Just off Carnival Magic - bizzare behavior or the new normal?

[Mybearsbaby]

What a great parent, if only more were like you and didn't allow their children to run all over them.:rolleyes:

 

Thank you! We try. I have seen far too many who let the child rule them, and that just shouldn't happen. If they dont learn respect early on, they are less likely to become productive, mature adults. Letting a child have their way all the time does nothing but reinforce the negative behavior and make everyone around them miserable.

 

We started cruising with our kids when they were in strollers...they are now 18 and 21. They've been on everything from the Dolphin IV to Queen Mary 2, and they've NEVER been disrepectful. They have always said 'please' and 'thank you', and, now that they're older, they get upset when they see kids getting out of line.

 

We're not perfect parents, but we made sure from the get-go that they knew what was expected of them, and that there's a proper way to behave. I'm not saying they haven't had their moments, but we've always made sure it wasn't at the expense of someone else's vacation.

 

It CAN be done.

 

Like! Great job!

[christa]

We started cruising with our kids when they were in strollers...they are now 18 and 21. They've been on everything from the Dolphin IV to Queen Mary 2, and they've NEVER been disrepectful. They have always said 'please' and 'thank you', and, now that they're older, they get upset when they see kids getting out of line.

 

We're not perfect parents, but we made sure from the get-go that they knew what was expected of them, and that there's a proper way to behave. I'm not saying they haven't had their moments, but we've always made sure it wasn't at the expense of someone else's vacation.

 

It CAN be done.

 

I couldn't agree with you more. It is about RESPECT. But, it is the parents that are disrespectful and will probably never teach their children respect for others since they have none themselves.

 

I have twin toddlers and always remove them from a restaurant (I don't care if it is fast food or the most expensive in town) and have a talk outside if they become loud or can no longer sit still. Yes, we have even left in the middle of dinner or before dinner (can we get that to go please?) if we have to. One of us will take them outside and wait for the other. However, they are getting much better at sitting for longer period of times and are good for up to an hour now with the right accessories (games, crayons, etc.) and conversation (I spy, etc.).

 

We do plan to take advantage of Camp Carnival a couple of nights for dinner and they will NOT be going to the Steakhouse.

 

As for the diaper changing in the middle of the MDR, I have no words. I find it appaling and disgusting and might even have let the parent know that.

 

As for the trash getting the disgusting photos- that is sad and disgusting and a sign of the times we are living in. Sad. All we can do is teach our children better.

[medtrans10]

I have kids too, and I wouldn't want to see a child running around in nothing but a diaper at McDonalds, much less in the MDR on a cruise ship. :)

[HeatherC430]

Was she wearing a chain dress by any chance?? :wink:

 

I think I'm forever scarred after seeing "that" picture! I just laughed out loud reading this!

[crusinpsychRN]

HOLY CRAP! :eek:

 

Thanks for the clarification! You were not kidding! I knew it when I saw it! LOL

 

This response really made me laugh! :D I was on the boards when the original flap about it was posted. We had days of discussion about it. Just too much!

[Phlybice]

How much of anything does a toddler remember?

Why don't you ask that of people who were abused or beaten as children?

 

If people really and truly believed toddlers didn't learn or remember from experiences, then we would all just leave them chained up in the basement until they turned 6.

 

The adults we become are shaped from the experiences we have beginning the second we are born. Some would argue, even before we are born.

 

Sincerely,

Someone who always travels with my young child because spending time with family is what shapes us as a family.

 

Bravo!

[Linerguy]

It is about RESPECT. But, it is the parents that are disrespectful and will probably never teach their children respect for others since they have none themselves.

 

I have twin toddlers and always remove them from a restaurant (I don't care if it is fast food or the most expensive in town) and have a talk outside if they become loud or can no longer sit still. Yes, we have even left in the middle of dinner or before dinner (can we get that to go please?) if we have to. One of us will take them outside and wait for the other. However, they are getting much better at sitting for longer period of times and are good for up to an hour now with the right accessories (games, crayons, etc.) and conversation (I spy, etc.).

 

Absolutely...couldn't agree more.

 

When our kids were younger, one way that we would keep them in line was to give each of them 20, $1 bills. Each time they acted up, I took a dollar.

 

They learned real quick.......

[mickide]

Someone changes a diaper in the MDR while I am eating, and the WHOLE ship will know about it. I would be very loud and vocal. I can overlook a lot of stuff but this is way beyond the line I draw. If something wasn't done by the Maitre D' I would go over his head til I got to the top. Every single other person on that ship should be taken into consideration. Just disgusting.

 

Oh holy cow, you know it!

I'll probably be stoned for saying this and thrown into the bowels of hell, but when I am on vacation, the last thing I want to deal with it other peoples children! They don't figure into my vacation. When I am in an adult setting (which I do consider the MDR), I want to enjoy my dinner. Well behaved children (infants to teens) don't bother me at all but those who are loud, restless and disruptive drive me crazy. And it's usually the parents lack of parenting that pisses me off even more!

[sailor_jimc]

There are parents, and then there are breeders....

 

Our daughters started cruising at age 10... they are in their late teens now. They were always taught how to act politely at all times. It carries into adulthood, they have never caused me to be concerned about their behavior when I am not around and they are actually shocked at some of the behavior they see... so, it's not the child's fault... blame the breeder.

[Phlybice]

Oh holy cow, you know it!

 

I'll probably be stoned for saying this and thrown into the bowels of hell, but when I am on vacation, the last thing I want to deal with it other peoples children! They don't figure into my vacation. When I am in an adult setting (which I do consider the MDR), I want to enjoy my dinner. Well behaved children (infants to teens) don't bother me at all but those who are loud, restless and disruptive drive me crazy. And it's usually the parents lack of parenting that pisses me off even more!

 

What about loud, restless, and disruptive adults? These are OK?

[Linerguy]

What about loud, restless, and disruptive adults? These are OK?

 

Not at all, and I don't think anyone is suggesting otherwise. To be honest, it was adults who helped ruin my last Carnival cruise.

 

Let's face it: it wasn't the baby's fault the parent changed the dirty diaper in the MDR, it wasn't the toddlers fault the parents let him or her run around the steakhouse.....it was the adult's fault. Obnoxious behavior from adults comes in many forms. This is just one of them.

[mickide]

What about loud, restless, and disruptive adults? These are OK?

 

Not at all. But I don't have a problem telling another adult how stupid, annoying or rude they are being. It's different with someone else's child. The parent's should be addressing the issue.

[mickide]

Let's face it: it wasn't the baby's fault the parent changed the dirty diaper in the MDR, it wasn't the toddlers fault the parents let him or her run around the steakhouse.....it was the adult's fault. Obnoxious behavior from adults comes in many forms. This is just one of them.

 

I totally agree!

[kangaand2roos]

Maybe nothing, but I remember every wonderful (and some of the not so wonderful) moments of traveling with my kids as newborns up until now. My kids have learned how to behave while traveling because we travel a lot. Just because a person can't recall a memory doesn't mean that the memory has no effect.

 

We talk to our newborns, even though they don't know speak or understand our language. That's how they learn!

 

One of the reasons cruising is a good choice with children is that it is a good mix of family and alone time. I'm a big Disney fan, but while I love our Disney trips, I pretty much spend every minute with the kids. On a cruise, we have great family time, AND I get some great down time.

 

The kids get to try new foods with less pressure to eat every bite (and so do I!) the children get to spend time with other children in their age range and to meet people from different parts of the country and the world!

 

There are many, many good reasons to travel with kids, even babies.

 

That said, if one wants to travel without their kids,I get it!

 

And while I never hesitated to BF my kids in public (discretely) the only time I changed diapers publicly was airplanes that had no changing table and there was no other place to go!

 

Running around in a restaurant, clothed or otherwise, isn't an acceptable behavior unless it is a McDonald's (or similar) play land. There are options other than the MDR if kids can't or won't sit still. I am cruising with my DS9 for the first time in quite a few years, and I have my doubts as to whether he will enjoy long MDR meals (my DS11 does) and if he doesn't, after the first night, he can eat at camp.

 

Lewd photography... Get a room, people!

[EnTnSA]

 

As far as the pools and hot tubs---you see children in the hot tubs all of the time and they are not supposed to be in them whether they are in diapers or not.

 

Is this true? Our five year old always joins us in the hot tub, he loves them. In fact, back in June he and his two nieces (7 and 4) wanted to swim there exclusively due to the pools being too crowded and too salty. We never used the ones on the lido deck near the pools, would always find an empty one on 4.

 

Never knew it was against the rules. We typically tried to avoid times that there were adults there already.

[cruizinisthebest]

Sounds like the OP cruised with some rude, ill-mannered people. The kid in the steakhouse was probably doing everything he could to stay awake. Totally unfair to him and the adults to even bring him in there.

 

Diaper changing in the MDR is just lazy and tacky.

 

Pictures with the photographer...meh. They probably didn't think much about it and had the photographer said no, he would likely have gotten in trouble.

 

I guess any one of us is prone to board with some rude fellow passengers. Has zilch to do with lower prices or how much money a person has or how much they pay for a trip. I've had box seats at NFL games and seen people thrown out of them. And last I checked they were oodles more money than the folks in the nosebleed section. Money doesn't equate class. And good manners is learned and practiced. Not paid for.

 

Sorry you ran into these things OP. Glad you enjoyed your vacation regardless.

[jsfromsc]

HOLY CRAP! :eek:

 

Thanks for the clarification! You were not kidding! I knew it when I saw it! LOL

 

Wow! That may be acceptable for one of the nude cruises, but I don't think I'd be able to refrain from commenting if I saw someone on one of my cruises dressed like that.

[Cruiser from MS]

I have to say we were extremely disappointed in our cruise on the Magic this past May. Please forgive me but this ship had some real rednecks and the class of people just did not measure up to past cruises. We had drunks that would get in fights at 3 am and the ship was so hot. We had one redneck that threw his glass of beer at my daughter, because she was cheering for the Memphis Grizzles.... and they were loosing. I have never experienced such horrible behavior in any of our previous cruises. I agree with the person that Carnival lowering their prices to such low rates people that would not cruise are not cruising on Carnival. With Carnival's response to my complaints I think I am going to look for another cruise line.

[mickide]

I have to say we were extremely disappointed in our cruise on the Magic this past May. Please forgive me but this ship had some real rednecks and the class of people just did not measure up to past cruises. We had drunks that would get in fights at 3 am and the ship was so hot. We had one redneck that threw his glass of beer at my daughter, because she was cheering for the Memphis Grizzles.... and they were loosing. I have never experienced such horrible behavior in any of our previous cruises. I agree with the person that Carnival lowering their prices to such low rates people that would not cruise are not cruising on Carnival. With Carnival's response to my complaints I think I am going to look for another cruise line.

 

I'm sorry about your bad experience on the Magic. I was on it last year and loved everything about that cruise.

It is because of Carnival being affordable to "people that would not cruise" that I am able to take cruises. I think it's awesome that blue collar workers and rednecks like myself can afford to take fun vacations on fun ships.

[tkportersat]

I am one mother that doesn't have a problem with certain restaurants not allowing children or limiting them to certain hours. On the rare event that I get a chance to have a date night with my husband I hate it when I get seated next to the misbehaving child. Places have only started doing this I am sure because some parents let their kids do whatever they want.

 

Again, as I mentioned earlier we rarely take our 3 year old out right now as he is quite unpredictable. We are working really hard on table manners at home right now, but he still sometimes gets restless. I know we will eat out again, but for now it is more relaxing to eat at home.

 

Someone suggested a couple of days ago on another thread that young children shouldn't be allowed in the steakhouse -- well, he was FLAMED!

 

I kind of agree with him.....:o

 

I also agree that the scenarios OP described were -- in additon to being failures of parents to parent appropriately -- were also failure on the part of the maitre d'. Yikes!

[Ms Belvedere]

Is this true? Our five year old always joins us in the hot tub, he loves them. In fact, back in June he and his two nieces (7 and 4) wanted to swim there exclusively due to the pools being too crowded and too salty. We never used the ones on the lido deck near the pools, would always find an empty one on 4.

 

Never knew it was against the rules. We typically tried to avoid times that there were adults there already.

 

There are signs on the side of the hot tubs that say either, Children must be accompanied by an adult, or, if it's in the adult only area, No children allowed. I can understand why the kids like to swim in the hot tubs, they're like giant bathtubs. But fellow travelers will have differing levels of tolerance for children in the hot tubs and anywhere else on the ship.

 

I've found that there are all types of people/families cruising, from many different countries and cultures. What's fine in one country may not mesh with another. We try to pick our cruises partially based on what we feel comfortable with in passenger behaviors, but there are always little surprises along the way. ;)

 

Ms B

[Rob&Bonnie]

I think the steakhouse should be limited to PAYING CUSTOMERS. So unless they forked over the $35.00 for the little darling, s/he didn't belong there.

 

for the most part we've had great cruises and not run into OPK's that are truly obnoxious. We had one incident when a kid hopped into the hot tub with his snorkeling mask (that sure cleared out the tub) while Father of the Year tried to hold himself upright on a nearby bar stool. But you can't blame the kid for bad parenting :rolleyes:

[Haley87]

Just off a 7 day cruise with my husband and two younger daughters (9 & 12). For the most part, we had a really nice time but there were a couple things that surprised me that we experienced on board. I realize it was a small part of the experience, but just curious what you would have thought.

 

First was in regards to the photo sessions. There was a couple we walked past at about 8:00PM that were hard to miss. They were posing in various sexual positions and the photographer was snapping away while their group of friends were cheering them on. My kids were like - why is he doing that to her? Yeah....

 

Second was during the main dining room. On the last night of the cruise there was a toddler running around in just a diaper (no other clothes or shoes). I realize that not everyone likes to dress up for dinner, but come on.

 

We also ate at the steak house. The food and service were great, but two tables over had a one year old doing laps around the parents table. She was pulling things off of the surrounding tables while the parents ignored them.

 

Also - are non-potty trained kids supposed to be in the pools? I know on Disney they had a dedicated toddler pool that was drained and refilled nightly for obvious reasons. Keep in mind I have kids and they have been on every sailing with us since we had them. I just make sure they followed the rules of the ship with dress code, etc.

 

Maybe I should mind my own business, but am I crazy to think that's over the top a bit, or are people "just on vacation and anything goes?"

 

We seen the same baby the last night in the lobby and halls. I was like wow, but of course I didn't care. Every time I'd see a baby with a diaper near the pool a staff member came up and told them they weren't allowed there. Not sure why the big eww on babies in the pool, John Heald stated on his FB a few months ago that pools have chlorine in the salt water as well because that is a requirement. So if you swim in pools with a baby in swim diapers or even a lake then you should be fine..... most babies I seen had swim diapers on but were still told to get out.

[tkportersat]

Yeah, to add to the swim diaper topic I don't always get why everyone gets so up in arms about this. I have put one on my child before even though he is pretty much potty trained just in case. We all know sometimes kids are potty trained but forget to tell you they have to go when they get busy or are having a lot of fun. Swim diaper or not the only time my son actually had an accident in the pool was before his first birthday, since then he has been fine - but I still kept using them until he was 2 1/2. I bet people need to worry more about drunk adults peeing in the pool than they do the toddlers :eek:

 

We seen the same baby the last night in the lobby and halls. I was like wow, but of course I didn't care. Every time I'd see a baby with a diaper near the pool a staff member came up and told them they weren't allowed there. Not sure why the big eww on babies in the pool, John Heald stated on his FB a few months ago that pools have chlorine in the salt water as well because that is a requirement. So if you swim in pools with a baby in swim diapers or even a lake then you should be fine..... most babies I seen had swim diapers on but were still told to get out.

[gooselover]

I'm glad I'm normal....okay, maybe I am abnormal, but I would NEVER do some of these things!