Communicating with 12 year old on ship

[bandjwayne]

My hubby & I are going on a 5 night cruise on the Carnival Paradise at the end of March with our 9 & 12 year old sons.  We took them on one other cruise when they were 7 & 10.  At that time they were either with us or briefly in the kids club.  This time I'm wondering about how to communicate/connect with my 12 year old as he'll be in Circle C and able to check-in/out on his own.  From reading others posts its sounds like a lot of kids use Circle C to meet up, but then go do other things.  My question to you is how do you know where your kids are?  Do you pay for the chat feature and let your kids have their phones?  I'm a little nervous about letting my son bring his iPhoneX as I don't want it to get lost or stollen.  Or do you go old school and leave notes or have check-in times?

 

Thanks!

[bury me at sea]

Old school.

[teknoge3k]

When my son was 12 he'd go off by himself around the ship for the day. We usually saw him here and there throughout the day. Once Carnival introduced The Hub app a few years ago, we've used that ever since. He has his phone so not only can he chat with us, but so he knows the activities going on throughout the day, and can also see where we'll be if he needs us since we "favorite" the activities we want to do. 

[NebraskaSatellite]

The phone doesn't have to be activated on a cell network.  As long as it can connect to WiFi and you install the Hub app, it should work fine.  Maybe you can give him an old phone?

[emoorehead]

1 minute ago, NebraskaSatellite said:

The phone doesn't have to be activated on a cell network.  As long as it can connect to WiFi and you install the Hub app, it should work fine.  Maybe you can give him an old phone?

This is a fantastic idea! I was planning on going old school with my son on our upcoming cruise because I didn't want to get a call from his dad when we get back about an astronomical phone bill (his dad pays for his phone and I don't trust him to keep it in airplane mode). 

 

bandjwayne, as far as letting your son roam free on the ship, I would say that is entirely up to your comfort level. How mature/responsible is your son? 

Maybe giving him an old phone and chatting through the app but also having 3 or so set times for a face to face check in each day. If he doesn't answer you when you send a message he loses his privileges to roam. 

Ultimately, you have to be comfortable with whatever decision you make. Enjoy your cruise!

[stellarose]

my children were 14 and 16 at time of sailing. they had phones . wifi was turned off. airplane mode turned on and they could only use the carnival hub.  walkie talkies are good but not great. 

[riffatsea]

I would want a face to face a few times during the day in addition to phone check ins IF he is using the phone. You cannot tell what a 12 year old is doing when talking/texting on a phone.

It all depends on what amount of freedom your child is used to at home. IF this is his first experience being on his own I'd want more check ins than if he is used to roaming at a mall or in your town etc.

[kctwinmommy]

Like others said, it depends on you & your kid. We had no problems with our kid when he was first cruising and he was 12. He didn't have a cell phone either. He knew the rules before (no going into other's rooms, nobody in our room, staying in public areas, and when to be back for dinner). Then there was no fighting over those things. Plus, if he was doing anything specific, he'd leave a note in the room. We usually had a spot on the ship where we'd hang, so one of us would usually see him a few times during the day.

 

And yes, kids tend to meet up at Circle C and then go off to do things, not always with the Circle C counselors. So he'd meet some kids on the first night and that's who he'd hang with during the week.

[Lee Cruiser]

If he is going to have his phone with him and you are already doing the social media plan from wi-fi, you can also use Facebook messenger.  We have done that numerous times to communicate with each other on the ship and others back home.  No need to pay additional for the chat feature on the Hub app if you are already doing the social media plans.  If you are not doing the social media plan, then the Hub app chat feature is the cheaper way to go.

[glrounds]

Back during the dark ages (mid 80s) when our son was around 8 years old he found a friend on an NCL cruise we were on. They would go off to do this and do that, but was instructed to show up every other hour at the main pool/bar area where we just asked him how he was doing and then sent him on his way again. He would occasionally see us on the ship and high five us. The two of them had a ball together and he remembers it at age 38 very clearly to this day. 🙂

[CruisingViper]

how reliable is the messaging in the hub app? I seem to remember sometimes not getting messages until 30 mins later. Is it the same with other messaging apps like whatsapp and facebook messenger?

[bandjwayne]

21 hours ago, NebraskaSatellite said:

The phone doesn't have to be activated on a cell network.  As long as it can connect to WiFi and you install the Hub app, it should work fine.  Maybe you can give him an old phone?

Oh I completely didn't think about giving him an old phone.  I think we'll do that as well as having him periodically check in  Thanks!

[bandjwayne]

21 hours ago, emoorehead said:

This is a fantastic idea! I was planning on going old school with my son on our upcoming cruise because I didn't want to get a call from his dad when we get back about an astronomical phone bill (his dad pays for his phone and I don't trust him to keep it in airplane mode). 

 

bandjwayne, as far as letting your son roam free on the ship, I would say that is entirely up to your comfort level. How mature/responsible is your son? 

Maybe giving him an old phone and chatting through the app but also having 3 or so set times for a face to face check in each day. If he doesn't answer you when you send a message he loses his privileges to roam. 

Ultimately, you have to be comfortable with whatever decision you make. Enjoy your cruise!

  Exactly what I was thinking.  He's pretty mature - used to be left alone and is good at following the rules.  Thanks!

[bandjwayne]

5 hours ago, CruisingViper said:

how reliable is the messaging in the hub app? I seem to remember sometimes not getting messages until 30 mins later. Is it the same with other messaging apps like whatsapp and facebook messenger?

Good question.  We were on the Vista 2 years ago and sort of gave up on the app when trying to connect with friends because it was so unreliable.  Maybe it will be better on the Paradise because it's a smaller ship.  Then again it could be worse because it's an older ship.  I think we'll have to try it out to see how reliable it is before we trust it.

[NebraskaSatellite]

On the Breeze last summer, it was hit and miss.  Some messages were never delivered, some delivered 2-3 hours later.  Other times it ran 100%.

 

If Carnival wanted to help its passengers out, it'd provide a "delivered" flag back to the originator (like my Verizon messaging app) so you knew the message got to the other end.  If.

[CruisingViper]

are regular messaging apps when on the social package more reliable?

[Stacie.]

We used the Hub on the Glory in February. Ours would show what time a person read the message so if one of my kids didn't respond and it showed they had read the message they were in trouble and had to stick with us. Which was sort of a punishment for all involved. LOL

[emoorehead]

1 hour ago, Stacie. said:

We used the Hub on the Glory in February. Ours would show what time a person read the message so if one of my kids didn't respond and it showed they had read the message they were in trouble and had to stick with us. Which was sort of a punishment for all involved. LOL

Gotta love punishing yourself to teach the kiddos a lesson.

[Stacie.]

On 3/9/2019 at 8:34 AM, emoorehead said:

Gotta love punishing yourself to teach the kiddos a lesson.

Parenting: Not for the faint of heart. 😉 I can tell you that it only happened once!

[emoorehead]

3 hours ago, Stacie. said:

Parenting: Not for the faint of heart. 😉 I can tell you that it only happened once!

Definitely not!! They suck you in when they are babies with all the cuteness and the sweet bahy smell.....it makes you forget that they turn into teenagers.

[kctwinmommy]

18 minutes ago, emoorehead said:

Definitely not!! They suck you in when they are babies with all the cuteness and the sweet bahy smell.....it makes you forget that they turn into teenagers.

 

Haha! So true!! My friends who feel those toddler years are tough have no idea what's coming! LOL!

[MistyRo76]

Back before HUB apps on on-ship Wi-Fi, we did a family cruise that included my 12 year old (at the time) nephew. My brother allowed him to sign out from camp on his own and do his own thing. But they had required meeting times throughout the day. If my nephew missed one meeting time, he knew his freedom to go off on his own would be over. They set a 15 minute window and he just had to show up and say hi and then could do his own thing again. Needless to say, he liked the freedom he had and didn't miss a single check-in! 

[scrotser]

We just went through this in November with our 12 year old son on the Freedom (and his first taste of freedom from us!).  He took his older iphone and we paid for chat.  He had one of those waterproof phone pouches to wear it around his neck.  That way he didn't leave it somewhere and didn't worry about going in the pool with it.    We made a rule that if he went anywhere on the ship, out of the club, he had to text us where he was going, and he'd better be there if we went looking. He was not allowed to go into adult only type areas, nor into anyone's cabin.  We knew going into the cruise that the chat app wasn't perfect, so we decided that if any of us sent a text, the others would have to respond when they saw it.  That way we knew if a text was missed.  

[jbethel11]

On 3/7/2019 at 8:09 PM, bandjwayne said:

From reading others posts its sounds like a lot of kids use Circle C to meet up, but then go do other things.  My question to you is how do you know where your kids are?  Do you pay for the chat feature and let your kids have their phones?  I'm a little nervous about letting my son bring his iPhoneX as I don't want it to get lost or stollen.  Or do you go old school and leave notes or have check-in times?

 

Thanks!

3

As a younger cruiser, I can agree with you on how kids meet up and do other things. Does your son have like an old iPod touch or older device? If so, he can use that to chat with you for $5 per person.

[five.]

I've only done one cruise with the hub app as an option and it worked 100%, but you do have to keep it running in the background. As far as the iphone x goes... if I were in your shoes, I would use an older phone lying around for use on the ship. But of course, in my house we have at least 4 old smart phones lying around that I can think of. And if there is a dead battery, I can change it myself if needed. And put it in an old lifeproof case, to try and protect it from the water.