Spending money for teens/adult kids

[mfboat]

Going on the spirit in June. My 3 DS's are in a room with my DBIL. My DH and I are in a different room. The reservations were made separately as my DS's are part of a big family group who went thru a TA and my DH and I redeemed points through a different program. My DS's are 13, 18, 20. I want to give them privleleges to spend money, but I don't want to just leave it open for them to buy whenever they want. They'll never keep track of what they spend. Can I just put down a certain amount of money on each of their cards, which will make them a little more aware of what they spend? And where do you do this? Do you do it when you check in or later on at the purser's desk? What do you think?

[CaptData]

Here my take on this. I have two dg (dear grandkids). I told the agent they will have cash I signed their Sail ticket thingys. When I get on board first thing I go to the Front Desk/Purser's Desk and put down the amount on each of their cards that I want. They can only go to that limit. When they reach it I told the desk to page me and depending on what amount of time is left I would inclrease it (put more on). Now I did prepay their service charge so that it would not be added to their accounts daily to mix them up. They are 9 and 13.

[gliles]

Here my take on this. I have two dg (dear grandkids). I told the agent they will have cash I signed their Sail ticket thingys. When I get on board first thing I go to the Front Desk/Purser's Desk and put down the amount on each of their cards that I want. They can only go to that limit. When they reach it I told the desk to page me and depending on what amount of time is left I would inclrease it (put more on). Now I did prepay their service charge so that it would not be added to their accounts daily to mix them up. They are 9 and 13.

 

I am gonna copy and paste this into a doc in my VC folder, that's a very good idea and I'll use it when I travel with my DGS (dear grandson) :)

[mousey]

Here my take on this. I have two dg (dear grandkids). I told the agent they will have cash I signed their Sail ticket thingys. When I get on board first thing I go to the Front Desk/Purser's Desk and put down the amount on each of their cards that I want. They can only go to that limit. When they reach it I told the desk to page me and depending on what amount of time is left I would inclrease it (put more on). Now I did prepay their service charge so that it would not be added to their accounts daily to mix them up. They are 9 and 13.

 

That's a great idea!:D We only have one DS (14) and we just tell him to let us know at the end of every day how much he's put on the card. He's not to charge more than $15 a day without asking for permission first. He's always obeyed the rule and rarely uses up the $15 a day limit. We always buy him a drink card so really there isn't much, except the game arcade or gift shop, where he needs anything. At his age he's kind of bored of arcade games and there's really not much in the gift shops he's interested in. Girls might be different!:D

[cruisinreunion]

I wish I had done that on our recent cruise. For the first time we gave our kids charging privileges. Our oldest DD, 15, never spent a penny because she was too busy with her new friends, however, my DS, 12, discovered how easy the arcade is with a swipe of the card. He had my DD, 10, join him on the last sea day because it was cool out and not really pool weather, so they went to the arcade for something to do. How easy it is to rack up $180 in charges in 1 1/2 hours when two people are playing the same game against each other at $2.00 a game! And count the other days of playing:eek: Needless to say, charging abiities were revoked and a stern lecture was given. Next time we will do the cash thing also and when it's gone, it's gone. (One of the kids my daughter met through the teen program racked up over $700 in arcade charges and the dad just before us in line, was dealing with a $400 bill for the arcade.)

[mfboat]

Wow, that's what I'm afraid of!

Thank you Captdata - I will use your idea.

[casstim]

Wow that is a lot of money in arcade play! I'm wondering if i can put a limit on my boyfriends charges at the bar when we go on our cruise in october! :) although he probably wouldn't like that very much!

[Cruise Envy]

Wow -- $400 in the arcade? :eek: We are thinking kids at 14 and 10 don't need to be buying anything when they aren't with us (the oldest will have a soda card, the youngest hates soda). Knowing now that they could "charge" the arcade they DEFINITELY won't have "credit"... cash, maybe but definitely not unlimited. Thanks for a great thread. :D

[shill]

Thanks so much for this thread, I am cruising with my son, 17, on June 4th and was thinking about jsut letting him charge what he needs (which usually isnt much) but I didn't think about the arcade.:eek: I will definately do the cash thing so there is a limit on his card. You probably just saved me a lot of money.

[cruisinreunion]

Glad I could help so many. I never thought my kids would have charged so much at the arcade either but they made it so easy for them, just swipe the card and boom, the game begins. They lost track of how many games they were playing...credit cards can be so dangerous! I know next time, cash on the account only! I told them they could have bought a whole new gaming system for what they played in one day!

Have a great cruise.

[mousey]

No offense to anyone but the kids that charged that much money to their parent's accounts are totally irresponsible and probably shouldn't have had the opportunity to use a credit card. Either that or they weren't given limits by their parents as to how much they could charge on the card. As I posted above, my DS has always been able to charge things to our room card with a set limit of $10 per day. He has never gone over the limit without asking permission first. So, I don't think all kids should be judged by a few kids that got carried away. JMHO. Kids need rules and limits set for them by their parents. If they break the rules or go over the limit, that should be the end of their charging privilege.

[Fivehole]

Haven't been on NCL in two years - I thought the arcade games took quarters. That's changed, obviously? Is there no option to use quarters/coins at all? Need to prepare for my kids!