Help in reassuring my son

[sctexan]

Thought I would ask here as we, my husband and I, have never been on an Alaskan cruise and our son (8) has never been on a cruise at all.

 

I guess my fascination with Titanic has impacted my son in a negative way. He's worried about our ship sinking and I have tried and tried to reassure him that the likelihood of that happening is slim to none, but he's a thinker and I know he's still scared. He says he's afraid of not being able to see the shore.

 

So my question is for those who have been on an inside passage cruise from Seattle. We will be on the Westerdam in a little more than a week. Is the shore always able to be seen from the ship? Not necessarily from both port and starboard, but at least one? I think having that will help him in some way and if we won't have that at least we can prepare him as best we can. I have a feeling that once we have been on the ship a couple of days his fear will subside but I don't want to dismiss them altogether right now.

 

Thanks for any help you can give me!

Edited June 10, 2014 by sctexan

[oaktreerb]

From Seattle your ship will go outside Vancouver Island and you will be in open ocean without seeing land for a day until you get to your first stop (Juneau). There are plenty of activities on the ship and if he gets involved with the kids club he will soon forget about that open ocean. When you get near land he can watch for whales.

 

He'll soon learn that a cruise ship is like a big floating city with the hotel, restaurants, shops, games, movie theatre with popcorn, and ice cream and cookies available for free in the Lido all day.

[sherryf]

No, you won't see land the whole time, but he's going to be too busy to care. Luckily, he will be able to see land from the time you sail away from Seattle until he goes to bed the first day. Get him signed up at the kids club that night and either he will want to be there or at the pool the next day. Keep him busy enough and he won't even be looking for land. :D

[fleckle]

Thought I would ask here as we, my husband and I, have never been on an Alaskan cruise and our son (8) has never been on a cruise at all.

 

I guess my fascination with Titanic has impacted my son in a negative way. He's worried about our ship sinking and I have tried and tried to reassure him that the likelihood of that happening is slim to none, but he's a thinker and I know he's still scared. He says he's afraid of not being able to see the shore.

Here is a link to the forum for

Family Cruises

 

If you post your concerns over there, perhaps others may be able to provide helpful suggestions that worked for them with their own children in similar circumstances.

 

It may be reassuring to your son to learn in advance about the muster drill and the lifejackets and lifeboats, and how much safer ships are today than back in the days of the Titanic.

 

Even though an emergency situation is extremely unlikely to occur, it could be helpful for him to know that he could get into a lifeboat and be picked up by another ship, even if far from the shoreline.

 

Explain how good the communication systems are these days and how all ships in the area will go to the aid of any vessel in trouble.

 

[Northern Aurora]

Would it help to remind him that there will be life jackets actually in the stateroom (in addition to other locations throughout the ship)?

[CowPrincess]

Does your family watch Deadliest Catch? If so, perhaps you might be able to use those little boats way way WAY far out in the ocean (but accessible by the Coast Guard in emergencies) as some reassurance... just a thought.

 

Another suggestion -- he can't see (pick one) the mall, the baseball diamond, his school, grandparents' house right? But they are still there, right? And so is the shore -- the shore is still there, even though he can't see it. It doesn't have to be a long way away to be out of sight, really.

 

I hope you find a suggestion (or several) that resonates with you, and will help you give your son the reassurance he needs.

[brookeinmn]

I just had a similar conversation with my 6 year old today. We talked about how since Titanic we have had 100 years to improve the safety of sailing. With GPS, radar, lifeboats, etc etc... I tried to reassure him that the ship will be prepared for any emergency. I think the biggest thing is to listen to the child, acknowledge the fear, address it, then redirect them to something awesome about the cruise.

 

My 10 year old has brought up the Costa Concordia..which makes the 100 yr argument a little harder to justify ;).

 

Good luck! I'm sure he will do great!

[Cheryl H]

Our son now prefers cruises over going to Disneyworld. However, he has never heard of the Titanic yet so we didn't have that issue. If you think it would help you, our cruise photo books are in the link below....you can show him pictures of my son having fun on the ship. He's been to Alaska once, Canada/New England twice, and a Bahamas cruise. I think our son's biggest worry was what he was going to eat. He doesn't like fancy food yet. But he did fine with the children's menu plus we packed Jif-to-go and some bread.

 

Hopefully he will take his queues from you. It really is a feeling of being in a huge hotel.

 

Perhaps you could get his mind off it by having him take his own camera and make up his own photo journal book. My son made one up with pictures of him touring a gold mine in Juneau and panning for gold, and all sorts of fun stuff.

 

On the whale watch tour, he wasn't too interested so he brought along his DS game. He played it the entire time. He was quiet and enjoyed himself and we were fine with that.

 

Well, have fun and I hope you come back and write and tell us how it went.

[Cheryl H]

Also I thought I might add.....it was always a comfort to me to know that those ships all take the same route....so there's usually another ship nearby.....so if there was anything the captain needed, he could just radio for some assistance and another ship would be there in a jiffy.

[sctexan]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and for letting me know when we would see land. This will help us to manage his expectations which I have found does wonders for anxiety. I am an anxious person too so at least he comes by it honestly. :)

 

We do plan to get him to Club HAL as soon as possible. We are definitely going to try to keep him as busy as possible so that he can get comfortable and enjoy the trip.

[SparkleBee]

maybe if he thinks about it like a floating hotel rather than a ship it will feel better. once he's onboard it really will feel like you're in a building not a boat.

[Dizzneefan]

Our son now prefers cruises over going to Disneyworld.

 

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