Leaving a child on the boat at port

[jenster1974]

Can I check my child (10 year old) into the kid's club while the boat is docked? Specifically while we are in Haiti? I want to rent a cabana but she is deathly afraid to swim in the ocean...she's crazy! :D And I want to know now if I need to plan on her sitting in the cabana playing her ipod all day or if she can enjoy the kid's club.

 

I guess I might as well ask about leaving my teen (13) on the boat as well. I know his "club" is not as structured as the younger kids AND he will swim and snorkel so he will probably enjoy a beach day. I might let him do the aqua park thing too.

 

Thank you!

Jen

[matj2000]

Check the hours, they are used to be extended when the ship is in port, usually for most of the duration.

They even bring them to lunch.

We used to dump our kids off all the time when our kids were little, because we didn't want to drag them around the islands.

[Camlott]

Can I check my child (10 year old) into the kid's club while the boat is docked? Specifically while we are in Haiti?

Jen

 

The kids club is actually held on Labadee. The have a water park/splashpad area for them and organized activities. They don't go in the ocean though!

[Nikmav]

The kids club is actually held on Labadee. The have a water park/splashpad area for them and organized activities. They don't go in the ocean though!

 

Oh that's interesting. I didn't realize that. So that is part of the Adventure Ocean program and not extra like an excursion?

[JinxyB]

M son stayed in Adventure Ocean for a few hours while in Labadee last week. It was mostly little kids when he was there in the morning and afternoon. There is a splash pad next to the AO area but the youth staff don't take them there.

[cb at sea]

Yes...AO is held on Labadee....there is no charge. And, just because you go there, doesn't mean she HAS to get in the water! Even if she doesn't want to go to AO, there's plenty to do without getting wet!

Edited April 2, 2014 by cb at sea

[Allis154]

I can tell you a story that we witnessed last year on the Solstice...we were onboard for some time and got to talk to some of the officers, so some info was from them, others witnessed myself.

 

Port Douglas, tender port. A family was a few cabins down from us, father, GF, 13 year old, 5 year old and a 2 year old....

 

Adults tender ashore, leaving the children on board.

 

Adults miss the last tender back....

 

Father charters a boat to take him to the ship ,which waited more than 1 hour for him. GF didn't return to ship, father had joint custody of all children, whereas she only had joint custody of the youngest.

 

The family spent the rest of the night and the next day under 'house arrest'... With security sitting outside of their door.

 

They were all put ashore at the next port.

 

Since Haiti is a private island, it isn't likely to happen, but stills bears some consideration. Things happen...that is why they are called 'accidents'.

[BeachChik]

I can tell you a story that we witnessed last year on the Solstice...we were onboard for some time and got to talk to some of the officers, so some info was from them, others witnessed myself.

 

Port Douglas, tender port. A family was a few cabins down from us, father, GF, 13 year old, 5 year old and a 2 year old....

 

Adults tender ashore, leaving the children on board.

 

Adults miss the last tender back....

 

Father charters a boat to take him to the ship ,which waited more than 1 hour for him. GF didn't return to ship, father had joint custody of all children, whereas she only had joint custody of the youngest.

 

The family spent the rest of the night and the next day under 'house arrest'... With security sitting outside of their door.

 

They were all put ashore at the next port.

 

Since Haiti is a private island, it isn't likely to happen, but stills bears some consideration. Things happen...that is why they are called 'accidents'.

 

To me this story doesn't make sense. Why would they be locked in their room and put off the ship because the parents missed the last tender? I think there must be more to this story.

 

Aside from that, this is a service that the ship offers. If parents missed the ship all the time and kids were left on the ship alone do you really think they would continue to offer it? Doubt it. A responsible parent would make sure they have plenty of time to return to the ship and not have to worry about missing it.

[reallyitsmema]

I can tell you a story that we witnessed last year on the Solstice...we were onboard for some time and got to talk to some of the officers, so some info was from them, others witnessed myself.

 

Port Douglas, tender port. A family was a few cabins down from us, father, GF, 13 year old, 5 year old and a 2 year old....

 

Adults tender ashore, leaving the children on board.

 

Adults miss the last tender back....

 

Father charters a boat to take him to the ship ,which waited more than 1 hour for him. GF didn't return to ship, father had joint custody of all children, whereas she only had joint custody of the youngest.

 

The family spent the rest of the night and the next day under 'house arrest'... With security sitting outside of their door.

 

They were all put ashore at the next port.

 

Since Haiti is a private island, it isn't likely to happen, but stills bears some consideration. Things happen...that is why they are called 'accidents'.

 

The OP is asking about Labadee which is a secured area, totally fenced off from the rest of the island. No one is going to be left behind. Adventure Ocean operates from the island when in Labadee, which is not a tender port, there is a dock. Totally different circumstances than your story.

[xxHadleyxx]

To me this story doesn't make sense. Why would they be locked in their room and put off the ship because the parents missed the last tender? I think there must be more to this story.

 

Aside from that, this is a service that the ship offers. If parents missed the ship all the time and kids were left on the ship alone do you really think they would continue to offer it? Doubt it. A responsible parent would make sure they have plenty of time to return to the ship and not have to worry about missing it.

 

I agree there has GOT to be more to this story.

 

(and I agree with the post after that points out that this does not apply at all for Labadee anyway).

[steveru621]

Still, it's something to consider. I'm not sure what I would do, but we have thought about taking our grand-daughter on a cruise.

[racnug]

Just a heads up....We were planning on taking our kids to Adventure Ocean in Haiti because they loved going so much. In Haiti, it was just a concrete circular wall near the beach with sand and a few toys, not much shade and looked terribly boring. The kids did not want to go once they saw it an stayed with us. This was in 2012, not sure if it's changed.

 

Speaking of....

On our last cruise(2013), our daughter became friends with a 9 year old girl in Adventure Ocean. We stayed on the ship for most of the day in St Thomas, and our daughter was hanging out with her friend at the pool along with the girl's younger sister(age 6). I asked them where their parents were so maybe we could say "hello". Turns out, the parents left their two daughters to roam the ship freely while they spent the day in port. They told them to eat in the Windjammer, and go to the pool, and basically do whatever they wanted. They were never even checked into Adventure Ocean! Six and nine years old! Can't imagine if one of them had gotten hurt and no way to contact the parents. Crazy!

[marci22]

 

Speaking of....

On our last cruise(2013), our daughter became friends with a 9 year old girl in Adventure Ocean. We stayed on the ship for most of the day in St Thomas, and our daughter was hanging out with her friend at the pool along with the girl's younger sister(age 6). I asked them where their parents were so maybe we could say "hello". Turns out, the parents left their two daughters to roam the ship freely while they spent the day in port. They told them to eat in the Windjammer, and go to the pool, and basically do whatever they wanted. They were never even checked into Adventure Ocean! Six and nine years old! Can't imagine if one of them had gotten hurt and no way to contact the parents. Crazy!

 

That really is crazy.

[cruisingagentone]

racnug

I hope you reported that to Guest Services. Anything could have happened to those 2 kids.

[nbsjcruiser]

I can tell you a story that we witnessed last year on the Solstice...we were onboard for some time and got to talk to some of the officers, so some info was from them, others witnessed myself.

 

Port Douglas, tender port. A family was a few cabins down from us, father, GF, 13 year old, 5 year old and a 2 year old....

 

Adults tender ashore, leaving the children on board.

 

Adults miss the last tender back....

 

Father charters a boat to take him to the ship ,which waited more than 1 hour for him. GF didn't return to ship, father had joint custody of all children, whereas she only had joint custody of the youngest.

 

The family spent the rest of the night and the next day under 'house arrest'... With security sitting outside of their door.

 

They were all put ashore at the next port.

 

Since Haiti is a private island, it isn't likely to happen, but stills bears some consideration. Things happen...that is why they are called 'accidents'.

 

When our kids were small and we traveled anywhere I trusted two people to take care of them. My wife and I. Nobody else. I know plenty of people leave their kids on the ship but I wouldn't dream of doing that.

[mckinna]

Many years ago when our girls were younger, we left them in Adventure Ocean while DH and I did the Chichen Itza excursion. We knew they wouldn't like the excursion, and they wanted to stay in AO. I checked with the staff beforehand, as AO had listed an open time that was after we had to leave for the excursion. Staff said no problem, and they were there for us to check the kids in before we left. They had a blast.

 

I would never think of leaving young kids on board without being officially checked in to AO.

[racnug]

racnug

I hope you reported that to Guest Services. Anything could have happened to those 2 kids.

 

My husband did let the crew know, but the girls were in 2 different places by the time I questioned my daughter about it to confirm(a minute later) They were going back and forth between Windjammer, the pool and their cabin. Running is more like it, the 9 year old could barely stand still long enough to say hi to us. We were in port in St. Maarten all day the following day, and I don't recall seeing the girls on our final "at sea" day, the pool was busy and our kids were in Adventure Ocean. Hopefully someone spoke to the parents.

[cruisingagentone]

racnug

Good to hear and hopefully someone did speak to them. That was just crazy. Luckily it was someone like you and your husband who noticed it.

[MNfamilycruiser]

Just a heads up....We were planning on taking our kids to Adventure Ocean in Haiti because they loved going so much. In Haiti, it was just a concrete circular wall near the beach with sand and a few toys, not much shade and looked terribly boring. The kids did not want to go once they saw it an stayed with us. This was in 2012, not sure if it's changed.

 

Speaking of....

On our last cruise(2013), our daughter became friends with a 9 year old girl in Adventure Ocean. We stayed on the ship for most of the day in St Thomas, and our daughter was hanging out with her friend at the pool along with the girl's younger sister(age 6). I asked them where their parents were so maybe we could say "hello". Turns out, the parents left their two daughters to roam the ship freely while they spent the day in port. They told them to eat in the Windjammer, and go to the pool, and basically do whatever they wanted. They were never even checked into Adventure Ocean! Six and nine years old! Can't imagine if one of them had gotten hurt and no way to contact the parents. Crazy!

 

My kids also had an awful time at AO on Labadee - they were older, but not big enough to go on the Dragon's Breath zipline so we left them while we did that. In the meantime, some small child or toddler had an "accident" in the splash area and all the kids had to sit on the side on the concrete in the sun for quite a long time while they cleaned up.

 

In the afternoon though we went to the beach area with an inflatable water slide near the Aqua park - they LOVED it - very shallow warm water they just dug around in the sand and played in the water while my husband and I relaxed in the shade with our drinks. :D We also paid to do the water slide and they loved that too.

[matj2000]

When our kids were small and we traveled anywhere I trusted two people to take care of them. My wife and I. Nobody else. I know plenty of people leave their kids on the ship but I wouldn't dream of doing that.

 

Hundreds & hundreds of kids stay on the ships while parents are in port on any given day.

 

It is no problem at all.

Never heard of anything going wrong..

[luv2cruiserccl]

Hundreds & hundreds of kids stay on the ships while parents are in port on any given day.

 

It is no problem at all.

Never heard of anything going wrong..

 

Not mine..........

 

 

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk 2- Please excuse any errors.

[waterbug123]

To me this story doesn't make sense. Why would they be locked in their room and put off the ship because the parents missed the last tender? I think there must be more to this story.

 

 

My guess is that the kids had not been checked into AO. I wouldn't worry so much about a 13 year old, or even a child that age babysitting younger siblings for a period of time. But maybe these parents took off for the entire day or something.

[sweetpea1714]

Not mine..........

 

 

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk 2- Please excuse any errors.

 

I am with you. I am bringing our sitter along expressly so I have the option if leaving my child onboard in one port. Would never leave my kid on board even in the kids club if I and my spouse left the ship. What, I wonder, is the ships protocol if the parents miss the ship?

[Mom.to.2]

I am with you. I am bringing our sitter along expressly so I have the option if leaving my child onboard in one port. Would never leave my kid on board even in the kids club if I and my spouse left the ship. What, I wonder, is the ships protocol if the parents miss the ship?

 

I've heard (on cruise critic) the cruise line assigns a staff member to babysit the 'abandoned' minor and charges the parent their hourly babysitting rate ($19/hr).

[dcedar]

On Carnival I left my 10 year old on the ship. He had privileges to sign himself in and out of Camp Carnival. I would never have done it if it wasn't for the Carnival staff reassuring me. I was told there was no way he could leave the ship, which he wouldn't have anyway, and I was assured there was security and cameras everywhere. I saw much younger children running around by themselves.

 

My son had to lave a note in his room letting me know where he was going to be. And most of the time he was where he said. A few times he wasn't but he was always back in his room by curfew. Sometimes with candy. sometimes with icecream:)