Camp Carnival - sign himself out?

[BeckyMax]

Hi all, it's been 3 years since our last cruise. My son will be 11 when we go in March. I know that we can allow him to sign himself out or we can restrict it. Is this something that can be done on a day by day basis or is it for the whole week? He has no other siblings or friends going with us, so he will be basically alone, so if he signs himself out he will be by himself. I've thought of making a rule that he is only allowed to go back to our cabin and no where else, but we will have a balcony cabin and I worry about him being on the balcony alone (especially after this latest fall/jump incident). What do you think? Would you allow an 11 year old to sign himself out? At home he is allowed to stay home by himself for up to an hour at a time and he does fine here, but a ship is a bit less secure.

 

Becky

[big_duck]

Generally, you have the option at the beginning of the cruise to allow/disallow signout privilages and that is it for the cruise. I under some circumstances, the Camp Carnival may make exceptions.

[gazingm42]

Also remember that if you disallow sign in there a few things they the camp

does for this age he will not allow to do.

 

Its hard to say what to do for you son. I have a 9 year old girl I allowed with

no problems. But she was give instructions on where we would be, thus where

she would go. She need to check in ever few hrs. If you trust your son to be

alone at home, I would allow him to check himself out.

 

With my girl I let her know if she once abuses it and doing something I would

not be happy with, I would take it away from her in a heartbeat.

[TennisLover]

DId the same with my 11yo son on our cruise earlier this year. Actually, he was 10 at the time. I showed him (not told him) exactly where I would be on the pool deck and he was to check in with me when he left Camp Carnival. We never had a problem. He liked the freedom of being able to go to the Camp Carnival activities he liked and leaving when he didn't want to be there.

[caribbean dreams]

I told my daughter, she could not sign herself out, she was 11, maybe i'm a bit over protective but atleast i knew where she was at all times.

Our last cruise she was 12 and did not want to participate in the activities but liked to hang out in the arcade, so i would tell her what time i would be picking her up and she was not to leave at any time.

 

[DqALEX]

I try to remember that my kids are on vacation too. My 13 year old dd and my 11 year old DS sign themselves out all the time. They meet kids there own age and there are times they just want to go swimming with there friends that they meet. my 7 year old DD that is a whole different story. Im glad she is there and can't leave untill I go and get her

[cruisefeen2304]

it depends on how u feel about your son. i'm a teen and on my first cruise my grandmother let me sign myslef out all the time but i am mature and she even let me stay out of the cabin til one( all me and my new friends did was hang out in an empty lounge and talked about how our schools were and what we did as an excersion that day, along with a little flirtation lol) but me and my granmother spent alot of time together too. we met back at the cabin for lunch and dinner and then we went to the dinner show together as well. after that my granmother went to the casino and.... well long story short it's up to how you feel about your soand his maturity

[BeckyMax]

I am leaning towards allowing him to do so, and getting a pair of walkie-talkies so he can buzz me when he leaves, etc. I do want him to have freedoms but don't want him wandering around by himself. If he makes new friends, that would be great, I'd be more relaxed if I knew he was with a friend.

[sunkey1]

On our last cruise our son was 10. We did allow him to sign himself out on occasion when he had a friend that he wanted to hang out with. They just wanted to play cards, get pizza and ice cream, etc. We just set down guidelines that he had to let us know when he was changing locations (we gave him a walkie talkie - it makes it much easier!). He followed the rules extremely well (we even checked once to see if he was where he said he was) and he felt so proud to be given some freedom. We told him it was up to him to handle the privilege properly, if not it would be taken away. We're going on the Miracle in two months and our kids (12 and 9) will both be given the opportunity to prove themselves worthy of the privilege, although my daughter will only be able to leave if she's with my son. My son is extremely mature, but I'm not ready for my DD to be out around the ship yet, even with a friend. Again, the walkie talkies are invaluable.

 

Kathy

[vincenzo0506]

If you don't allow him to sign himself out, he may be restricted and not allowed to do certain functions. I had 3 that were in Camp and allowed to sign out. They all had radios, and rules.

 

If you leave camp for any reason other than a function(scavanger hunt), then you need to check in and let us know. If you don't get an answer, then you walk until you do or find us. They always knew where to find us.

 

I never was worried about their safety.

 

They knew, that if I went to camp, and found they had signed out and didn't let me know, then they would be enjoying my company for the remainder of the cruise. I never had a problem.

 

vincenzo:)