Small children wandering out of cabin?

[Bobbyjean]

I am maybe a little over-paranoid but I am worried about our three-year-old waking up in the middle of the night and deciding to go for a walk around the ship without us waking up.

 

He is quite big for his age and very good with working out how to use doors/locks. :(

 

I have thought about putting a chair/suitcases in front of the door etc. but is there a better way to secure it from inside?

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

I am maybe a little over-paranoid but I am worried about our three-year-old waking up in the middle of the night and deciding to go for a walk around the ship without us waking up.

 

He is quite big for his age and very good with working out how to use doors/locks. :(

 

I have thought about putting a chair/suitcases in front of the door etc. but is there a better way to secure it from inside?

 

 

I have the same fear that you do. Our son will be 2 on our upcoming cruise and 3 on our cruise next fall. The only solutions that I've been able to come up with are placing something heavy in front of the door or buying one of those wireless door alarms from Walmart or similar store that will sound when the door is opened. We have a suite booked on our Carnival cruise and they have tables with granite tops in their suites so that will be heavy enough to push in front of the door and keep him from opening it, but we will be on NCL which is new to us next year so I will have to come up with a new plan for that one.

[Wavesprite]

The doors are pretty heavy, but I think I would slide a piece of luggage or a chair over in front of the door just to be sure.... If you put your biggest piece of luggage in front of the door, you should be fine.

[chrisc71]

Doors are heavy. Doubtful a 3 year old could open. And if they could it would not be without a struggle.

[Athankfulheart]

I agree about the heavy doors. You could always grab an alarm that hangs on the knob.

[IttaBit]

I worry about my kids opening the doors too, and they are a lot older. You can get really simple door alarms that you put around the door handle, about $10-$15. If the knob/handle is turned an ear piercing alarm will go off. You could hang it at night when you go to bed and remove it during the day when the cabin steward/you would be in and out. I've been thinking about getting one of these for the balcony door for the adjoining room when we travel with our kids.

[flhokie]

We just sailed with DD (2years 4 months) and had no issues. She's very tall & could reach the door, but couldn't open it. We dead bolted the door whenever we were in the room. The dead bolt had to be opened in order to open the door. I thought about wedging a rubber door stop under the door, but the door opened out (she would have had to open the dead bolt, turn the handle & push the door out). Maybe in the future I'd do an alarm, but I'd be concerned about the impact on those around us. I'd probably just put something bulky/heavy in front of the door.

 

As for the balcony door, after seeing it & opening it myself I wasn't at all worried about her getting that open---turn a big handle & push the door. I had to fight it sometimes.

 

The only door issue we had was when she went in the bathroom (easy door to open) and locked the door. She learned very quickly not to do that, but it did cause a moment of panic for DH & I.

[cb at sea]

The cabin is so small, you will HEAR him if he's moving about...no worries!

[SadieN]

......................

The only door issue we had was when she went in the bathroom (easy door to open) and locked the door. She learned very quickly not to do that, but it did cause a moment of panic for DH & I.

 

Look on the outside of the door. There will be a little button with a slot in it. (Opposite of the lock on the inside.)

We put an edge of the ship card into the slot and turn.:)

[Mom2B&Z]

ITA, our 8yo has a hard time opening the door, and our 5 yo Houdini couldn't do anything but turn the handle ;). The balcony door is easier to open, but the lock is high and inaccessible.

I too worried about how safe a balcony cabin was with kids before our first sailing, but it was fine. Plus the balcony is a great place for the adults to relax and unwind when the kids go to sleep!

[kitkat343]

My son was two years and one month old when we sailed on the Coral Princess. He could open both the front door (even when it was bolted shut) and the balcony door. He slept in a crib, though, so we didn't worry about him wandering at night. We just kept a close eye on him during the day, and could hear him when he opened a door.

[queenL]

Me too! I bought one of the door alarms for that reason. In rough seas though you can have quite a few ear piercing false alarms. :)

[notentirelynormal]

Me too! I bought one of the door alarms for that reason. In rough seas though you can have quite a few ear piercing false alarms. :)

 

And it probably was really annoying for your neighbors. I would think there would be a more friendly solution than waking your neighbors at 2 in the morning. I'm very kid friendly but I have to say if I got woken up because of your door alarm going off all the time, I'd be a little testy with you. Even in the day time I wouldn't appreciate it.

 

How about putting duct tape over the dead bolt so that the kid wouldn't be able to get the tape off in the dark? Just a thought.

[Essiesmom]

FYI, there was a thread some time ago, maybe a couple of years, by a mom with 4y/o twins. They had connecting cabins with the connecting door open, and one still got up in the middle of the night and went walking. Parents heard nothing until staff brought him back. EM

[Waterloomarc]

First let me reiterate the doors are pretty hefty. It's not like the cheap hollow core interior doors in a house. I'm early thirties (okay mid thirties now but who's counting) and in good shape and sometimes I had to put a little shoulder into it. The balcony, if not a slider, requires a full-on shove!

 

Second, and please I'm not trying to start anything I'm being genuine, had your child wandered out of the house at home? It's just that something like this wouldn't have crossed my mind at that age.

 

 

 

 

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[queenL]

And it probably was really annoying for your neighbors. QUOTE]

 

No, not if you are considerate (and I was). If it goes off due to rough seas you just take it off the door. Simple! Most of the time (knock on wood)that is not going to be the case. However, I did see fit to let the OP know that it could be a problem under certain circumstances.

[notentirelynormal]

No, not if you are considerate (and I was). If it goes off due to rough seas you just take it off the door. Simple! Most of the time (knock on wood)that is not going to be the case. However, I did see fit to let the OP know that it could be a problem under certain circumstances.

 

I am not slamming you, just trying to remind others to be considerate. You are not the first one to suggest this. I just always shudder at the thought of someone - not courteous - using one and just letting it go off cos the precious one liked to hit it or something. For the record I have traveled with kids from 6 months and up. My kids have been cruising since they were 8 (and that's 25 years ago) and now their kids so I do have experience with the little rug rats.

 

One cruise we had a table next to us with the cutest little boys. They were around 3 and 4. Sweet kids and attentive parents. One day we are walking back to our cabin and see the youngest wandering the hall alone and looking very scared. We don't want to leave him so we alert the steward. The parents had apparently gone to do some laundry and thought he was asleep. As soon as they had left, the kid got out of the room and went looking for them and couldn't get back in the room. The parents, I believe, thought we were being critical of their parenting and didn't come to dinner that night. In reality, we were just concerned that the little guy was scared. We thought they were great parents.

 

Let's face it. Every kid is different and you need to do what is necessary to protect them. If the alarm is what it takes, then do it. I would criticize you more for not protecting them than the alarm.

[sherryf]

Do you have reason to think that your child will wander off? Have they done so at home? If so, maybe you should worry, but if not, why worry about it?

 

I only cruised once with my kids when they were little - 2, 5 and 8. The 2 year old absolutely could not open either the balcony door or the door to the hall. The older two were old enough to understand that they were NOT ALLOWED to go on the balcony or leave the room without a parent. It was never an issue.

 

And before anyone says that not all kids are so perfectly behaved, let me point out that the 5 year old was (and still is!) severely ADHD and a climber and escape artist, but he never even attempted to leave the room without us. We lost this same child momentarily in Valdez on that trip when he got distracted looking at something and neglected to cross the street with us! We were in a big family group and didn't even notice he wasn't with the group until we got to the other side and couldn't find him. I've always had to worry more about losing him in public than wandering out of the house/cruise cabin. :o

[Cbear1973]

I'm considering a small bell to hang on the door somehow. Maybe using the 3-M hooks that peel off and don't leave any residue behind...

[giselleacttwo]

I am maybe a little over-paranoid but I am worried about our three-year-old waking up in the middle of the night and deciding to go for a walk around the ship without us waking up.

 

He is quite big for his age and very good with working out how to use doors/locks. :(

 

I have thought about putting a chair/suitcases in front of the door etc. but is there a better way to secure it from inside?

 

Three kids in, and we had one wanderer that liked to do exactly that. We stay in a fair number of hotels and once he woke up in the middle of the night and wandered down to the lobby. (He was about 3, I think) I woke up with a start when I realized the door was open and went looking for him. He was fine, fortunately, but we learned our lesson. So for several years any time we stayed in a hotel we piled luggage, coffee tables, anything we could in front of the door. When we went on a cruise we took a coffee table and topped that with luggage and that seemed to do the trick. It is always easier when hotels use the "old fashioned" bar deadbolts or chains rather than the knob that unlocks when you open the door from the inside. But we manage. :o He's old enough now to know that kind of wandering would get him in a heap of trouble so he doesn't try it anymore.

[tkportersat]

If you have a balcony just make sure to lock it at night. Either way those doors are so heavy I can barely open them much less a toddler.

 

As for the cabin door, I was worried about this too and what I do is slide the little table they put in front of the couch into the little walkway in front of the door. It fit into the space perfectly and would have been difficult for a toddler to move. It didn't even block the door for us to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Worked perfectly.

[sharktums]

I would be much more worried about your kid getting some body part stuck or slammed in the door instead of wandering off. Like everyone else has said the doors are super heavy and I wouldn't worry about this at all.

[Waterloomarc]

I would be much more worried about your kid getting some body part stuck or slammed in the door...

 

Quite true.

 

 

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[kangaand2roos]

My niece, about 8 at the time, sleep walked out of her cabin and was returned by a crew member. My sister never heard her. I would be wary of blocking the door because it could be a fire/safety hazard. Instead, block the path to the door. Bells or another not-too-loud noise maker also sound like a good idea.

[griffy116]

I wouldn't consider the coffee table in front of the cabin door to be a fire hazard. An adult could easily move it in a nano second. It would just be used to create an obstacle from a wanderer. We've cruised for many years with toddlers, some quite clever escape artists, who weren't able to manage the balcony doors and were hindered by objects in front of the door leading to the hall.