work?

We just put a set amount on our kids card and when he spent it all we would add more if needed this gives you total control.

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I know it has been brought up before, but I don't recall seeing an answer. If you have charging turned off for the kids and they have BB, if they order a drink while in a US port, will they be allowed to get one because of the tax? We have kids going on this next one and when mine were little, they didn't give receipts, and there was no tax per drink like now. Thanks.

If you set a daily limit through Carnival of $50 a day, that's all you could spend that day. Carnival wouldn't change it to $100 dollars the next day or $150 the following day if those daily amounts weren't spent. Therefore the spending amount wouldn't roll over. That's the point I was making which was obviously misconstrued. :rolleyes: Of course the parent isn't losing any money. But that's not how a child would see it. The child would see it as losing out on spending the $50 he could have spent the previous day. So he as I said previously, he would endeavor to use that daily fixed amount. But seriously let's just agree to disagree and drop it. We are here to help the OP and this back and forth stuff is not helping them. They've heard more than enough about our opinions on the matter. Let's leave them be.

OP, you asked "is it possible to load a fixed amount daily onto the card as a deposit so that he has a daily allowance?" Yes you can load a fixed amount onto the card every day if you like via cash as a daily allowance for your child. Or you can set a limit with a credit card as I suggested you do. And then adjust the limit every few days. Either way I'm sure you will figure out what works for you. You've gotten plenty of info and suggestions. I'm sorry about the argumentative people hijacking your thread. I try to be friendly and positive but with some people that doesn't matter. :(

When my kids were younger I turned off that card.

 

at 8 he will be in a kids program that does not allow him wandering.

but when wandering-- he comes across that arcade. or that candy store.

yes he can go over the amount. because purchases are not registered right away-- if he goes into the arcade and spends 15. there then goes to the candy store and spends 15 there- he is now over. and you are responsible because he is a minor.

I second this. I had put a total dollar amount limit - for the cruise, not daily - on my sons account. He ran over that amount by at least double, and when I went to guest services to find out what had happened, was told that if he tries to run a transaction when there are funds available in the account - it will go through even though it puts him over the limit. That explained the first overage transaction, but not the ones to follow. I can't remember if it was a limitation of the system, or if its up to each clerk running the transaction to check into the specifics of the account. But I'd venture to say it isn't fool proof. If I had it to do over, I'd say gift cards are safer.

And yes, he shouldn't have done it & was in hot water with me over it. I'm just posting this to serve as a cautionary tale to others, no flames please.

Me and my girlfriend are traveling with her son and while he is old enough to wander on his own, we don't want to give unrestricted access to charge back to a credit card. I see where the account can be set to not be allowed to charge, but is it possible to load a fixed amount daily onto the card as a deposit so that he has a daily allowance?

 

I seem to remember being able to add cash to my sign & sail account, as I had a good bit of cash left over on my last cruise on our last sea day and I'm pretty sure I was able to load it onto my card so I could spend it onboard. Am I remembering correctly this is possible, and does it still work?

Yes.

But personally if he's old enough to wander on his own he's old enough to comply with limits you set, and reverse, if he can't comply with limits set ....???