Oshawapilot

I did not know that seapass cards had RFID chips in them. I can see why they would like this for a variety of reasons.

Ever wonder how those photos that get taken at random all over the ship (and even ashore) magically end up in your photo album on the ship without them ever having asked your name or stateroom number? ;)

What I'd do, and what I plan to do again on Explorer in a few weeks?

Tell your kids to do what they're asked to do by the staff, and do it respectfully. If they get told that they're running afoul of curfew, then they need to call it and night and retire, simple. Don't try to bend the rules once they've been told they aren't following them.

They'll have ZERO issues.

Honestly, I think that the first issue with this is that teens completely and totally loose track of time (and heck, the days) once they get into the groove aboard the ship. Even if they have good intentions to follow the rules, they'll quickly find curfew having come and gone without even realizing it.

I just thought that I would support you, as it is possible to have respectful, good teenage kids.

Thank you.

Non-parents who automatically assume that any child under the age of 21, left alone, is a recipe for disaster annoy me.

Unfortunately it IS the noxious kids out there that leave this impression upon others and cause this stereotype to persist, but people need to take a deep breath and realize that not every kid out there is a little hellian that is intent on destroying the peace-bubble of everyone else around them, and again, I'm we're not talking about a 6 or 8 year old kid here, we're talking teens.

These are the same kids that we'll be letting (or already have) give the keys to our cars to and watched them drive off into the distance. We've driven them to parties and wondered what they're up to. They're dating. They're going to freaking college and living alone! They are NOT infants, and to suggest that one is being a bad parent or "ruining everyone elses cruise" because we dare let them out of our sight burns my arse. :mad:

Think I'm wrong? Helicopter parents who constantly have their kids (yes, even teens) within 3 feet at all points in time (because god forbid they actually make a decision for themselves) are doing their kids a huge disservice. They grow up to be antisocial withdrawn young adults who can't interact in a normal fashion with the rest of the world because they never learned how to. These are the same kids who's parents go to job interviews with (or for!) them, and who fail to launch when it's times for them to finally go to college. Interesting story here on that topic.

Trust me, I was (and still am) a responsible parent that holds my kids to task for their actions. When they WERE young they were never out of my sight. If they kicked up a fuss in a public area I was the first to remove them from the venue in order to minimize the disruption to others. If they were bad, they were punished. To this day they are held responsible for their actions, the results of such actions, praised when they're good, and handled when they're not. They've grown up to be well rounded respectable young adults who have been honoured at school, do little things like hold the door for people behind them, say thank you, etc etc, and they didn't get that way by being attached to my hip every second of every day once they matured to the point where they needed to start spreading their wings.

/rant mode off. :):)

Thanks for the info. As long as we know he is safe and like everyone said respectful and not causing trouble we don't mind him staying out. Just good to know there is security keeping and eye and sending them back to cabins if necessary.

I asked one of the security heads one evening exactly how much stuff goes on from a security standpoint (wondering about the free-reign of the kids aspect) and his response was this:

1/ For every security camera you see, there are 5 you don't.

2/ As long as a passenger has their seapass on person, with the touch of a few buttons they can locate them on the ship and automatically pull up the nearest security camera's live view. (The Seapass cards are RFID active, for those who didn't know...)

3/ If a parent ever needs to urgently locate their kid, #2 above is utilized.

If the cruise lines wanted to vehemently enforce all the rules regarding curfew they'd need not work very hard to do so, sending out teams to sweep the areas where the seapass cards (and the attached kids) are located. The fact that they don't (as others mention here as well) would sure seem to indicate that they are satisfied to let the rules remain lax as long as there are no problems.

I'm confident that if kids were running ram-shot around the ship at 3AM causing all sorts of disturbances they would not only be sent back to their room, but their parents would be receiving a talking to the next morning, or if the situation was serious enough, in the middle of the night.

Again, these are not 9 and 10 year old kids we're talking about, but 13-19 year old young adults.

My 14 year old was routinely out until 2-3AM on Allure with the gaggle of 20-30 other teens on our sailing, so long past curfew. Often they were in the teen lounge which apparently stayed open all hours of the day..and beyond that, they'd go sit in Sorentos or in a hot tub on the pool deck.

We didn't make a big deal about curfew, but told him to be respectful if he was told by someone to call it a night and head towards the stateroom, and to BE QUIET when in the stateroom corridors after hours - nobody wants to be woke up at 3AM by loud kids outside your door.

In the end, I figure that if the kids were being respectful and not obnoxious/loud, security turned a blind eye. It seemed all the teens (mine included) in our sailing had zero issues with the curfew and were always out until the wee hours of the morning.

Our son would quietly slip in in the middle of the night and crawl into bed. He'd often still be there after we left in the morning to go for breakfast, only to dissapear before we got back. At one point we didn't see him for about almost an entire day, only catching a glimpse of him here and there (sorrentos, sports deck, pool) as he did his own thing - if we needed him back at the stateroom for something we left a note on the door with a time and he obliged.

Do your teen a favor - cut them loose for the trip and let them enjoy it - ours had SOOOO much fun that he was devastated at the end of the cruise, and since they the whole group has got together on Facebook, skype, etc etc and they are all reliving the cruise to this day.

Respect for others after hours seemed to be the keys, and the teen group on our cruise apparently did well in that respect.