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Keeping track of teens


dchurchward
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My family and I will be on the Ovation of the Seas next summer when it visits Alaska. I am looking for some ideas on how to best keep track of my teenagers. I have a daughter who will be 18 at the time, a 16-year old son, and 2 14-year old sons. I have seen people bring walkie-talkies on cruises before, but that seems pretty disruptive. One of my friends made a schedule magnetized board that each person had to use to update their plans for the day. The WiFi seems pretty expensive, but if that is the best way to keep track of everyone, I would be willing to do it. My kids are great and I trust them, but I also want to be able to check-in with them throughout the day so we can coordinate activities. I appreciate any tips.

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With ages of your children, it should not be a big problem. We always insisted on meals together and where to meet. During the meal, we would discuss what each person was doing during the next portion of the day. I always have a general area where I can be found and my husband is equally predictable.

 

Lots of folks use things like sticky notes or white boards in the cabin, or you can leave messages on the cabin phone.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the advice. I think we will likely go with a whiteboard and then sync during meals as you suggested. I wish the onboard wifi wasn't so expensive as using phones is so much easier. We are looking forward to the cruise and being on such a big ship.

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Talking in person to your kids should suffice. Meeting times...check in for the 14 year olds, when they go from one activity to another....I'm not comfortable with "aimless roaming"...that's trouble waiting to happen.

Tell your kids where you will be..find out THEIR plans, and have them check in when their plans change before the next meal.

 

While the ship is huge, the public areas are but a small portion of the ship. Finding each other isn't the chore you're imagining it to be.

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My family and I will be on the Ovation of the Seas next summer when it visits Alaska. I am looking for some ideas on how to best keep track of my teenagers. I have a daughter who will be 18 at the time, a 16-year old son, and 2 14-year old sons. I have seen people bring walkie-talkies on cruises before, but that seems pretty disruptive. One of my friends made a schedule magnetized board that each person had to use to update their plans for the day. The WiFi seems pretty expensive, but if that is the best way to keep track of everyone, I would be willing to do it. My kids are great and I trust them, but I also want to be able to check-in with them throughout the day so we can coordinate activities. I appreciate any tips.

 

I had a little frustration with this with my son. He is 13, we did not get WiFi. Mostly he would go to the teen club in free time (which we did not have much of due to the nature of our cruise). A couple times I wanted to retrieve him and walked all the way there to be old he’d left 5 min ago. On the last night I’d given him a curfew and he didn’t come back at the appointed time, and I wanted to go to bed so I had my husband go and sure enough he came back while my husband was going to get him. With his age he’s not really used to curfew type situations since he normally doesn’t go out at night so we’ll have to work on that when he gets older.

 

I think making sure everyone has a watch and knows what time to check in would be adequate for responsible kids

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