dakloze

We just came back from dining in the main hall and we got plastic straws for our daughter.

To revive this old thread with actual data and information.

RCCL has excellent child care facilities so there was no need to leave our daughter alone in the cabin after-all. Even if we would have to for some reason, I'd still feel relatively okay-ish as (opposed to other cruise lines we've been on), she was fitted with a special wrist band before boarding. Any children found unattended during an emergency are handled by the crew and brought to the assembly point indicated on their wrist band. Note that this is a testament to the safety planning of the crew/company, not to our parenting. I's good to know that, just in case, the crew has your back.

I've seen a number of guests last week with walkie-talkies, and they seem to work just fine. They're even sold on board on deck 5. We haven't needed any as the Royal App now has a chat functionality under the (beta) screen. That works good enough.

My plan for a clandestine communication channel kind of works. My plan A was to simply use a soft PBX on my laptop, but unfortunately the wifi is configured to block client-to-client traffic. My plan B would have worked, which was to tunnel out of the network. But then again, we didn't need it as the app works fine. Looking forward to the second week of our vacation.

Hi,

For those who don't know anything about networking, feel free to move on. I'm only posting this for future "me", and I'm answering the questions that I had before I boarded. All information below is regarding the Allure of the seas.

ssid: royal-wifi

security: none

network: 172.27.128/20

gw: 172.27.128.1 (00:26:99:64:4a:80)

dns: 172.27.4.13

Walled garden redirect: port 80 only, other ports filtered for UDP and TCP

Client-to-client: disallowed

Open protocols: ICMP only. Traceroute works. DNS lookups work, via the provided DNS. Large queries supported.

Network gear used: Cisco APs and Nomadix Access Gateway (admin interface reachable but properly secured)

Public address: 162.249.177.144

Other SSID: royal-crew (WPA2-PSK)

You leave it in your room

Great, thanks for the quick reply!!

Hi,

Silly question, I know. We're getting ready for our back to back. I managed to book the same room for both cruises, on the same ship. Can I leave my luggage in the room or do I have to take it off the ship and drag it back on?

OP has already stated they will not be leaving their 6/7 year old alone for now.

Indeed. Perhaps we were a bit spoiled by our sense of safety on our previous cruise experience on DCL, but the 'what are you going to do in case of emergency' aspect was a good argument to let go of the whole idea.

I am curious as to what their primary, "person to person" communication plan is. After all these years, pretty sure everything has been tried.......

There is always a way, you just have to find it. All you need is one usable port. My tech skills are a lot better than my parenting skills, so I'll have an advantage over most of those who tried before. And I don't want to sound to arrogant, but I've worked for several vendors of networking equipment, and satellite companies in the past. I always left because I got bored. We'll see. I'll write it up if I find something.

As for the discretion part: that would apply to walkie-talkies and regular phone communication in the same manner. My goal is to find something that is non-intrusive to other passengers, but works reliably throughout the vessel.

As other posters have said, 7 is really too young to leave alone. On more than one cruise our captain came on the PA system announcing an emergency with a detailed explanation of what was happening and what, if anything, passengers were expected to do. Usually the instructions were wait for more instructions but that is the time all the information in the muster drill begins to go through your mind (get your passport, meds, etc. just in case). How do you expect a 7 year old to react to the alarm and the captain's information? How will you react if you aren't with her? Remember if she leaves the room without a key card the door will close behind her and she won't be able to re-enter. The probability is that none of this would happen but can you imagine how you would feel if it did?

Of all the (I assume mostly well-meaning) people in this thread, you bring some solid arguments. Ss smart as she is, I would not trust her to do ok in an emergency situation. What are the chances? Probably none. But what if? I'd probably jump overboard myself.

Consider the plan canceled. Perhaps when turns 10.

I'm still going to try my plan A (of person to person communication), just because I can.

Obviously a total wind-up post:

• In their roll call the OP states their daughter is six years old, not seven
  

Did you ever consider that children have birthdays on cruise ships? Hint, she'll be 6 on departure, 7 on arrival. It's magic!

• Uses a lot of big words but doesn't know the difference between discrete and discreet
  

Yes, English as a second language can be tricky. How many languages do you speak?

• Thinks they actually has the power to edit out individual responses they don't agree with
  

I've been around on the interwebs for a while now, and most forums that I've been on, or coded myself, will have the option to simply block annoying other users.

Edit: this one has that functionality as well.

Rather than leaving a 7 year old child alone and unattended in your cabin (would you do this in a hotel?), have you considered leaving her safely under supervision in the kids club instead?

Fair comments from you and other parents. I do apologize, I did not make myself clear.

Yes, of course, we can bring her to the kids club. We are merely trying to slowly test the waters with regards to her independence. And don't get me wrong, we're not considering leaving her alone for a prolonged period of time. She may not like being alone after 5 minutes, and that's perfectly fine. That will be where the experiment stops.

And the reason why we're thinking about trying this on a cruise ship is very simple: it is the most controlled environment I can think of. At home she can run out onto the street. In a hotel the same. On a boat not so much: no chances of getting hit by a car or eaten by a coyote.

We're definitely not leaving her in a cabin with a walkie-talkie to get drunk at the bar. No effing way. And maybe in the end we may decide to not even try it at all. We're still 5 months out.

We lived in a neighborhood (upscale Socal, in a cul de sac) where 7 and 8 year old kids would play outside with each other without problems. Each child is different and has different needs. Ours is craving responsibility, but sometimes takes too much on her plate, which is why we take it one step at a time, and in a controlled environment.

But let's not end up in a discussion of how good or bad we are at parenting. I think we're not too shabby, and I'll have no problem explaining myself to any CPS whatsoever.

So, I've gone through a number of walkie-talkie threads, and I get it: they are annoying as frak for ones fellow cruisers. At the same time, I believe I have a legitimate need for them and are looking for recommendations.

The use case is very simple: me and the misses would like to leave our 7 year old alone in our cabin. We feel that she's now old enough to be alone for a bit, especially in such a controlled environment. Obviously, it would really help if she has a way of contacting us. Previously, we sailed with DCL, which provides working on-board phones. This time, we'll be sailing RCCL which I believe does not (we're on the Allure of the Seas).

Walkie-talkies are our backup plan; I'm a tech and have an idea to get on-board communications working without the need for them. But in case that fails, I need an alternative. Most offerings on Amazon come with earpieces, so we don't need to bother our fellow vacationers with our princess proudly announcing how large her poo-poo was.

Does anyone have tips with regards to which specific type will work best? And perhaps other tips to increase the level of discretion? I don't want to bother anyone.

And obviously, half of you lot will have the urge to post "just talk to each other". Don't, you'll just end up in /dev/null.

And on a side note, should my primary plan work, expect a detailed how-to after our cruise in October.

For our sailing on 30th September we were able to book our shows a week ago, we are back to back but the following week hasn't opened up yet.

Have you "registered" at the roll call for those cruises? You are number two that I see on here that's doing the same. Me and my family are back to back as well.