Communicating with kids ?Any other options

[cruiserjt]

I know that the ships are well laid out and my 11 year old DDs will be able to find me if they check out of camp. I also know I shouldn't let my daughters out of my site until they are 25 years old. BUT let's pretend it was okay for them to be together and walk around the ship but I would like them to communicate with us as to where we are. I am not a fan of them wandering too often into cabin decks to our room but would prefer they meet up with us. Any new systems being tested yet. I know we have awesome technology in hospitals to communicate with each other. Vocera and pagers seem doable are there any trends to do something new like this.. Could be revenue! I know I would pay a daily fee for a simple discreet device to keep in touch with family.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

My son is 13 and I had no problem locating him on our last cruise on a large ship. We would have breakfast together and make plans for our day. If I was off to trivia I would say- ok, let's meet in the room at noon. This way we would have lunch together and then plan our afternoon activities. It really wasn't a problem. He won't swim without me anyway- so I know he isn't going to drown.

 

They will be fine and I think it is important for everyone to just have fun and relax. Most activities are not scheduled from 12-1, so it's not like you are going to be in the middle of something at 12noon. So just all meet up in the cabin then.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We just left notes for each other. My husband might leave a note on the desk that he was going to a certain lounge to play guitar. My daughter (who was 15 on our last cruise) might return to the cabin to grab a towel for the pool and leave a note on that note I would add a reply as to where I was. We would often find each other sometime during the afternoon (my daughter would tell us if she was eating with us or her friends, or if she wanted to see one of the shows with us).

 

I'm guessing that most ships have voice mail capabilities on the in-cabin phone (on Princess, there are intra-ship phones all over the ship that you can call a cabin and leave a message). That's another way to keep in touch. Also, some passengers will bring a small dry erase board and put on their cabin door to leave messages.

 

Some cruiselines do have pagers that you can check out from the kids' staff (so that if the staff there needs to contact you, they can...but the kids themselves don't get a pager). And walkie talkies won't work everywhere on the ship, plus can be annoying to others.

[RSLeesburg]

I know that the ships are well laid out and my 11 year old DDs will be able to find me if they check out of camp. I also know I shouldn't let my daughters out of my site until they are 25 years old. BUT let's pretend it was okay for them to be together and walk around the ship but I would like them to communicate with us as to where we are. I am not a fan of them wandering too often into cabin decks to our room but would prefer they meet up with us. Any new systems being tested yet. I know we have awesome technology in hospitals to communicate with each other. Vocera and pagers seem doable are there any trends to do something new like this.. Could be revenue! I know I would pay a daily fee for a simple discreet device to keep in touch with family.

 

Some people use walkie talkies. On Oasis, I think you can rent phones that only work on the ship. Many ships provide parents with phones or pagers when they have younger children in the kids club.

 

When I was 11 (and even younger), my parents used to let me wander WDW alone, but we had set times and places to meet during the day. This was long before cell phones and texting, and the system worked well. If I was more than 10 minutes late, I spent the rest of the day with mom and dad. It taught me to tell time and be on time :). Not every problem needs to be solved by technology...

[mjkacmom]

Ncl's new ships have I concierge that can be used on smart phones. It costs about $8 per device for texting, but the basic app is free (freestyle dailys, booking dining, entertainment, excursions).

[rebeccalouiseagain]

The one year I had a pager, it really was a nuisance. I would sit and read and keep glancing over at the light up pager. It became my focus instead of relaxing.

 

I've completed over 20 cruises with my sons at various ages. There was one time when he had an "accident" in the youth program and they called the room to tell me. Thankfully, I made frequent visits to the room and took clean clothes up there and he was fine.

 

Smaller kids sometimes wait too long to use the bathroom. Just keep this in mind because even potty trained kids do have accidents. It's the fear of that loud vacuum sound the toilets make. My son was absolutely freaked out by that when he was three. And when you are little I am sure you think it can suck you up!

[Kerry's Girls]

I like the idea of checking the cabin voice mail from a house phone. One of my rules would be to stay in public places, so I wouldn't want them going to the cabin to check.

 

Best,

Mia

[cb at sea]

Tell her where you'll be...and be there! Same rules for her..if she says she'll be somewhere, that's where you should find her.

 

In reality, it's not very hard to keep in touch and find each other....the public areas are only about 1/5 of the ship....maybe less!

Edited January 24, 2014 by cb at sea

[Athankfulheart]

We had a large group of kids on the Dream recently and our system worked well. We asked our kids what their plans were and then they updated us by either finding us or leaving a message on our phone. As it turned out, they all traveled in family groups with the exception of our 13yo who was the odd one out age wise. She made some great friends at Circle C and wanted to spend time there. She had different rules because she would often be without her siblings. She had to be in the club or at an activity that was at a stated location. We allowed her to walk in public areas alone during the day, but after dinner she had to travel with a sibling. This worked out fine since her older brothers didn't love the teen club and had the time to pick her up at night. There wasn't a single time that we needed to find someone but couldn't, even on such a large/populated ship. Its a good idea to check your messages every once in a while when your kids are in camp, since that was the only way that they had to get ahold of us. We were called once by our 10yo who had a brief bout of seasickness due to very rough seas. We picked her up and took her to a friends cabin on deck 2, one green apple and 15min later she was ready to go back and play with her friends.

[Mack2]

We were on a multi-family cruise with 6 kids aboard the Epic. The oldest kids were around 13-14 years old.

 

We made due with meeting places and meeting times. Room phones... We actually ended up seeing the kids at the same places aboard the ship throughout the week.

 

Most of the time, we ended up meeting at O'Sheehan's in the evening, and during the day there was a particular section of the pool deck where we always planted our butts... so we could ALWAYS find someone there.

 

 

I've tried Walkie Talkie's in the past (Motorola ones)... you can never hear them...Phones are too expensive. Some people get magnetic dry erase boards and stick them to their cabin door with messages.

 

It's hard to think about being disconnected from each other without the wifi or 3G network... but it's totally doable.