Preparing a child for a cruise

[starr_child]

If she were a "normal" teen I wouldn't worry so much, but she is impulsive and very naive.. I've had the stranger talk with her and also talked about not being near the side of the ship without her dad there. Her dad is an ass, there is no talking to him. I will look for the contract thank you, but I will worry.. They are going to be in Canada.. (We are in CA) Hard enough not to worry when she is on a cruise from CA, but from Canada sheesh.. I looked for the contract, but couldn't find it.. Can you post the link for me..Thank you

[6rugrats]

If she were a "normal" teen I wouldn't worry so much, but she is impulsive and very naive.. I've had the stranger talk with her and also talked about not being near the side of the ship without her dad there. Her dad is an ass, there is no talking to him. I will look for the contract thank you, but I will worry.. They are going to be in Canada.. (We are in CA) Hard enough not to worry when she is on a cruise from CA, but from Canada sheesh..

Did you sign a notarized permission to travel letter for her dad? If not, your worries are over, because they won't be able to go :).

[momofdss]

Our son has special needs as well (autism) and we are going on a Carnival cruise in Oct. I ordered the dvd (brochure) from Carnival and the magazine brochure and he loves to watch the video and read the magazine brochure. We actually booked our cruise through Autism on The Seas and they are providing us, among other things with a social story book and PECS to help get him "ready" for the cruise. He is so excited already and we still have 3 more months!

 

i've made my own "pecs" menu for my son while we are on our cruise and i've also printed out pictures of the signs my sons uses the most for the camp carnival counselors so they can understand what he is saying.

 

a little prep work goes a long way in helping our kids!!

 

we leave in 3 weeks - and we are excited too!!

[momofdss]

Did you sign a notarized permission to travel letter for her dad? If not, your worries are over, because they won't be able to go :).

 

agreed, if you did not sign the notarized permission travel letter, carnival will NOT let her board the ship.....

 

your worries are legitimate.....i would look into check into things more.......

[starr_child]

Did you sign a notarized permission to travel letter for her dad? If not, your worries are over, because they won't be able to go :).

 

No he has custody ( at least for now), so I have no choice.. This idiot is also pulling her out of school 4 weeks after it starts to go. Like he didn't have all summer to take her.. He is also going to Hong Kong for 2 weeks and again wants to pull her out school because he will not let me stay at the house.. Sorry for getting off the subject it just pisses me off.

[crAZytwinmomma]

to the OP... my twins are 5 1/2 and we have read most of the Magic Treehouse books (we are on book #30 I think) and yes the Titanic one is very sad - I had a hard time not tearing up at the end of the story so I definitely would not read it before cruising (we read it way before we thought we were going on a cruise)

 

I love the idea of a homemade book and a countdown chain!

 

Great questions and great answers!

[deezeealum]

we recently booked our first cruise and my daughter will be 5 1/2 when we cruise. We live in NJ so we took her to the Bayonne pier and then watched our boat leave NYC down the Hudson so she could see exactly how big the ships are. Even my husband was impressed!

[khm1]

If you plan on snorkeling at all, buy him a snorkel and go to your local pool to practice. It can be tricky learning to breathe with a snorkel. Practice in a familiar enviroment can make the real thing more managable. We did this for our two DSs first cruise (when they were 5 and 7) and it really helped!

[SingleFatherofDD]

I am a single father of a 4 1/2 year old DD. I just took my DD on her first cruise in August. She loved it. This cruise was my 27th so I knew what to expect, however I didn't know how she would react. DD has a horrible past with her mother's BF. Her mother didn't want her anymore and I volunteered to adopt her in February. I am only 30 years old. Wasn't really ready for it but now I love being a father. Enough about that.

 

I told DD that we would be going on a cruise. She really didn't know what it was. Only had seen pictures from when I was on cruises. I didn't know how she would react. She loves pools and beaches and is a good swimmer for a 4 1/2 year old. Once she saw the ship in New York when we arrived you should have seen her face. She loved the kids club and didn't want to go to bed at night. She can't wait until her next cruise. I have created a monster. I haven't told her that I have another one already planned. It was planned before she was adopted. I just added her to my room and I will surprise her on or around her birthday in October. It should be fun when she realizes that she is going on another.

 

I think the most important thing is to teach them to always stay in groups if they are old enough to go around alone. Also stranger danger is a must. There are sick people out there and no one know if the person that sits next to you is one of them. DD is going through things because of this but it wasn't a stranger. Its just on my mind because she told me things about her past last night.

 

However, I think cruising is a great family vacation. It allows you to see many different places in a short time and also you have things to do at night. The kids usually make a lot of new friends and also enjoy their time. Sometimes you create monsters who want to stay on cruises or go on cruises any vacation. I am one of those young kids that became a monster. Right know I am sitting and thinking about my next cruise, number 29.

 

Have a great week.

[5waldos]

Hi all,

 

I have a question regarding how to prepare my son (5 1/2) for his adventure onboard a ship. I've shown him the brochure from the cruiseline with pictures of the ship, pictures off the web, small videos from the shore ex companies, etc. I was wandering around Barnes & Noble today and was wondering if there are any good books to introduce my son to the idea of cruising or life at sea. The only book I saw remotely related was the Magic Treehouse Titanic book. Yeah, I just don't think I want to go there yet. :o Does anyone know of any good books suitable for a younger child? Or any other ideas on how to get a child ready. Thanks in advance.

 

When I started traveling with my young kids I began telling them prince and princess stories. Every night I'd focus on another part of the trip as part of a story. Especially what Royal Prince and Princesses did- being quiet, sitting in their plane seats, etc. By the time we traveled they were well prepared and recognized things- the noises on the plane, what to do when I was checking into hotels, waiting in line. I made the stories fun, not just lectures. It was years before they figured out that they were the prince and princess I was talking about. It worked very very well for us and we could be very specific about things- the monkeys we would see in the monkey forest for example- and how they would try to steal things.

[PHXscuba]

One more thing you might want to prepare your child for -- showers.

 

Unless you have a suite, you likely won't have a bathtub. If you have a child who's never taken a shower, that might be unfamiliar. Our DS will also be 5 1/2 when we cruise this fall and we have started him on taking showers some of the time. I know DH will still have to help him some, but at least it won't be completely new to him.

 

Thanks for the great ideas in this thread. I need to talk with my kids about the muster drill and wearing the muster station bracelets.

 

PHXscuba

[hucifer]

When I started traveling with my young kids I began telling them prince and princess stories. Every night I'd focus on another part of the trip as part of a story. Especially what Royal Prince and Princesses did- being quiet, sitting in their plane seats, etc. By the time we traveled they were well prepared and recognized things- the noises on the plane, what to do when I was checking into hotels, waiting in line. I made the stories fun, not just lectures. It was years before they figured out that they were the prince and princess I was talking about. It worked very very well for us and we could be very specific about things- the monkeys we would see in the monkey forest for example- and how they would try to steal things.

Brilliant! I love this!

[nikinakinoo]

I love sitting with my DD watching cruise videos on Youtube, from watching these she has made a list of things she would like to do

[callaghan0416]

Whatever you do, do NOT let him watch Scooby Doo and The Ghost Cruise, big mistake, lol. He was fine after he saw the pool.

All great ideas by previous posters. Have a great cruise!

 

callie

[7x57]

I hate to be a spoil sport but you might also add a little extra "Mr. Stranger Danger" talk. Extra care is always wise.

 

On the flip side, make sure your child knows who to ask for help if lost or having some other problem. Sometimes I wonder if the "stranger danger" thing hurts more than it helps.

[5waldos]

On the flip side, make sure your child knows who to ask for help if lost or having some other problem. Sometimes I wonder if the "stranger danger" thing hurts more than it helps.

 

Interesting point- a young boy here in Colorado was lost for several days and it was discovered that he had been hiding from the "strangers" out looking for him. Poor kid was terrified when finally found and very nearly died because of this. A case of damned if you do and damned if you don't.

[Onessa]

On the flip side, make sure your child knows who to ask for help if lost or having some other problem. Sometimes I wonder if the "stranger danger" thing hurts more than it helps.

 

Interesting point- a young boy here in Colorado was lost for several days and it was discovered that he had been hiding from the "strangers" out looking for him. Poor kid was terrified when finally found and very nearly died because of this. A case of damned if you do and damned if you don't.

 

This is why "black and white" rules are so bad. Gotta work on teaching your kid to think, not just follow the "rules".

 

Talk to you kids - if something happens on a TV show, ask your kid how the character should have reacted; if something is on the news, ask what should the person have done or what did the person do that was right; point out who your child should trust if he needs help (how to recognize an employee of a store, looking for moms with kids, how to ID a cop, etc.).

 

Tell EVERYONE what to do if they get separated (we'd be more likely to lose DH than DD!).

 

Also make certain your kid knows what is an appropriate way to help and what is not. If someone wants to take him someplace else (to a "special room" or otherwise away from where he was lost) he should resist. If he is with a friend or sibling, DON'T let them let themselves get separated! A girl was raped by some guy posing as an undercover cop - he had a fake badge, and he approached her and a friend outside of a big box retailer accusing her of shoplifting. The guy convinced the girl to be separated from her friend and to go behind a dumpster so he could get her story separate from her friend's. As my 14DD said -- "that was really dumb" because she knew that a "real" security guard or cop would have taken the girls back into the store and that the girls could have demanded to have someone else present in the room when each was questioned.